It is. I've been distracted working in the blazer 1 ton swap for the last little bit, but it's still alive. I have an event the end of March, but this summer I'm hoping to start work on a ttb swap for it to get a bunch more travel in the front end.
CK5
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Pigeon-Rat - Opel gambler build
- Thread starter ashman
- Start date
1966 Opel rekord mounted to 1990 Nissan pathfinder.
This weekend I'm going to a gambler500 event in southern Utah (and Fullsize Invasion right after), so I was test driving pigeonrat to make sure it was running ok. When I was racing last Fall I blew a heater hose and overheated it pretty bad. Well, evidently, I also managed to cook the thermostat. During the test drive it overheated again while the lower radiator hose was completely cool. As soon as I got stopped, I noticed it started blowing a lot of white vapor out the exhaust. Dammit, blown head gasket.
I tore it all down last night. I'm hoping to get it back together again in time for the event this weekend.
After inspecting the gaskets, I'm pretty sure I can see where it failed.
inspecting the cylinders shows the same 3 looking like they were steam cleaned.
Obviously I'm not thrilled about having to do an emergency head gasket change, but while at it, I found another issue:
The timing belt has slipped. 1 tooth off on the right, and 4 teeth off on the left. I'm not sure if it also slipped on the crankshaft, but regardless, there is a good chance this is why I've been having so much trouble getting this thing running right.
I bought a new tensioner and belt to go along with my new thermostat (and water pump) and head gaskets, so hopefully I've solved a couple of long-standing issues here.
I think I can get it all put back together tonight after work. I sure hope I didn't warp the heads...
I tore it all down last night. I'm hoping to get it back together again in time for the event this weekend.
After inspecting the gaskets, I'm pretty sure I can see where it failed.
inspecting the cylinders shows the same 3 looking like they were steam cleaned.
Obviously I'm not thrilled about having to do an emergency head gasket change, but while at it, I found another issue:
The timing belt has slipped. 1 tooth off on the right, and 4 teeth off on the left. I'm not sure if it also slipped on the crankshaft, but regardless, there is a good chance this is why I've been having so much trouble getting this thing running right.
I bought a new tensioner and belt to go along with my new thermostat (and water pump) and head gaskets, so hopefully I've solved a couple of long-standing issues here.
I think I can get it all put back together tonight after work. I sure hope I didn't warp the heads...
Wow. That would definitely cause a lot of your issues. Blessing in disguise with the blown head gaskets?
I am guessing that a warped head would not do that in those directions. Bad head gasket, too much boost plus some heat would do that. I would put a straight edge on them and look at them and then call it good.
I'm not familar w/ having the belt marks be the master of the timing like that. Interesting concept
I don't have time for anything else, so I sure hope you are right. I'm putting it back together tonight.
There are marks on the front of the engine that you are supposed to line up as well, but the marks on the belt really make it a lot easier to know you are on the right spot. There wasn't any sign of the valves contacting the pistons, luckily, so it could have been a whole lot worse.
I'm the one that built the engine, so I know for certain that the marks were dead on when I built it. I'm not sure what happened, but I bought a new tensioner and I'm going to be very thorough on the tightening procedure.
Well, I got it all put back together in time!
She's running again, and doesn't appear to be overheating or leaking coolant into the cylinders, so I guess that means the heads weren't warped.
Unfortunately, no giant improvements in performance, so the belt being a little off evidently wasn't the cause of all my issues. /sigh
Anyway, since she's running, I loaded Pigeonrat and BYT up on the trailer to head to Sand Hollow, Utah for Desert Freakshow gambler500 event, and Fullsize Invasion right after.
I hope everything goes smoothly this trip. I need an uneventful... um, event, for a change.
She's running again, and doesn't appear to be overheating or leaking coolant into the cylinders, so I guess that means the heads weren't warped.
Unfortunately, no giant improvements in performance, so the belt being a little off evidently wasn't the cause of all my issues. /sigh
Anyway, since she's running, I loaded Pigeonrat and BYT up on the trailer to head to Sand Hollow, Utah for Desert Freakshow gambler500 event, and Fullsize Invasion right after.
I hope everything goes smoothly this trip. I need an uneventful... um, event, for a change.
It's been a long time since I updated this thread, so here goes.
On the trip mentioned above I ran into yet another issue related to the wiring harness. I managed to figure that out once I got it home (a wire got kicked loose in the passenger foot well) but it still runs like crap.
I've come to the conclusion that I have issues in the wiring harness itself, and not being able to tune or really read anything useful from the nissan ecu is not helping either.
With that in mind, I decided one last hail mary would be a new ecu and wiring harness.
I found a guy who builds megasquirt ECUs and harnesses for the vg33.
In addition to being fully tunable, I'm going to be using wide band O2 sensors, and LS style coils for better control.
With the coil over plug design, I modified the distributor as it's only used as a crank position sensor now.
I'm excited to be back working on this thing and hopefully I'll have it running good finally.
On the trip mentioned above I ran into yet another issue related to the wiring harness. I managed to figure that out once I got it home (a wire got kicked loose in the passenger foot well) but it still runs like crap.
I've come to the conclusion that I have issues in the wiring harness itself, and not being able to tune or really read anything useful from the nissan ecu is not helping either.
With that in mind, I decided one last hail mary would be a new ecu and wiring harness.
I found a guy who builds megasquirt ECUs and harnesses for the vg33.
In addition to being fully tunable, I'm going to be using wide band O2 sensors, and LS style coils for better control.
With the coil over plug design, I modified the distributor as it's only used as a crank position sensor now.
I'm excited to be back working on this thing and hopefully I'll have it running good finally.
Another modification is switching from MAF to MAP and IAT sensors.
Since I'm running a supercharger, where should I put the new sensors?
I'm thinking that it makes the most sense to put them "after" the supercharger. That will give me the best readings of what pressure and temp the air going into the cylinders actually is, right?
Right on the back of the supercharger bottom are a couple of bolt holes. Probably was a bracket there at some point, but I'm thinking of drilling them out and installing at least the MAP sensor there. (I don't think there is room for both right next to each other)
Any thoughts?
Since I'm running a supercharger, where should I put the new sensors?
I'm thinking that it makes the most sense to put them "after" the supercharger. That will give me the best readings of what pressure and temp the air going into the cylinders actually is, right?
Right on the back of the supercharger bottom are a couple of bolt holes. Probably was a bracket there at some point, but I'm thinking of drilling them out and installing at least the MAP sensor there. (I don't think there is room for both right next to each other)
Any thoughts?
IAT is usually always for the air coming into the engine but on the diesels I'm used to working some have it right after the air filter and some have it in the intake manifold. Usually if it's in the manifold then it's MAT(manifold air temp) obviously. MAP you would definitely want to be reading boost.
I have been wondering on what was going on with it. Still no ttb?
Unfortunately no. I have 2 TTB axles sitting in my shop, but with it not running right, I haven't messed with the suspension.
I can see how that makes sense. I'm going to do a bit more reading to try and be sure, but I think you are right.
My old 7.3 super duty has 2 temp sensors on it. One in the air box. One in the Spyder before it goes onto the engine. Which is also the same location as the map sensor.
I just read this in the megasquirt documentation:
The fact that the ECU calls it manifold air temp, and that turbo applications cause the temp to change too quickly for "closed-element" sensors, leads me to believe that I should be installing it after the supercharger.
Anyone read that differently?
The fact that the ECU calls it manifold air temp, and that turbo applications cause the temp to change too quickly for "closed-element" sensors, leads me to believe that I should be installing it after the supercharger.
Anyone read that differently?
I'd say open element after the supercharger.
If I have a vote.
That's how my truck is setup. And the temp swings being read properly are going to be important for fuel and timing to be correct. But I'm just a guy on the Internet
If I have a vote.
That's how my truck is setup. And the temp swings being read properly are going to be important for fuel and timing to be correct. But I'm just a guy on the Internet
That reminds me of a meme I saw recently. Basically it said, whenever giving your buddy advice on how to fix his vehicle, be sure to say "but I dunno though" at the end, just in case everything goes horribly wrong.But I'm just a guy on the Internet
I'd definitely agree. Open element after the supercharger.
I just got a reply back from the harness builder, and yes, after the charger is correct.
Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to make that happen...
Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to make that happen...
All of my supercharged V6 builds had GM open-element thermistor in the intake manifold (post charger), which is the same setup they had in the factory configuration. Lots of heat from the compression and if you don't account for it fueling will be way off. Likewise, the MAP sensor goes to the manifold.
Got a couple holes drilled and taped for the IAT and MAP sensors.
1/8 npt and 3/8 npt. Luckily I already had the taps on hand.
