Project In Progress '07 Base model - Project G2 Force!

[PierreNotPear]

TTY cam bolts should be replaced. I did not replace it. Expected consequences arrived.

Woe. Is. Me.

Build is henceforth paused until I have more money for a new cam.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Fuck consequences. Here at WBT we get shit done. Peep them stretched threads, that's that good TTY shit.
Everyone else use this as a learning moment. NEVER reuse TTY bolts, no matter how many other forums tell you it's safe. Shell out the $10-20 for new hardware, save yourself the headache.

Also got my headers back from my welder after getting the cheapo flex replaced. This car will run again if it's the last thing I do.

 

[Robert]

Hell yeah!

 

[Jasmindont]

Good shit! She’s almost there!

 

[PierreNotPear]

Head bolt broke. Build paused indefinitely.

 

[Robert]

It happens, this is how you learn. Get a good new torque wrench and you'll be set in the next go around.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Long time no see, and Merry Christmas Everyone!!
​

Sorry for being away for so long, Thanksgiving break came to an end and finals came, kicked my *ss, and went. BUT that means the semester came to an end and I had ~ a month off from school to dump into the project. I'm oil stained, sore, and have a permanent odor of coolant about me, but now I have something killer to show off.

​

At long last, after an entire year of slowly working towards this project, the mechanical aspect has finally come to a close. Getting that broken head bolt out was a massive pain in the ass, but with some magic and luck it worked its way right out.
I would like to STRESS the importance of either buying torque wrenches new, or at the very least using one that's verified good. Skip out on any rentals ESPECIALLY one rented from a certain autoparts store. *cough cough, AUTOZONE, cough cough*
Deciding that money is no longer of any object I decided to forego TTY silliness and ball out on some of ZZP's re-usable head studs. From the way they were packaged, to the weight of them in hand they felt like serious pieces of hardware. Quickly note that ZZP recommends thouroughly cleaning and chasing the bolt holes and added 4-5 wraps teflon tape as the bolt holes go into coolant jackets. Graphite gaskets (as recommended by WBT) were used here bc I didn't feel like shelling out for MLS.

​

Followed up with the (as recommended by WBT) ALUMINUM lower intake gaskets and generous dabs of RTV in each corner. Plastic ones are known to go bad, and RTV helps to seal the corners. Decided to up torque to 15ft/lbs with the aluminum gaskets. ZZP's reuseable rocker bolts, while not well-pictured, are used as well. IIRC 23ft/lbs and red loctite.

A well-cleaned LIM and freshly painted supercharger complete our yummy 3800 sandwhich. Again, (as recommended by WBT) aluminum SC gaskets are used.

Finishing up the other stuff, SC harmonic balancer, idler pulleys, tensioner pulley, and dogbone bracket/ICM bracket are all added. Boost bypass solenoid is removed due to not having the connector for it, and since my NA harness only has one connector for a MAP sensor I've got a short run of rubber tubing connecting the SC one to the little connector on the LIM. I'm assuming some wiring stuff and vacuum stuff here is probably wrong, so I'll sort that all out as we go!

Once again, Merry Christmas to all, and let's hope for some more Christmas magic as I move onto tuning and wiring here!​

 

[PierreNotPear]

Some shots from adding in my AEM wideband gauge, something that's a good idea to have once you get into tuning.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Lions, Tigers, and tuning gremlins, oh my!

First start still on NA tune was a success for about three seconds, then it died, and threw a fuel pump code.
Fuse was pulled, inspected,and flipped while being reinserted in case it's directional for some reason? Quite sure it shouldn't be but who knows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If that doesn't work I'll try going ahead and switching over to the tune provided by our very own Robert, since, per him:
"MAP has to match the tune. Stock tune NA MAP, SC tune SC map."

UPD 1:
Got the car running extremely rough for about ten seconds before it died. Verified I have fuel pressure at the rail, no actual gauge on hand but enough to spray the hell out of me when I poked the valve.

UPD 2:
Car gifted me the following codes - P0336 and P0341. Both point to a crank relearn, which thanks to Christian I learned HPT can do.

UPD 3:
Crank relearn wants 4500rpm, and ECT>175. Car does not run, so other issues still seem to need sorted.

UPD 4:
Learned that oil pump loses prime when removed. Oil filter housing also puked out all its oil, further losing it prime. I'm told pump can be primed again by forcing oil up the filter housing, so I'll be off on a little adventure tomorrow after work to find everything I need. Guess I ran out of Christmas magic here.

 

[Robert]

Did you get the oil pressure sorted out?

 

[PierreNotPear]

Did you get the oil pressure sorted out?

I believe so. Used the setup pictured below to force oil up through the oil pressure sensor. Just a barb fitting with the same thread, some clear hosing, and one of those pump sprayers w the wand.

With that sorted, I'm running into a different issue. No matter how much throttle I give it the car doesn't want to start at all. I've verified fuel pressure at rail as well as spark, so I'm running into a loss here. HPT isn't showing any codes either, which is very very odd. Next thing to verify is that my fuel injectors are all good, so its time for me to look for some wires and a battery to test them with.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Swapping out one L32 map for my spare, swapping ICMs, and swapping MAFs still hasn't done anything for me.

Continuing with more advice from Rob, I'll be checking over all connections, actually getting a gauge reading on the rail, checking the ICM harness, and doing a compression test. If that doesn't change anything I'll pull the balancer and check alignment, then throw sensors at it.

UPD: Took both ICMs to get tested, one passed, one failed, I’ll only be using the known good going forward.

UPD 2: Pulled a wire, no spark. Grrrrr

UPD 2.5: Pulled the wire off the coil pack and held a screwdriver to it. Rubber gloves, a rag, and the thick plastic handle of a screwdriver are seemingly not great insulators. Youch.

UPD 3: Spark confirmed, one would assume air exists, so we’re onto fuel!

UPD 4: Pressure at rail verified, so onto checking voltage at injector.

UPD 5: Spark good everywhere, fuel good everywhere, air still exists. Still no start so I’m throwing in the towel for today, cracking open a few beers, and going for a deep-dive into some forums and YT videos.

 

[Robert]

Protection Tune.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Apologies to all for disappearing, ran into personal issues involving the car that are hopefully sorted out for now.
In much MUCH better news, the car runs like a top! The issue ended up being the ICM harness getting chewed through due to being incorrectly routed in a way that let the balancer rub through it. As always, huge shoutout to Rob for identifying the issue right from the start.

My AEM wideband is being weird so I'll be giving them a ring tomorrow, but man oh man is the rumble of the engine so so sweet.

All that's left is getting a proper tune on the car, finding my final mounting solution for the wideband, and FINALLY getting some sweet sweet aesthetic and QoL mods started.​

 

[PierreNotPear]

We're back once more.

Note to everyone ever, skip out on using AEM's included wideband sensor. First one was dead on arrival, replacement one FROM AEM THEMSELVES also dead on arrival. Googlefu revealed that AEM is known for shipping out DoA sensors. Thanks to a tip from a local Wbody enthusiast I learned that most Ford ecoboosts use the same sensor, which sent me off to the parts store to find a matching connector. The cheapest one that ended up working was the $80 unit from Autozone. (Bosch 17232 for anyone who finds themselves where I am). AEM sells just the gauge, which is PHENOMENAL, so go with that and a parts store sensor you warranty once it dies.

With that all sorted, I also made myself a little mount for my AFR gauge, cost me nothing and I think it looks neat.

​

 

[PierreNotPear]

Back once again!
There's been this slight lean condition and weaker brakes that I've been scratching my head at until today. I originally pinpointed the weak brakes to just being old and rusted from sitting for as long as this car did, and the lean condition to being an unidentifiable exhaust leak.
In hindsight, I probably should've connected the two way earlier, but it finally hit me while making a short drive. Everytime I got on the brakes I would see the lean condition worsen, so to test this hypothesis of mine I threw her in park and started pumping the braked, and to my surprise, the LTFT spiked up to 16.4.

Boom! now both of my issues now have one easy to solve solution!
I'll hit a parts store when I can to grab a new hose then post up on whether or not it fixes it.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Getting away from the fact that I'm still fighting off issues with a leak of some kind somewhere....

I GOT NEW TAILS!!!! The tails and the dual exit exhaust do so much for the rear of this car. Up next is doing something abt that faded rear valance, smoking the third brake light, and MAYBE smoking the reverse bar a tad bit. Slowly but surely this car is shaping up

 

[PierreNotPear]

Miniscule update:

Looked back over my EGR blockoffs and found an exhaust leak, replaced both blockoffs with a complete EGR assembly and generous amounts of RTV , currently running it unplugged as having it plugged in makes my STFT randomly freak and max out. Helped my existing fuel trim issues a little bit, but still looks like there's a vacuum leak of some kind somewhere. Replacing the brake booster hose did nothing but new rubber is nice.

The issue is really weird as it only occurs on certain startups. Some drives it'll behave nice and sit around 14.9, while others it'll sit as lean as 17 while cruising around. Quite the head scratcher. Next plans are to check orings, booster check valve/grommet, and get back under the car yet again to look for an exhaust leak.

Dailying the car with the new power has really shown me how bad the 18 year old suspension is (sitting around outside all winter probably didn't help the struts) so I need to start looking into refreshing the suspension on the low, I understand KYB's are the gold standard but if anyone has had luck with more economical struts I'd love to hear about them. Might take a crack at replacing control arm bushings as well so I might have a nifty writeup for that coming out at some point.

Cya guys next update o7

 

[Robert]

Do you have detailed photos of this plate you made on both the EGR and header side? You should have it blocked off at the header side with just a plate and a bolt, I can provide photos of one I did a few years ago.

 

[PierreNotPear]

Sadly didn’t have any photos of the old setup, but it was the plate with a penny RTV’d into the hole and bolted in. I think I tweaked the exhaust side block off when I was installing the headers after the top swap.