schpenxel

Was that issue on one of the recessed bolts on the bracket? I finally found the skinniest socket I had, which fit, but just barely

I thought new instructions would be out by now.. gah.

One thing I would say is on all of your clamps, try to place them in an orientation so you could get to them as easily as possible if you do ever need to get to them again.. if you leave them rotated right you can get to all of them with everything still assembled.

Looking good though!

I'm hoping you get to your meth install before me so I can copy your install

nullpointer

Yep, the bracket that attached to the head would 110% not fit a socket. I ground down the outside of a craftmans socket and it still wouldn't fit. The three bolt holes needed to be worked, biggest PITA was the small bolt at the bottom. Also no torque specs at all, disappointing as I don't like to guess how tight I *think* it should be.


I was hoping too

Thanks! Great idea, I will def do that

LOL I'll watch out and if I see I am first I will make sure to take lots of pictures

neutron82

you need a thin wall socket for the bracket that bolts to the head but I guess you are past that now

nullpointer

Yep - Would have been great to have that mentioned in the instructions.
I assumed the powder coating was the issue with space.

"Attach s/c bracket to engine using supplied bolts & 2.460 spacers & stock tensioner bolts, tighten all four bolts"

nullpointer

Little bit of work this morning.

Test fit the restrictor plate (without the screws)



Installed rad support, radiator, intercooler



Had to manipulate the AC lines to get it to fit. The area right next to the blower is very tight, the one ground (IIRC) was getting lifted by the AC line so I had to relieve some pressure.

Next up I will get some new coolant hoses, cut and install. Then onto the piping from blower to intercooler, intercooler to intake. Intercooler is very loose right now, may have to adjust the tial so it doesn't rub on the rad support.

bad man Barry White

Very Nice attention to detail! Did the ARP head studs bottom out or do you set them to a pre-determined height? Just curious.

nullpointer

Thanks I bottomed them out, instructions say to just make them hand tight. I chased the threads and were able to bottom them out by hand on 75% of the holes.

nullpointer

Trimmed the cradle for the intercooler piping, hoping this is enough based on the pictures from the instructions.



Tightened up the bracket for the intercooler and then reinstalled. The mounts did not line up with the intercooler, off by about 1/8" so I had to help them move over. Its these little things that I thought I wouldn't have to do with such a well known kit. Oh well, all in the name of going faster

Nice spacing between intercooler and AC/Rad.



Tomorrow I will plumb the intercooler and install the rad covers, blower intake, etc. I may have to do some more trimming as the instructions are very light in this area, maybe I'll have more room once I get out there with the pipes.

schpenxel

Gettin'r done!

I'm FINALLY getting to a decent place tuning wise on mine and was able to get on it a bit tonight (had a false knock retard issue due to me screwing up some sensitivity tables). I've been avoiding boost since I installed mine, which has been quite difficult.

I got up to about 2psi tonight and man it was ridiculous. I thought I was really getting on it.. then looked back at the logs I recorded during that period and found I was giving it MAYBE 50% throttle. lol. My clutch is not going to last long if this is any indication of what this thing can do

Personally I love the power in 4th gear now.. even at lower RPM's it will push you back into the seat, but is still close to as quiet as a stock car (with bypass valve closed..), which is just great. It's so quiet it almost sounds stock.. but the slamming you in the seat feeling ain't stock

nullpointer

haha that's awesome gets me pumped for spring time. Once you have it all tuned I will REQUIRE a video as snow will be here for months still How far can you take the LS2 MAF (or are you ls3?). I'm going SD, MAP should be here Wednesday.

I made some progress today:

Front sway bar back in, and ducting from blower to intercooler installed. I had to cut 2 1/4" off the rubber tube so the piping didn't hang really low. Then I added a zip tie for good measure. I'm lowered so ground clearance is important, NY roads are terrible.





Then I moved on to modifying the radiator cover, and installing the brackets. PITA to say the least. I should have stopped and had a drink at this point, but I moved on. The radiator cover from the kit was next up, and the instructions said to lay in place. Well the hood hinges contacted the metal cover and it didn't sit flush on the frame. Going to have to call ECS about this as I don't want it just laying there with the cover holding it down.





That was it for today, here is a short list of what is left to complete before starting her up.

1. Install rear steam vents
2. Install intake
3. Install holley fuel rails + new injectors
4. Install 2 bar MAP
5. Weld IAT bung into intake pipe
6. Fluids
7. Measure and order pushrods
8. Threaten/promise Matt@FSP into getting me a base tune

schpenxel has me pumped for spring, I can't wait!!

schpenxel

Haha.. I had to do the same with Matt for the base tune, lol. I did finally get it though. Although I ended up starting from scratch.. it was a little more of a true "base" tune than I was hoping for. But.. I guess in his defense the car did start and was drivable on it.

Which injectors did your kit come with? Not sure which the C5 kits come with. Having decent injector data will make a world of difference and if it's the same as the C6 kits, I can show you what I've got. A LOT of the data out there is wrong.. even some of the numbers that are commonly used are really for different injectors than what comes with these kits.

Do you have a wideband?

nullpointer

I have a NGK AFX wideband with upgraded sensor. I didn't have proper injector data with my last build and it sucked. I got 60lb injectors with the ECS kit, although I am not sure on brand. Hoping they would have correct data available

schpenxel

One thing important to note about those is that a lot of people on the HP Tuners forum reference Greg Banish's DVD, which has data for A set of Ford 60# injectors. I'm sure his data is great for those injectors, HOWEVER, these are not the same injectors as my ECS kit came with, so data is not the same. There is also a sheet that DSteck created for some common injectors (converts Ford to GM data), but that sheet is also not for the same injectors. I did not realize this and kept trying to use those two sources of injector data and couldn't understand why what I was doing wasn't working.

If you can send me the part numbers actually printed on the injector I'll try to help with getting you the right data

If they're the same as mine I can give you what I have as soon as I'm done tuning it (or I can give you what I have now if you want). I've been fortunate enough to find a wonderful soul that is helping me with the tune. He has developed a system that will take injector / tune data + a log file and output new / adjusted injector/MAF data.

It's pretty neat and the last round of data I got from him seems to be quite good.. STFT's in the < 5% range.

Or if Matt gives you what he uses, I bet that'll work too.. I'm sure he knows what he's doing

realcanuk

I gotta believe that if you bought an ECS kit with injectors from ECS or Matt, that they would be happy to supply the proper data.

schpenxel

Quite possibly.

Matt was stupid busy at the time as it was right before the holidays, so I was trying to figure it out on my own at the time to get things moving. I had bugged the crap out of him during the install so I was trying to leave him alone, lol.

The base tune I got was setup basically as just maxed out the IFR table (E40=63lb/hr max) and a few changes to the offset vs. Volts/MAP table & short pulse adder was left stock, so I figured that was truly just something to get me to a tuner and not really great data I could use going forward

nullpointer

By the time the snow melts here Matt hopefully will have more time I think my radiator/condenser may need some adjusting as I just talked to Alex@ECS and the crosspiece I cut and added brackets to should hold the rad cover in place but doesn't fit right.

Also I purchased the BWD IAT sensor and pigtail but don't feel like ruining the powder coating on the pipe and dealing with the welders. That being said I have a ECS IAT relocation kit coming my way, just need to drill. If anyone wants that IAT sensor/pigtail for cheap let me know.

The injector #'s are 107961 E089A03291

Hoping to measure and order the pushrods within the next two weeks and start the car up the 31st or week after. Want to heat cycle the car after all the changes I made in case I have to tear it apart again (I really hope not ).

Oh I also have to go get a 4ft' level and some sort of square so I can calibrate the gates alignment tool. Fingers crossed it all lines up when I do.

schpenxel - I am all for more data so shoot it my way. I'll PM you my email

nullpointer

Some smaller updates:

I measured pushrod length as I switched to morel link bar lifters, came up with 7.250 with 0.03 preload. Going to see what 7.275 measures out to with preload as I can get those from BTR.

I looked around for a MAP sensor seal to fit my 2.5 bar MAP but no one local has them. I have a newer OEM MAP sensor I purchased last year and may take the seal off that one. Also I ordered a new brake booster line, it was original and decided it was time to change it. Trying to make the car as reliable as I can. ECS IAT kit showed up, going to get working on that soon.

Right now the 31st won't happen, too many little things to do but we are getting close.

The bolt on the blower pulley is not tight, do you torque that bolt? If so how much?

schpenxel

Blower pulley bolt was loose on mine too.. I found a torque spec once but it escapes me now. Something like 35 ft*lbs though if I remember correctly. I tightened it as best I could to begin with, then torqued it after I had the belt on. Belt will at least help hold it still

neutron82

use some blue loc-tite on the blower pulley and hit it for just a second with an impact and you should be fine... you can get the map sensor seals on ebay for like $10, gm does sell them separately and I had found the part # at one point but can't remember where haha

nullpointer

Thanks

The part # for the seal is 16194007 but everyone wants stupid money to ship a seal.

Just dropped the headers off at the shop to get the AIR tubes removed and filled in. Also I will have the **** flanges on the headers fixed, warped since I got them (XSPower).