Sweetness: Doing it right one last time... - Photos & Media Forum - j-body.org

Sweetness: Doing it right one last time... - Photos & Media Forum

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Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 5:40 PM

It's been a long time since I've posted something on this car... in fact it's been a long time since I've even wanted to look at it. I am fortunate enough to have garage space where I can park my frustration for a year or five and let it sit there while I catch up on life.

The G-Lader project has remained pushed aside, but fortunately this is for good reason.

I have waited a few years for the good luck to come upon an Exploited manifold that would replace my old thunderously cracked unit - it had been repaired a few times and unfortunately had warped from welding so the ports didn't even come close to lining up with the exhaust ports... not to mention it cracked again. I blame the cracking on the weight of an un-supported turbo and a manifold that was run far too hot from over-leanness due to the inability to tune for boost. I haven't even been able to take the car over 4000 rpm safely since 2006. Sad panda indeed.

A member posted an exploited turbo manifold for sale last October, it came with a Turbonetics wastegate and dump tube - though I can't and won't use the dump as I need to make changes for my setup. I had full intention of simply rebuilding my turbo and bolting everything up and doing my best to be happy.

Sadly, Darren caught wind and refused to hear any of my excuses to live and let live. At his behest I have decided to undo years of mistakes and inexperience... to do everything over and do it right - one last time. This is it.... if something goes wrong, blows up, melts down or in any way fails to live up to my expectations I am going to take a can of gasoline to the car and burn it in a field of dead hookers.

The end result will be a rewired car, wire tucked engine bay, rebuilt turbo, external gate/dump setup, and every single manifold/gasket port matched or custom cut to fit my ridiculously ported head. Lastly - the biggest fix... no more fake 2 bar. No more hack boost. I will be able to tune safely up to 25 PSI of positive pressure... and finally get out of this car what I always wanted; reliable power, happiness, & mass quantities of bitches.

On to the photos:

The car as it has sat for a while, covered in a tarp, blankets, garbage and broken dreams:

New Primary Fuse block with integrated ground block, and new Secondry fuse block.

The primary fuse block will be a switched block with 10 fuses running my accessories. The smaller secondary fuse block will be a direct 12v always-on fuse block that runs 6 fuses. No more add-a-fuses for me.

Remote on/off transmitters/control box to turn ACC power to the car on and off. Goodbye ignition key.

New neon transformer for my interior neons (Old one stopped working). Don't say it - I'll always love them.

New OEM Phenolic spacer. This will have to be fish mouthed a bit, duly note how much smaller it is than the intake port.

The new brain for the car: AEM FIC. Internal map sensor reads up to 25 psi of boost, will control fuel & spark.

One side is the USB port, the other side is the boost input and wire harness inputs:

I polished the fuel rail to a mirror finish and added a new fuel pressure gauge to replace my old f'd up one.

Some may have seen this before; Polished H.O manifold with an LD9 flange welded on. I have since re-polished it to a better finish, ported out the TB flange to 64mm for my TB and ported the welds out of the intake ports.

New manifold and wastegate - I have to make an extra elbow to move the wastegate a bit more out of the way to clear the A/C.

I made some wiring diagrams for my new ignition and accessories:

The last time you will see this many wires under the hood:

A lot of work ahead... the engine and trans will be pulled out at some point but right now I need to work on the wastegate placement and the extension and dump to make it work. Once that is sorted measurements can be taken to install Darrens tuck harness.

In the meantime the interior will be removed very soon, I'll try to keep this thread up to date as progress is made. The goal is to have the car re-assembled, wired with the tuck & AEM FIC, fired and running by the end of September... this way I have all winter to button up some odds and ends and get ready to final tune it next season.

I will also be running a proper PCV system so that I have no more oil-leaking-from-f'ing-everywhere issues. When the engine is out the crank seal will be replaced and the oil pan removed to inspect the gasket and bottom end...

That's it for now, any comments or questions good or bad are always welcomed.

-Chris-

-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 5:50 PM

DSMskyline

Glad to see you havent fully given up. I know this car has some major j body history to it and has been inspiration to many.

Its nice that over the past year or so that a couple of the old skool builds are being brought back to life in much better ways than the past.

"Oil Leak ? What oil Leak ? Oh, Thats Just The Sweat From All The HorsePower!!"

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:01 PM

Jeffie @ Driving Force Fabs

Dude I fawking love you!!!!!

Thank you for the motivation for Satch, and I can't wait to see this thing come back to a new glory.

Oh and harass Scott to get back in the game will ya!!

DRIVING FORCE FABRICATIONS (908)866-1882

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:01 PM

Roofy

I love all the old-school J's!

Currently #4 in Ecotec Forced Induction horsepower ratings. 505.8 WHP 414WTQ!!!
Currently 3rd quickest Ecotec on the .org - 10.949 @ 131.50 MPH!!!

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:03 PM

AdamNismoSR

Make it happen man! You know you can do this! Been waiting many moons for this post!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:04 PM

Addicted to meth

SOOO glad to see this!!

I have always like your sunfire.

I do have a question or two. This AEM FIC, are you using it as a piggyback? I'm assuming so.

FU Tuning

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:11 PM

David Ingram

Wooo Hoooo

~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:15 PM

BuiltNBoosted

Should have looked into the painless wiring harness blocks. Come with wires attached

Not that its much different I imagine.

Glad you are picking it back up and finishing it. Getting it done right!

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 6:32 PM

SweetnessGT

It has definitely been nice to see some of the old school builds get re-done or brough back to life... though I fear this will not even come close to comparing to something like the Reaper. That was a disgusting rebirth that is on a level of its own.

John - yes it piggybacks... it intercepts the fuel injectors as well as the crank/cam position signals to alter spark and timing. It taps into the TPS sensor for that reading... the on-board map sensor takes care of reading boost and it lets me tune to 40 psia. Basically where the stock PCM stops this will pick up and keep going... the stock PCM will think it's doing its job and have no clue what happens after 0 vac. I will be able to pass emissions and have full control over the car, as well as still have control of things such as knock retard, open/closed loop etc. This combined with HPT gives me all the control I need in and out of boost.

The biggest key to this is acquiring Darren's wire tuck harness as it puts the PCM and external fuse block into the cabin allowing me to tap into it easily. The FIC isn't weather proof and I didn't want to run 10 feet of wire to reach the PCM in its stock location.

Vince - this is a cost/do it right balance unfortunately... I went with something I knew would work and be safe but not rape my wallet. As it is I spent $155 alone today on wire, connectors, shrink wrap, loom, wire blocks & fuses. As I said to Darren - doing it right is too costly. Haha

Jeffie - Love you too. I think Scott is focusing on his kitchen right now, even the Camaro has been put by the wayside. I don't blame him I did the same thing for 4 years.... although termites forced my hand.

I really didn't want to go this far but as Darren put it I knew this had to happen eventually... too much questionable wiring from when I was 21 and just learning how to work on the car, and too many tiny issues under the hood for me to overlook. The conversation literally went:

Darren - "Dude, you've gotta pull the engine."

Chris - "No. Hell no. HELL NO."

Darren - "Why."

Chris - "Oil and coolant are expensive and I barely used the crap that's in there. My alignment is perfect. I hate you."

Darren - "Ok so we're going to pull the engine."

Chris - "I hate you."

Darren - "While the engine is out you should install my wire tuck harness too. It'll complete the car."

Chris - "No. Hell no. HELL NO."

Darren - "You don't even have to be there."

Chris - "No. I hate you."

Darren - "Might as well pull the dash out too."

Chris - "I hate you."

Darren - "So when do we start?"

Chris - "I'm going to go drink rye."

3 days later.

Chris - "I hate you."

I swear if this car breaks my heart again I'm going to snap.

-Chris-

-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 8:36 PM

gtpsunfire

I love being such a bad influence...

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 8:48 PM

Zs Z

I am really happy to see that you are working on this. It kind of reminds me of my old truck. I put the engine in and head gaskets failed, I pulled the engine fixed it and put it back in, the trans started massively leaking. Replaced the trans and the carb gummed up in the process. So it has been sitting for 5 years. I will burn it next to your car if it does something else wrong.

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Saturday, May 11, 2013 11:50 PM

Evan Undead (The Black Pearl)

Keeping my eye on this thread.

R.I.P. JessE Gerard 7.11.87 - 1.25.08
The Radiation Nation Facebook Twitter Twisted Metal Alliance

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 6:27 AM

Wrench Monkey

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 7:40 AM

Exesivefire

I'm excited for this thread

** FOR SALE** http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=24&i=110879&t=110879

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 8:01 AM

Skilz10179

Exesivefire wrote:I'm excited for this thread

X2

- 93 mph in the 1/8 mile
Member of J-Body Of Michigan.

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 11:53 AM

Mrs Jazer

Nice! Looking forward to see the updates

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 3:51 PM

-Z Yaaaa-

in for 500whp.

M45/OS crank/2.4 snout. It's nice to be injected but I love being blown!

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 5:08 PM

The Jew

Skilz10179 wrote:
Exesivefire wrote:I'm excited for this thread

X2

x3

one of the OG org members is coming out of retirement

RIP JESSE GERARD.....Youll always be in my thoughts and prayers...

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Sunday, May 12, 2013 5:11 PM

Blwn LD9

Glad to see work on the Sunfire again and see that Darren's harness is going to a good home.

I guess I better start working on mine

Jason
99 Z24

LG0/LD9 for Life

10 Year Bash Veteren

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Monday, May 13, 2013 3:51 AM

Josh Watson

Not familiar with the car, but I'm looking forward to updates!

Building it one piece at a time

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Monday, May 13, 2013 4:02 AM

-MD- Enforcer

Chris.

Do work son, and make Darren help. Not that you need to make him....I'm sure he wants this almost as bad as you do.

PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

Re: Sweetness: Doing it right one last time...

Monday, May 13, 2013 7:21 AM

zdoubledozen [ Matt ]

Last time I saw sweetness in person was 2004 or 2005 JCO bash. Almost been a decade. Just putting it into perspective