ProVolks Official Shop-Car Build Thread. . .

[Piledriver]

20:1!! With my plenum based system, I would get misfires around 17.5:1. My WBO2 sensor is giving me big swing from super rich to super lean it will occilate from the 9s to low 20s and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. It will also stick on 21+ for several seconds then it goes off line and flashes 7.4 until I cycle the key. I have another O2 sensor at the shop and may try that and re-calibrate. I've already done several free-air calibrations with this one with no joy.

I'm also wondering if my exhaust has anything to do with it. My O2 sensor is just before it goes into the 911 Banana can. I've been wondering if any back pulsing is giving erroneous readings and causing my wild fluctuations. I still think it's a sensor/controller issue though.

The electrodes on the irridium plugs I had on the 2056cc were gone; and I mean down to the porcelain. I had been running them since first going to MS in 2009. I probably had 80K on that set which was amazing! I had checked them a year or so and they looked fine. I probably put 20K miles on them over the last year before installing the new engine and had planned on running them in the new motor since they had been so nice all that time. I had noticed for the last couple months of driving the 2056cc that it would sometimes knock on full load when the engine was fully warmed-up, so I just backed off the timing a degree or so. When I pulled the motor and went to pull the plugs I was a bit shocked at the condition of the plugs. I'll bet the new gap was around .140". I had originally gapped them at around .035".

Finally decided to replace the irridum Pulstar plugs out after ~80K, last time I looked at them was @15K.
I think i got my moneys worth.
Wouldn't pull 19:1 AFR at cruise anymore for some reason, but 17:1 was fine.
Running LS2 coils. Still ran great, last tank was 30 MPG.
A couple electrodes do manage to just peek above the insulator.
I'm putting the old JAW wideband back in and am going back to 22:1 at cruise, as it used to run.

[vwi_dduvall]

What sort of fuel you run in that I have never seen deposits like that befor?
Even my 99 Chevy at 100k did not have that much on them if any.

[Piledriver]

What sort of fuel you run in that I have never seen deposits like that befor?
Even my 99 Chevy at 100k did not have that much on them if any.

I run E85 once it warms up, and the std pump E10 in the winter.
The E85 is usually ~E70, and its probably mixed with crap grade gasoline, Racetrack or Kroger stations have E85 around here. (some have 20 pumps with E85, for all I can tell I'm the only one using them)
My tailpipe turns white on the inside running that fuel, ~same color as the deposits.
(have been running regular E10 for a few weeks now)

I was very surprised at the deposits as well, I guess I need to fuel up at Shell more often, I just can't hack their non-advertised $1/tank plastic-use surcharge that you only see if you look at your credit card statement.

My intake ports are squeaky clean FWIW.

I must give the LS2 coils their due tho, it never had a hiccup except over ~18:1 AFR even like that.
At WOT/13:1 it ran great, only pulled them as it was well past due.
Two of the center electrodes are worn ~>1mm down the hole, the gap is ~4mm.

Plan was to run them until it started to run like crap to see how they lasted
It never did, but I'd call the experiment a success anyway, just not with the results I expected.

I'm somewhat inclined to see how the newer Pulstars with the Inconel electrodes hold up, but these 5 year experiments are a drag.

It does start instantly again with fresh BP6ET plugs I have typically run.(triple side electrode W7DTC equivalents)
I was starting to think I had a vacuum leak or something.

They went in with Milk of Magnesia again this time.

It will be a few days before I can drive it again "mean green" cleaner utterly destroyed my Unifilter while soaking.
Have an AEM Drytech synthetic cone filter incoming from Summit, just need to spin up a bellmouth adapter up to 3" to fit the factory TB and new air filter

[aircooledtechguy]

That's basically what my plugs looked like minus the deposits. All the electrodes were down to the insulator. I was getting some knocking under load when hot.

You couldn't pay me to use Shell gas. I had a client who exclusively used Shell and I had never seen a motor so full of carbon deposits in my life.

[Piledriver]

The worst carbonized motor I ever tore into was one of those Berg blue book inspired no squish beasts with semi-hemi heads and jetted way too rich.(probably to fight the resulting knock, T1 in an early bay bus)

Heads were absolutely spiderwebed with cracks too, I guess he had to stand on it continuously to go anywhere.
The monumental carbon build up in the chambers probably didn't help.
Rings/jugs looked ~OK.

Never asked where he got his gas, but it was gruesome.

I have pretty much loathed the Blue Book ever since, other than as a great document how NOT to build a motor.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Have you seen the companies Shell owns now? Pennsoil is one of them and I think there are a lot of other companies that they have purchased in the last few years.

I never have been a fan of them. Got into a perdicument where I had to put some of the Shell top rated fuel in my brand new 1967 Mustang fast back; 390 4spd; I got home but barely it ran so bad. Drained what was left out of the tank, put some good stuff in and took it up to this one limited access road that was a long hill. 130 (indicated) up the hill and the same down but under compression. If I had been caught the fine for littering would have been higher than the speed part. I've never seen so much crud fly out of a tail pipes of a new car in my life. Older cars yes, but not with just a few miles on it (I don't care if you like Fords or not... this was not normaly for any car).

Lee

[aircooledtechguy]

Saturday, my son Josh & I headed down to Evergreen Speedway for an open Auto-X. The weather was PERFECT; clear but cold (mid 40sF). We had a great time beating on the Squarsche. We did have a couple issues during the day. I realized right away that I need a puke tank between the breather "T" and the exhaust vacuum. Every time the motor went around 4.5-5K+ oil vapors would get pulled into the muffler and a smoke screen ensued. Not a performance issue, but it was a bit embarrassing. Made it look like the motor was about to blow at any moment even though it was running super strong with no issues. I also forgot to re-lube/adjust the shift linkage before we left. This made shifting a little stiffer than it should be and made shifting from 2nd to 3rd while racing a hit & miss deal. Finally, at one point we beat a bit too hard and really pushed our luck and it could have, read that - "should have" cost us the new motor.

I was giving Mario Velotta a ride at the beginning of the 2nd session (run 4 of 20 that day) and while taking a hard left-hander I drifted a R-rear tire off the pavement and into a deep pothole at around 30mph. We hit hard but saw nothing in the rear view that gave me pause and the tire didn't go flat or feel like the wheel was bent, so we continued on. Since it was like hitting a curb, back in the pits I checked over the wheel and didn't see any issues with it. so a continued to race for the remainder of the day. Then drive the 60 miles back to the shop. Yesterday morning I hoisted up the car on the lift to give a thorough inspection and realized just how close I had come to total destruction. . . AMAZINGLY, it didn't/doesn't leak a drop even after the hit!! I don't believe it gets any closer than this gents. . .





I have my Powerball lottery tickets purchased and intend to win this time

Here's a short video with 3 runs from 3 different perspectives. The middle rear-facing run is where the incident happened. My reaction at the end says it all. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTaFLv9bKuU

[Piledriver]

Drysump that beast.

[Kai4130]

Has that twisted on the extension bolts?

Lady Luck was most defiantly on your side!

[aircooledtechguy]

Has that twisted on the extension bolts?

Lady Luck was most defiantly on your side!

This is how they mount on a type4. Twisting is possible with these. On a type1; not so much.

[aircooledtechguy]

Spent another fun and exciting day at the track auto-X'ing the Squarsche. Since my last outing I had repaired the sump, changed over to Mobil-1 full synthetic oil, moved the rev-limiter up from 5.6K to 6.5K, added 2 degrees of camber and re-set the toe on the front and beefed-up my left rear engine mount area since it had begun to crack like the right side did earlier (I knew that was coming).

These mods (mainly the camber/toe adjustments and the rev limiter) helped shave almost 2 seconds off my times. The track was similar, but they changed the gates through the slalom section which tested my sight/muscle memory/control a lot. Read that: I blew a lot of gates in the morning getting my rhythm on the course. It never rained, but was cool (mid 40F low 50s) and was clear by the end of the event; PERFECT!!

With a real set of sticky tires, I could probably shave another 2-3 seconds off my times easy. The tires I have now are almost bald on the fronts (maybe a 1/16"<) and just need to be wider & stickier to keep the rear-end under control. I never thought 235/40s would not be enough, but I think I'm going to have to step-up to 225/45 & 255/40s when I buy the sticky set. But better tire$ will have to wait unfortunately. I love going to Evergreen Speedway for these events. We had 71 cars show-up in total and i still got 17 runs. It's all about the seat-time.

Here's a video of one of my cleaner, faster runs and also a not-so-clean one ride-a-long with Craig M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmbXN7MYIdY

[WooleyNelson]

That's not an autocross! That's a road course!

Rather open compared to the parking lot autocrosses I've run in the past!

Nice track!

[aircooledtechguy]

That's not an autocross! That's a road course!

Rather open compared to the parking lot autocrosses I've run in the past!

Nice track!

You're right. It's kind of a half-n-half part auto-x, half road course. It uses the in-field, part of a 3/8 mile oval, a short road course section and ends on the 5/8 mile oval.

ESW-auto-x-layout.jpg

[aircooledtechguy]

In preparation for this weekend's auto-x, I bought some much needed tires. I actually had a couple cords showing randomly on a couple tires, plus with rain in the forecast, I would have had issues driving down there and back on these.

DSC04924.JPG

[Steve Arndt]

Are those Bridgestone S02 tires?