ecotec swap

its possible. when i first tried to get this thing running with the microtech the timing was way off and i had it kick back on the starter a couple times. cant say that caused it, but i know it sure didnt help it.

managed to get it back together tonight after work. at least 98% together. still got a few things to button up.

here is the carnage

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got the car finished off last saturday. so much nicer to drive with the slightly heavier flywheel and rubber engine mount bushings. im never going with a real light flywheel again unless its a track only car. ive got a fidanza in my cobalt as well, if i ever have the transmission back out im putting a stock flywheel back in it.

so i almost got to drive it for a whole week. yesterday i started hearing some noise from the fuel pump at times. had 1/4 tank, started thinking maybe the gauge reads wrong and it was sucking air on corners so i filled the car up. well on my way home from work yesterday it went dead lean under boost, managed to make it home but the pump is now chewing itself to bits. roughly 800km on that fuel pump. its an AEM 380 lph, its their version of a bosch 044.

so now im trying to get a real bosch 044 pump. was hoping i could get one local, no luck so far. guess itll be down for another couple weeks.

had a productive weekend working on the car. i finally identified the slight front end vibration i had at highway speeds, i found some play in one of the ball joints. i picked up the rennbay kit to take care of it, and while i was at it got a set of mono ball control arm bushings.

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when i took everything apart i discovered the front control arm bushings were toast as well, so its good i ordered the mono balls. the front end is so much tighter now. im starting to think about rebuilding the rear suspension

i also got another project completed. back when i was starting to build the car i picked up a solid transmission mount. it was great for getting everything set up but i didnt like the fact the engine could move in its rubber mounts but the transmission was solid, makes for lots of stress on the torque tube. i ended up putting the stocker back in for the time being. i decided that instead of spending $300 on the lindsay racing ultra mount i could get $20 worth of rubber bushings and machine the solid mount myself. end result, cant tell the difference between the 2.

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my next big upgrade showed up today.

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i havent broken the 5S thats in my car, but i feel thats coming. cars only making 2.5x the horsepower it did stock. this transmission has the tall 5th gear swap done, being a 4 cyl with aftermarket cams, thats just not going to work. i tracked down a short 5th gear set, and i also have the reinforcement plate coming.

went for a cruise tonight, took some video

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been slowly working on the car again. i have an aor transaxle all rebuilt ready to go in (see the thread "aor rebuild with pics" in the transmission/clutch section) and right now im back to working on my braking issues.

i decided to go with a dual master cylinder setup. ive got a bracket fabricated, pushrod machined, and everything is powdercoated, all ready for me to assemble.

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I picked up Lemming's old DMC brake setup - Are you going to keep the stock location for the brake clevis? I saw on the other thread that you initially had it 3/4" up, but later went back to the stock location. Did you find an advantage in either?

i had moved the pivot location up on the pedal for use with the tandem master cylinder, however im going to go back to the stock hole. the wilwood mount compounds the pedal ratio, it has a 1.48:1 lever ratio built into it, combined with the stock 4.25:1 gives a total of 6.29. i did actually find out that the tilton setups were 1:1 ratio, hence why people are changing the location on the pedal.

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all installed, aside from the reservoirs, they are just loosely sitting there. im going to try and get some black hose for them, i dont know why companies even make red hose, it looks terrible anywhere. i also decided to make a firewall brace from the bracket to the strut tower using an old power steering/alternator adjuster to help keep things from flexing and cracking.

ive finished up the master cylinders a while back, been driving the car for a few weeks now. brakes are not too bad now, still room for improvement though. i think i need to drop each master cylinder one size (5/8 and 15/16) to get it better. im running a real high pedal ratio now (around 7.8:1) and it stops alright, although i worry about the firewall, even with a brace to the strut tower.

so far its been driving ok, aside from some fueling issues. shortly after i originally put the car on the road last year i had a fuel pump failure, or so i thought. i was running an aem 380lph pump, basicly a higher output version of the bosche 044. i started getting the same fuel pump squealing noise with a genuine 044, along with going lean under boost. i opened my billet fuel filter up to have a look, only to find it doesnt actually have a cartridge in it, just a round disc under 1" in diameter. it had some trash in it, so i cleaned it and problem solved. i ended up putting a different filter on, its from performance world, and its basicly a knock off of an aeromotive filter. its got a large cartridge, fuel flow is no longer an issue.

it appears the fueling restriction has been an issue since day one as after the filter upgrade the engine is going dead rich under boost now, talking in the range 10.0:1, and it just starts misfiring. im guessing when it was tuned the fuel flow wouldnt keep up under boost and as a result fuel pressure wasnt increasing as it should. as a result the fuel map was richened to make up for it. now that i think back, i remember my fuel pressure gauge bouncing when it was on the dynos, i figured it was just because it was a non liquid filled gauge.

so long story short, the car goes back on the dyno friday. likely will tune it for high boost, just wont be able to run it on high boost on the street till i get the transmission swapped (at least not unless i want a tow bill).

well, dyno didnt go quite as planned.

its been having a bit of a misfire above 5200rpm, i was expecting that was because how rich it was getting. turns out that its not a rich misfire, the crank signal starts fluttering above 5200. you can watch the logs and it steadily climbs to around 5200, next will be 5280, then 5220, then 5380, etc. sometimes itll clear up after it happens, however when you feel the power drop the first instinct is to lift. i tried tightening up the air gap on the sensor and it made no difference. it does it the exact same rpm every time, nothing changed after a 45 minute cool down. we are going to try another crank sensor, however i have to track one down first. im using one supplied with the ecu from microtech, its just a bosch sensor but i dont know the interchange.

we had another issue with the idle control circuit, ive had it a few times go wide open on me a couple times. it did this again today during idle down after a pull. with the symptoms im having, along with a ground problem i had during the first dyno session last year (brand new piece of 4 gauge ground cable had high resistance, was corroded in the middle of a section) that cause all sorts of issues, my tuner thinks the ecu may be damaged. if thats the case ill have to send it back to australia for repairs, and thatll be the end of my summer.

interesting build ! i had some problems also with wiring when i moded my truck engine harness to fit my 944 good luck and dont let off this is a piece of art !

Great job on that brake set up!! do you have any photos of how it all attaches to that bracket you made?

matty89 wrote:interesting build ! i had some problems also with wiring when i moded my truck engine harness to fit my 944 good luck and dont let off this is a piece of art !

thanks

ive cut down ls engine harnesses before, its quite a lot of work. with this build every piece of wiring for the engine in all new, the only wiring from the car that attaches to the engine harness is the key on power from the ignition switch, the tach signal wire and oil pressure and coolant sensor for the dash. with a high strung turbo engine a wiring glitch is the last thing you want.

i took the ecm out and it was rattling, so i decided to open it up. a diode on the board burned up, getting hot enough to melt the solder and fall off the board. im guessing when i had the grounding issue it tried to find another ground, and that ground was something in the crank sensor circuit. im hoping it can be repaired, however with it being a surface mount electronic board its multi layers, and i cant trace that circuit meaning its between layers. if it burned that trace up inside the board its likely unrepairable and ill have to buy a new ecm.

577nitro wrote:Great job on that brake set up!! do you have any photos of how it all attaches to that bracket you made?

i think i posted all the pics of the master cylinder setup i have, however feel free to flip through my google album i have in my signature, there might be some more. the wilwood piece just bolts to the bracket with 4 bolts, and the bracket bolts to the firewall like the factory bowl.

Ok, great, I'll see if I can figure it out..Thanks

was uploading some pics, figure id share a pic of the ecm

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you can see the burnt diode sitting on the top of the white connector, its supposed to go in the "d17" spot. looking closely it appears it may have heated the board up a bit. my tuner was going to talk to microtech and tell them exactly what happened. basicly waiting for the "yes send it itll be no issue to repair" or the "its likely damaged worse than first meets the eye and it wont be a reliable computer even when fixed so you need a new one".

in the mean time im still fiddling around with it. i decided it was time to fix a couple little things i never sorted out, like the washer fluid tank. when i started the swap the washer tank was the first to go because the massive blob was in the way of the intercooler and charge pipes. washer fluid is one of those things you dont know how much you miss till you dont have it. i recently discovered that 88-91 cars have a smaller tank, however at $100 for a questionable condition tank off ebay i figured id come up with something cheaper. for $10 i picked this little tank up at the local wrecking yard

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its from a hyundai accent. came complete with 2 pumps even. it should have no problem fitting behind the bumper on the passenger side, and the neck is 1.5" diameter so if needed i can cut the neck and do what i want with it. i also modded the factory 944 high pressure pump for the headlight sprayers with a bushing to allow it to fit into the new tank.

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sharkey,

incredible build and reading with interest.

have been struggling with my 91 964 for last few years then finally got it fully sorted and ready for pca track events and other track days. i don't race but enjoy pushing the car in controlled environments.

sold two 944s (turbo and n/a) recently and currently have e46m3 and 335diesel as the grocery getters..

hope you are in good health and will keep us posted on your build and activities...

alex sol wrote:sharkey,

incredible build and reading with interest.

have been struggling with my 91 964 for last few years then finally got it fully sorted and ready for pca track events and other track days.  i don't race but enjoy pushing the car in controlled environments.

sold two 944s (turbo and n/a) recently and currently have e46m3 and 335diesel as the grocery getters..

hope you are in good health and will keep us posted on your build and activities...

i havent had much to update since my last post, the last thing i did to the car was put a toth composites n/a front splitter on, and then load the car into storage for the winter.

the ecm is finally on its way back from australia, but the bad news is the damaged circuit was only for the idle air control solenoid. now that explains the periodic 2400 rpm idle, but still doesnt explain the crank signal dropping out. microtech told me they think its emi (electromagnetic interference) thats causing it, i just have a real hard time believing that when the problem happens within 40 rpm every single time. ive ordered another crank sensor, going to see what happens but i may end up having to rewire the engine management.

The electronics - maf, ecu, wiring harness, are the things that concern me the most.

The mechanical stuff is second. making everything fit and working around the steering column, clearing the intake and exhaust manifold.

Looks like you have it mostly sorted!!

I have been reading up on the 1.8T motor from Audi A4 which i happen to also own... Motor Werks Racing have some done amazing work....

Fun stuff and thinking about next project... currently a renovation of a 2 storey semi in Toronto - much simpler than cars and more $$$ needed!

Merry Christmas all!!

time for a new years update

ecm is back from service finally, im eager to try that out and see if it fixed my issues or not. ive also picked up another crank sensor just incase. we pulled the car out of storage today and i have a hoist for the rest of the week, so im planning to tackle swapping in the transmission i built almost a year ago, get my splitter properly mounted, and get it running again.

my mechanic is a toyota trained tech and he once told me he pulled his hair out diagnosing idle and non runnning issues. Was due to non working crank position sensor. it had been changed out with two oem brand new and both were faulty. finally got to the third one and bam... problems solved... hope that helps... lesson: cannot rely on 'OEM' brand new sensors due to quality and short cuts in manufacturing etc etc... i've had similar experience with bosch products...

one step forward, 8 steps back. got the car running again, that all went pretty smooth. ecm still had the tune loaded in it so it fired up like it always does. i swapped transmissions out, everything went great till it came to run it. initially it was fine, ran through the gears ok, then i started to hear a squeak noise with the clutch out. shut it down, checked everything over and couldnt see anything, topped the oil up and tried it again. had the same squeak for a couple seconds followed with a loud bang that stalled the motor. after some looking, and fighting to get the drive coupler undone, it appears something in the trans broke and locked it up.

guess tomorrow i get to pull it back out and apart.

dam sad to hear.. only silver lining is that it didn't happen on your way to Whistler in middle of snow storm.. are you running stock 944 trans with how many kms? can the stock handle the power or require serious upgrades?

I am sorry you had the setback. I hope you can find a way to re-energize and keep up your motivation. I enjoy following your progress.