Post by SeanW on Dec 19, 2017 5:59:56 GMT
Time for an update after too long without one. Probably going to be my last update to this thread, from here on out everything that I’m going to be working will be maintenance and upgrades. Basically, in my estimation, I’ve reached my build goal of having a turbocharged Exocet. Anything else that I do on the car I’ll post in new threads.
So with that in mind...let me kick off this last, somewhat lengthy, build-thread update.
The last update I made was about the rewiring project which is now, happily, done. The car is back up and driving. The gauge panel is installed unfortunately the majority of the gauges don’t work for reasons I’ve not been super interested in investigating because I’m going to redo all of that in the new year anyway. The import part is that the car is, after MONTHS on jack stands, driving again.
And making turbo noises! Here’s a short video of the first turbocharged drive in the car. I wasn’t out very long and only took it around the block. I had no gauges or tuning / logging going. I was just super punchy to drive it again after having spent so long without being able to.
Getting to this point was not entirely without issue, though. I’m new to tuning and had some significant issues trying to get the car back up and running after the rewire but not because I’d done anything wrong in the rewiring. Rather, I think that I fixed some electrical issues that were masking some other problems and...well...the short story is that the car’s tune was suddenly SUPER lean down around idle when the alternator was excited but just fine when the alternator wasn’t excited. Turns out that my tune was super wonky in two ways. First, my voltage correction and dead time on the injectors were wrong. (I’d made a best guess, Injector Dynamics hadn’t published the profile data for the 1050x injectors at the time I’d originally installed them.) Second, my VE’s down around idle were SUPER lean. Once I got that sorted out with the assistance of some guys from the FaceBook Exocet Owner’s Club the car was in a much happier place.
I celebrated this moment, and my relatively clean looking wiring job, with a glass of wine.
During the experience I learned that the 65amp alternator in my car was replaced with a 70amp alternator. Nice! That was something I’d thought about doing anyway!
After the first few runs around the block logging data and doing a little bit of tuning I discovered that the front sway bar end-links were dead. This was my fault, I’d installed them incorrectly the first time around and that lead to their extremely premature failure. Fortunately I had a set of solid sway bar end-links on the shelf waiting for whenever I got around to the full suspension rebuild that’s on the todo list. That got bumped up to a higher priority.
Over this last weekend I tapped a friend with a TIG machine and great skills to help me piece together the car’s exhaust. I loaded all of the pieces of the previous exhaust up into the cargo basket (which is still the most super practical accessory I’ve put on my Exocet) and headed up the peninsula to his place, 35 miles away. That was a nerve wracking drive since it’s the longest I’ve driven the car since rebuilding the head and installing the turbocharger. I was most concerned about water temps since the car seems to run hotter with the hood installed than without it. Temps bumped around 200-210 but otherwise seemed to be fine. I’m going to have to keep an eye on it going forward and need to consider wiring in the second cooling fan again.
The exhaust we put together is pretty straight forward, it’s essentially a 2.5” straight pipe from the down-pipe back with two inline resonators and leftward pointing down turn. It’s not subtle but it’s not obnoxiously loud either. I may end up installing a muffler on it still, I’ll need to throw a few more miles on the car before I know for sure.
Right now, I don’t know how much power the car is making but I’m going to guestimate it to be between 175-190 horsepower. There’s a lot more left in the car but if you were to ask me what my power goal is I simply don’t have an answer. I know that I want to run fourteen pounds of boost, whatever the car makes at that level is what the car makes at that level. What I do know is that at seven pounds I’m already roasting the clutch on hard pulls.
The next set of projects for the car, in no particular order, are...
- Clutch, flywheel replacement
- Transmission input/output shaft seal replacement
- Limited Slip differential installation
- CV axel replacements
- Boost controller installation
- Coil on plug kit installation
- Skunk2 coilover installation
- Poly bushing kit installation
- Floor mount pedal box installation
- Improved fender mount installation
So with that in mind...let me kick off this last, somewhat lengthy, build-thread update.
The last update I made was about the rewiring project which is now, happily, done. The car is back up and driving. The gauge panel is installed unfortunately the majority of the gauges don’t work for reasons I’ve not been super interested in investigating because I’m going to redo all of that in the new year anyway. The import part is that the car is, after MONTHS on jack stands, driving again.
And making turbo noises! Here’s a short video of the first turbocharged drive in the car. I wasn’t out very long and only took it around the block. I had no gauges or tuning / logging going. I was just super punchy to drive it again after having spent so long without being able to.
Getting to this point was not entirely without issue, though. I’m new to tuning and had some significant issues trying to get the car back up and running after the rewire but not because I’d done anything wrong in the rewiring. Rather, I think that I fixed some electrical issues that were masking some other problems and...well...the short story is that the car’s tune was suddenly SUPER lean down around idle when the alternator was excited but just fine when the alternator wasn’t excited. Turns out that my tune was super wonky in two ways. First, my voltage correction and dead time on the injectors were wrong. (I’d made a best guess, Injector Dynamics hadn’t published the profile data for the 1050x injectors at the time I’d originally installed them.) Second, my VE’s down around idle were SUPER lean. Once I got that sorted out with the assistance of some guys from the FaceBook Exocet Owner’s Club the car was in a much happier place.
I celebrated this moment, and my relatively clean looking wiring job, with a glass of wine.
During the experience I learned that the 65amp alternator in my car was replaced with a 70amp alternator. Nice! That was something I’d thought about doing anyway!
After the first few runs around the block logging data and doing a little bit of tuning I discovered that the front sway bar end-links were dead. This was my fault, I’d installed them incorrectly the first time around and that lead to their extremely premature failure. Fortunately I had a set of solid sway bar end-links on the shelf waiting for whenever I got around to the full suspension rebuild that’s on the todo list. That got bumped up to a higher priority.
Over this last weekend I tapped a friend with a TIG machine and great skills to help me piece together the car’s exhaust. I loaded all of the pieces of the previous exhaust up into the cargo basket (which is still the most super practical accessory I’ve put on my Exocet) and headed up the peninsula to his place, 35 miles away. That was a nerve wracking drive since it’s the longest I’ve driven the car since rebuilding the head and installing the turbocharger. I was most concerned about water temps since the car seems to run hotter with the hood installed than without it. Temps bumped around 200-210 but otherwise seemed to be fine. I’m going to have to keep an eye on it going forward and need to consider wiring in the second cooling fan again.
The exhaust we put together is pretty straight forward, it’s essentially a 2.5” straight pipe from the down-pipe back with two inline resonators and leftward pointing down turn. It’s not subtle but it’s not obnoxiously loud either. I may end up installing a muffler on it still, I’ll need to throw a few more miles on the car before I know for sure.
Right now, I don’t know how much power the car is making but I’m going to guestimate it to be between 175-190 horsepower. There’s a lot more left in the car but if you were to ask me what my power goal is I simply don’t have an answer. I know that I want to run fourteen pounds of boost, whatever the car makes at that level is what the car makes at that level. What I do know is that at seven pounds I’m already roasting the clutch on hard pulls.
The next set of projects for the car, in no particular order, are...
- Clutch, flywheel replacement
- Transmission input/output shaft seal replacement
- Limited Slip differential installation
- CV axel replacements
- Boost controller installation
- Coil on plug kit installation
- Skunk2 coilover installation
- Poly bushing kit installation
- Floor mount pedal box installation
- Improved fender mount installation
