Procharger Problems
05-29-2011, 03:59 PM
#22
It has been a long Spring! It seemed like there was one thing after another. But I know it is always a struggle when looking at aftermarket and custom parts. I had sent a PM to a buddy on here with an update.
This Spring's list of updates:
Procharger F1A head unit with a 5.25" pulley (to fix the squeal under the hood)
AEM wideband
SJM Line lock
Black Weld RTS wheels
Mickey Thompson Drag Radials (295/55/15) and skinnies
Try to figure the squeak in the rear suspension
Car progress this Spring:
While the F1A was en route, we wired and installed the SJM line lock with an Emblem Pros switchplate in the ashtray. When it was supposed to be engaged, I could hear the click for the selenoid. Figured all was good.
From there, I took my old A/F narrowband gauge out (was never hooked up) and installed a AEM wideband gauge. I had an extra bung in each tube of the Y-pipe which helped not having to weld that in.
I did quite a bit of research on the Weld RT-S and tire combo (M/T 295/55/15 drag radial) prior to ordering. Almost everybody said they would clear everything without issue. Well, sort of. Both calipers needed really minimal grinding to clear but did need it. The bumpstops were also closer than I liked so I cut them out and did some BFH mods to the rear wheel wells. All I was waiting for was the F1A.
The F1A showed up and went to work right away on that. I had to run to NAPA to pick some parts up and when I got back, "the old man" was furious. Chewing my @$$ and saying the F1A is absolutely larger than the D1SC and doesn't fit.
So I took a look at it and set it next to the D1SC and the first thing I noticed was it wasn't clocked correctly. It was about 90 degrees off. After changing that, the blower went it much easier. I will admit, it is still more difficult and a bear to get in compared to the D1. The F1A has many dimensions that are the same, but the blower is bulky or deeper than the D1. So by saying they are the same size, is somewhat true, but not completely.
The next issue was trying to find a belt that worked. There aren't many people out there that have a 5.25" pulley with a 7.25" crank pulley and the SDCE LS1 spring tensioner setup. Trying to find a belt was difficult. I had 6 new NAPA belts with different lengths here, as well as two older belts that came off the car from previous use. We finally thought we had everything right, and took it for a road test. The belt was tighter than we wanted but was going to see what happened. I made it to the next door neighbors and the belt snapped. We ended up going with one a size bigger. I have a 080545 NAPA belt on there for future reference for anybody.
We got that on and everything seemed right. I took the car for a ride to a friends house about 10 miles away. About halfway there, the water temperature gauge quit working. When I got to his house, and shut the car off the fan continued to run. Seemed strange. Also noticed that the belt wasn't perfectly aligned and would have to take a shim out of the head unit. The belt was riding on the crank pulley.
I drove the car home and had no issues. The temp gauge didn't work, but everything else was fine. Fixed the shim and realigned the belt. Put a scanner on the car and found out there was a code thrown for the water temperature gauge that showed a voltage spike. We reset that and the gauge worked properly again. I also had changed spark plugs because they had not been changed since I owned the car and I was curious what the previous owner had in there (I understand trial and error isn't always the best idea with Forced Induction, hence the reason I do a lot of reading on here).
I took the car out to lunch one day, and on the way home, the water gauge was bouncing up and down and the car went into limp mode, and was stuttering and cutting in and out. I am pretty sure it was just dumping a ton of fuel too. Blowing black smoke out the back.
I did some research and found a bunch of things to check. I put a new Optima battery in as my old battery needed to be jumped a couple times. Also put a temperature sensor in. Checked a few grounds and also rewired some wiring that was done from the previous owner. Took the car out and drove it for about 40 miles and ran perfect. Everything was perfect. Packed all my stuff and was taking the car home and the same electrical issue with the gauge, limp mode, and cutting out happened. Brought the car back to my Dad's shop and opened the hood while the car was running. He messed with some wires under the hood and finally went and wiggled the computer. As soon as he did that, the engine idled different, and the temperature gauge bounced to where it should be. Since then, the car has been back to normal.
One day I was out driving it, and the boost/vacuum gauge is all messed up. It is supposed to do a sweep when starting the car to calibrate but mine now does it backwards and then the needle goes all around and stops under the peg on the left side. So something with that isn't working properly. With the Spring I have had, I have lost a little bit of interest in it.
The final thing this Spring was to get the drag bar brackets welded in and get the drag bar hooked up. While we were doing that, we noticed the right rear shock had some oil on it. I had bought rear AFCO's last year, and looked into that. I went through Madman and AFCO and currently have the shock at AFCO. So that is where I am today. The car is back on the hoist.
The one thing I was surprised is how quiet the F1A was. I was expecting something obnoxious. I don't think it is too bad at all. I was quite please with that. I have done a few WOT passes and a few burnouts (just to make sure the line lock works).
I want to get the car to the track and was hoping to do that this Spring before the warmer weather came. I am not sure if I will wait until fall now.
The main to do is to look at the tune. I am considering a couple of options. I really need to give Frost a call to talk to him about it. I have always had a really sick hesitation/delay when rugging it at a low RPM. I drove my uncle's automatic WS6 years before mine. I remember that thing being a handful when rugging it down low. Mine has always had a hesitation. I had one guy just take a peek at the tune and he thought the VE table looked very similar to a stock vehicle. I believe the car was more tuned just for WOT. Anytime you jab the throttle the AEM wideband goes to 10.0. That is where it is when doing a WOT pass too.
Tires:
Last year I bought my MWC Fab 9" and rear suspension components. I never had put them to the test yet. I was always running a 275/40/17 BFG street tire with my factory wheels. The tires would just be absolutely smoke in 2nd gear. The Mickey's are unreal. There was me and a passenger out tearing around in the car one night. I have that slight hesitation (see tune above). From a 10 mph roll, I floor it, it has that slight hesitation, but not wheel spin. It dead hooks now! It is crazy the difference. That was with about 21 psi in the tires. I haven't tried much from a dead stop yet. I did try a pretty quick clutch release from about 4000 and it seemed to make the car bog so bad that it wanted to kill. Once again, I would like to get a tune!
Overall, it runs, and gets me here and there. But it has been a long Spring!!
Sorry about the length, quite a bit of stuff though.
Here is a picture of it in the work parking lot one morning:
Here is a picture of just a quick, part throttle test of the line lock:
This Spring's list of updates:
Procharger F1A head unit with a 5.25" pulley (to fix the squeal under the hood)
AEM wideband
SJM Line lock
Black Weld RTS wheels
Mickey Thompson Drag Radials (295/55/15) and skinnies
Try to figure the squeak in the rear suspension
Car progress this Spring:
While the F1A was en route, we wired and installed the SJM line lock with an Emblem Pros switchplate in the ashtray. When it was supposed to be engaged, I could hear the click for the selenoid. Figured all was good.
From there, I took my old A/F narrowband gauge out (was never hooked up) and installed a AEM wideband gauge. I had an extra bung in each tube of the Y-pipe which helped not having to weld that in.
I did quite a bit of research on the Weld RT-S and tire combo (M/T 295/55/15 drag radial) prior to ordering. Almost everybody said they would clear everything without issue. Well, sort of. Both calipers needed really minimal grinding to clear but did need it. The bumpstops were also closer than I liked so I cut them out and did some BFH mods to the rear wheel wells. All I was waiting for was the F1A.
The F1A showed up and went to work right away on that. I had to run to NAPA to pick some parts up and when I got back, "the old man" was furious. Chewing my @$$ and saying the F1A is absolutely larger than the D1SC and doesn't fit.
So I took a look at it and set it next to the D1SC and the first thing I noticed was it wasn't clocked correctly. It was about 90 degrees off. After changing that, the blower went it much easier. I will admit, it is still more difficult and a bear to get in compared to the D1. The F1A has many dimensions that are the same, but the blower is bulky or deeper than the D1. So by saying they are the same size, is somewhat true, but not completely.
The next issue was trying to find a belt that worked. There aren't many people out there that have a 5.25" pulley with a 7.25" crank pulley and the SDCE LS1 spring tensioner setup. Trying to find a belt was difficult. I had 6 new NAPA belts with different lengths here, as well as two older belts that came off the car from previous use. We finally thought we had everything right, and took it for a road test. The belt was tighter than we wanted but was going to see what happened. I made it to the next door neighbors and the belt snapped. We ended up going with one a size bigger. I have a 080545 NAPA belt on there for future reference for anybody.
We got that on and everything seemed right. I took the car for a ride to a friends house about 10 miles away. About halfway there, the water temperature gauge quit working. When I got to his house, and shut the car off the fan continued to run. Seemed strange. Also noticed that the belt wasn't perfectly aligned and would have to take a shim out of the head unit. The belt was riding on the crank pulley.
I drove the car home and had no issues. The temp gauge didn't work, but everything else was fine. Fixed the shim and realigned the belt. Put a scanner on the car and found out there was a code thrown for the water temperature gauge that showed a voltage spike. We reset that and the gauge worked properly again. I also had changed spark plugs because they had not been changed since I owned the car and I was curious what the previous owner had in there (I understand trial and error isn't always the best idea with Forced Induction, hence the reason I do a lot of reading on here).
I took the car out to lunch one day, and on the way home, the water gauge was bouncing up and down and the car went into limp mode, and was stuttering and cutting in and out. I am pretty sure it was just dumping a ton of fuel too. Blowing black smoke out the back.
I did some research and found a bunch of things to check. I put a new Optima battery in as my old battery needed to be jumped a couple times. Also put a temperature sensor in. Checked a few grounds and also rewired some wiring that was done from the previous owner. Took the car out and drove it for about 40 miles and ran perfect. Everything was perfect. Packed all my stuff and was taking the car home and the same electrical issue with the gauge, limp mode, and cutting out happened. Brought the car back to my Dad's shop and opened the hood while the car was running. He messed with some wires under the hood and finally went and wiggled the computer. As soon as he did that, the engine idled different, and the temperature gauge bounced to where it should be. Since then, the car has been back to normal.
One day I was out driving it, and the boost/vacuum gauge is all messed up. It is supposed to do a sweep when starting the car to calibrate but mine now does it backwards and then the needle goes all around and stops under the peg on the left side. So something with that isn't working properly. With the Spring I have had, I have lost a little bit of interest in it.
The final thing this Spring was to get the drag bar brackets welded in and get the drag bar hooked up. While we were doing that, we noticed the right rear shock had some oil on it. I had bought rear AFCO's last year, and looked into that. I went through Madman and AFCO and currently have the shock at AFCO. So that is where I am today. The car is back on the hoist.
The one thing I was surprised is how quiet the F1A was. I was expecting something obnoxious. I don't think it is too bad at all. I was quite please with that. I have done a few WOT passes and a few burnouts (just to make sure the line lock works).
I want to get the car to the track and was hoping to do that this Spring before the warmer weather came. I am not sure if I will wait until fall now.
The main to do is to look at the tune. I am considering a couple of options. I really need to give Frost a call to talk to him about it. I have always had a really sick hesitation/delay when rugging it at a low RPM. I drove my uncle's automatic WS6 years before mine. I remember that thing being a handful when rugging it down low. Mine has always had a hesitation. I had one guy just take a peek at the tune and he thought the VE table looked very similar to a stock vehicle. I believe the car was more tuned just for WOT. Anytime you jab the throttle the AEM wideband goes to 10.0. That is where it is when doing a WOT pass too.
Tires:
Last year I bought my MWC Fab 9" and rear suspension components. I never had put them to the test yet. I was always running a 275/40/17 BFG street tire with my factory wheels. The tires would just be absolutely smoke in 2nd gear. The Mickey's are unreal. There was me and a passenger out tearing around in the car one night. I have that slight hesitation (see tune above). From a 10 mph roll, I floor it, it has that slight hesitation, but not wheel spin. It dead hooks now! It is crazy the difference. That was with about 21 psi in the tires. I haven't tried much from a dead stop yet. I did try a pretty quick clutch release from about 4000 and it seemed to make the car bog so bad that it wanted to kill. Once again, I would like to get a tune!
Overall, it runs, and gets me here and there. But it has been a long Spring!!
Sorry about the length, quite a bit of stuff though.
Here is a picture of it in the work parking lot one morning:
Here is a picture of just a quick, part throttle test of the line lock:
05-29-2011, 04:06 PM
#23
Along with the drag strip time, I would be curious to see the differences in the dyno sheets as compared to last year.
My car has had the rev limited at 5800 since I bought it. It comes to that way to fast. The plan with the F1A was about 10lbs at 6200. I was seeing about 8.5 at 5800.
The old setup with the D1SC would hit about 10.5lbs at 5800. I had the car on a dynojet last spring and it put down 566 rwhp and 525 rwtq.
Since then, I have put the MWC Fab 9" in it and the F1A. It will be interesting to see the differences in the graphs. Ultimately, I am curious about track times. I know the radial and 6 speed isn't ideal, but neither is a heavy drag car.
Being an Electrical Engineer, I need to find some free time and do some reading and video watching and learn how to tune the car by myself. I am sure with a bit of controls background through school, I would be able to pick it up.
My car has had the rev limited at 5800 since I bought it. It comes to that way to fast. The plan with the F1A was about 10lbs at 6200. I was seeing about 8.5 at 5800.
The old setup with the D1SC would hit about 10.5lbs at 5800. I had the car on a dynojet last spring and it put down 566 rwhp and 525 rwtq.
Since then, I have put the MWC Fab 9" in it and the F1A. It will be interesting to see the differences in the graphs. Ultimately, I am curious about track times. I know the radial and 6 speed isn't ideal, but neither is a heavy drag car.
Being an Electrical Engineer, I need to find some free time and do some reading and video watching and learn how to tune the car by myself. I am sure with a bit of controls background through school, I would be able to pick it up.
05-29-2011, 04:10 PM
#25
Anything specific? I have the car on the hoist right now. So it is easy enough to get pictures. It might be a couple of days, but I can see what I can do. I know I will be able to when I get the shock back.
Stuck at work for a site power interruption for the weekend. But able to "work" on LS1Tech.
Stuck at work for a site power interruption for the weekend. But able to "work" on LS1Tech.
05-29-2011, 04:23 PM
#26
My car has had the rev limited at 5800 since I bought it. It comes to that way to fast. The plan with the F1A was about 10lbs at 6200. I was seeing about 8.5 at 5800.
The old setup with the D1SC would hit about 10.5lbs at 5800. I had the car on a dynojet last spring and it put down 566 rwhp and 525 rwtq.
The old setup with the D1SC would hit about 10.5lbs at 5800. I had the car on a dynojet last spring and it put down 566 rwhp and 525 rwtq.
Cool build and some nice numbers. I'll shoot you a PM with a price later in the day.
