I decided to start making a thread here since Ive had some issues in other places.

So I have got the log headers on the car and the x-over welded up today, not the best looking welds but im no pro welder, just a weekend hobbiest. I've leak checked all the piping with water if that matters....

I also ran the piping over to the turbo. I welded up the flange and actaully can't find the extra WG flange so I couldn't do anymore tonight.

This is not the best of all routes to do the exhaust but if you saw my previous exhaust (under K member J/Y style route) you'd laugh at me.

Big question here, Is there a short muffler that quites the exhaust a tad, I was thinking of just reusing my old downpipe, if I got ahold of a 4-6inch muffler of somesort I could just dump the exhaust in the front of the car. Which would make it very easy to make work. This is not a DD, mainly track time only. Its not terribly loud without a muffler but at 1:00am, coming home from the track, cops would think it was!

Anyone know the exact threads of the heads on the 2.8L 3.1L? Im not sure if there the same as a V8 but I need to pick some new ones for the headers.

Here are a few pictures thus far.

Heres where im at, minus welding the 2 1/4 pipe on the 2 1/2 pipe at the end of the header. I know its not huge pipe but this is a 3.1L car and it will do for the rest of the year.


Drivers side




I've gotta spin the ex housing still and tighten it down but its gonna be close there for any airfilter. Ive been useing screen latly to drive to the track then wide open at the track. Don't yell at me too much as I guess im just lucky thus far.



Pass Side


Drivers x over



Very ugly pass side x oxer

 

The sadiest x-over Ive seen but it will work and its all 2 1/2 inch. Just needs grinded down and re-leak checked. Just spare stuff I used in the shop. Total cost so far 0$ minus the headers.

 

u need to do something about were the turbo flange is the way u have it will flow like total crap . u need to put a 90 or 45* bend on the end then weld on the turbo flange.


i would cut it at the front primary tube and go get a 90* bend weld that in place with the 90* facing twards the side of the car like i did on pilsburys car.

though u need to make sure u can get a downpipe in there that way. from the looks of it u cant though from the wat the crossover connects it prolly takes up all the room for the downpipe

btw since u dont have a heater box why do u still have the heater control valve hooked up, which btw with tubular headers will prolly melt now

 

I know I have to get rid of the heater valve, just never got to it before. I do agree on the turbo flange area, that needs changed. I though of just getting a 45* bend and tilting the exhaust housing on the turbo so that its still level. I ran out of bends though that were at the house. So i just tacked it like that to see what the DP would look like and where the WG would be able to go.

Any Ideas on dumping the exhaust somewhere in the front area, since its not DD, I really would like to have the shortest and easiest way to dump the exhaust.

Head bolts/header size?? Threads?? Thanks as I need to pick some up asap.

 

90* off the turbo go down and out infront of the tire, btw u should really do a 2.75 or 3.0 inch downpipe

 

btw just make ur own wastegate flange, u just need a flat piece of steel, drill the 2 mounting holes, and drill the center hole and use a small piece of tubing so there is room behind the flange for nuts to tighten the wastegate on.


or u can always drill and tap the flange so u dont have to use nuts on the backside of the flange


or if u want i have about 4 extra wastegate flanges i can mail u one out

 

Ok on the flange, Ill just make one up if I cant find one. It should be easy. Ill prob make the DP larger too, 2 3/4" is out in the shop also so ill just use that.

 

i also wanted to suggest removing the intercooler for a test run. u have a much smaller unit then u should have,and with the power ur making im sure its becomming a restriction.u have meth injection now so u really dont need it.

what i would do is make a pipe that can connect the pipes comming in and out of the intercooler. and for one run at the track remove the intercooler and put the pipe in its place and see what it does

 

Im not sure how the piping would route itself down there, but I will look into it and see if I can make something up.

 

Flip the turbo around and dump a three to four inch exhaust in front of the tire, like this...

 

all u should need is a stright piece of 2.5 inch pipe that is just as wide as the intercooler. u will prolly have to remove the intercoller fo it to work though

 

his charge pipe is on that side to make it easier he could leave it as is and dump the pipe out the driver side

also if possible dump behind the front tire instead of infront, if u blow a headgasket or the turbo starts spitting oil and u have it infront of the tire u could possibly get coolant or oil on the front tire

 

He should just dump the Intercooler altogether because he is running methanol, flip the turbo over, dump the exhaust out the fender, and run the charge from the turbo straight to the throttle body. If he does it this way, he will have a single charge pipe about three feet in length from the turbo to throttle body with the blow off valve in between...

Better to get coolant or oil on the front tire than the rear tire...

 

i agree to disagree , id rather have the fronts clean, 75% of ur braking power comes from the front brakes. besdies its more then likley if u get it on the fronts the back tires going right threw the same stuff


i wouldnt dump the intercooler, it still serves a purpose for street driving when the boost is at a lower psi @ part throttle, not to mention it still sucks some of the heat out of the charge before the meth does the rest.

but if it is a restriction like i think it is id pull it for the time being until a larger fmic could be fitted

 

Then we will disagree then and leave it at that, because if your argument is avoiding oil and coolant on the front tire, it will obviously come into contact with his rear tire anyway, and at 15-psi of boost the car will immediately start going sideways, regardless. The front tire will at least sop up some of it before reaching the back...

The Intercooler serves no purpose at lower psi and part throttle, because at part throttle he won't even be in boost unless he is going uphill. You yourself claim that his Intercooler is a restriction because it is "too small", and if that is the case, it would potentially be causing more heat than it is helping to remove. The methanol can be triggered to come on at any point in time. Not to mention, if he decides to go the E85 route like I am in the process of doing he won't need either the methanol or Intercooler anymore, at all. Something to consider Mark because there are a few E85 stations by you. In the end it is his car though so it is obviously his choice, but since this isn't his daily driver, I myself would pull the IC w/running meth...

 

i agree lol.

he can still make boost at part throttle even on flat ground ,and like i said if it is a restriction remove it, but i personally would eventually stick a larger unit back in its place, if the intercooler knocks 60* out of the air temp thats 60* colder the air is before the meth is injected allowing the meth to get the temps that much lower. its a win win situation.

but the intercooler isnt needed, but it does still help

also i do belive his nozzle is to large to be activated at anything below 7-9 psi specially when he steps the nozzle up one size which im willing to bet hes going to have to do with the new setup

e-85 would be ideal but i doubt he would be doing that at anypoint soon since he just got his 48# injectors , on e-85 they would only support about what a 30 ish pound injector would support

 

Yea E85 is out of the question for now. I have to say my car is a alcoholic as it just likes the stuff im giving it now. I need many more things first. Rear end, bigger turbo, the list goes on, and eventually a rebuilt bottom end.

Dave what are the thread bolt size for the heads. I need to get new header bolts tommorow after work but have no clue on the size.

Are they Metric 8 bolt, what thread pitch? And should they be hardened

I do know one thing, im just dumping that exhaust in the front for now at least. Thats way to much more piping to make up to get it in the rear. I welded a tight 90* bend on the header and added the flanges on after work.

I plan to get some gaskets for the ex. headers, and flanges, the bolts and see if it will all bolt up right tommorow if I get time. Then adjust the charge piping to work. I think since im pressed on time and tuning time at that, the intercooler will stay for the time being. I have only a week to get this thing back and ready for the track.

If those logs flow any better at all there will be some tuning needed done so im saving up some time to do that this weekend or early next week.

 

i actually cant remeber, m8 or m10 just take a bolt with u, most part stores have that lil card thing u screw the bolts into to see what they are, any old bolts will work, try to get zinc coated or stainless bolts if u can this will keep them from getting rusted

 

I can get some stainless metric at work, Ill just get some from there. I got rid of the coolent valve thing today too, I dont know why i didnt do that before. I swear I have piles of stuff ive taken off this car over the last year.

 

if u have a thermostat in the car u will have to modify it if u just capped off the waterline at the intake and the one on the water pump.

that heater control valve allows some water to bypass the thermostat when its closed. i.e it lets the wate rpump cirulate a lil bit of water so its not trying to pump and the water has nowere to go.


alls u have to do is drill a few 1/8th inch holes on the edge of the thermostat so a lil bit of water can bypass it while the engine is running but the thermostat isnt open


the other option is to just connect the intake water outlet to the waterpump fitting

 

iirc thread size/pitch for the ex is M8/1.5mm. napa has a nice selection of metric grade 9.8 shtuff, i wouldnt use stainless, too brittle and may cause damage to the threads.

 

Thats what I was going to do, just u the hose from the intake to the water pump for now. Didnt know I could just put some small holes in the t-stat though, thanks.

Thanks for the pitch size and such blazer!

 

yeah as long as water can bypass the thermostats when its closed u can cap off those 2 lines alls u have to do is drill 4-6 1/8th inch holes on the thermostat flange

i never bothered my car ran cool 150-160* tops without a thermostat and fans on all the time, unless i go on the highway id switch the fans off


btw if u want to go really fast
t-66
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-GODSPEED...1d76d3&vxp=mtr

turbine housing is a lil small but then again u dont turn massive rpms like i do so it maybe alright, if its not ur .63 housing should swap right on it

i almost forgot 3.4blazer is partrtially correct, be carefull with the stainles sbolts the threads on them are much stronger then the cast iron threads u are screweing them into, also u must use a nice coating of antisieze or graphite on the bolts when u install them

 

I got the bolts today, they were m8 1.25 ones that fit. I didn't get the SS ones though, we didn't have any in that size. Will use the anitseze foresure.

Man is that wastegate spring a PITA to get back on by yourself. I didn't have much time today but I took the spring out and made sure the WG was ok, since it's been awhile since I have. I forgot how stiff that 15psi spring is.

And that link dave.....this winter when the real headers are made. Thats when I plan to just pull the motor and re-due alot of things. Hopefully a raise in my apprentership pay by then at work....lmao

 

i always use a vise to compress the wastegate till i can get 2-3 bolts back in the lid, makes it a ton easier once ur using stiffer sprinhs

 

Well I finally got the headers on the car, bolted up. All that needs done is the x over to be bolted up, and the turbo to be done, along with modding a few inches of the charge pipe to fit on the turbo.

I have to say...bolting those headers up, was the hardest thing Ive had to do in a long time, its up there with welding the oil bung on the oil pan. I literly had to use a normal wrench and tighten up the lower bolts a half turn at a time as a wratching wench wouldnt fit. The clearence was awful. But I got them on with new gaskets so that should be nice and sealed up.

One thing though is I am missing one bolt on one side and 2 on the other side. I didnt break off the bolts into the head personally, but at somepoint in the cars life it happen. I never had a issue in the past and I am hoping since the header flange is so thick that I wont have a issue. I guess thats something I should have fixed when the heads were off before.

Id post pics but im just to tired after that, took 1 straight hour of being irritated to complete it...lol

 

if they arent broken off flush put shorter bolts in them, with headers if u dont have all the bolts in they will blow out the gaskets.

use coperseal on both sides of the gaskets as this will help. the stock gaskets wont hold up to a turbo with headers by themselves for very long..

word of advice and i should have mentioned this before, get either bolts with small heads, or use allen bolts makes it 1000x times easier

we want pictures

 

I used copper seal as always on everything. The bolts are about flush but I may be able to put bolt in there with a spacer so that it grabs. Thankfully those are on the top of the header so I can get to them.

Pics tommorow dave, Im done in the G=rage tonight. But plan to work all night tommorow and get the car started up again. Hoping for no leaks!

BTW those were 12mm heads on the bolts, what a PITA, but there on there now. Thats all that matters.

Here my slip from last weekend I forgot to link. I like the +22mph from the 1/8 to 1/4 mile but wow is that 60ft time just horrible for a 13.31 pass.

 

wish i was closer so i could teach u how to actually launch that thing . hell give me 30 mins with u and the car and ill have u runnign 1.7-1.8 60's

with gers/posi i bet that thing woudl go 1.8/1.9 with how ur launching it now

if the bolts are almost flush take the headers off and get a dremel with a tiny cutoff wheel and cut a groove in the head/broken bolt across the center of it, then u can stick a screwdriver in the slot and back the bolt out.

if it wont back out with the cyl head cold reinstall the header start the engine and let it get a lil warm then stick a screwdriver in threw the header flange and it should back out no problem

 

Cool will do on the header bolts, thanks for the tips.

Im launching the car at 2500 rpms on that pass, any more and the damm thing wants to either move or I get a **** poor RT. You can hear it in this vid spooled up a little.
I know you watched it already.

What were you launching your car at on a regular basis.

 

closer to 3k, part of ur problem is the burnout when u stand on the brakes to do a burnout u get the rear brakes super hot. once u do that they dont hold anything.


40$ line lock that will help out ur launch big time u press the button step on the brakes and oit locks the line presure on the front brakes , when u let go of the brake pedal the rear brakes release so alls u have to do is hold the button on to keep the fronts locked step on the gas to do the burnout and let go of the button.

this way when u stage the rear brakes are cool and they will hold the rears from movign when u stall up against the converter.

and by using the ebarke u can just about dbl the holding power of the rear brakes.

on my car i can hold the car wot with the brakes+ ebrake and the car will not move till i simultaniously take my foot off the brake and drop the ebrake handle

 

oh yeah since u dont have a boost gauge in the car.

a good way to launch is to get a adjustable hoobs switch and wire to turn on a light on the dash that u can see while looking at the tree.

u set the hobbs switch to turn on the light at ur desired launch boost level, when u see the light come on u know ur at the right launch psi and u can back off the throttle till it stops building extra boost

 

I have a light that comes on at 7psi at the moment, off a hobbs, its for the alky injection. But 7psi is probly way to much at the line.
I only did that big **** burnout to show of for the camera..lol I usually barly do a burn out at all to keep those brakes cool as possible.

I tried the ebrake and such but it was before the turbo was spooling up like it should so it really didnt help and my RT were always red..lol I guess I could try it again when the headers are on and good to go....

May have to order another hobbs though. Those things really do come in handy.

 

u will have to play with what psi of boost to launch at to see if it hooks or not.

i found it best not to dead hook, my car liked to put a few revolutions on the tire before it hooked ( 2-3) if the car dead hooked it would bog slightly , though it could have been my tune not having enough ignition advance at the lower rpm

so yeah u just have to play with it

for now when doing burnouts use the ebrake and reg brakes get the turbo to spool up a bit and drop the brake and ebrake at the same time and let the car do the burnout rolling upto the line. this way ur not on the brakes at all while doing the burnout
the best way for u to do it would be wire up a second light at 5 psi, this way u know to turn on the first light and ur ready to launch if the second light (7psi) comes on u know ur to high and to back off the throttle slightly

 

Ok well I just found out that the leak wasent from the flange, it was from where I literly welded on the flange, so it was my fault and my bad weld. Its just hard to find leaks when you only have so long before the pipe is so freaking hot. But over all I got alot of work done tonight on the car. Literly just have to fix up the x over flange, then bolt it back on, and give it another try. I worked 9hrs at work then 5 hrs on the camaro, so thats enough for the night, the car won for the night...LOL

I have to say im anxious to drive this thing, even with the leak I could hear the turbo wineing more pronounced when I quick burped the throttle. Does seem louder in general though then before, the over all exhaust sound, more raspy.

Pics and such still to come, just been lazy and to freaking tired,

 

u are not allowed to be lazy till after u post pics and video

 

LOL next post will have some, no worries!

 

yeah, raspy sound is the only downside to headers!

 

dont worry man well get rid of the rasp and make it sound like this
http://www.streetfire.net/video/turb...i-2_640977.htm

 

Ive been having issues sealing up the flanges and such. I finally got the headers to be sealed up tight, no leaks.The only leak I had a problem with was the #5 cylinder. So I added another gasket and more copper rtv, torqed the crap out of the header and she seems good no. I just hope it stays that way under boost.

So I decided to unhook the WB heater and such and run the car for a quick moment with straight open headers. I have the ex. wrap stuff burning off in the vid like crazy so thats the smoke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch2yP...ature=youtu.be


Was cool to hear the car, it was loud as a sonof aaa. LOL I gotta let the stuff cool off then tackle the x over flanges again.

I need a break anyways as the fumes gagged me...

 

Wow man does my car burn oil from somwhere like crazy. I think its the dipstick? How would I take that thing off and inspect it. I am getting a mass amount of oil burning off on the driverside basically on the header spark plug area. It doesnt want to leak so bad till I get on it then a trail of oil smoke arrises. Non of the oil is coming out of the exhasut downpipe itself. Its just on the driverside block area.

In that video up there, where that smoke was coming off of, it wasnt all heat wrap burning off, it was also oil.

Ideas? It didnt do this before,

 

valve cover leaking?

 

No its coming from a lower area. I cant see much with those headers on. but I did Wobble that dipstick alot when I was putting the header on. Maybe its loose? Is there anything that keeps that in the engine or does it just slide out?

 

Actually let me correct myself. I looked at it again. The oil almost looks like its was flowing from the PVC on the valve cover. I took off the charge pipe, no oil in there, just smells like pinacolada alchohol. A slight soot when you reach back into the intake but not oily.

It literly looks like some one dumped 1/2 quart of oil on my header and sparkplugs....

Let me add that the passange side valve cover, where I just have a home made breather...doesnt leak at all.

I never had any problems like this before.

 

check ur oil feed line make sure it didnt get cut or damaged from heat, and yes the dipstick tube just prsses into the block, if u pull on it it will pop out

 

Ok dave, Im going to look at the oil feed right now, and also yank out the dipstick and inspect it. Anything I should check with the pcv valve?

 

make sure the engine has enough oil in at and start it, pull the pcv valve and put ur hand over the hole on the valve cover if u get a ton of air blowing out u have serious ring or piston issues.

it may be posible u burnt a head gasket to the outside as well wich would allow oil to get out normally though this owuld be a small drip not a whole ton of oil

im willing to bet on the oil feed though
on that side of the engine ur only leaks could be valve cover, head gasket, oil line, or oil filter housing

check the distributor as well they can leak oil pretty badly

and btw make sure the motor has good oil presure while its running and ur trying to find the leak

 

Ok now I cant find the leak. The pcv had vaccum when I pull it out and put my finger on it, a good amount of it. The oil feed looks fine, the oil return is fine, the valve covers dont leak, at least at idle and free revs. The head gasket looks fine from what I see.

The weird thing was when It did this it was only when I beat on it, then it would pour oil out from somewhere arround the valve cover area or so.

I didnt look at the filter but the car hasent had one drop since I left it alone for 2 hrs, and didnt leak durring me idling it. So im going to drive it again easy and see.

The oil pressure is 40 at idle, and 60-80 when floored, closer to the 80 though and enough oil is in the car at the moment.

 

was there oil on the floor when u first saw it?

btw those pipes prolyl had grease in them and thats were all the extra smoke came from

 

and i meant for u to put ur hand over the hole in the valve cover not the pcv vale