beaterX project thread

[Kracka]

Looking great!

[awd-drifter]

wrinkle black looks good, especially in a black evo O_O!!

[scheides]

Good god it's been *months* since I've updated this thread. BeaterX has continued to be my daily driver, I've had some maintenance issues mostly that I've been dealing with but otherwise I've just been having fun with it day in and day out!

Just before Proving Grounds I discovered that *all* of my inner CV boots were leaking.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2574.sized.jpg

I cleaned off the clamps and look more closely and they were actually coming loose, allowing grease to slowly ooze out from the spinning force of the axle.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2662.sized.jpg

Instead of making a massive stink and hoping mitsu would take care of it, I found a small almost needle fitting for a standard grease gun, some cv grease, and some crimp-style clamps. The old ones came off super easy and the new ones were extremely easy to install with the proper clamping tool. Once the car was up in the air it was literally a 20 minute job.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2696.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2772.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2770.sized.jpg


The Saturday before Proving Grounds during a 3rd gear pull, the car began running like absolute garbage. MAF sensor was reading zero. $200 later I had a new one from Mitsu and the car was better but still a complete dog. I ripped the car half apart and could not figure out where this massive boost leak was coming from. Finally I popped off my cobb BOV and found this:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2681.sized.jpg

It was cracked open, stuck. I overnighted the valve to Cobb and they overnighted it back, freshly rebuilt with the latest-spec seals and parts. Remember, this BOV was worth a solid 16-20whp over my crushed stock valve, and it is smooth as hell on the street, so I *really* wanted to keep it on the car.

Backing up a second, when I was initially diagnosing the boost leak I was talking with Chris Carey @ MAP and he suggested an issue that *could* be showing up in some of their evox ef-series turbochargers with the wastegate. He offered me a replacement turbosmart WGA...I put both springs in it and put it on to no avail.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2672.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2673.sized.jpg

THEN I found the BOV issue and got the car back together literally Friday 5pm and headed up to Proving Grounds at Breinard International Raceway.

I had a crapload of fun, but I was having all kinds of problems making boost in various conditions...I was cutting 1.6 sec 60' times on the drag track but the car was only running 27psi or so and I'd run mid 12s at sub 120mph. Best runs I was able to get last year on the BBX was 11.6@123mph. Once I had boost on this setup holding 30psi (MBC cranked up) I cut a best of 11.8@124mph. I was very disappointed but moved on into the competition doing both autoX as well as drag in the stock appearing class. I ended up coming in 4th in both events.

Drag times sucked day 2 as the car would just fall on its face off the line. I was logging every single run but could not figure out what was going on.

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2718.sized.jpg

While I was at the track, found this, gah! I took it out and the tire held pressure just fine, totally lucked out:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2722.sized.jpg


After I got back, quick side project--added some stuff to quiet it down. This is GTMat, great stuff!
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2882.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2905.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_3055.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_3067.sized.jpg

Also came in 2nd place in the All-Mitsu Cookout EvoX category:
http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_2902.sized.jpg


I'm pissed at myself for not thinking of this during competition but when I got home I tested all sorts of things but the thing that I finally found that was wrong was the WGA pretension was basically gone. With no pretension, the car couldn't build boost and thus my issues at the track. :(

Spoke with MAP again and we came up with a solution quickly. They've made it public now but my car received one of the first revised turbine/wastegate setups for their EF-series turbos:

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_3065.sized.jpg

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_3064.sized.jpg

MAP busted their ass to get it to me and swapping it in was easy as pie--just yanked out downpipe (and swapped out the testpipe while I was at it with the one pictured above) and then unclamped the old turbine housing, swapped in the new one and re-assembled.

I had the boost turned down so far that I hit 39psi on the first pull, oops...

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/IMG_3092.sized.jpg

This is a real problem on the X....be very wary of your spark plugs! They're expensive but fragile because they are long and narrow. Replace regularly!

After all that, went on our fall cruise and finally began prep'ing the car for our fall dyno day at Modern Automotive Performance. E70 must be back b/c the car is running very rich, high 9's or low 10:1 AFR. With all the new parts I got boost dialed in at 32psi and AFR at 11.3 across the board. Slapped it on the dyno with the same timing/mivec maps that Shane@DB Performance put on it in May and I can definitely say that the car rips!

http://www.scheides.com/albums/evoX/evox_ef4_dynojet_fall2012_fixed.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNT1B-29SE&hd=1

I found a small boost leak about an hour before the dyno day started but decided to just leave it...then I ended up bumping up the boost via the MBC while on the dyno..unfortunately I left error control on and WGDC dialed back boost to 31-30 up top...Peak WGDC on these runs is 80% so the car has a few more ponies in her but overall I'm VERY happy!

It runs reliably and strong, all that's in store now is more maintenance, snow tires in a few weeks, and just keeping it on the road. My MAP stage 1.5 shortblock has about 21k miles on it now and is still nice and healthy, hopefully I can keep it that way!

Thanks for reading!

[evotuner]

Scheides nice meeting your yesterday and your car is pretty sick too!! keep her running buddy!! and keep us posted as well

[Murlo26]

Scheides, you going to check our your bearings at all in the next 5-10k miles?

Or just rock this bitch until it has issues?

[scheides]

Scheides, you going to check our your bearings at all in the next 5-10k miles?

Or just rock this bitch until it has issues?

You trying to jinx me or something? :P

No reason to crack the motor open, it runs good, compression is good. I will leave it well alone and continue to monitor oil consumption/compression.

[Murlo26]

You trying to jinx me or something? :P

No reason to crack the motor open, it runs good, compression is good. I will leave it well alone and continue to monitor oil consumption/compression.

LOL, nah, not at all. I was just thinking after reading, that 21k is a good amount of miles on a built motor, not many X guys have made it that far yet.

Even on 4g63 motors people seem to think built motors are only good for 40-50k miles and then they usually say bearing swaps are a good idea. I am guessing though that is because people assume people beat the shit out of built motors.

Was just curious what your plans were so if I by some chance in hell make it that far I have an idea of what to do.

[Halon]

Scheides, what is your fuel setup? Just curious because it seems like I hear of other people always having issues with theirs, but not you.

[Kracka]

His is nice, simple and effective...no silly surgetanks, dual-pump hangars, etc. :)

[scheides]

I have been trying to KISS.

The car has a standard Walbro 400 pump (non-e85) in the tank powered by a 30A BAP that's activated at ~3psi (whatever the default hobbs switch is in that kit). The return line siphon is drilled out to 2.8mm to help reduce base fuel pressure. That feeds stock lines up to the fuel rail, where I have a Boomba fuel rail (with a bent stock FPR) feeding FIC 1680cc injectors. On this setup I have base fuel pressure under 50psi and it's enough on real e85 to support 32psi across the board. The car idles, runs, and drives nearly perfect nearly all the time.

I've had my fair share of issues...the FIC's I needed revised spacers and wiring adapters, my DW300 didn't do much more than a W255 would have, and I had problems getting my stock FPR to fit on the boomba fuel rail the way I wanted it to (all documented earlier in this thread if you ever feel like going waaay back).

Also, at 1/3 tank or less WOT is risky--I can do a 2nd OR 3rd OR 4th gear pull, but anything like a 2-3-4 results in massive fuel starvation. On the cruise I took a risk and did hit 14:1 AFR at 8000rpm with four people in the car after a 2-3-4-5 pull. Others want to fix it (and I do too) but otherwise I just keep the tank above 1/2 tank if I really want to rip on it more than a full gear pull. The cup/basket that sits around the fuel pump simply runs empty too quickly...it's stupid but it is what it is. Making a larger (baffled) basket or moving to a surge tank is the way to go if you track the car or absolutely want to run WOT while it's on E but frankly I have no need so I don't bother or worry about it :)

I've proven now that this setup is enough for me so I don't plan on changing it. If I do anything, it'll be to swap in a E85 version of the W400 but then my base fuel pressure may suffer. I'd consider ditching the BAP and installing a larger feed line as that seems to be working for murlo...I almost did it last summer but this setup has proven to be enough so I'm happy.