The Project Pad

Well I'll be damned... you make it all look so simple! And it is, which is what makes your innovation so bad ass!

So its about time I updated this thread.

So the upgraded pulley has worked fantastic for quite a while now. I have not had even one problem with it. The cooling fans are however not up to par but this is only temporary. After the upcoming BBQ event i will be looking into the full on front end upgrade replacing the radiator for a smaller one that will fit between the headlights without cutting the tabs off. And will fit perfectly, cool just as well or better. I may have to build my own so im in the market for a specific tig welder. I am also going to redo the front support in aluminum in order to shave the weight off i added with using steel. Not to mention it will all fit together wayyy better being engineered the right way. First things first, i need a tig.

Now, since i put in rods, zero balanced the motor, and upgraded to the volvo hybrid turbo, i had been having an issue with the car burning oil while idling for long periods of time, at especially long lights, and just burning oil in general. I knew it was one of a few things being turbo, rings, or valve stem seals. Reading about other people having similar issues, i figured it was the turbo, and bought a rebuild kit for it. I replaced the rear oil seals and put it back in the car......same problem. Shight. I knew my engine was fairly new so i figured it had really good oil pressure. And my next logical step was to regulate down the pressure to the turbo. Brent made a call or text to innovative engineering and within ten minutes told me how big a hole it had to be for the turbo i have. The minium size hole for regulating the pressure they reccomended was 40 thousandths. He and i both agreed on 60, which is about a 1/16th drill bit. I drilled a bolt, tapped the end of the oil feed tube, cut off what i needed of the bolt with the hole now in it, and locktighted it in the end of the tube. Put it back together and fired it up. The turbo has not stopped spooling so i dont think i burned it up....yet. although, i was only able to drive the car for a day before it developed a misfire taking out a coil. At the time, i had little aneurisms of worry about what i had just done, and hoped that it was just one of the used v8 coils i had been using. Pretty cruel joke if you ask me to have happen at this partiular time wondering if my engine just ate the turbo. I got it back to the house and began diag for the dead hole. Number 4 was the culprit, and i replaced it with a spare, problem fixed....till i felt another miss a little bit later. At that point, eff it, im parking it and getting 5 new coils. I have coils in hand and will be installing the latest revision coilpacks later this morning, and continuing the test drive to living without a smokescreen at lights.

:cheers: Here is to fixing that problem and moving on to the next.

Glad to hear both things were easy fixes. If you notice anything more smoke, the turbo drain is another thing to look at.

Thanks Jim. Yea, im hoping its done smoking. It will be nice to get it on the dyno once and for all. Get some tuning. I asked swanson if he was comming down for BBQ at pikes peak. He said he was but murphys law and all. I hope he does. If not hank can take a crack at it if he wants. hes prob got the vems down pretty good now. I really need to get some real seat time on the vems before ill feel confident about my tuning skills.

Commit to the dyno in Vegas!

If its up to the task at that time, im down.

I'll help Dave. I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a welder too.

I would be interested in putting a billet k26 on your car. I have a bnch out there to be tested, but they always find their way onto cars that have other issues. I am about to put one on my URQ just for testing!!

Well if you want to, we can. I replaced the vband at the turbo but when steve welded it the wastegate pipe dipped down a little bit because it was cracked almost all the way through and therefore is still tweaked a small amount. Arrg. It makes me want to go back to the original DP collector.

Did we weld that with my little suitcase welder? bummer. I forgot that the hotside has been modified. We probably could modify it to work with the billet k26 If you wanted to keep it.

Im kinda thinking that. I believe i have an extra DP and i can have an extra k24 hotside machined to fit the volvo turbine. This way, we can switch from turbo to turbo without any issues. How do you feel about the flow of the oem dp collector?

Well, its not the turbo. After a test drive with the new coils, i let it idle for a minute and watched the exhaust. Sure enough, it started smoking again. Ill be looking into a few other things others have mentioned beforehand, but the engine may have to come back apart again. Ill be bringing it down to vegas next month for the gtg and after I get back it will be likely get torn down again. Its actually fine as i wanted to upgrade the valves, and install arp head and mains. At that point the engine should be nearly bulletproof. This will give me the opportunity to redo the front end the way i wanted since it will be apart anyway.

Just went through the thread.

When I got to the part about the viscous fan bearing, I sat up and studied it.
After seeing your work I was like: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU....

Had the bearing go bad on me on the highway a few months ago. I was a real PITA to get it fixed. It was either buy new bracket (yeah right) or modify. I wish I had had your pics then. It would have made things easier.
I will probably print out all the pics and show them to the guys at the shop. He will appreciate it.

Cool build. AAN, front mount rad, AWIC and Volvo K24. Big thumbs up.

Thanks Chris, coming from you that's a real compliment. I do what i can. I do it partially to show anything is possible when you have the resources and the know how. Of course, its still a work in progress. Like yesterday when I got some oxy to get my acetylene torch working to tweek the exhaust and get it to seal up. No luck, and now it leaks worse. Im ready to have another hot side machined to redo the downpipe with the original collector. Im done trying to make this work and im getting frustrated. Im still looking for the right tig so i can build my own stainless and aluminium parts.

It's a turbo car..... It's gonna smoke a little...... Just dont make it a bigger deal thanit is. Mine smokes here and there a little. Been much better since I took the breather outta the intake and put into a catch can setup.

So I got done with the down pipe the other night and the exhaust leak is fixed. thank you Brent.

Now, the car still runs very odd at times. sometimes it starts up and runs like the maf is disconnected on a stock car. I turn it off and start it again and it runs better, but not perfect. other times it runs flawless. I know for a fact there aren't any vac leaks. Im just hoping that I dont have an incident on the way down there.

here is a pic of the downpipe I built and a first time for tigging as well. I earned this one too as I took a jolt from the machine as well. they pack a wollop!

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---