86cutlass350

this is a great thread i bought that red 98 turbo car (camaro) out of oaklahoma that was for sale on here awhile ago.
its been a learning curve for sure.
ken

flyinbluess

man...... i gotta say i cant beleive i just read all 20 pages.....
but your car is bad *** for a low boost stock lq9.....keep up the good work...
but i have to ask cause i am still learning about the ls motors...... i thought the LQ9 was an all alluminum higher compression , higher horspower version out of an escalade VS. the LQ4 cast iron block lower com , lower horspower out of an 05 ish silverado 2500 pickup ??
can anyone else clear this up for me...... cause i was going to pick up an LQ9..... but they are not cheap where as the LQ4 is cheap.

500@10psi

iTrader: (5)

same exact exept for the pistons, both iron same bore same stroke just less compression.

MaxxMitchell

iTrader: (15)

Are you sure there are no exhaust leaks? I had the back 3 bolts back out on one of my manifolds, and blew the exhaust manifold gasket on one port, and also had a small crack by my wastegate and was not able to make more then 10lbs with the MBC turned up enough to make 14.

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

The newest escalade comes with the l92 6.2 aluminum block. It gets confusing.

02camaroburn

iTrader: (1)

20 pages worth of reading and more knowledge to tuck away for a later date. Good work on everything and good job stock lq9. I think I saw like 15 pages ago someone said something about the rods being very strong. Is this true?

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

Not sure but I dont think that there are any. We were gonna mess with it tonite but plans changed. I'll get it sorted out sooner or later. Worst case scenerio, if I can't figure it out, I have a buddy that's got lots more experience than me with these types of issues. Unfortunately, he's a "Ford Guy" so I am trying to avoid going to him.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

Have you considered that you cracked a ring land on the 10.teen pass? I would do a compression and leak down test on the engine and see what is going on.

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

It's on the list but I would think that if boost were bleeding past the rings I would have crazy blow-by out the breathers on my valve covers.

Finally got a chance to work on the car last night. In the past, when chasing gremlins, I would always have tunnel vision trying to associate the problem directly to the power adder or the new parts that I had most recently installed. 9 out of 10 times the problem has been something basic. This time around I decided to tackle it as if I am doing an overall inspection.

Symptoms:

Reduced max boost level - I have been down 2-4 lbs of boost for a while.

High idle/vacuum leak - Just recently, the car has started to idle about 200 rpm higher.

Hard start - When I go to start the car, sometimes it starts right up and other times it will take a few trys and backfire thru the exhaust. Very much like a cam position sensor problem.

Low Oil Light On - Low oil light on intermitantly but there is plenty of oil in it.

I know that reading the symptoms it would appear that the low boost and high idle problems are related as a vacuum/boost leak inside the throttle body would cause both of these problems. The thing is that the low boost problem happened weeks before the high idle.

I went ahead and pulled the plugs as I haven't even looked at them since I regapped them shortly after putting the new turbo setup together. They all looked good. Upon inspection of the plug wires I found my first problem. 4 out of the 8 plug boots were a little brittle and 3 were split all the way thru at the bend. There is no question that 3 of them were arcing. I guess this is why they put those heat shields on the wires. I'll get a new set today with something to shield the heat.

Next I checked all the hot side bolts. I found one very small leak around the exhaust manifold. Several bolts took a 1/2 turn to tighten up. Now it's all tight.

While it was up in the air and I was looking around I discovered that my poly motor mounts have turned to goop. It doesn't seem like they are all that close to the exhaust manifold. I have wires and loom that run closer without any damage. I am wondering if perhaps the wires were arcing to the motor mounts and melting the poly. They must be replaced.

I also found that one of the 2 wires that goes to the oil level sensor had broken off the pigtail. LS2Formula pulled the pin out of the pigtail and soldered the wire on for me.

At this point, the only problem that had been resolved for sure was the Low Oil Light. Time to tackle to the vacuum leak. Last time that I tried chasing down this problem, I pressurized the cold side and found that air was getting around my fuel injector orings in the intake bungs. At that time, we found that the bolts that hold down the fuel rails had backed out alittle and the rails were loose. I tightend the rails down and the idle seemd to be lower and I took it for a ride. My boost was still down so when I got home I pulled the wastegate and found the hole in the diaphram. I thought that would fix it but I never repressurized the system to check it again. This time around, we didn't pressurize the system since now I am hunting a vacuum leak. We found some decent old wires that Steve had laying around just to be able to start the car. Got her fired up and started spraying break cleaner all around the intake. It was sucking air around every injector. I got pissed and started cursing the FiberTuned intake. Fortunately, Steve runs one of these same rare intakes on his car. We fired his up and sprayed it and his wasn't doing it. We pulled one of the fuel rails off to see how the injectors fit in the bungs. The went in and out fairly easily. Fortunately (again) Steve had a couple extra (brand new) injector orings laying around. We popped the oring off the injector and held it side by side with the new one. It was immediately obvious that the old oring had a larger inside diameter and was thinner than the new one. We popped a new oring on and pushed it into the bung. Now that's a snug fit. I'm going to pick up a set of the same orings today and replace them all. That should fix that.

As far as the hard start is concerned, Steve checked the wiring on the cam sensor and it was good. I am going to resolve everything above and see if that improves the startup. If not, my next thing to do will be to replace the cam sensor.

Tally TransAm

iTrader: (17)

good luck man

98Camarod

iTrader: (43)

There's quite a few bugs there. For the plug wires, I use the boot shields from advance, they are supposed to be good for up to 1200 degree heat.

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

A buddy (FEAR) called me a little while ago about the melted motor mounts. He asked me what I was doing about grounding my block to the chassis. On my old setup I had atleast 3 grounds from block to chassis. For whatever reason, I didn't put any back on the car when I put it back together. About 2 weeks ago, Steve put one small one on there as he noticed that I didn't have any. So it appears that my block was arcing to the kmember which is what melted the poly prior to us adding that one little strap. This could also be causing my starting problem. I'll be adding 2 more strap tonite.

Thanks. I already picked up a new set of wires from Murray's. I'll swing by Advance Auto and see if I can find the boot shields. Then I have to pickup the o-rings from my buddy at the Ford dealer as the o-rings that we used had a Ford part# and I know for a fact those will work.

KurtRardin

iTrader: (11)

Wow, thats a lot of stuff at one time. Its got to feel good though to have found a solution to most of the serious problems though. I've never heard of poly mounts melting! It must be HOT! Maybe I should consider going with solid mounts? Good luck and keep us posted.

Its got to be a nightmare building it like you did, on the problem diagnosing side. Ideally, I like to do one thing at a time so that if a problem arises its a little easier to pinpoint what changed. With your setup you got a new kmember, new engine, a turbo setup, a new intake... a TON of variables. Badass, but I would be trying to figure out the problem. If I build a turbo setup then I'm sure I'll have a basket full of problems to fix. Good thing we've got LS1Tech!!!!

I didnt catch the arcing part. Not heat, but turbo lightning!

98Camarod

iTrader: (43)

They just have silver there and you may have to run to a few stores. They come in packs of two, and they usually only have two packs.

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

Yeah, we are pretty sure that the lack of proper grounds caused the melted motor mounts. I really have been very frustrated with it and I have gotten spoiled with such nice working conditions being available to me that I refuse to work on my back in the heat while getting devoured by mosquitos (Western West Palm Beach = Everglades). So the car has just been sitting until I have been able to get into my buddies A/C'd shop with a lift and a peg board with outlines of where all the tools go.

MaxxMitchell

iTrader: (15)

Nice working conditions make a huge difference in your motivation and how much you want to get done, I learned that this winter building mine. First time my car has seen a garage in 7 years.

Hopefully the injector O-Rings fixed the boost issue, unfortunately my guess is it will help but not be the whole solution.

Not sure if you have looked, but have you taken the housings off the turbo to insure the wheels look normal?

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

No, I'll save the disassembly for last. Do the wheels get damaged on their own from use? I haven't chunked any plugs are broken anything that would go thru the hot side and there is always an air filter on the cold side.

I changed the wires ($60) and put insulated boots on them ($60). Replaced all the o-rings (donated). Fired her up and I could hear the air sucking in. Before it was leaking everywhere so you couldn't hear it. Now it's down to the last leak which I think is this Fibertuned intake having a split weld somewhere underneath or a seperated runner. Tomorrow I'll pull it off and I will NEVER put this thing back on. Been a pain the *** since day one. I'm going to put my ported and epoxy'd FAST90 back on and pray that I dont blow it apart at 16 lbs or so.

KurtRardin

iTrader: (11)

Man, the crazy thing about forced induction is that it seems like people are making crazy numbers/times without any kind of crazy intake setup. I laugh every time I read about a car that has a stock intake, TB, HUGE injectors and a turbo and makes like 500rwhp. I always wondered what the effects of even a larger TB would do for them, but then again... why at that point.

98Z28CobraKiller

iTrader: (17)

Sure as ****, the Fibertuned intake was split. Just not where I thought.

I ended up doing some modifications to the FAST in order to make it a little more boost friendly. I tapped the MAP hole in the back and screwed in a barbed fitting. Worm clamped a little piece of high pressure fuel line to it and worm clamped the MAP sensor to the other side. Found a short, coarse thread screw and screwed it into the small vacuum port (for A/C controls) in the rear with a generous helping of RTV on the threads. We cut both of the front large nipples off (PCV and the one that vents the gas tank). Neither of which is barbed. We drilled and tapped both holes. Driver's side got a plug and passenger side got a barbed fitting for boost gage and BOV reference. I also got the 8 threaded plugs to plug the nitrous bungs. I also removed all the rubber gaskets on the inside and replaced them with black RTV.

Put it all together and the car would not start. Just crank and crank. I was like WTF? There was spark but no fuel. Turns out that one of the wires to the TPS sensor broke. Apparently, that kills the injectors. Called the dealer for a new pigtail, $42. Are you ******* kidding me? I took it over to my buddies house and we took it apart and soldered all new wires to the connector. Hooked it up and all was good. Fired right up and took it for a drive. Stabbed it and saw about 18 PSI. Woot! Throttle response from the FAST is far superior. With the other intake I would only have about 4 psi at 4K RPM. With the FAST, I'm seeing 4 psi at 3500 and 8 psi at 4K RPM.

So the weather held out and after a little street tuning I set out for the track. I wanted to make one pass at the 18 psi just to see how it would do because it felt so good on the street. Told my buddies to look out for the wheel stand. Got to the line, got up on the tbrake/2 step to 4K (about 10 psi) and let her eat. Carried the wheels almost all the way through first, pulled 2nd and right before the shift to 3rd (before the 1/8), it fell over completely. Coasted out the back. My charge pipe from the turbo to the IC popped off. Here's what it ran on that pass.

1.361 60'
4.07 330'
6.54 1/8
87.3 MPH LOL

Previous best
1.417 60'
4.166 330'
6.437 1/8
108.08 MPH

I turned the boost down 12 psi and managed to run a couple of 10.60's @ 128 w/o blowing the tube off. Spun to a 1.57 60' both times. Track was going away. Tried turning it back up and it popped off again. Taking it to another buddy's shop that has a bead roller tomorrow to see if that helps. The motor mounts being shot isn't helping and I will replace those next week. Atleast I'm back to racing.

phoenix

iTrader: (6)

try the intake i am going to run