deltas2k

I had bought this Berlina Black MY06 on Christmas day in 2006. I loved it, nice and new. It's a fantastic car. I did little things like let Ray(S~Factor) cut my hood (man is an artist), got an Amuse racing exhaust, tires, intake, etc. Then I, like a lot of people, decided I needed more power. Listened to my dad and turbo'd it (mistake 1). Had it turbo'd for about 20k miles when it decided to blow. I had noticed it getting hot, I could see the turbo glow through the hood. It got hot enough to actually crack the ring landing of piston 4.


Fast forward 3 years. After Nardy said they wanted $11,800 to put a new motor in, I decided not to go that route. My OCD kicked in with the obsession of keeping the VIN numbers matching instead of having Billman just replace it for a much better price (mistake 2). So I decided to send the bottom part of the block to Laskey/Benson. During that time however I caught the "modify" illness. So this thread will be a rolling thread of all the stuff I've done because I am a glutton for punishment. However, because this is the Internet, I am not sure I want to make a complete shopping list for shady people.


Engine Specs:
F22C bored to 90mm pistons. 12.1:1 compression.

uprated valvetrain
cams

AP1 flywheel with SOS clutch/pressure plate

Engine in the car:


Body Modifications:
Spoon control arm braces
Seamwelded and gusseted front subframe
powerflex bushings
Ohlins DFV
AP Racing brake kit from Urge


Current Issue:
Right now my biggest issue is the timing chain, which is a perfect storm; so to speak, of potential problems. When I had the head repaired they had milled it, not sure how much, but it definitely shows signs. The bottom half had also been made flat so now I probably have a decent change in geometry. Paired with a timing chain with 44k miles and an aggressive valve train setup, the chain slacks out too much.

I have a Billman tensioner. Now when you do business with Bill, and he says lifetime warranty, this man has goes above and beyond to make sure your car is working. He has been working with me to try figuring it out from a distance. We've tried different combinations of internals to try to get it to play nice. It works for about 50 miles until everything settles into place and starts making noise again. Finally we've decided I really need to bring the car out to him on a trailer. I have complete faith that he will get this all sorted. I have ordered a new heavy duty chain because the one I have is definitely stretched and compounded makes the TCT piston stick out really far. This slack is causing misfire codes left and right, which in turn makes the ecu flip out to where I cannot bring it to Jeff Evans for tuning. Sorry for not having any numbers so far.


Things that have actually went well:
Another great person to deal with is Patrick at Urge Design. I had gotten the Ohlins DFV and AP racing brake kit from them and doing business was probably the easiest ever. Patrick also keeps in touch to see how everything is going. I will try to write a review on these, but it is difficult (for the suspension especially) because of the amount of drastic changes that I can't specifically say which did what benefit, but out of the little bit I've gotten to drive, all the changes seem to be working together very well.



(Didn't set the preload enough the first time I lowered it)


Welding Work:
Seam welded the subframe where all the gaps were. I did this all the way around and added little gussets. Topped it all off with POR15. Had to replace all the hardware as all the caster/camber bolts had to be cut out.




I also did the arm mounts with the Spoon bracing because I realized I wasn't going to be able to do it well by using sheet metal and figuring out all the angles. Why reinvent the wheel. My friend tacked them on with a MIG and then I tried cleaning that as well as finish the rest of it using TIG.





Sorry for the poor looking welds, I have since gone to Lincoln Electric school and under the training of Karl Hoes managed to get an Aerospace certification for mild/alloy steel.

Added 8/11/2015:
Doing work on the head, I had a few things I had to prep as per directions that came with the cams. Evoeddie helped me with this, he's blind as a bat so between my eyes and his steady hands, we did a pretty good job across the bunch.


When I took the cam holders out they were scored up, I checked the clearance for them, then polished them out with jeweler's rouge, figuring give the new cams a nice surface to run on.



reason for replacing the cams:


I also "portmatched" the intake to smooth out the transition from the runners to the intake. It seems like our heads flow a lot, so opening it up more would just lower the speed of the airflow (negative effect). Getting rid of the lip just straightens airflow, though probably has negligible gains. Leaving rough instead of completely polished supposedly improves fuel atomization. Apparently, it's engine building 101, I don't know.




I will be expanding upon this when I have time.

Thanks.

S2LEGEND

Long time no see. Glad its coming along. Will be curious to see what Billman comes up with to sort it out. Mad genius.

myclue

looking forward to see how this thread progresses!

S2kMarkus

i give you credit for having the patience!

deltas2k

Patience for what? This thing has almost gone to Gershau as a burnt wreak a few time... I'm glad I didn't try going ITB at the same time, DBW is supposed to be a bitch.

deltas2k

Thanks, I've come to the conclusion the car wasn't going to be sell-able so I decided "lets have fun". I still have to weld up and replace the bushings in the rear subframe. I might also design my own body kit, I have been studying fluid dynamics and CFD; as well as mold because I already have experience with CRFP. Also thought about a roll cage, but I cannot figure out a design that's actually functional without wreaking the interior.

deltas2k

Hey, if anyone's going to pull it off it's going to be Bill, I'm stumped.

Orjinal

I went to sunySB and live by smithaven mall but have never seen you around. Car should be a blast to drive once the issues are sorted out.

Which turbo kit did you have when the engine blew up? Did you had any insulation on the turbo or the manifold at that time?

SkateForGirl

It was nice meeting you on Saturday. I cant wait to see your car in person.

deltas2k

The car has been off the road for three years in my driveway. When I went to Stony Brook as a student, I also worked at the hospital so sometimes I would just walk under the tunnel or I'd be parked in the faculty garage. Currently I work down the road from the mall.

The turbo kit was based off of the log manifold style of the inline pro kit, but I did it in pieces because I didn't have the money to do it in one shot. The hotside of the turbo and the manifold were ceramic coated and the downpipe was wrapped. Dump tube exited kinda past the passenger seat under the car so the inside wouldn't smell of carbon all the time. Ran just shy of 8psi. I think my issue was trying to run the 1000cc injectors with a stock pump, looking at the data, it was running 97% duty cycle normally and then maxed on full throttle. Shit happens when you don't pay attention. This time I went 12.1:1 compression so I don't think I'll be going FI again.