Have not post anything for a while, but have made some good progress on the TT E85 project. Goal is still to conduct initial test and tune at the Buick Nationals from May 12-15. Mockup engine is out of the car and the "real" engine is assembled and installed. Thanks to Rob Ross! The engine is about 11.1:1 with iron heads, B4B intake, with a 224, 228 114 cam. Manfolds, turbos, wastegate, oil supply and return lines, oil pan mods, wastegates, trans check valve for vac modular, cold air tubes, carb hat, extended carb vent tubes, carb, boost/vac gauge, and all boost ref lines are all installed. Had to install a 7" brake booster to replace the stock 11" brake booster to make room for the turbo/wastegate exhaust down tubes. Everything looks great and fits under the stock GS hood. Still need to finish the exhaust down tubes, connect exhaust wastegates and hook up to the existing exhaust system. And install the LM1 A/F monitor. Started the car this week and it idles well on E85. Drove around the block and things seem normal. Car starts great and idles well and smooth. Project got delayed this week because of addtional unanticpated related activities, more about that later. See the attached pictures.
Glad to see your making progress. It looks like we can start a MI boosted Buick club. I think we could call it "b to the fourth" (BigBlockBoostedBuick, can't do exponents here) I have mine running with boost. Have not driven it yet. Maybe around the block tonight!
I like it "BoostedBigBlockBuicK"!! Kind of goes with the B4B intake theme. Glad to hear you are also making progress. The other day after the drive around the block I notice an oil leak. It appears to be from the front cover, thought it was the oil pan, but last night I put some dye into the oil and it looks to be leaking behind the oil pump at the cover. Details, details and more details.
It's always the little details. Something you think is going to take 5 minutes take 2 hours going from place to place to find the right fitting. Or in my case my daughter suddenly discovers that she needs dad to help her move! We will have to get the beast together this summer.
Yep, details, taking the front cover off to fix the oil leak. Sounds fun, hope my car is running by then. LOL
I think we are tied, if I get to include the mockup engine installation. Well tonight I'm going to try to install the front cover and see if the oil leak issues are gone. Then on Wed, back to exhaust pipes, a whole bunch of luck and maybe the W/E will result in some progress, it seems 2 steps forward and one giant step backward. This W/E is my last opportunity to get ready for the Nats, if not, I'm running out of time to make that event.
Oil leak appears to be fixed. Items to be completed prior to maiden boosted trial run around the block. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o> </o> The exhaust is just about done, wow that was a huge job, and I learned a lot about fitting exhaust pipes and welding. Glad that I did it and would do a few things differently next time. Waiting on a clamp from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Summit</st1lace></st1:City> to connect the last section on the drivers side, clamp is ordered and due today. Because of limited room and my desire to be able to remove the exhaust without cutting the pipe, I decided to use a lap joint exhauxt band clamp near the frame right under the brake booster, in hindsight, should have welded it and not worried about removal in the future.<o></o> <o> </o> LM1 monitor is installed, but need to play with it and start tuning the car once the exhaust is finished.<o></o> <o> </o> Carb hat without divider, Thursday. Trying to finish the above and maiden run prior to this W/E as I have family non car activties for scheduled. FYI. Purchased 12 gals of 105 octane fuel for $2.39/gal.
I will be one ahead of you on engine pulls this weekend. I took out a bearing. We think it was when it knocked on the first trip out. I forgot to pull timing and suffered the consequences.
I too wanted the exhaust to be removable, so I used a pair of header flanges to create a break point in the system. I can remove either side downpipe without pulling turbos, or the exhaust under the car.
Sorry to hear about the bearing problem and future engine pull. I'm trying to void that and hopefully will stay to the plan to start very conservative. What was your timing set to? Tuning Plan Set timing to 25 degrees - Done last night. Start with low boost - 4 psi springs installed. Colder Plugs - 400 Champions gapped to 32th - Done. Test E85 before using - Done - measured as 80% Ethanol about 103 Octane. Run carb rich. LM1 installed - need to monitor and see what the settings are. Let the engine warm up to operating temp - Oil pressure 20 psi, Intake 160 Degrees Received the exhaust clamp today and LM1 cable adaptor (serial RS232 to USB2) to be able to download data. Heading to garage soon to install.
I had the timing at 34 degrees. Pulled it back to 26 and ran great with no knock but damage was done. Was running AFR's around 10.4 so really fat right now. Keep with your plan... If I had run a checklist I would not be pulling the motor tomorrowou: Next time I will also have the dial back setup. Just got to anxious but will be back on the road next week.
I thought stoch with e85 was 9.8, if so, 10.4 is lean. Here is a table I pulled from an article on e85. Air/Fuel Ratios Ideal Rich Limit Lean Limit Gasoline 14.7:1 12.5:1 13.2:1 Methanol 6.4:1 5.4:1 5.7:1 Ethanol 9.0:1 6.4:1 7.8:1 E85 9.8:1 7.0:1 8.5:1
Greg's running E85 I am running 93 octane gas Also with boost all of those ratios are out the window. With gas I am looking to be 11.5 to 11.8 at WOT
The TT E85 BBB assembly list is completed and had the car idling in the driveway for a while, oil pressure got to 25 psi, intake around 150F. I started dreaming about a maiden test drive and making huge HP, but I decided to check on a few things first.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o> </o> Observations:<o></o> 1) Noticed the floats on the carb were not where I had set them a few days ago while idling in the garage without the carb hat and turbo piping installed. Things that are different; 1) car not on level ground, driveway vs garage, 2) carb hat install and connected to turbos. I would think that having the carb hat on should not impact floats settings at idle, since boost is 0 and there is a signal line hooked between the fuel reg and carb hat to adjust for pressure differences when under boost?<o></o> 2) Checked the boost/vac gauge inside the car and it read 0. The boost/vac gauge connected to the back of the carb hat, same line for the fuel reg signal. I thought that would be a good place to pick up the signal for the gauge as the fuel reg required a connection to the carb hat, per the turbo instructions. The boost/vac & fuel reg line is connected to the back of carb hat, about mid way from top to bottom and side to side. Changed boost/vac gauge signal to intake and the gauge was reading around vacc of 16. So the gauge works. Re-connected to carb hat and it went to 0. I would think at idle, it should see some vac, maybe slightly less than the intake, but not 0? Re-checked all intake plumping lines and they were tight. Disconnected the hose and checked the carb hat fitting and could not feel any pressure or vac, so the gauge is reading 0 because it is 0 there at the back of the carb hat. Put hand over carb, engine started to stall. Maybe because of low air flow there is a dead spot in the carb hat? Where the fitting is installed in the carb hat the area is larger that turbo plumbing, so there is a pressure drop going from the two smaller 2 turbo pipes to 3.5 pipe and just in front of carb the area is even larger. Does the change in area, along with very slight pressure from the turbo, cancel most of the engine vac? <o></o> 3) Checked the fuel pressure prior to carb and it was 2 psi. Adjusted reg to get to 6 psi with carb hat and everything installed. Carb floats are now way off, full to top of window. I would think that the fuel reg would have been the same as last year, which was set at 6.5 psi with race gas. Does E85 change the psi vs Race Gas? Also, if signal from carb hat is 0, it should not matter if the reg is adjusted with or without being hooked to the carb hat?<o></o> <o> </o> It got late and I moved the car back in garage and went into the house to sleep. <o></o> <o> </o> Things to think about this W/E while being away with the family.<o></o>
Bad regulator on the alternator, fixed the fuel pressure issues. Still tuning and sorting things out. On Friday drove it around town with 4 psi spring installed. It is running very rich. Put about 25 miles on it. Boost gauge shows about 2-3 psi at WOT. Power comes on smooth and car accelerates hard. Changing to 8 psi springs and will start tuning with these. Ordered jet kit. Still learning about LM1, adjusted idle for about 0.95 lambda. WOT is 0.6 lambda.
