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Grey - where do you buy HondaBond?? Thus far nothing is leaking from the spacers / oil pan area…
I do have a mild leak but I think it’s coming from my turbo feed line … I’m likely going to re-do that fitting & hose from steel braided to rubber push lock …
For what it’s worth, I abandoned the oil flow manifold idea … I got my 5/8” hose back and new fittings came in. Took a piece of 1/4” aluminum and made a stout oil filter bracket and used the two ports on the oil filter housing for the two oil pressure sensors. I would like to add a oil temperature sensor at some point in time. This is way less cluttery and at some point I want to add an oil cooler and it should be a pretty easy add with only 12” to 18” of additional hose.
Took the car out twice in the last few days … first time was simply (and foolishly) down through the neighborhood and back to make sure nothing was crazy … wanted to go further but my center dash & gauges were not bolted to the steering column… so I decided just a quick trip to check for leaks and anything crazy.
Today, I was a little more ambitious and went for about a 30mile drive on mostly country roads doing quite a bit of 2nd/3rd/4th gear pulls and vacuum braking and I would say that 95% of my oil smoke on my hard deceleration has ceased. Really the only time it smokes is on long and hard vacuum braking. I am pretty happy with this but I think I’m still going to make a gravity fed sump box right off the turbo - about a 12” x 2” x 2” square tube with AN -12 fittings … It wont be a high priority and it’ll likely get installed when I drop this break-in oil … I still want to put another 50-100miles on this oil before I cycle it out.
Impressed with these rings and I think I’m getting a good break-in in-that I’m pulling close to 20 in-hg of vacuum on these hard decelerations.
The car did pretty well … I am really excited for this turbo. It doesnt really come in too hard in first gear but about 2000 to 2500rpm in 2nd gear it’s making boost and the boost climbs incredibly fast … within a second I’m at 10-12psi of boost and I am breaking traction (or at least my traction light is coming on). This happens in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears - I’m still not 100% throttle and I’m shifting at 4500rpm to 5000rpm (albeit, that’s peak torque). Intake air temps were around 60degrees which seemed lower than ambient??
The radiator shroud, fans, hole in the lexan did great - I was able to stay in the 200-215degree range and the cab felt noticable cooler
I did have a crazy VTC issue where my driver side cam was stuck at ~40degrees advance … not sure if this is oil weight related? A bad sensor? Or a blocked passage? Bad wiring on the solenoid? But it made the car run like crap when the passenger side was commanding less VTC advance … really considering putting a fixed gear in there and optimizing it for 4000rpm or so??
In my fun box of weight reduction - wire removed is up to 13lbs … I did the drivers side engine bay body harness that runs along the fender … AC pressure sensor, two sets of cooling fan wiring, ambient temp sensor wiring (although I’m going to keep the sensor long term - gonna plant it in the engine bay to see what engine temps are like). There were a few other strands of wire that were removed as well. I’m excited for this custom wiring harness - it’ll be far less wiring and unit weight will be less as well.
Weekend after thoughts … probably not a bad sensor - I say this bc it was working at the start and end of my drive … also the car sounded bad when I was in lower RPMs and the passenger side was at 0 to 5 degrees advance and the driver side was a 40 degrees advance.
About to talk out of both sides of my mouth …
Keep the VTC:
I am fearful of this driver side cam sensor and I really dont want to lose VTC … back in 2016’ish I remember I was tuning and my VTC was acting up and I want to say I lost about 80ft-lbs of torque when the VTC wasnt working … I am just not educated enough about the fixed gear on the intake and if I could essentially optimize my torque at/around 4000-5000rpm (where peak torque is already than this would be an easier decision.
(Anyone reading this) has input on where to degree a fixed cam sprocket I would love to do some reading on it. It’d be one less thing to worry about and I do try to stay in that peak / mid range torque band.
I think it’d be wise for me to remove the cover panel and the solenoid and ensure all my passages are clear and ensure the solenoid is functioning correctly. I think it’d be wise to take the internals of the VTC out and ensuring theyre clean and nothing clogging the passages. I cant remember if I can get to that mini-filter from the inside?
also ensure wiring & connections are good (it seems like these connectors get stressed the most … I will definately address this when I re-do this subharness.
Ditch the VTC and go fixed:
Hell of alot easier and would likely remove many of the achilles heels of the engine
some pics:
Oil filter bracket
Oil filter setup …
Wrapped interior / dash harness - sorta temporary
Turbo drain sump box
Hot mess of removed wires / stuff
Found a better way to mount the AC Amp box and also more wiring that will be removed when I re-do the engine harness. Not the mass of wiring curled up … sorta the background effect of a wiretuck.
Also really considering going with a power management unit to replace the the OEM IPDM and fuse boxes … HPA has a course on how to transition from and OEM setup to a PMU and it might be something that really simplifies things in the car.
I had the seal in the cam cover to the cam gear get wedged and machine a groove in the cover. Killed my VTC for the summer and it sucked. Worth a quick look before you get too deep in (had already swapped and tested solenoids and sensors). I've sure I posted a pic on it back a ways.
I had the seal in the cam cover to the cam gear get wedged and machine a groove in the cover. Killed my VTC for the summer and it sucked. Worth a quick look before you get too deep in (had already swapped and tested solenoids and sensors). I've sure I posted a pic on it back a ways.
This is the small composite split seal?
Would it make sense that the cam stays in its fully advanced state? Doesnt the natural rotation of the engine push it back to zero-degrees advance?
This is where I’m getting lost in the mental gymnastics of the VTC.
I will definately check that as the symptoms do suggest - I had a similar issue back in 2020 and sure enough it was that seal.
Pulled the cover plates off and the ring-seals looked to be in fine shape. I replaced both sides anyways. I also opened up the VTC cog gear and inspected the internal mechanisms and nothing looked out of place. Luckily the plates only bolt on one way and re-install was easy. Took driver side solenoid off and put 12v on it and it seemed like the throw of the solenoid wasnt as deep as a spare solenoid I had so I swapped it out. Before the swap, I disassembled and cleaned thoroughly. Reassembled everything and got the car out for a trip around the block and it was slower to come down from full advance but was still slower than the passenger side … I didnt have a ton of seat time and maybe it would be better if the engine oil was hotter and/or if I was running a 30wt oil but obviously the passenger side if fine and I’ve been running 40wt oil for some time now.
My question to the group is…
the cam’s natural rotationsal course of action is to return to 0degrees advance when no oil pressure is being fed into the cog gear …
does this mean the oil is being restricted on the way out of the cog?
Meaning, the duty cycle cuts off, the solenoid is no longer allowing engine oil into the VTC, and the rotation of the camshaft is pushing oil out of the cog gear and could there be an impeded exit, so the oil cannot evacuate the VTC cog gear in an efficient manner and thus keeping the cam gear artificially advanced?
Did a few cleanup things in both garages and took the car out in the late afternoon … I was up to about 70miles of break-in before today and I told myself to at least get the car out and see how it did … if it was doing good than I would keep driving and overall it did great! I put about 32 miles on it and zipped out to my moms place to drop in and say hi … I did quite a bit of 0-60, 0-90 pulls up into 4th gear and some hard vacuum braking and overall it went awesome. The VTC issues has essentially gone away … I didnt see one instance of the driver’s side getting stuck in advance.
I started creeping past 5500rpm and maybe hit 6000rpm once or twice … the boost comes on incredibly quick and on those harder pulls I was well into 12-15psi of boost … I datalogged and looked at my wheel speed sensors and I am breaking traction pretty bad (around 5mph difference front to back - also factoring in my rears are larger circumferance tire than my fronts.
Overall pretty happy with the trip … I still have the small oil leak on the turbo line which will be an easy fix.
I monitored my IAT temps and it seems like they were around 65 to 70degrees which I was very pleased with. The engine bay was relatively cool but I was also running bumper-less.
For what it’s worth - I really dialed down my timing - my most aggressive pulls were seeing 12degrees of timing - I think I can usually run 14 to 16 degrees but took it down to ensure I didnt pop anything. I’m excited to see how the car does tuned!
Over the weekend I also had a chance to really clean up wiring … happy with the progress and there will be more to come.
I’m going to get the water methanol back up and running as well - would love to find a way to import a WMI duty cycle into the Link … shouldnt be too too hard.
I think I’m going to attempt to get 100 more miles of mild break-in accomplished, drop this oil, replace with more break-in and go full throttle … see I can’t get out to the track for some redline pulls …
Big day tomorrow morning … the q40 is 100% wrapped up and tuned and I have a dyno appointment to get some numbers of what she puts down. I’ve been driving it semi-regularily as my pickup is in the shop … It is actually very fun to drive and I can see why/how people love the VHR engine…
Pulled the cover plates off and the ring-seals looked to be in fine shape. I replaced both sides anyways. I also opened up the VTC cog gear and inspected the internal mechanisms and nothing looked out of place. Luckily the plates only bolt on one way and re-install was easy. Took driver side solenoid off and put 12v on it and it seemed like the throw of the solenoid wasnt as deep as a spare solenoid I had so I swapped it out. Before the swap, I disassembled and cleaned thoroughly. Reassembled everything and got the car out for a trip around the block and it was slower to come down from full advance but was still slower than the passenger side … I didnt have a ton of seat time and maybe it would be better if the engine oil was hotter and/or if I was running a 30wt oil but obviously the passenger side if fine and I’ve been running 40wt oil for some time now.
My question to the group is…
the cam’s natural rotationsal course of action is to return to 0degrees advance when no oil pressure is being fed into the cog gear …
does this mean the oil is being restricted on the way out of the cog?
Meaning, the duty cycle cuts off, the solenoid is no longer allowing engine oil into the VTC, and the rotation of the camshaft is pushing oil out of the cog gear and could there be an impeded exit, so the oil cannot evacuate the VTC cog gear in an efficient manner and thus keeping the cam gear artificially advanced?
Hopefully that's a permanent fix for you. I'm dealing with some odd behaviour with mine too. For arguments' sake I've just replaced both to confirm if it's the phasers or not.
Having replaced the cam main caps while the engine was apart, my fear is it's potentially related to using too much liquid gasket and choking an oil channel. I thought I was really careful with it at the time, but I'm no engine builder so who knows...
We'll find out in the coming weeks when I fire it up again.
nice dude, glad to hear some good news. what max boost are you going for?
I think it is … I was watching and it looked comparative to the passenger side…
Max boost? Shoot? I dont know … I would love to see 18psi to 20psi on pump … if I could hit 600hp I would be happy … I will push it a little harder with higher octane fuel.. I feel like I’m leaving power on the table.
Originally Posted by Timboj
Hopefully that's a permanent fix for you. I'm dealing with some odd behaviour with mine too. For arguments' sake I've just replaced both to confirm if it's the phasers or not.
Having replaced the cam main caps while the engine was apart, my fear is it's potentially related to using too much liquid gasket and choking an oil channel. I thought I was really careful with it at the time, but I'm no engine builder so who knows...
We'll find out in the coming weeks when I fire it up again.
I had this same fear and the same fear every time I reassembly my timing chain case … such that I am batsh!t crazy about RTV’ing to the absolute minimalist amount there … gotta remember that oil pressure is pushing on any constricted passages … I would be more worried about RTV particles detaching off the cases and getting lodged in the small passages. I dont think it would completely cut off the oil feed so the worse case is you lose VTC functionality and nothing worse.
I’ll post it up here (and not it’s dedicated thread) but got the q40 100% (street)tuned by Moncef … he really took care of me and I’m very happy with the end results … I know its 10% to 15% less than what it could be capable of but I did tell Moncef to be conservative. The car put down 295hp and 243ft-lbs - ran well / sounds great and I’m pretty happy. For what it’s worth I will be selling it to put money towards EverythingVQ and paying off a small debt I have lingering.
Really havent had much time on the car other than some minor clean-up and wiring clean up. A facebook group asked to grabbed some pictures of the car for the poster of a local meet and I cant really remember last time I took pics of the car so I decided to zip over to a substation a mile or so away and grabbed a few pics. Along with the pics I put about 15miles of break-in miles while I had the car out…good times!
Been all kinds of busy but had a chance to get up and refill the argon tanks and been meaning to do a turbo sump box (after bouncing around ideas with a buddy) and finally got it done … He does something very similar and has zero smoke issues … and my smoke issues have most (95%) gone away but I hope this completely eliminates them.
I had the car out yesterday and I kept hitting RPM limits and I wasnt 100% sure - I did push the car up into the 4500rpm to 5k rpm range but it seemed like after 4500rpm the engine was cutting out and I was getting Link’s version of a CEL. So I mostly did light 50% throttle and into the 4k rpm range with single digit boost levels and hard/hard’ish downshifting into vacuum. Nothing too crazy.
I kept on getting these RPM cuts and it started occuring more and more on my way home and as I was getting through these rolling hills … It happened as I was approaching a stop sign with minimal load on the engine, around 2k rpm and it sorta firmed up the idea that I was running low on fuel … I was maybe 5miles away from home and just really took it easy and stayed out of boost and just got the car home safe.
Mind-you, my fuel level sensor is messed up (and has been) so I didnt know. I opened the tank up and I had about 1/2 of fuel in the tank … So I am hoping that was the issue … if nothing more, I got another 40miles of break in on the motor.
I ordered another round of break-in oil and assuming the car is boosting like it should and driving normal, I am going to get it out to the drag strip on Wednesday … If I can, I’ll put my normal tune back into the ecu and go full throttle / full boost (15psi or so??) and try to get 100-150 miles of aggressive driving and call the break in period good.
Kansas Airstrip Attack is a go, we booked the AirBnB and got registered for the race … so I’ve got about a month to finalize everything
Got a nice little refund check from the local level (as it relates to our TABOR - tax payer bill of rights) and then another insurance reimbursement check this week and I think it will be enough to get large injectors (1700cc, I’m thinking) and I think I’m jumping into e85 … Came to this realization that I’m not going to be able to run the car above 600hp on the 91octane here and despite colorado have horrible e85 availability (I’ll probably buy 5gallon pales) I think it’s the only way to safely get the most out of this engine. I also have a set of ID1050s, a few AEM 340lph, and then a dual pump hanger that I’m selling that will fund the fuel pumps and flex fuel sensor needed. I am going to drop the OEM tank and go with a 5gallon fuel cell as well. The fuel cell has dual -10 outlets and I am leaning towards twin AEM 400lph pumps. Not 100% sure how to configure them as far as a primary or secondary or have both running at the same time? But I’ll figure it out.
The 5gallon fuel cell is 12” x 12” square and 9” tall and I am thinking to bolt it in right where the OEM tank sits and have it bolt into the chassis.
the additional break in oil arrived yesterday so I am ready to go for an oil change. I got the car out yesterday for a 4mile quick check and started lower rpms with low load and worked my way up to higher (6k rpms) and 10-12psi of boost and the car did great … I did a quick little pull up a hill, put the car in gear (for vacuum braking) as I crested a hill top and sure enough a County Sherrif was on the other laser’ing drivers on this road - I giggled and wondered if neighbors complained about me or other people that run this road, lol!
Did a few HPA webinars on e85 / flex fuel configuration and did a copy/paste of my tune to play-along. I can see why flex fuel is so complicated and expensive to tune. So I may just go 100+ octane (in 5gallon pales) for Kansas.
I also started playing with my water methanol injection and hope to have it up and running for wednesday (as an added safety feature). I am running into an issue where the nozzles are not sealing and WM is gravity draining out. I need some check valves or something?
the additional break in oil arrived yesterday so I am ready to go for an oil change. I got the car out yesterday for a 4mile quick check and started lower rpms with low load and worked my way up to higher (6k rpms) and 10-12psi of boost and the car did great … I did a quick little pull up a hill, put the car in gear (for vacuum braking) as I crested a hill top and sure enough a County Sherrif was on the other laser’ing drivers on this road - I giggled and wondered if neighbors complained about me or other people that run this road, lol!
Did a few HPA webinars on e85 / flex fuel configuration and did a copy/paste of my tune to play-along. I can see why flex fuel is so complicated and expensive to tune. So I may just go 100+ octane (in 5gallon pales) for Kansas.
I also started playing with my water methanol injection and hope to have it up and running for wednesday (as an added safety feature). I am running into an issue where the nozzles are not sealing and WM is gravity draining out. I need some check valves or something?
Yes you need a check valve! Unfortunately I do not have a spare I just double checked.
Gonna order a few check-valves … Theyre around $30 each though from Snow Performance - I really can’t find anything on the traditional market that would suffice.
That’s a good point about pulling in during vacuum … I ‘sorta’ already knew this but good reiteration.
I just ordered one check valve and installed it pretty low near my intercooler and I think it’s working great! Got everything installed and tested and it wasnt leaking but I’m going to give it a night to confirm.
Really wanted to get out to the track today, got the trailer, packed everything up, and left work around 3pm and rolled up to a wet track (which I knew it was raining, but supposed to clear out). The track cancel the ‘test & tune’ due to weather - Looks like I can get back out there next wednesday. Sorta makes me nervous as I need to get at least one day at a formal track to stretch the legs of the engine and the car. I will likely get some miles on the car before next week but I have a small list of items to take care of before October 8th / 9th (Kansas event).
Been kicking around this idea (after countless times strapping the car down normally) to install eyelet bolts replacing of the OEM camber and toe bolts. Something where you can simply hook a carabiner to the car and strap it down (instead of wrapping the strap around the subframe. Did all the research and I found a company that makes a 12mm x 4” long stainless steel bolt that has a working load of 1800lbs … I’d put two in front and four in the rear. The bolts are sorta expensive - around $15/each but I think I’m gonna do it.
