wow looking good cant wait to see this thing going again possibly get a run with it and test my J dub tune

 

Electrical connections hooked up, radiator and A/C equipment hooked up, and intake tract all hooked up.

We didn't have access to the Adjustable Clutch Rod directions, so we put that off for the sake of time. We had trouble with the Werks Phenolic Spacer though.

1) The holes on the top of the spacer aren't big enough to get around the intake manifold mounting studs. No idea how that happened and how nobody else had that problem. We'll need to drill out the two holes a bit larger.
2) There's a small metal spacer included (basically a thick washer) that goes in between block and the intake manifold support bar (where it mounts behind that plastic vacuum tank, below the knock sensors) to offset the support bar enough to compensate for the added thickness of the spacer. When you put the spacer there, as stated in the included directions, not only does it cause the plate to sit with one side pushed outwards, but it also causes you to be unable to get a nut on the stud to tighten everything down due to the added thickness taking up the rest of the threads on the stud. What we did here is take the stud out completely and put a longer stud/bolt in its place. We'll have to come back and install the phenolic spacer and the washer spacer at a later time once we fix things.

Anyway, we filled the system up with coolant as best as we could (got 3 gallons down it), put 5 quarts of Brad Penn break-in oil in it, primed the oil and fuel systems, and got it to turn over and idle for a few seconds.

We're going to need to do some tweaks to the tune probably to get things off the ground initially, until the ECU can get into closed loop mode. Any pointers welcome from people with tuning experience with ZZP ported heads and/or cams.


A picture of the new cams and everything while we were swapping the valve covers. ZZP did a good job making sure things had some initial oil on them.

 

If you bought the ported head/cam/tune combo, then we will provide you with an ecm file at no charge. Just send me your mod list and I can send you one.

 

Very nice build. Looking good so far.

 

Can't wait to go for a joyride in this thing, even if only on the stock turbo.

 

She sure sounded mean on the startups though LOL
Man and that E that it was burnin...holy cow! Fun times

 

Nice, subd to see how well this goes. my 2.4 has 150K on it. but i love the car. been thinking of a ZZP motor for a replacement when it comes time

 

You know what sucks though? Now that the engine is flowing so much more air...

 

LMAO!
I see what you did there. Used his own stuff against him huh?

 

Touché!

 

Well played, sir........................well played.

 

After priming the fuel tank pump some more we finally got it running!

The downside is that it's in Engine Power Reduced mode now, due to P0087 and P0089 codes.

The HPFP rail pressure won't come up off of 72psi except for when I got into a brief period of decel fuel cutoff , when it briefly rose to around 114psi or something like that before the injectors came back on. I'm thinking we've got air trapped in that fuel rail or something. Any ideas?

Another issue we've got is a loud tapping sound that's happening in sync with the engine, and comes and goes. We haven't localized it yet, but I'm thinking it may be related to the HPFP/rail issue.

Thanks in advance if anybody can shed some light on how to fix this fuel pressure issue.

 

So I've been doing some brainstorming...

I'm wondering that when my friend installed the high pressure fuel pump, that he didn't also transfer the associated cam roller for the pump. I wasn't watching him when he did the HPFP install, and we didn't have the area above the cam lobe opened up, so there's no way he would have seen it and known. I'm not sure if there was one already in there from ZZP, so I'll check into all that tomorrow.

 

That could be the problem, except that you said you saw 114psi at one time. Without the roller, you should only have 60psi from the in-tank pump. I don't think you would hear a tapping sound either. If you pull the pump off, check to see if the pupm shaft is broken. I saw this before on a Sky. It had similar fuel pressure issues and it turned out that the pump got damaged while installing. I don't know if he tightened it down uneven, but it seems that would have to be the case for it to break.

 

Thanks for the input Matt.

I spoke with my friend this morning. He didn't remember transferring that cam roller. I should have done a better job cross-checking. We'll make sure to inspect the pump when we get it out too to make sure the pump rod isn't broken or something.

 

click

 

Confirmed that we were missing the fuel pump cam roller. Reinstalled the high pressure fuel pump with the roller, and not only did it (obviously) fix the fuel pressure issue, but the rattle noise is gone now too. It must have been associated with it. There was no evidence of pump-to-cam contact. Rotating the crank a bit to get the cam fuel lobe to turn to its lowest point helped get the pump reinstalled without possibility of pump or mounting screw damage.

We took the car out to heat cycle it and go seat the rings and got a little over half a dozen 2nd/3rd gear runs/cycles on low boost with it. It revs very quick. Between the lightweight flywheel and the grabby clutch, it's a bit of a challenge to get moving, but after that, it's a bit like normal. I've already stalled it once. lol Rev matching the downshifts is much different than before too. When I blipped the throttle to try rev matching a downshift I kept overshooting my target due to the engine revs jumping up so fast. lol It was like "okay, downshift... revs up to 4K... wooow 5K!". lol I'm usually quite good at it too. It'll take some getting used to.

The neutral balance shafts make the car's natural vibes feel different, but not any harsher, if that makes sense.

On basically a stock tune, I was making a max of about 10psi with the ported head and cams tonight.

 

Lol your missing 5psi! Sounds like a good port job

 

I don't think Brand Penn makes a full syntetic oil. and using brad penn oil will harm your cataltic convertor (if you have one) But it is GREAT oil.

I use it in both of my cars but in my cobalt I use 4.5 qts mobile 1 and .5 qt brand penn 0w30

 

Man, I want the ported head and cams too LOL

Glad to hear its up and running. We'll get the odds and ends settled tomorrow...well, most of them

 

Good stuff man. Makes me excited to get the ball moving on my build again here shortly

 

Stamin, why did you disconnect your A/C compressor?

 

subd haha

 

You have to disconnect it so you can unbolt it and reinstall on the new engine. It also helps get all the piping out of the way so you can work on things.



On that note...

The major things that you'll need to unbolt from the old engine to put on the new one:
-A/C Compressor
-Alternator
-Starter
-Oil Cooler (Coolant-Oil heat exchanger by the oil filter)
-Coolant piping by the water pump
-Valve Cover
-High pressure fuel pump
-Intake manifold
-Exhaust manifold (and turbo, obviously)
-Tranny/subframe/car... lol

It came with spark plugs installed (at the standard .035 gap), but we had some fresh ones already gapped for .032 that I wanted to start at, so we switched them out. They added a level of protection from anything falling into the engine while we worked though. We also thought we'd need a new water pump, but a fresh one came included. This actually made sense though because the engine comes with the timing chain already installed/timed, and that's what also runs the water pump. It just didn't occur to me.

 

So, you can't unbolt the A/C compressor from the engine and just move it aside, while the engine is still in the car? Not enough play?