The shop hadn't called soooo off I went this morning to see first hand. The differential bearings are installed and the ring/pinion fitment adjusted. After painting the ring and checking the contact marks it turns out it was meshing too deeply. Now it's fixed and shouldn't sing to me on the highway. The front wheel bearings are in and the water injection kit installed. What remains to finish is mounting the controller in the cabin. The pump was installed below the washer bottle. The bottle was removed, emptied, cleaned and tapped at the back near the low fluid sensor, all the hoses and wires are threaded through a stock grommet to the engine compartment.The car was on the lift so I didn't see the engine bay but I'm told it's completely hidden. They put a heat resistant sleeve on the injector and nylon hose after noticing how hot things get in the engine compartment. On Monday the first dyno run will be to check my latest retune to see where we are. Next we'll use distilled water and find the best boost level to spray it. Depending on how rich or lean the retune is, we'll pour in some measured alcohol to map how much the AFR's richen up. I'm getting excited now people! The next track day is this Saturday. The super cooler is staying for the time being (my coolant reservoir hasn't arrived) but I plan on returning to the stock heat exchanger to free up some points in the race series. Look for an update on Tuesday.

Les

 

The car is done. The first thing we did was a dyno to see what the latest retune did. (it felt weak) Well, the AFR's look pretty good but I lost 60 HP. Don't ask me what they did because I'm clueless. My best guess is for some reason Jerry took off several degrees of timing. I'm speculating and still in shock. I have a race on Saturday which I will log and see what exactly was done, undone or if I got a bad tank of gas or something. After that shock we armed the system and sprayed pure water. No boost gain or power gain but you could put your hand on the supercharger and keep it there and the manifolds, while still hot, were not boiling like before. We played with when it kicked on and when it reached maximum. It didn't seem to matter when it began to spray but didn't like full blast (315 cc nozzle = 5 gph) so we set it to never reach maximum flow. (maxed it at 25 psi) Then we put a pint of meth in the water. It made a little more power but nothing major. The real test for the cooling will be at the track. Stay tuned for results. As far as loosing 60 HP from a retune ....... speechless. Shock. Disbelief. Yes, the engine is fine. 18 lbs. of boost. AFR's 11.5 rising to 12 at redline. The only pieces of the puzzle missing are the timing and knock retard. The log will show the timing and as usual I'll be taking 100 octane to the race. (Non points event, thank goodness) Still in shock.

Les

 

That is huge. I would say you are less than tuned now. A slip of the computer key maybe. You shall see. The meth is just for cooling although they claim you can get an octane boost from the meth. That is all I am hoping for is cooling just enough to trick the car into not pulling timing. I don't expect anything more than that. There aren't any great secret HP makers out there I have found yet. Good luck Les. Can't wait to see your log....

 

Fixed that for you

 

you are so good....thank you..... lol...

 

A pretty crappy day overall. The gear whine is gone from the differential but I still have a bearing somewhere that's bad. I'm really hoping it's not the pinion bearing. I'll replace the rear wheel bearings first if I can't track down exactly where it's coming from. The water/meth is cooling when it's on. The real test will be when I'm at high boost for 10 or 20 minutes. With less power the results will be difficult to quantify. At the 300 HP level I wasn't having a problem with the ECT's. The IAT's max out at 180º no matter my power level or heat exchanger setup so those will be what I give the most creedence. I'm real depressed over the tuning situation. I'm calming down now so I'll dash off an email to my tuner.

Les

 

Suggest you try to spray after the intercooler, it will make better cooling effect there. Woody

 

Yes, that's a fact and still on the table. The current bung is in the drivers side CAI a few inches before the Y pipe. If I'm not satisfied with the results I'll have 2 more bungs welded on the manifolds and spray all 3. This is a trial and retrial process. Keep in mind that my priority is to lower the ECT's first, IAT's second and more power a bonus if it happens. The biggest obstacle I see is the tuning. Up to now it has taken 4 remote tunes for every major change to my car to make me happy. I don't know much about tuning or what this engine can withstand but all the gentlemen that run the dyno are excellent tuners and tell me when it's scary lean or way too rich. In between extremes they don't say much and I don't blame them.

Les

 

I drove 1 1/2 hours to the track today and we got rained out. Gotta love beer at 10:30 AM, I watched ...... and wanted. Next event is sometime in June so until then mostly grocery runs. I'm going to replace the cork manifold gaskets with stock type and ..... what's that stuff called, copper gasket foolproof miracle sealant. You know who you are! Finally going to try the stuff. I ran all the 93 out of the tank and I'm heading back to the dyno this week with 104 to rule out bad gas as the culprit for the lost power.

Les

 

I didn't think you needed any liquid gasket/sealant if you used the OEM crush gaskets...please correct me if I am wrong.

 

I don't think I need it either but I seem to be taking the manifolds off frequently enough to try the stuff. The car started surging at idle which usually means the gaskets are leaking. I checked the torque (had locktite on the bolts) and they were loose. We'll see if I go through with it or not.

Les

 

Do you have before and after measurement IAT with Meth/water injection ?

 

Not yet. I don't normally drive my car hard on the street. I'm too smart to do it with all the traffic and congestion here so I need a track day to data log. There's a chance I'll hit a small track that opens for practice before the month is out.

Les

 

It seemed logical for me to eliminate possible problems before blaming my latest tune. I changed the cork manifold gaskets for stock type and for once they showed no signs what so ever of leakage. Then I pulled the plugs to make sure all the cylinders were firing properly. All the plugs look identical. Apart from being a lousy photographer I think you can see enough.
This is running Sunoco 104.

Les

 

The pic.'s are pretty blurred and make it hard to read from where I sit. They look like they have a nice even Puerto Rican tan to me, but maybe just a little dark. You say they're all the same; that's a relief. What are you seeing Les? What gap is that?

 

I can't get a decent picture in the Condominium basement because it's so dark. I took one picture with flash and one without and both are horrible. They have a reddish brown tint to them most likely from the oxygenated fuel. I have the stock plugs gapped at .035. I was looking for a weak cylinder or evidence of broken ring lands but the engine is without damage. If you dropped from 359hp to 300hp with a retune what would you think? First thought was the dyno operator screwed something up but I'm telling you, when you loose 50 hp it's pretty obvious when you floor it. The loss is real. Next, uh oh, I broke something! Right? Now I've eliminated most possibilities which leaves the tune and I'm stuck waiting for a tuning cable. The rained out non points track day was rescheduled for tomorrow so I'll be playing with my adjustable sway bar links as well as the water injection.

Les

 

les i dont if this is available to you but i would bore scope the cylinders if you think theres a mechanical issue. also do a compression test

 

The engine is fine. No codes, runs smooth, pulls evenly, idles etc. Since the tuning cables weren't available I had time to worry about other possibilities so I checked them out. I intend to log my heats at the racetrack tomorrow. I'm thinking somehow lots of timing got pulled in my retune and the logs should answer lots of questions.

Les

 

The water methanol injection didn't work for me. That's about what it boils down to. I was running a mixture with methanol and the affect was minimal. IAT's peaked in the high 160's and the ECT's were in the mid 230's. A few drivability issues with my tune, bucking at high rpm when I lift, were made worse by the spray or so it seemed to me. The washer tank was almost full when I hit the track and empty at the end of my day so I estimate with almost constant WOT 1/2 hour is what it lasted give or take. My data logs show AFR's in the 9's and only climbing at the top of 3rd. Then I had the strangest thing happen. I've seen it before but never like this time. The AFR's at WOT pegged the wideband at 21. Out of the blue and not at redline. I remember feeling something strange and that's when I let off and entered the pits. At the time I thought I was running out of water, or the car's gasoline pickup got some air etc. You know how the mind works. I'm a little down right now so I don't plan on fiddling with the injection much until I have time to analyze the data I have.

Les

 

Sounds like you have been all over the map, pig rich at 9 and out of fuel at 21......What have you done to the rail pressure to get the car that rich? The water injection displaces some of the oxygen and can drive up the F/A mixture. Iam wondering if the SC is making so much steam that you losing control. Most injection systems I BELIEVE add the water just before the cyclinder.

WDY