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Install of TorqHead Ltd. 24x System (Project Tilikum)
Hey everyone!,
Wanted to make a running thread of my install of this system since alot of us want to move away from the dreaded opti and there not being alot of options out there to do so. Well here is another one! Let me start with a brief reason as to why I went this route.
So two years ago I had a blown head gasket on my LT1 Procharged Vette. I decided to go 383 and did away with the old p600b and add a D1SC to the mix spent alot of time and money into getting the car finished and dialed in and just have never been 100% happy with the efficacy and HP of the car. Without guessing and not having really strong reliability in tuning and tuners I was out looking at other options in order to get Project Tilikum done. I don't remember exactly how but I stumbled upon TorqHead Ltd and have been waiting for over a year for them to come out with something for the C4 Corvette, (my year 95) that would be the icing on my supercharged cake!
That brings us to this post. So so far I have everything sitting in a box ready to get put on but I am just waiting until I get some time to actually proceed on this project. I am hoping at the end of the month or starting in February. Though what I have done is uploaded an unboxing video for those who are interested in undertaking this project themselves what they can expect to receive in the box and the quality of product that is coming from this company. There are other options such as LTCC I believe and Efi Connection that offer something similar but the main difference is that with this kit you would have an LS PCM brain and LS Coil system that future proofs your C4 without needing to pull the wiring harness. More detailed information can be found at their site but I will start with my unboxing video and be on the look out as I post more videos about my build and the utilization of this system, thanks!
Second: start taking everything off in the way in order to get down to the Harmonic Balancer. In my case for Tilly we have a custom intercooler set-up plus A/C Condenser and Radiator but all were able to come out within minutes. You will also need to take off belts, possibly pulleys, and water pump. If you need help with these please use the search function. Stock set-ups you may feel that you have enough room to get down without removing all of the radiator shrouds and radiator but I will leave that up to you. The rest of the more imperative things to remove are next.
Now that you have removed intake coupler, and radiator hoses, you will want to start to remove the water pump, belts, and anything else that will be in your way down to the Harmonic Balancer. For me I had quite a bit in the way, I even had to take some things off the Supercharger bracket and a custom power steering pulley just to get the water pump out. Hopefully you won’t have to deal with all of that. Though after this step you should be ready to pull the Harmonic Balancer.
For my application I rented and modified a puller to pull my balancer and hub. Pretty simple but if you are running a stock balancer and hub then it should be even easier.
After the hub is off the Optispark is a simple removal by disconnecting all wires and hoses and then removing the three bolts that hold it on.
You can then place the Opti in trash or plan for resale ��
Comparison of Opti vs Torqhead 24x Signal Unit
At this point based on where yours is located you can remove the coil and bracket. Keep all the Opti and coil wires together though, I would tape them together and keep on top of the engine. You will be using a coil adapter for the wires and everything else will be taped up and or not used.
Before we address anything on top which is where I feel most of this kit rests, lets start at the more challenging part of the install and work our way to the top.
At this point all the major things are removed off the front of the engine. Now all we must do is start installing the kit. Starting with putting the new Torqhead 24x Signal Unit.
Third, Installation:
Before we can install we need to understand what type of Opti you have. If you have an earlier C4 Corvette you will have to know the difference with alignment. The Torqhead manual clear states how to install each one. Since Tilikum is a later year all we had to do was align the dowel pin to the hole on the New 24x Sensing Unit and press it on the engine. A couple pops going over the O-rings and it was on, then all we needed to do was install the 3 bolts to hold It on and torque to 106 in lbs.
After the sensing unit was installed we then could start on the reinstallation of the new Torqhead 24x hub.
For my application I used the $20 installation tool. Not sure what they call it but basically a rod, washers, and nut. If you have one of these great! If not please ask and I can put the details below in the comments on what I did to make this, it worked great and should last for several years!
Take your time on the Hub install, you don’t want to damage the teeth of the reluctor wheel so do check as you are pressing it back on that everything is going on correctly.
Adjustment and Alignment:
The hard part in my opinion is over! So now that the Torqhead 24x hub and sensing unit are on the car we need to align the crank sensor.
Basically there are two allen head screws that hold the plate down, the plate as I will call it is what the crank sensor mounts to. You will make two adjustments one is the travel of the plate forwards and backwards in which you will use the alignment tool that is provided in the kit to achieve center of the reluctor wheel and the sensor. Second, you will add spacers to achieve the proper distance from the sensor to the reluctor wheel with the feeler gauge. This is all laid out very simplistically in the installation manual so I won’t go into much more detail than this but you should get the idea.
I had a few issues with mine since I am running an ATI 6+8 Harmonic Balancer where we had to one shave the plate and even a connector to get the crank sensor to fit just right, as well as I did have to modify the tool a little bit to fit over the teeth of the reluctor wheel. Torqhead knows of the issues I had so since once again mine is custom and there’s only a handful of people who may even run into those same problems, Torqhead has knowledge of them and has it figured out.
After the alignment procedure is done you can test fit all the connectors and get a little more idea of how the wiring will run. I ran the three sensor wires, crank, cam, and coil connector down the drivers side of the intake and engine.
Now that we are going to be working on the top side of the engine with the kit, you can see that there is very few connections that need to be made.
The harness you receive will have the following;
1. Connector to the center of the new PCM
2. Connectors to the left and right bank coils
3. Crank Sensor Connector
4. Cam Sensor Connector
5. ICM Connector
Then that’s it!
(Visual of the Torqhead Harness)
PCM Install:
Really you can start anywhere at this point, but I started at the PCM
It is really simple but also will allow you to get an idea of how you will want to route the harness.
When you get the PCM out of the box attach the side bracket to it with the two allen bolts and then you will want to purchase a bolt, rubber Gromit, and two washers so that you can mount in the old LT1 PCM location.
Switching from the old LT1 PCM to the new Torqhead PCM unit is a breeze, basically you will undo the 4 weatherpack connectors on the back and move them to the new unit. Hook up the Torqhead harness to the connection in the middle of the new PCM and then slide and bolt it into place. I would personally leave it unbolted for the time being since it may need to be moved more than once.
Comparison of the Old and New!
Coil Packs Install:
Next up is connecting the Coil packs to the car and connecting them to the harness.
If you have the Torqhead Mounting bracket that attached to the top of the intake this is a 2 minute install, if not it should still be easy but you will need to mount to the valve covers.
The Torqhead Mounting bracket for intake is one piece and comes complete and ready to install out of the box. You will need to loosen the 4 bolts on top of the intake so that you will be able to slide the bracket into place. Basically, the front bolts slide and lock into place while the back just slide into the two groves, don’t worry this will all make sense when you get there. After you get the bracket in place I would wait on tightening down the bolts since if you have the fuel rail covers those will also utilize the same 4 bolts and they will need to be slid into place before tightening down.
After the bracket is in place just make the connection backside with the matching tags on the harness. So 2,4,6,8 and 2,4,6,8 will go together and 1,3,5,7 goes with 1,3,5,7, etc. Also at this point check and confirm all color wires are matching as well.
Crank and Cam Connections:
From here you can now connect if you haven’t done so already the Crank and Cam sensors to the Torqhead Sensing unit. The way I did this was run the wires through one of the arms of the water pump. You may encounter this being the easiest way to do it since you may struggle to get them on after you install the water pump. Either way just confirm that you have them connected correctly in the corresponding sensors and you should be good to go.
ICM Connection:
Then the final top side connection is dealing with the looping of the ICM. I had to go custom on this part so what I did will not be much help unless you are running a CDI box. Though basically there is a connector that comes in the kit and you will see that it will connect to the stock coil connector basically sending the signal back to the pcm. After you do that there is a harness connector as well that will need to be connected to the wire from the car that went to the ICM. After you connect those two pieces you are done.
The last thing you will need to do is put everything back on and get the car tuned. I am currently still in this phase but have been extremely happy with the project so far. The Torqhead kit isn’t hard and really wouldn’t take someone with a stock LT1 car more than a weekend to do. I would say if you are doing this kit I would recommend replacing seals etc if you haven’t while you are down there. I replaced the rack and pinion and got it rebuilt which also added to my time as well as upgraded my bushings to polyurethane as well.
More updates coming soon! I will also be adding a install video on TilikumC4Vette on Youtube, so be sure to subscribe if you haven't already, Thanks!
Btw here's the old!
Last edited by luckydekko; 06-24-2018 at 11:12 PM.
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Thx for sharing this with us. I had to check the TorqHead w/s and the pricing is reasonable IMHO. And the external signal kits are a nice option for service and access.
Thank you for doing this.
I think that this is a direction that a number of us are going to be interested in. They supposedly now have the harness all set for the 94-96 vettes.
was it an oem new old stock (with mtsubishi sensor?)
anyways, im happy this is available as i hope it will be an alternative should it become impossible to find a NOS optispark
My opti isnt bad, I have one of the Delphis starting with CZ which when taken apart by someone on the Camaro forums said it had a Mitsubishi in it. I also have a Crane Cams Hi-Ball, the problems I ran into was finding someone to tune the thing. There was only one person around me who could tune it and even then struggled to get the car tuned reliably.
Now if they develop something for the L98 as well, it will be interesting. PnP so you can dump in an LS motor and get rid of the L98 would allow for much easier tuning than hearing "We don't tune that old stuff anymore".
Now if they develop something for the L98 as well, it will be interesting. PnP so you can dump in an LS motor and get rid of the L98 would allow for much easier tuning than hearing "We don't tune that old stuff anymore".
The problem is the cost to develop and test vs. the very limited sales. If you can pass it off as an OBDI car with a smog check and done fine if it has to become OBDII then that interface needs to be added with all the related sensors error codes etc. Or you can be lucky and the one thing CT has going for it and possibly the only thing is after 25 years there is no smog check of any kind. I don't have to even show up and give them the fee for doing nothing. My registration only offers V8 and gasoline so no give away there. If you discount and eliminate vats and the CCM there are plenty of good though not cheap ECMs that will run an LSX of any sort or most anything else for that matter. Anything under 2.5k is probably going to not be really up to the task in every way. I think the first step is to decide what you can live without. Whatever choice you pick lose the one that there is a self learning ECM for much more than a bone stock engine.
Well with this kit, you retain all CCM functions. Basically, it will work like a stock car. They re-pinned the computers to allow the 94-96 to simply connect to it.
The problem is the cost to develop and test vs. the very limited sales. If you can pass it off as an OBDI car with a smog check and done fine if it has to become OBDII then that interface needs to be added with all the related sensors error codes etc. Or you can be lucky and the one thing CT has going for it and possibly the only thing is after 25 years there is no smog check of any kind. I don't have to even show up and give them the fee for doing nothing. My registration only offers V8 and gasoline so no give away there.
If you discount and eliminate vats and the CCM there are plenty of good though not cheap ECMs that will run an LSX of any sort or most anything else for that matter. Anything under 2.5k is probably going to not be really up to the task in every way. I think the first step is to decide what you can live without.
Whatever choice you pick lose the one that there is a self learning ECM for much more than a bone stock engine.
Supposedly they are looking into an L98 to LS conversion option where everything works BUT that isn't now so who knows if and when it gets done.
My under, which is standing, is that it is going to take a bunch of rewiring if you want things to work the way they used to and that includes your ABS and whatever else the CCM does. IDK about you but I'm not the discounting sort where I would have to lose my FX3 that I spent money getting to make work, my ABS and whatever the CCM can control. Kinda why I dumped the LS idea and decided that when the motor fails, I'm getting a C5. The cool thing is you can easily get tuning for LS motors and not hear the "Oh. We stopped doing that old stuff a while ago.".
I am kinda split on that one. I don't know if the self learning ones are as good as having it tuned. IOW, run it for say 100 miles, strap it to a dyno and get the numbers. After which you run a perfectly dialed in one and see who's got what. I agree they have come a long way but does self learning get you there or does it get you mostly there?
Well with this kit, you retain all CCM functions. Basically, it will work like a stock car. They re-pinned the computers to allow the 94-96 to simply connect to it.
Know anyone who has done it so I don't have to just read the headlines with the fine print saying "but not under certain circumcisions."?
If they can get it working with the L98 I could see the LS swap being more enticing.
I don't think its worth the hassle to develop this system for an l98 car with the intention of making it easy to swap to an ls engine, but it probably would be worth it to up grade from batch fire to sequential injection.
I don't think its worth the hassle to develop this system for an l98 car with the intention of making it easy to swap to an ls engine, but it probably would be worth it to up grade from batch fire to sequential injection.
You think there is that much benefit with sequential over batch to justify the cost? Not trying to argue, just wondering your opinion.
You think there is that much benefit with sequential over batch to justify the cost? Not trying to argue, just wondering your opinion.
Depends. If you are happy with the antiquated system and will not make changes, you are right. It won't justify the cost. OTOH, if you told me that I can PnP a LS system in to make sure that tuning isn't an issue, that would be interesting, depending on the pricing. If you say that I must lose all my stuff and rewire the whole thing vs a PnP system for say $2000, I'd drop the $2000 and consider it well worth my time.
01-14-2018, 12:52 PM
Install of TorqHead Ltd. 24x System (Project Tilikum)
