ChrisB

What was once seen can never be unseen.. spaced or not, it will be forever PeNiS Commiserations..

On the way to charged..

Highly impressive I like your colours, and the oohh shiny bits I'm very tempted to try doing bling after I've finished my current project. As you say, it's addictive

Yes.. I made transatlantic waves when none were eventually needed - however their engineer did look at my email and look at the union specification - and they admitted that the pipe/plug threads were indeed AN where the union were mixed, and he also thought it was wrong. Obviously the reason for the 'clever' idea to make a pipe standoff by cross threading the union and plug was forgotten in the mists of time. But I'm over it I don't appear to be showing any of the tank/fuel pipe leaking issues of earlier generations of kit. Happy.

I've had a frizzle with the FRS. Phew. There is not much particularly hard about it, but it's fiddly in places (the fuel bucket was almost thrown out the window at one point - and I normally have the patience of a saint), very stinky - the fuel bucket seems to dribble fuel even when it should be long since empty and generally a bit 'are we there yet'. There are also lots of sheet metal panels with sharp edges involved.. I used a combination of the CJM online instructions and the AAM generic pdf. First up - here is where the petrol is kept. I have used boot laces so as to not drop pipes back in the tank. The bucket has to be wiggled out and the siphon around the back must be detached. Fiddly and petrolly (and the tank cover is sharp!) Got indoors and opened the bucket. Rather grubby actually. Must be that cheap Shell V Power Nitro+ I use all the time For the drilling of the bulkhead elbow, you must sight it first This involves a bright light Having drilled a hole using increasing large bits (pilot 2mm upto 10mm) the webbing needs to be filed down (sensible people use dremels for this - I just used a round file) Hours and hours later, check it out Although it's as good as I could make it, the inner surface is a little uneven, so I slipped a sneaky O ring in-between the nylon spacer and the hole. I like the improved aluminium collar in this kit. The sequence I chose for fittings is this. And all mounted. Lovely, it's going well.. Then Sparticus' brother (Crixus) decided to try and climb out the top window. Too fat - use the cat flap, fool! Next thing are the regulator mods. I see how this works now - as it replaces the regulator, it blanks off the hole that allows fuel in. This means fuel can only go out of the outlet and unltimately back via the return. The plug is a bit of a pig to get back in - the stock O rings fit better on the originals than the new plug - and you think 'that'll never go in there!' but eventually (after a bit of swearing) - in she pops.. However. I recently caused a bit of storm in a tea cup by requesting a union that fits correctly. Well I can see why they did the bodge - you need a bit of stand off from the plastic to get the pipe on. Ingeniously or bodgily - you decide - the cross threaded black (NPT) union does just that. The correct solution of course would be to manufacture the plug correctly in the first place with a stop instead of threading all the way to the end. I'm over it now. I eventually used the old black union instead and cross threaded it as AAM intended So, on to the pump. Just swap a few bits over And installed. The small metal clip was a fiddly so and so though - just had to get creative with many screwdrivers at once. I think the plastic ridges on the pump have changed since the instructions were written. They are now just bars not bars with right-angles. I found fitting a lot more smooth by removing all 4 (not 3) which means the plastic housing clip fits back on much smoother (and level) - and didn't need the modification that the CJM instructions suggested. All nice and tight. OK so still going well. Onto the 'cheap plastic - don't break it as it will be ruined and not replaceable swirl jet'. It didn't want to come out. I used 3 mini screw drivers as spacers and a larger screwdriver as a lever.. creak, creak.. moving.. creak.. creak.. SNAP. Pants. What else could I do except press on? The suggestion for Walbro 255 is 0.070". Well I have metric 1.5 and 2mm. I drilled to 2mm as the next size pump (340) suggest a much larger bit size by proportion - so a little error is probably not going to make a vast amount of difference. Better to be slightly large in this case as it affects idle pressure (which goes high if this hole is too small). However, it all fitted back nice and tight. The plastic hasps were really weak - so loss of one doesn't seem that tragic. Time will tell. Squashing it all back in the bucket is also a bit testing - the clever bend in the pipe makes fitting worse it seems! Many attempts later and.. (and probably a few more after this pic to be honest) All installed back. Lots of petrol spilled equals very clean bucket. I had a scare as I had a petrol flood. I thought the return union was piddling fuel every where - oh no.. it's all been for nothing! - but then I realised the fuel was coming out of the union hole itself. Put a finger on that, and fuel piddled out of the fuel outlet hole.. Moral of this is run your tank to near empty first! A tank at 3/4 is asking for trouble. Get the pipes back on quick. I probably shouldn't mention this but I lost my spare tank O ring somewhere along the line, and managed to dip the old one in the tank. Situation retrieval measures were required... It's not leaking, but I will order another new tank seal I think. Now, since the bucket is connected up and likes to splurge fuel down it's pipes, the regulator fitting is a must. After some prep to get to behind the mounting places so that I de-burr the drillings and spray some etch-weld primer on the exposed metal.. I am going off Dynax a bit - very brown and messy looking in the battery area (although water sealed) ...holes were drilled to mount the regulator. This was another fiddly thing. Looks easy. Wasn't. It probably is easy if you remove the plenum etc when taking the fuel rails off, but I didn't. I just disconnected the EVAP solenoid (why is it such a giant bracket for such a small device?). Ages spent fiddling. I also mounted the new MAP sensor in the brake/clutch room. And finally back together. I reduced the setting on the regulator from 60psi as it came to approx 51psi as this NA factory. I can now road test the FRS over the next few commutes and check for leaks. So far everything is nice and tight and leak free. I tested the pressure regularity holding by squirting the throttle and giving her a few revs (as you do in the street when testing engines ) and resting my camera to take a little test vid. It seemed nice and constant I couldn't resist a little try with the S/C too. I connected the gilmer belt and got my first taste of whine.. quieter (better) than I was expecting (V3 SCi) but noticeable - perfect. I took the belt back off again for obvious reasons though. One step closer. Can't wait for the skin on my poor fingers to grow back

Sounds cool. The Due has a CAN interface hardware on board, although I wasn't sure if a Due variant library was ever finished - I must admit I've not looked in a while. I have seen a Leonard based CAN shield complete with library is available. I was going down an active monitoring route, with digital display - and perhaps an audio alarm if things went gnarly. I might add I'm JDM so JOBD - which rather obfuscates me with OBD II...

No way!! We are both supercharging silver cars - and doing a gauge projects with an Arduino Due? I thought this was going to be my sensors project I was going to have the Due provide A/D values mapped to sensor characteristics, then either output basic bar graphs on a TFT display or stay quiet unless out of 'normal' range values occurred. I'm not one for dash clutter..

Ah but a pussy in the bed is worth two bushes at work. Or something. I'm going to stop now.. Beer bad..

He is a rather large pussy though ...Spartacus the cat - what were you lot thinking of?

Actually, he is spartacus. He'll sit on your face too. Argh.. TMI..

Larger here too. I like that bonnet, and the extra bits certainly suit it. Importantly your car has got go as well as show

I can't wait to get back to it - what with work, weather etc. I have been a very good boy trundling around at under 3000 RPM and light throttle only with my car in its in-between state though*. 31MPG tank average (usually 26-27 efficient). I have the naughty light set to 3200 now - it starts to flash at 2800 to remind me If i carry on like this the S/C will pay for itself in petrol savings. Well maybe not *The purpose of self imposed gentle driving is that, although this is a centrifugal effect supercharger, and as such lets air flow unrestricted along its vanes when they are not moving (there is no compression from squeezing when operating - it increases flow by accelerating air radially outwards by converting angular vane motion into linear air motion and thus causing it to boost through back pressure).. there is still a large hunk of junk (S/C, IC, pipes etc) where normally the whole atmosphere would once have been.. I am tempted when the temperature gets low (for those that don't know, Vortech says do not operate the S/C at below 25F ie -4C as the internal tolerances become too tight and can lunch it), I might take the gilmer belt off again in the winter and run slowly - the ID725 injectors will be installed by then, but the tuning map will also be in - so should continue to cope N/A after the full install (as others have found). My take on the vexed catch can PCV debate is that in my application - much of it road - there will be significant idling periods. There are pro's and con's in all of the alternate set-ups. I don't think fully open vented is for me as oil fumes got on my t1ts in my previous car (twin turbo subaru - cam covers always weeped onto the exhaust - more stinky than decats ). Additionally, metered vacuum from the plenum via the PCV valve (and can) allows the crank case to be swept by fresh air. There is only a Bernoulli effect pressure drop at the atmospheric intake, so I feel that would be insufficient in low activity situations (even though blow by is less) to properly clean the gas, compared to the giant reciprocating suck potential of the engine. If the gas build up were the only thing pushing gas out, I recon that would lead to stagnation and relatively more concentrated / harder to filter emissions. In high activity situations (WOT/boost etc) the intake flow/suck is much more powerful and should cope. Obviously all plenum or vacuum taps must now be protected from boost, so all non-reference ancillaries including PCV (and EVAP) are protected with check valves now. I have put my can - partly by design, partly by necessity (cos its big), down low to help oil collection by being a low point. This means vapour lines naturally drain back into it, helping. The cam cover outlet is too high up and vacant to have to worry about potential syphoning as far as I can tell so far. I use the Vortech plumbing to pre-S/C intake on the breather side. I might get another can - that can operate in both directions - ie just a cheapish void type (the Mishi one is designed to flow one way) to go in line with the intake side breather pipe. I don't fancy the idea of fumes clogging up the S/C hardware - the intercooler would be an extremely efficient catch can with all that cooled surface area Two cans - my car would then be a twin-can LOL.. But I digress.. In other developments, I have purchased the GT MAF and positively arctic 3 step cooler HKS plugs as recommended by Mark at Abbey, who is to be my tuner. The down side of that is I now have 3 sets of various temp brand new plugs lying around It's only money though Oh I've run out of smilies - so : thumbs : : lol :

Lol @GMB: The rest is boring exhaust - love this though

Mostly, the 'lone wolf' team sky shirted riders are the wannabe non-club types. Its certainly not respectable club behaviour where was enforced if a person repeatedly transgressed. Time trials for example, are picked on routes without lights. But commuters.. Oh and that was post 350 for me. I've arrived - go me

In the defence of riders, I used to be a very keen club road cyclist who used to go out regulary / be mainstay with 'hard' groups. 130 miles of hilly rides with sprints for the road signs (and 3 pints of beer/cider at a pub for lunch) was normal. 'Them were the days' (30 odd years ago) so to speak laddies. Lycra is functional - the tops have rear pockets, the material is slippery, breaths easily and is low drag. The shorts are padded and importantly stretchy. 130 miles in chaffing day wear with seams just would not do at all. Yes the jerseys are emblazened with bright colours and logos, but club cyclists are epic fans of their sports, so like to feel a bit part of it. Woe betide an upstart who tried to wear yellow, red or green jerseys and not be able to cut the mustard though. Prisoners weren't taken As for leg shaving, aero benefits are minimal, but crashes are a part and parcel of road racing and picking leg hair out scrapes and road rash is the pits. Better go smooth. As riders, we always used to obey road rules and traffic lights - even if we did clog the road up a bit in pack, but there were far fewer cars back then. I properly binned cycling for cars in my twenties however (no going back btw). Its the damn modern cycle commuters that need to grow some respect for others - I refer to them as road parasites. I think it's more to do with a lot of people today don't give a flying fudge about other people and think rules aren't made for them. OK

^^ What he said. Just slacken the top adjuster pulley right off, then slip the gilmer belt off the driven jack cog and move it out of the way. I stash mine loose behind the other 2 pulleys so that it doesn't catch on the moving cog

- it's all part of the process. I am an engineer, and we have a mantra.. Nothing is ever easy You'll get there

You see, I quite like that. There was a chrome (zed I believe it was) floating around a while back. Everyone said horrid, but I kept schtum. Colours of everything and a bit terminator too... me quite likey...

That's very sad news RIP

Ah-harr me hearties.. The wind's gone out of me sails a bit recently, but I have been fiddling and fettling with loom routing (again) and making a stab at measuring up my vacuum reference. Firstly, the replacement union turned up from AAM (yay!) - and it now has perfect thread fitment. One bizarre thing though is that the relief hole has shrunk dramatically... without more information, I have absolutely no idea if this is a good thing However, apart from the still being manufactured HFCs and Y pipe (which I might wimp out and get fitted by a garage - oh the shame of it - simultaneously with the replacement Competition Clutch and ST fly), not a huge amount remains to do pre-tune.. only a small, very valuable box worth.. And a red plenum Wasso spacer tied down with either red or blue bolts. My dream future theme has lost its predicted colour coordination a bit - silver, red but now also blue (and black and aluminum and brassy) are the order of the day. However, vacuum is proceeding slowly. I am going to use the rubber nipple plenum tap. I've also added a check valve in the EVAP line as this is another vacuum tap via an ECU controlled solenoid that pulses open when the car is moving at certain revs (at rest it is closed). I will be adding a MAP sensor too, just for nerdy giggles. Although the BOV line will need clearing from the new oil hoses The next update will be mucking around with the fuel bucket, and drilling a few holes to mount gadgets.

There is yet another method - Wine for mac - this doesn't require a windows install and provides a kind of windows rip-off layer. It's a bit crap (or used to be) though - but might work. Yes, if you have an existing Windows box, for a one off, use that

Set up for a one off is a bit of a faff with Bootcamp - but it would certainly be my choice as it costs nothing - assuming you have a full install dvd or iso for Windows that is (you'd need these for Parallels or VM fusion too though). Alternatively Oracle do an free emulator (Virtualbox) which might be the temporary way forward instead. Trouble with emulators might be driver support if required (my knowledge runs out at this point as I know nothing of Audision requirements).