I'm currently adding further modifications to my GXP. I've replaced the silicone turbo pipes with mandrel bent aluminum, put in a Performance Werks intercooler, Solo Mach Exhaust, GMPP tune and upgrades with both front and back cross-member stabilizers and .25" tunnel brace. I also put on a set of 18x8.5 wheels from Stern (before they went out of business) and had them powder-coated to match the silver of the front wind screen and M bar. It's shod with 18x255/35 rubber. I'm putting in Comp Cams stage II cams, Opel injectors, improved high pressure direct injection fuel pump and BC Racing Coilovers. Then it is off to Performance Werks up near Chicago to add a methanol injection system, large impeller turbo and blow-off valve and then have it tuned.
I've had the car since it was new as my wife had bought it for me as a birthday/Christmas present in 2007. I was born on Dec 23, 1946. My health had be keeping from working on my 1969 Opel GT project car and she bought it so I would have something to drive to shows and do solo and rally racing as well as attend car shows. It is Mean Yellow and has just over 46,000 miles.
Next year I plan on putting on some aero packages and removing all emblems. It will be painted Cadillac Black Diamond with all black intakes and splinters painted to match the silver around the front wind screen and M bar.
Hit a snag today while preparing to install the lash adjusters and cams. One of the lash adjusters was severely pitted. As the cams I'm running aren't stock the adjusters are longer than normal. Contacting the vendor it took a while to locate my order as it had been done by phone and not through their site. Once I located the packing slip in my stack of papers to be filed, they were very responsive and are shipping a replacement ASAP.
Well I'm not going to make the power tour this year.
I have been notified everything is at the garage and we can get started. Unfortunately, the fella who is helping me (I can't lift anything heavy by Doctor's orders) has to leave soon for hernia surgery. So I don't know how much we will get done over the next week before he leaves. I will send pictures and also the spreadsheet of the before and after porting. I can tell you the port matching looks great as well as the porting. I can tell you the fella who did the porting said my starting flow rate was better than any LFN that he has ever worked on.
Here are pictures of the 3 gasket types used for the Turbo to CAT interface. The first is the original flat gasket with 2 steel outer surfaces and a compressible high temperature material between them. This failed on my car with a blowout from the inner circle to the outside edge. In addition all 4 bolt holes had failed and separated. The second is what is now being sold by GM as a replacement. GM Performance parts has designed this part. It is a circle made up of an inner and outer ring of steel (looks like this }{) with a graphite material in-between the steel. Major problem is there is no groove in either the turbo or CAT to set the ring in so you have to rely on a high temp silicone to hold it in place while you are try to align the parts and bolt them together, hoping that the ring doesn't shift on you. The last is what I am going to use. It is a 1/8" hardened copper gasket.
Too bad you can't get a very slightly thicker gasket so you could machine a very shallow guide groove in the turbo or the manifold (not both) but I'd be afraid of reducing sealing ability if you did it with the stock gasket as it might lose a tiny bit of clamping pressure.
Here are some pictures of the porting job on the intake and exhaust manifolds as well as the head. The fella helping me is in the hospital having surgery and I don't have the flow rates to post yet. However the person who had did the porting has stated that the head had flowed about 10% better than any other Ecotec head he had ever started with. Sorry for the poor quality as I had to use my phone. I forgot to charge my camera and forgot the power brick when I went out to take the pictures as we were putting things together.
That procedure SHOULD generally work, but some flanges will inevitably warp and result in leaks that could probably have been avoided by the slight margin of flexibility that a gasket gives you.
Believe it or not, back in the old days some of the MG racers used to run their T series engines with no head gaskets. They'd 'dry deck' the engines by plugging all passages from the head to the block and replacing them via external connections and the would lap the head to the blocks (for hours!) using valve grinding paste. Sounds a bit crazy, but it actually worked. Some of them still had the heads lift though, so the carefuk guys used a solid copper head gasket too.
Yes, the Copper Gasket I sent a picture of is from PWerks. Friend got back from surgery on Friday and still is in a lot of pain. He is going to try and meet me at the shop today and discuss when we will be starting work again.
The circle gasket is supposedly the same one that Cadillac is using on their twin turbo V6 racing coupes so it should work. They found that the flat gasket ones would burn out during a race and the circle ones would stand up through a lot more abuse.
Well, the car is running. Haven't really tried to push it yet as I want to get PWerks to get a good tune. Had a few issues several of which turned out to be a pinched wire which was easily corrected. Was unable to install the new High Pressure pump due to defects in the manufacturing (leaks) so I have to send it back and get a replacement. The PWerks intercooler is not a true drop in fit for DeJon charge tubes. Got to figure out what to do about keeping a good seal on the silicone throttle body hose and the same at the end where it connects to the intercooler. The charge tube coming out of the PWerks intercooler is about an 1" higher which throws the geometry off. I might have to take the intercooler back off and cut the charge tubes shorter. The other reason things aren't lining up correctly is that I put in phenolic spacers on both the intake to head and the throttle body to intake. As these are each about a 1/2" thick the geometry is also changed. Some of that can be handled by rotating the 90 degree throttle body elbow. The other issue I ran into was that the exhaust cam solenoid had to be replaced. Still don't have the flow chart sheet on the heads. They keep saying it's in the mail. I'll keep you posted (at 2-3000rpm it pulls like crazy on just 1/4 throttle.)
Really appreciate all the updates, details, and pics. It's not often that the forum gets someone that's willing to share their knowledge during an engine build in such detail. Carry on.
Going up the 14th of Sept to finish hooking up the 5th injector. As their dynamometer is kaput will only be hooking up and tuning the 5th injector and checking to verify that everything is working well for 93 octane. We will also be installing the Pwerks rear frame. Getting it coated red to match the tunnel brace. I will be leaving the front brace with them to get it cleaned and repowdercoated. The powdercoating had started to peel off so it needs a new shot of coating, it will also be done in red. I will be going back next year when they get the new dyno to have everything tweaked for 106 octane. The ZZP hpfp is on it's way back should be here tomorrow. Still have to figure out how to hook up the 5th injector to the crazy low pressure side of the pump, as it doesn't connect to the OEM setup from the tank feedline to the pump. It has a quick connect fitting so I have to come up with something with 1 female and 1 male quick connect fitting and a tee for the 5th injector
I need to use the OEM low pressure fuel line with the schrader valve to hook up my 5th injector. The OEM line has a male quick connect for attachment to the gas tank line and then has a ball and female threaded cap that connects to the OEM HPFP. The ZZPerformance HPFP has a quick connect fitting on the low pressure side rather than the male thread and ball receiver. So I need to make a short hose to connect to the OEM ball and cap with a quick connect at the other end. Nothing in my parts bin comes close to fitting and the local Auto stores are unable to match anything.
Well, as we are still working on things and waiting to solve some issues the car is back on the rack. We decided to attack the pinion seal that the dealer told me was leaking. Inspection showed that the fluid levels were correct, and there was no leakage for either the pinion or the half shafts. We have concluded that when they did the last correction they didn't clean the pig of the oil that had been sucked out of the diff. This had left about a quarter of an inch of dirt and oil on the rear and bottom of the diff.
I really have to talk to the dealer about their training. This car is expensive enough to maintain without them trying to ding me for work that doesn't have to be done.
I've been able to determine that the thread is a m14-1.5 and I would need a male adapter with a convex id (to seat the ball) and the threads would need to be at least 12mm or more in length so there could be a snug fit on the fuel line.
Think we have a solution for the ZZ pump. I've ordered the parts and if it works I'll post the part numbers (from Jegs) along with pictures of the installation.
Had issues with the dread 0402 code as we had to put in a new Solo Performance down pipe. I have the Solo high flow cat and we couldn't get the old O2 extension off the old pipe. They are sending a replacement. Looking online I located the following which might help others with this issue.
This is available on Amazon for 15.96 + shipping if you don't have Prime. I talked with Dave at PWorks and he said all you would need is the 90 degree adapter and the lock nut to correct the issue.
Well, I have a doctors appointment and an appointment to get the dogs groomed so I have to drop the GXP off early and let him work on it without my kibitzing. I'll take pictures of the finished plumbing and post most likely on Wednesday. I go up to PWerks on Friday to put in the base tune on the 5th injector, pick up their rear frame brace, drop off my PWerks front brace (needs to be repowdercoated and have them get the DeJon charge tubes to mate up with the intercooler. Got to looking at the intercooler, not only are the (PWerks) tubes too long for the DeJon but they aren't bent back towards the engine like the OEM one. Going to have some rework to do to get that working. Can't go over 5 psi boost or I pop one of the charge tubes off the intercooler. I'll have to take it easy on my trip up to Oswego.
This first one shows the black line going back to the low pressure fuel line from the tank.
The next shows the entire setup.
The last shows the hook up going into the ZZP HPFP with the 5th injector line coming out of the the connection (this is on the low pressure side of the pump.)
Update! Well the 5th injector is working. Had to reweld the bung as it wasn't seated into the manifold far enough. Also, determined that the low pressure fuel line where it connected to the HPFP was leaking. This was caused by it coming into contact with the windshield wiper control arm. The HPFP inlet was rotated 90 degrees which got rid of this issue but it rides very close to the windshield cowling bracket. The major reason for this issue is the -6an quick connect (with gasket) is super long. I'll try to find a shorter one or try a 45 or 90 degree male fitting to replace it. On the way home from getting the tune done with the fifth injector I only got on it once, as long as my foot was in it the boost stayed steady at 25PSI. It's a real kick in the rear.
OH, the -6an male fitting I'm saying is too long is what comes with the ZZP HPFP, not one of the parts I listed.
Randy
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