Hey Guys

Many of you know the history of my car. Let me dispell some mystery. This is the 6th time we had to go into the engine, but this is the 4th block in this car's history. First stock block went due to a rod bolt failure. Second block, my first built block, was the crappy Z1 Motorsports-built longblock, that was trash from top to bottom. We toasted a ring when invetigating a 4" MAF housing solution. Then I sleeved the block (AEBS - 3rd block), and the work done on it was faulty, as there were metal shavings cought in between the sleeves and the block, and two of the sleeves leaked. A head gasket change (twice) did NOT solve the problem. After the block was fixed and pressure tested, I reassessed by HP goals once again, and figured that I would be ok with a stock block and did not really need the sleeves. I have 550cc injectors and the 550 or so whp that they would afford would be sufficient for me. That brings me to this current/latest block - Scott Performance-built block #4.

I gotta tell you, we went over the entire engine once again, including hte heads...whcih is when we found out that hte Z1-built heads (the valves) were leaking badly, which contributed to the 20%+ leakdown numbers on every cylinder.... Ted Taormina of Scott Performance in Santa Clara did the work this time, and i should have gone this route the very first time. I wish i knew as much a year ago as i do today, thigs would have been different...anyway, water under the bridge...

Ted did a truly superb job. I ahve never ever seen/felt an engine this smooth (knocking on wood as I am typing this). It is silky smooth. Here is the list of components that I ended up with:

PE TT kit.. modifications to the poor Pre-IC Y-piece coming soon (before tuning)
Arias Xtreme duty pistons 9.0:1 (0.020" over) - thanks to Sharif for these.
Pauter Rods
ARP main studs
Stock head studs
Cometic head gaskets
Light headwork (springs, etc.. by Scott Perf.)
Motordyne 1/2" plenum spacer
eManage Ultimate
PE 550 injectors (officially sold as 510cc)
Innovate! Motorsports MTS - 17 channels (soon 22 channels).
-- Dual bank wideband, TimingAdvance, self-calibrating MAP/Boost, TPS, APPS, EGT, CHT, InjDuty, CamDuty, ECT, IAT, MAF, etc..
Walbro 255lph with CJM -8AN Wye and custom FPR correction kit for the sedan
AAM fuel rails, -8AN main fuel feed.
SGP

etc....

I just put about 1400miles on the car with varying loads. In the last few days, have started to push the car... and it's amazing how well it runs (again knock on wood). It's nice to be back! This time around, with the Innovate's MTS having matured as much as it did, I am expecting the tune to be very good. Will get into that upon completion of some of my work projects...

Dyno plot coming soon.

Again, a huge thanks to Ted Taormina of Scott Performance, I mean it. I have really not seen anyone this meticulous when it comes to building engines.

Gurgen

 

Damn you got ***** bro. I woulda said *** it after the built block. I am glad things are finally looking up for you and please post some pics!

 

Gurgen I saw your car on the left about a mont back, Ted was telling me what you were up to

 

Congrats Gurgen! Man, that is a long road!

 

Congrats Gurgen! You;ve been through a lot, and I admire your drive to stick with the project...

I'm interested in the mod you've made to the Pre-IC Y-piece - PM for details and pics...

 

Congrats Gurgen... I know it has been a long frustrating road for you but I am happy things have worked out in the end

 

congrats man!

 

good to hear Gurgen

 

incredible.. you must have some DEEEEEEP pockets and some unbelievable patience!

 

hey Gurgen!!! long time no talk. I actually had my car at a hiatus for awhile because my engine build LITERALLY took a year!! But yea everything is getting installed now. Just wondering what made you lower the compression to 9.0:1 on your pistons from 9.3? I remember you back in the days doing all your comparison charts and saying that taking in consideration our engine and the size turbos provided with the PE kit that 9.3:1 would be the most responsive choice. Or are you just aiming for more power now?

 

+1

Congrats though! I am happy to hear you have your car back. I am going on block # 3......1 stock and 2 built. I pick my car up from SGP on Friday. I almost threw in the towel, but decided to stick it out. I even told SGP I didn't want anything over 475whp, but after speaking with Shawn yesterday he persudaded me to upgrade my injectors and to go for it!

Just like you I wish I knew what I know now last year when I started modding my car. Unfortunately I learned by getting dragged through some deep chit and spending lots of $$$.

 

I hear you Gman... block #3 vs #4... you are not quite up to par with me....j/k of course bud. Anyway...experience IS everything...it's amazing the difference of what oyu learn when things happen to you. Built motor CAN definitely take over 475... in fact based on my research, 550 is a very safe long term power level, with 'bursts' of 600-650+ from time to time [in all likelihood] not flexing the top 2 inches of the cylinders to exact any kind of damage, provided that detonation is very well controlled. Personally, I will NOT be pushing 600+ on this block without water injection, in order to ensure a SIZEABLE safety margin. Anyway...tat's where I stand now.

Hey Kev... Long time....

Yes, I do believe that 9.3:1 is the ideal choice here. I went with 9:1 primarily because of time contraints (did not have another 3 weeks to wait for a special order Arias Pistons). the extra margin of safety is also nice. I do not notice a sizeable difference in off-boost response between the 9 and 9.3 to 1, although I do notice it and can say with some certainty that 9.3:1 was in fact a bit more responsive for those first few fractons of a second when the PE1420's are spooling up. Again, not a big deal with these turbos because they ARE so responsive.

leemik,booger, tig, Kyle, Brian, lcg... thanks for the good wishes. Although the deep pockets I do NOT have, certainly not now. I just could not quit.

I have not done the mod yet, but I am basically trying to change the 50mm transition from the dual 45 charge tubes to a 2.5" transition, which my calculation suggest is the ideal size. This will allow for a near-zero pressure/flow drop through this section. The Y-piece, as it is contructed now, is NTO an issue IMO for any boost levels that are appropriate for a stock engine. But for a built engine, the higher boost levels do require one to do away with this quirk. BTW, another possible hurdle is the FMIC on this kit, and I say "possible". It is smaller than the Gredd TT kit FMIC, but it is of a good quality. I will be using two high response/high calibration temperature sensors that I built (thanks to Innovate!'s genius Klaus' instruction) pre and post IC to measure the IC efficiency at higher boost levels. This will remove any guesswork from assessing this IC's capability at higher levels.

I'll keep you guys posted further... I hope to shoot a video sometime very soon.

 

Here is the Y-piece that I am speaking of:


Two 45mm charge tubes merging into a single 50mm, then transitioning rather abruptly into a 70mm. If you do te cross-section area calulation, you will see that a dual 45mm is equivalent to a single 64mm pipe, which is exactly 2.51" So, i plan t get a mandrel U piece and cut out the appropriate section to replace that middle 50mm section.

 

Never really paid too much attention to that... good point. I wonder what effect, if any, it will have on velocity...

 

When are we going to shoot for engine number #5(or 7)

Lets find out how much timing you can run on 91 octane

 

Sweet are you ever going to bring it to the thursday meets in chino hills? btw glad your car is back on the road after talking with you seemed like you had a huge headache with that puppy

 

6spd!.....6spd!!!.......6spd!!!!!!

 

Woot. Yay. Gurgen is finally back on the road again---

i'm down for that about that Ypipe.. hehe. just let me know..

oh yea. 6speed? hehe. first things first... keep the car on the road safely and enjoy it for a while. then go back for surgery....

 

Not funny.

 

Gurgen, congrats and best of luck this time around. How's the tranny holding up? Any planned changes to that?

Ron