Abaddon's Riv

Done. Stayed after work. I've gotten the entire thing cleaned up, and completely rebuilt. The bearings....omg the bearings. The old ones sound like old ass RollerBlade bearings. Completely loose and spin totally free. The seals were dry rotted as all hell. That explains all the S/C oil in the case and ALLLLLLL over my LIM. I took some pics along the way. I'll get around to posting them sometime. I have a ton of work lined up for tomorrow, so it isn't going to be tomorrow. I can say though, that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Had to get creative on the press, but it all went extremely smooth. I can't wait. Hopefully Saturday I'll get it torn down (AGAIN) and install these things.

Installed. All I can say is S/C is nice, quiet, and tight now. It's all new. I also tried to weld the flex pipe while I was at the shop. Ha. Now it legitimately sounds like an exhaust leak, and opens up to sound like an airplane when I hammer on it. I don't care. I'm just happy as all hell to have her on the road again.

Niiiiice.

cool

I dropped my car off at the exhaust shop earlier today. Guy is going to weld in a new Flex pipe for me.....

When I got back to my shop, I found my keys in my pocket. The Riv is in the air on HIS hoist lol   
I immediately called him and he said he's working on it as we speak. Probably around 3:30-4pm I'll have to go pick it up.

What a maroon    

Haha...it'll be OK no worries.In ½ hour you'll have her ready.

Already have it. He called me at 2:30 saying he was done. I had to have our shuttle driver take me down there to pick it up. No more noiseeeeee!!!!!!

I think this car needs to be lit on fire. Now I have a broken Fuel Line. I got to enjoy my fixed, leak-free exhaust for 1 trip. That's all. Just one trip. I seriously just can't win.   

Every time you fix something, it becomes stronger. That's how i see it, anyways..

I picked up a new fitting and a repair kit from Napa. The connector at the Fuel Filter split. I've got the new pieces made, just have to wait until after work to pull it in. I'm only going to get one shot at it. Hope I get it right. You have to heat this tube just right otherwise you destroy it   

Abaddon wrote:

I think this car needs to be lit on fire. Now I have a broken Fuel Line. I got to enjoy my fixed, leak-free exhaust for 1 trip. That's all. Just one trip. I seriously just can't win.   

Actually you are winning - the issue is merely that you;re going through a round of repairs to get past parts engineered for a life of say 150K miles. That's what I was told was the engineering lifetime of the car, and at about that age/miles it seems like everything breaks. Hang in there -- once you get things fixed it won't break much. With me it involved replacing all the brake hard lines (used PVC coated lines), a brake system overhaul (master cylinder, calipers, and high-line ATE and Raybestos frictions and steels) and a bunch of other things, also some welding and rust treatment on the chassis. Have not had any fuel line problems worth beans except I did replace the fuel pressure regulator about that time. In hindsight it was despairing, a bunch of stuff seemed to all go in quick succession.

My only problem now is I think I need to replace my AC lines. Losing refrigerant but can not find or detect a leak. THinking about it the issue may be like when I replaced the radiator. I had put leak check dye in the rad, could not find the leak. Turns out it was a crack near a tank seam that only leaked when warm, and sprayed out such that there was no telltale spray residue in the engine compartment, it was all hitting the ground apparently.

Albertj

So, I rebuilt my rotor pack about 2 weeks ago, and it didn't turn out as planned. I'm not going to post any pics of that unless you guys want to see them. I ended up buying a brand new rotor plate/rotor pack, and got it installed last night. Here's some pics.....

Car in shop (and Jeep)



Sucking out the old fluid with our Fluid Exchanger (mainly used for Differential services)


Once I had it all apart, and rotors out, I noticed that they were slapping against the cold weld where the silencer holes were filled. I was getting 19* of KR because of this. It wasn't really that audible, but apparently loud enough that the Knock Sensors were picking it up.


I hit those spots with a Flapper Wheel (sanding wheel). You can also notice the LIM sticking out near the TB side. That's how much bigger the outlet is on this thing. I'm not planning on opening it all up until the Intercooler gets installed. I would've had an LIM done and ready for it, but my "trade" LIM never showed up *cough* AA *cough*   


Then I installed this fresh set of lovely


Don't forget the Anaerobic Sealer


Rotors installed. This pic is from when I installed the rebuilt set. I didn't take pics of the new ones...


Going back together. All one has to do is remove the Alternator and the Coolant/Tensioner plate to get the rotors out. If you don't remove it, the arm that attaches to the Alternator is in the way. I've done it quite a few times, and one can literally have it apart in 15-20 minutes.


Coolant/Tensioner plate back on


The rest is history. Put the Alternator back on, plug wires, belts, done. Started her up and filled the coolant. No noise anymore. No more low end KR. It runs great again. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get the rear brakes done. From letting the car sit, the rear pads have made some nice rust tattoos on the rotors. They go "thud thud thud thud" when I stop. It's annoying as all hell. I'll put the summer wheels back on too. Time to go out and beat it up again!

Rotor pack looks like perfect sex, but whats up with the inside of the blower casing? I thought we wanted that black charred seal to keep it airtight sealed? Wont that polished inside give you leaks and lower the boost capabilities?

charlieRobinson wrote:

Rotor pack looks like perfect sex, but whats up with the inside of the blower casing? I thought we wanted that black charred seal to keep it airtight sealed? Wont that polished inside give you leaks and lower the boost capabilities?

That black stuff is just some "sealer" that Karma sprayed in there to help with sealing, yes. Nothing in there is polished. I just sanded down the high spots for clearance. It shouldn't affect anything really. If it were at the top of the case, then yes, it might hurt boost. Being that the the compressed air is already discharged by the time the rotor blade goes over that surface, there isn't enough pressure to leak anything. The rotors have an entire trip around the case to build more.  Besides, i only sanded a couple of inches, and very lightly. Just enough to knock those spots down.

Trust me, I seriously thought there was going to be some sort of interference with those new rotors....they're that tight. I'll post a pic of the ones i took out. The timing was off just enough to shine up the inner edges of all the rotors, but not bind up. There are also shiny spots on the edges of the blades where they were hitting the case.

If your cold weld was causing your KR problems, I wonder if mine isn't doing the same thing? hmm I don't think I want to know

turtleman wrote:

If your cold weld was causing your KR problems, I wonder if mine isn't doing the same thing? hmm I don't think I want to know

20 minutes with air tools man. That's all it takes to find out. You can clearly see the marks where they were hitting. It didn't knock nearly as loud as you'd think either. The noise and the KR are gone completely now, and it runs great. I also put the MAF table back to stock LQ4 today, then added no more than 5% max in the upper range...left idle and cruise stock. I set a rich code the other day. This blower MUST be super efficient compared to stock. I'm just glad to get it straightened out. If you want turtle, I have a log of the midrange KR it was causing. It was strange. You'd think it would cause false knock throughout, but it only appeared at low rpms, then disappeared past about 4000rpms.

Different note...I replaced the rear pads/rotors today, and put my summer wheels back on. Jesus what a difference in handling.

Congrats on getting it back together. The blower rotors look awesome!

AWESOME

Thanks guys. The woman and I went for about a 70 mile drive tonight. I wanted to put some good city and highway miles on it. Whenever you change the tune, it resets all of the trans and engine adapts, so it takes some mileage to learn everything again. We took a ride down the shore of Lake St Clair past all the rich folk of Grosse Pointe. Gorgeous part of town. It was a awesome to actually get to DRIVE her. I had almost forgotten how well she handles.

On the way home down the freeway, the woman actually got scared and told me to slow down...ha. I think I got caught in a "shit I've missed this car" moment, and put her against the door diving into a curve No need to say how fast I was going....

There's a "flat" spot in the fueling that I need to fix. I noticed the car stop pulling (as hard) for about 500rpms towards the top of 2nd, and 3rd gear. Should be easy. It didn't feel like KR, so I'm not worried about it for now. I'll run another scan sometime next week and sort it out.

Does this mean we are going to the next TnT at Norwalk?

Welcome back!

Abaddon wrote:

Thanks guys. The woman and I went for about a 70 mile drive tonight. I wanted to put some good city and highway miles on it. Whenever you change the tune, it resets all of the trans and engine adapts, so it takes some mileage to learn everything again. We took a ride down the shore of Lake St Clair past all the rich folk of Grosse Pointe. Gorgeous part of town. It was a awesome to actually get to DRIVE her. I had almost forgotten how well she handles.

On the way home down the freeway, the woman actually got scared and told me to slow down...ha. I think I got caught in a "shit I've missed this car" moment, and put her against the door diving into a curve No need to say how fast I was going....

There's a "flat" spot in the fueling that I need to fix. I noticed the car stop pulling (as hard) for about 500rpms towards the top of 2nd, and 3rd gear. Should be easy. It didn't feel like KR, so I'm not worried about it for now. I'll run another scan sometime next week and sort it out.

My car had same flat spot until I replaced the exhaust with the 2004 Park Avenue exhaust system. Downside is no satisfying burble. Upside is no flat spot.

Albertj

Well, I did have one of the resonators taken out when I had the flex pipe off of the header replaced. The guy that did it said it would be easier for him to fabricate everything with it gone. The damn thing is a little too loud...even for my taste. Idle sounds sick though. These Aerochambers are designed to keep cruising drone at bay and "open up" under throttle. They do exactly as advertised lol.

I wonder if removing that resonator may have affected it? I actually want to go back there and have him install a longer one. The one that's left is only 18" I believe. 4" total diameter with a 3" pipe. Not much packing...

turtleman wrote:

If your cold weld was causing your KR problems, I wonder if mine isn't doing the same thing? hmm I don't think I want to know

It might be a good place to look. Did I glue yours in or did you? I can't remember. After hearing what Abaddon was describing I recommended he knock them down a bit, just in case.

charlieRobinson wrote:

Rotor pack looks like perfect sex, but whats up with the inside of the blower casing? I thought we wanted that black charred seal to keep it airtight sealed? Wont that polished inside give you leaks and lower the boost capabilities?

He got a DFL coating on the insides of the bores, just to try out.


Glad its running right again Scott!

You can see where the rotors were hitting those spots. There's certainly no denying it. It's right where the super shiny spot is from the flash. That part of the rotor was nice and smooth compared to the rest.

You can see it again here. Super shiny spot about halfway up from the back side. All of the coating that is missing on the inner edges is missing from what I can only assume is from mis-timing the rotors. They weren't that shiny when I installed them...

And another pic of these "perfect sex" rotors I put in

So.....

Ever since the blower issue was resolved, the car has been running funny. Low end torque in 2nd gear was gone, and the car was bogging down sometimes and I was still seeing a little KR. I've been scanning/tuning for just over a week now, and I finally got it figured out. The damn thing was running rich as hell, and actually threw a P0172 at me once (you should've smelled the exhaust). With my previous blower, I had to run AL103 plugs, 11.2 AFR, PE triggered @30% TP, and a riched-out MAF table to prevent KR.

That being said, Mr. Karma has outdone himself on this magnificent blower he made. I had to go back to AL104 plugs, 12.1 AFR, PE @40%, had to lean out the MAF table by ~7% total, and also change the AE table. I was shocked. The car runs fantastic now most of the bugs are out. This thing screams. It's funny. People walking down the road hear me coming and all have to look to see what it is. I'm pretty sure they see a Riv and go "WTF?!"

I'm still going to keep tuning it. I'm pretty sure I can change the Injector settings and suck a little more HP out of it. The Injectors are the one thing I haven't changed yet.

Karma, I applaud you