Road Warrior gets a facelift

[GAboySVO]

Just an update:

All was going well until the engine died going into turn 13 going up hill. Was carrying enough speed to coast all the way into the paddock area. Once I stopped and cranked it, it started again. It did this a couple of times at the same place. Upon further investigation, I determined that my fuel pressure relay is going bad. Tried to get one from the local parts store and AZ and Advance both list the incorrect FP relay for the SVO. The correct one was found under the 87 Turbo Coupe at AutoZone, but it is special order. So if you don't have one in your spare parts kit, you may want to go online and order one. I got three.

Just an update to this. It turned out not to be the relay after all. With the new relay installed, I had the same thing happen at the next event. Once I got back to the pits, I looked a little closer at the connector and discovered that one of the connector pins had been pushed out. This was the issue all along.

[GAboySVO]

More PiMP tuning news. During a dyno run in the spring, I made a log and sent it to Stinger to review. What it revealed was that the 42lb injectors were approaching 100% duty cycle with only 15psi of boost. So I decided to upgrade to high impedance 60 lg/hr injectors. Got them installed, reconfigured the ECU in Tuner Studio and manually added more fuel in the boost area of the map for insurance to let the auto tune pull fuel as needed. After the auto tune in none boosted areas of the VE map, I went for a boosted run. It felt good until I started to slow down to head back to the house. I thought I had popped a head gasket.

I started to remove the plugs to do a compression test, and found that detonation had blown the electrode and ceramic off of the #1 plug. No compression test needed. I used a bore scope and determined the metal and ceramic had done enough damage that I needed to take the engine apart and have my machinist look at it. He had to to bore it to .032 over to clean up the scoring and used a gapless ring in the second ring position. Got the motor back together and started tuning again.

I found out that Wes on TF started providing dyno tuning in Mooresville, NC at the Megasquirt facility, so I signed up to be his first guinea pig. I figured the 500 mile trip would also help break in the fresh rebuild. He did a great job and was able to find out that my 42lb/hr injectors were not the problem, but it was the fuel pump voltage booster that is located on the DS shock tower. We jumpered it out and that solved my fuel pressure issue under full boost. It also showed that it was not my tuning the caused the detonation that killed the #1 plug, but the dropping fuel pressure under full boost.

So with my fresh engine rebuild and correct tune, I was ready for the next track event at Barber in July. I was only able to complete 2 session before I lost oil pressure. I'm not sure why I lost pressure, but I think low oil level, too much clearance between the oil pan and pick up tube and my increased speed in all sections of the track combined to ruin my fresh rebuild.

Upon removal of the oil pan, main bear slivers were every where. Time for another rebuild. With that much metal, I needed to replace my oil cooler as well and this is where I ran into a roadblock. Me and google could not find a direct replacement anywhere. The seem to be made of unobtanium now.

[GAboySVO]

Upon further searching and contacting the Modine site, I was able to get a generic part number and with this part number, I was able to locate a direct replacement and bought their stash.

[svono50]

Boy you have had quite the adventures these past several months!! Hopefully this will be the last time through this engine for some time now. BTW, what is the Modine part number for the oil cooler? I am sure inquiring minds want to know.

BTW, now I am wondering if I should simply get rid of my voltage booster to avoid the potential issue?? Not sure if the larger pump will have any issues being run at full voltage all the time or not.

[GAboySVO]

BTW, what is the Modine part number for the oil cooler? I am sure inquiring minds want to know.

1a12356C

I think the reason for the voltage booster was to reduce the pump noise at idle. Yours may still be working. The log files showed that the new injectors were still maxing out on duty cycle, but the fuel pressure guage showed the pressure drop as full boost came on. A quick jumper install at the connector showed the issue.

[gbeaird]

Thanks for sharing the P/N, but that will do us no good, since you say you bought their stash, right?

And I'd think you're right on the reason for the VR, and am thinking that the pump would probably actually run better without it. And by 'better', I'm saying last longer, since it's built for 12v (actually, probably something like 18v or more), and running it at less voltage would cause it to not be as efficient, and possibly generate more heat.

[GAboySVO]

Thanks for sharing the P/N, but that will do us no good, since you say you bought their stash, right?

Maybe there is more out there somewhere that I couldn't find.

[svono50]

My guess is that there are more out there, especially since it was sold under a generic Modine number. The FL-1A filter was a pretty popular style/size of filter. I wonder if anyone in the Merkur world knows of any sources?

On the fuel pump voltage/noise front, I am pretty sure they did the reduction to make the pump quieter. My Walbro 255lph pump only lasted a couple of years and I wonder if it was due to the fact it didn't like the lower voltage. The pump I got from Paul to replace it last year has more capacity and is quieter than the 255lph unit. When I set my fuel pressure the way Ryan Cloud taught me last year (i.e.- KOEO, EEC test port jumper), the pump is at full voltage and you can barely hear it without any engine/exhaust noise. I think I may just jumper mine out and call it a day.

[GAboySVO]

Thanks for sharing the P/N, but that will do us no good, since you say you bought their stash, right?

I did find another source in Germany via google. They say they have more than 100 in stock.

[SVOeric]

GA Boy, Id say if you're modding your engine, you should jumper the pump relay, as chances are, you dont care about the extra noise. I had problems with mine as well.