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Car has been a HCI car for the past 2 years now. Stage 2.5 TEA 243s, Fast 102, BTR stage 4 LS3 cam, etc.. Made 450/400 on my tuners dyno jet. Car was strong and I was very happy with it. Knew it was going to end up as a nitrous car though since I play with the dope so much with other friend's cars and it is just fun stuff. Started working on the electronics side of it and pulling together parts. Went from an NX proton kit that I bought, to trading the proton unit for two NX solenoids and a single nozzle, to finally a 102mm outlet plate. Along with a couple different brackets for the solenoids till I finally found the right combo to clear the hood and work with the outlet hardline kit (needed shorter motor mounts, thanks Mark at AMT for the phenomenal customer service and support).
If you know me, you know I will change my mind, better my thought process, and just expand on something till I am happy with it. (Although I still continue to find something to change for the better, not a bad thing though).. So this past winter I tore the car down as the fast 102 when installed was tight and I knew it rubbed on the firewall/cowl. I pulled it off to find that the top shelf got rubbed in pretty good (not all the way through), the two lower to upper shell bolted connections were loose (nuts fell out) probably causing a nice vacuum leak.. The front of the manifold under the tb flange ( i sanded some off during install to clear steam vent lines) had a tiny hole in it under the seal (also possibly causing a vacuum leak). . I decided to regasket and possibly port match the manifold. I accomplished the first part, but found that the newest versions of the 102 are pretty smooth and match the 243 port job from TEA extremely well. On to bigger and better things we go...
I decided to pull the heads as well to have TEA look over them as I thought by my quick valve drop measurements that maybe I could mill more off them to bump the compression. The heads are 66cc chambers still mind you with the larger valve option from TEA. Turns out I was wrong on my measurement so they did not mill them.. Found out the valve guides were worn in decently on the exhaust valves, so I had all new guides put in (starting to feel like an LS7... lol).
During all of this I had Bret (blownbluez06) modify my pump hanger to fit a single 450 to it, as well as build me a complete line setup to mount a magnafuel regulator in the fenderwell and set it up for E85 as well. Great work and Bret has turned into a good friend and support for any questions I ever need. I also relocated my battery to the rear of the car using a Braille 3121 battery. This was because of my nitrous wiring board in the rear of the car as well as mounting a breather tank up where the battery was before. Install went extremely well and I am very happy with how it turned out.
Anyways, during install of the heads again, I decided once more to use a new set of factory gm headbolts (have always worked fine for me). Well this was the point where they did not. I installed the heads and a couple of them on the final degree pass felt loose still... I didn't think too much of it because the TTY bolts are little ***** and are unpredictable sometimes. I move on from here... Top end of motor is together.. Putting headers on and during install of the driver header, one of the bolts gets tight going in.... I was not pleased.. I start backing it out and it remains tighter than a ticks ***.. I know now that the bolt is going to break so I just got as much of it out of the hole before it did.. Had a buddy come over to try welding a nut to it and what not to no success... Head had to come off. I pull the head off as well as the passenger and bought a new set of arp head bolts... Well, during removal, the passenger side pulled the threads out of the block. Now I am upset
Im talking to Bret while I do this and let him know the situation. He informs me he has a stud kit at his shop that I could buy and return the bolts.. So I do that.. I also had to buy the time sert kit with the fixture and all to repair the holes in the block... I decided to do all 20 holes instead of just the few. My engine builder/machine shop told me that when the holes are clean that the stud should thread in by hand quite easily and if it doesn't, then rethread the hole. Most holes were snug so I did all 20. This wasn't fun, it was time consuming, not really that nerve racking though (I am a machinist by trade and am not too worried about this kind of work).. All holes are stronger than they were though now. So I finally get the engine together (for the second time). Had a buddy help put the headers in this time to not put a strain on the bolts. Removed the power steering from the car.. Just looped the rack.. I was sick of pulling the steering and reinstalling so I just left it off.. It may go back on later, it may not. Isn't really that much effort to turn the thing honestly.
Also being added to the car this year was a GZ motorsports vacuum pump kit that I bought from Pete (capthuff) on here. I was most excited about this piece as nobody wants crankcase pressure and I resealed the entire bottom end aside from the rear main due to some leaks.
Car was finally together, full of corn, driving... time for a tune.
Get the car pilled for a 100 shot just to see what it likes timing wise on the dyno. Planned on raising the jet on the street later on.
Car gets on the dyno, my tuner starts with some quick changes for the injectors and fuel to get it close. Start working on part throttle and some 4k rpm range and my tuner asks if my fuel pressure was dropping off hard as the VE was trying to be around 120%+ from the 112-113% it was used to before.. We pulled the lower fender cover off and stuck my phone down there to take a video of a quick pull and pressure stayed constant. I told him the heart wants what the heart wants and let's see where this is gonna go.
Ended up picking up about 20whp/17wtq.... I was very excited about that. If we stopped there on the dyno, I would have been happy with that knowing it gained that much from the vacuum pump... ( I say just the vacuum pump because I kind of doubt the corn added much of anything to that gain). I heated the bottle and put a fresh set of plugs in the motor. Made a pull on the bottle and killed it right after the pull and making sure the car wasn't gonna shut down... 2* taken out got the timing mark right on top of the bend at the strap and no detonation signs as well as a good ring color.
Please cushion clamp those positive cables an inch or two out in each direction from that splitter, I'd hate to see one pull free and arc your car into a smoldering pile of fiberglass and steel. Otherwise I like the build so share some more pics for me to stare at while I bojangle on my car.
Also, how does she drive with the PS looped like that? I've been considering it for awhile but I'm not that strong lol.
Last edited by Turpid porpoise; 06-25-2019 at 01:44 PM.
Please cushion clamp those positive cables an inch or two out in each direction from that splitter, I'd hate to see one pull free and arc your car into a smoldering pile of fiberglass and steel. Otherwise I like the build so share some more pics for me to stare at while I bojangle on my car.
Older picture!! All cables are sleeved and safe haha This was just setting lengths up lol
To add to the fun this season.. While I was installing the balancer and torquing the bolt.. I had the car in 6th, ebrake set, and one wheel mechanically locked.. I try and torque the balancer and the engine just turns right over, no problem at all.. I find that odd. I put the car in 2nd and it torques down fine, engine won't turn over now with the torque. Come to find thanks to Bill on here, that the clutch packs and belleville springs in the diff are trashed because it only took about 18 lb ft to turn one wheel with the other side locked.
Ended up replacing the clutch packs, springs, as well as spider gears, stub shafts, etc with c6z parts. Car feels a lot better during take off and low speed turning now.
Also found that a 5 gallon bucket makes for a decent transmission stand haha
Here are a couple shots from the wiring of the nitrous system. I made up individual harnesses for inside/outside the car to make trouble shooting the system easy in case of issues.
Mind you there are only 2 plugs off the solenoid harness as I was just on a roll with this and gave each solenoid their own deutsch... Then realized the fuel and nitrous needed one plug. Don't have any updated pic of that though.
I plan on replacing the mini with most likely a leash nitrous controller to control the nitrous and fuel noids separately.
I trimmed the side plastic/rubber pieces away to fit the terminal strip under the glovebox there. Checked it many times for fitment and that nothing was pinched.
Really like this build. Very similar to what I'm doing except for the h/c and I'll be running a 200 shot. We've talked a couple times on facebook in one of the groups but wasn't sure of the setup on your car. Nice to see some more nitrous being talked about
Really like this build. Very similar to what I'm doing except for the h/c and I'll be running a 200 shot. We've talked a couple times on facebook in one of the groups but wasn't sure of the setup on your car. Nice to see some more nitrous being talked about
Good **** man, thanks!! I agree, I would love to see more nitrous activity on the forum. LS1Tech still has a wealth of knowledge but not too much new topics. While nitrous is simple, I feel there is still a lot more to talk about to help people understand it better and really get everything out of their system safely.
So since all of the nitrous updates from 2019, the car went the past 2 seasons running great. Ended up leaning out the fuel jet a bit from a 41 I believe, to a 33 or 35 (Can't recall) and the motor enjoyed that much more. Honestly, for most of my buddies and a good number of cars I ran on the street (highway bakery stuff), the thing honestly was tough to catch. Ran a 135 trap speed at SCT Indy in 19. Gives most low to mid 140 cars trouble from 40-140/+ on the street as well lol. Last season was kind of a pain.. Had some issues with the car. First of which was the RXT first disk deciding to rip out of the splines of the disk and the input shaft... So I replaced everthing.. New flywheel, new rxt, new input shaft, billet couplers (later replaced with oem couplers due to thinking they were the cause of a later issue), trans gone through so 3rd synchro and blocker could be changed.
Run the car for a couple months and all of a sudden the car gets an odd vibration to it. Pull the entire flywheel to diff out... Nothing there was the issue... Come to find the powerbond oem harmonic balancer replacement I installed in 17 with the cam, starting ripping the rubber between the hub and shell. So an ATI went on, vibration went away.
I decided to do some updates over the winter and some stuff just snow balled. Wanted a larger feed line, so I put larger rails on... Old nitrous solenoid brackets didn't fit now, so I modeled up new ones in Inventor and had my shop burn and brake them.. Had a friend bend new hardlines.. Finish up my standalone install (came to find this past weekend the guy who I bought it from, had a drain fitting welded on, the weld had a pinhole leak... JUST BUY NEW DUMMY)....
Moved the coils to the fenders, routed the fuel feed and return under the cowl. Put a new power master alternator on after I effed the oem unit up taking it apart. Ran a 2g cable for the alternator to a power post, along with a new 4g starter and fuse block cables. A new 4g cable from the alternator to a relay board in the rear driver fender well with a 10g feed off of that to the fuel pump... Anyways, car is done, getting the thing back on the dyno this weekend to work on the nitrous tune ups. Here are some pics.
Really clean setup. I like the way you routed the fuel lines to and from the rails. I may have to hit you up for a set of those brackets if I go that route with a 102.
Yes sir, been chasing a weird issue with the car over the past two years with the fueling on the shot. If you notice the dyno graph up top in the op, the afr spikes a bit on the hit, and then just starts tanking. This past Saturday had the car on the dyno and it is still doing it, tried some things and left it alone thinking it's a solenoid voltage issue. Well, after doing some hard reading, I have come to realize that I should have been referencing the nitrous outlet jet chart, and not the nx chart (I'm using an outlet plate and nx solenoids).. So per outlet, I'm running the fuel pill they call for a 175.. So I need to make a hit this weekend, but I'm pretty sure I found the issue, as stupidly obvious as it is. Lol. Leaving about 30 wheel on the table from 5k and up basically.
Really clean setup. I like the way you routed the fuel lines to and from the rails. I may have to hit you up for a set of those brackets if I go that route with a 102.
Yes sir, been chasing a weird issue with the car over the past two years with the fueling on the shot. If you notice the dyno graph up top in the op, the afr spikes a bit on the hit, and then just starts tanking. This past Saturday had the car on the dyno and it is still doing it, tried some things and left it alone thinking it's a solenoid voltage issue. Well, after doing some hard reading, I have come to realize that I should have been referencing the nitrous outlet jet chart, and not the nx chart (I'm using an outlet plate and nx solenoids).. So per outlet, I'm running the fuel pill they call for a 175.. So I need to make a hit this weekend, but I'm pretty sure I found the issue, as stupidly obvious as it is. Lol. Leaving about 30 wheel on the table from 5k and up basically.
Yeah mine went lean on the hit too. Fuel supply issue on the stock pump/fuel pressure drop. I haven't had time to re-test, but I ended up going with a BAP + racetronix pump + return fuel setup. I also made sure the solenoid is post rails so I don't lean out the motor. With my setup the system noted the drop in fuel pressure and shut down everything and opened it back up so same story.
Yeah mine went lean on the hit too. Fuel supply issue on the stock pump/fuel pressure drop. I haven't had time to re-test, but I ended up going with a BAP + racetronix pump + return fuel setup. I also made sure the solenoid is post rails so I don't lean out the motor. With my setup the system noted the drop in fuel pressure and shut down everything and opened it back up so same story.
There is basically always a lean spike when they hit even with the standalone, it is just lesser than if it is off the rail. But outlet calls for a 25 fuel pill on E85 whereas NX calls for a 35 on the 100 shot setup. So I think once I nail down that it is the pill being wayyy too big for the size shot, then I will probably switch it over to low pressure so there is more flow there at the solenoid.
For my reference, what's your current timing and plugs? I have a recently finished wet plate Nitrous Outlet system, and I'm currently at a 100 shot (HCI LS1) with 93 pump at 21deg peak torque/ 23deg peak power timing (NA was 24/26), no signs of KR. My jets are 0.052 and 0.021 but might go back to slightly bigger on fuel (back to Nitrous Outlets original spec for 100shot on pump gas) since I saw some slight leaning at around peak power (6k RPMs), I think due to my fuel system maxing out with the 100shot. I've yet to read the plugs but plan to soon, on my next round of testing.
Figure I would bore you guys with some more updates. So roll back to August of 2021, car is running great, still busting *** on the highway lol... Up running some people one night and on a nitrous hit against a buddies new at the time (now gone) MKIV supra, the car hit a wall (not physically) and felt like it was floating the valves. So I get out of it and just cruise home.. Made a couple motor hits on the drive and it felt completely fine (really to this day, do not know what happened). So the next day I checked the plugs, pulled the valve covers, nothing out of the ordinary, but cylinder 4s plug threads were kind of muffed, and the plug wasn't going back in.. Tried to use the plug hole chaser to no success, so the heads came off and went to the machine shop. They cleaned the threads up and stripped the heads down, tested the valve springs (which for 4 years of abuse and 40k+ miles) and they were solid pressure open and closed. Exhaust guides (ONCE AGAIN) were pooched. Apparently TEA had a rough patch of not machining the guides correctly.
I knew that I wanted more power from the car on motor and the 243s had nowhere to gain me anymore compression unless I were to fly cut the pistons, which I didn't want to do (if it wasn't a nitrous car, I would have). So I had the machine shop put K liners in for the guides and clean the heads and reassemble.. Sold the 243s off and ordered a set of TFS 220s. So the waiting game started while those came in.. I got bored and decided to start designing. For anyone on the C5 Modified group on facebook (I am Mike, one of the mods) you probably saw this.
I felt this was "too race" though and not good for the street, so I got back to it and modeled up a filtered version (still isn't completely done though to this day)..
Haven't done much with that since the fuel cell for the nitrous would need modified to fit with that. But I think it is pretty slick and hopefully able to finish it at some point and let someone test it out.
06-25-2019, 01:37 PM
2002 Nitrous Z06
Good stuff.
