Story of a ZZP Engine Swap
02-20-2012, 02:11 AM
#52
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Update!
Electrical connections hooked up, radiator and A/C equipment hooked up, and intake tract all hooked up.
We didn't have access to the Adjustable Clutch Rod directions, so we put that off for the sake of time. We had trouble with the Werks Phenolic Spacer though.
1) The holes on the top of the spacer aren't big enough to get around the intake manifold mounting studs. No idea how that happened and how nobody else had that problem. We'll need to drill out the two holes a bit larger.
2) There's a small metal spacer included (basically a thick washer) that goes in between block and the intake manifold support bar (where it mounts behind that plastic vacuum tank, below the knock sensors) to offset the support bar enough to compensate for the added thickness of the spacer. When you put the spacer there, as stated in the included directions, not only does it cause the plate to sit with one side pushed outwards, but it also causes you to be unable to get a nut on the stud to tighten everything down due to the added thickness taking up the rest of the threads on the stud. What we did here is take the stud out completely and put a longer stud/bolt in its place. We'll have to come back and install the phenolic spacer and the washer spacer at a later time once we fix things.
Anyway, we filled the system up with coolant as best as we could (got 3 gallons down it), put 5 quarts of Brad Penn break-in oil in it, primed the oil and fuel systems, and got it to turn over and idle for a few seconds.
We're going to need to do some tweaks to the tune probably to get things off the ground initially, until the ECU can get into closed loop mode. Any pointers welcome from people with tuning experience with ZZP ported heads and/or cams.
A picture of the new cams and everything while we were swapping the valve covers. ZZP did a good job making sure things had some initial oil on them.
We didn't have access to the Adjustable Clutch Rod directions, so we put that off for the sake of time. We had trouble with the Werks Phenolic Spacer though.
1) The holes on the top of the spacer aren't big enough to get around the intake manifold mounting studs. No idea how that happened and how nobody else had that problem. We'll need to drill out the two holes a bit larger.
2) There's a small metal spacer included (basically a thick washer) that goes in between block and the intake manifold support bar (where it mounts behind that plastic vacuum tank, below the knock sensors) to offset the support bar enough to compensate for the added thickness of the spacer. When you put the spacer there, as stated in the included directions, not only does it cause the plate to sit with one side pushed outwards, but it also causes you to be unable to get a nut on the stud to tighten everything down due to the added thickness taking up the rest of the threads on the stud. What we did here is take the stud out completely and put a longer stud/bolt in its place. We'll have to come back and install the phenolic spacer and the washer spacer at a later time once we fix things.
Anyway, we filled the system up with coolant as best as we could (got 3 gallons down it), put 5 quarts of Brad Penn break-in oil in it, primed the oil and fuel systems, and got it to turn over and idle for a few seconds.
We're going to need to do some tweaks to the tune probably to get things off the ground initially, until the ECU can get into closed loop mode. Any pointers welcome from people with tuning experience with ZZP ported heads and/or cams.
A picture of the new cams and everything while we were swapping the valve covers. ZZP did a good job making sure things had some initial oil on them.
02-21-2012, 11:34 PM
#62
Senior Member
Thread Starter
It Lives!
After priming the fuel tank pump some more we finally got it running! 
The downside is that it's in Engine Power Reduced mode now, due to P0087 and P0089 codes.
The HPFP rail pressure won't come up off of 72psi except for when I got into a brief period of decel fuel cutoff , when it briefly rose to around 114psi or something like that before the injectors came back on. I'm thinking we've got air trapped in that fuel rail or something. Any ideas?
Another issue we've got is a loud tapping sound that's happening in sync with the engine, and comes and goes. We haven't localized it yet, but I'm thinking it may be related to the HPFP/rail issue.
Thanks in advance if anybody can shed some light on how to fix this fuel pressure issue.
The downside is that it's in Engine Power Reduced mode now, due to P0087 and P0089 codes.
The HPFP rail pressure won't come up off of 72psi except for when I got into a brief period of decel fuel cutoff , when it briefly rose to around 114psi or something like that before the injectors came back on. I'm thinking we've got air trapped in that fuel rail or something. Any ideas?
Another issue we've got is a loud tapping sound that's happening in sync with the engine, and comes and goes. We haven't localized it yet, but I'm thinking it may be related to the HPFP/rail issue.
Thanks in advance if anybody can shed some light on how to fix this fuel pressure issue.
Last edited by Stamina; 02-22-2012 at 02:07 AM.
02-22-2012, 03:03 AM
#63
Senior Member
Thread Starter
So I've been doing some brainstorming...
I'm wondering that when my friend installed the high pressure fuel pump, that he didn't also transfer the associated cam roller for the pump. I wasn't watching him when he did the HPFP install, and we didn't have the area above the cam lobe opened up, so there's no way he would have seen it and known. I'm not sure if there was one already in there from ZZP, so I'll check into all that tomorrow.
I'm wondering that when my friend installed the high pressure fuel pump, that he didn't also transfer the associated cam roller for the pump. I wasn't watching him when he did the HPFP install, and we didn't have the area above the cam lobe opened up, so there's no way he would have seen it and known. I'm not sure if there was one already in there from ZZP, so I'll check into all that tomorrow.
02-22-2012, 09:00 AM
#64
Former Vendor
So I've been doing some brainstorming...
I'm wondering that when my friend installed the high pressure fuel pump, that he didn't also transfer the associated cam roller for the pump. I wasn't watching him when he did the HPFP install, and we didn't have the area above the cam lobe opened up, so there's no way he would have seen it and known. I'm not sure if there was one already in there from ZZP, so I'll check into all that tomorrow.
I'm wondering that when my friend installed the high pressure fuel pump, that he didn't also transfer the associated cam roller for the pump. I wasn't watching him when he did the HPFP install, and we didn't have the area above the cam lobe opened up, so there's no way he would have seen it and known. I'm not sure if there was one already in there from ZZP, so I'll check into all that tomorrow.
02-22-2012, 12:26 PM
#65
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Thanks for the input Matt.
I spoke with my friend this morning. He didn't remember transferring that cam roller. I should have done a better job cross-checking. We'll make sure to inspect the pump when we get it out too to make sure the pump rod isn't broken or something.
I spoke with my friend this morning. He didn't remember transferring that cam roller. I should have done a better job cross-checking. We'll make sure to inspect the pump when we get it out too to make sure the pump rod isn't broken or something.
02-23-2012, 11:54 PM
#67
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Update:
Confirmed that we were missing the fuel pump cam roller. Reinstalled the high pressure fuel pump with the roller, and not only did it (obviously) fix the fuel pressure issue, but the rattle noise is gone now too. It must have been associated with it. There was no evidence of pump-to-cam contact. Rotating the crank a bit to get the cam fuel lobe to turn to its lowest point helped get the pump reinstalled without possibility of pump or mounting screw damage.
We took the car out to heat cycle it and go seat the rings and got a little over half a dozen 2nd/3rd gear runs/cycles on low boost with it. It revs very quick. Between the lightweight flywheel and the grabby clutch, it's a bit of a challenge to get moving, but after that, it's a bit like normal. I've already stalled it once. lol Rev matching the downshifts is much different than before too. When I blipped the throttle to try rev matching a downshift I kept overshooting my target due to the engine revs jumping up so fast. lol It was like "okay, downshift... revs up to 4K... wooow 5K!". lol I'm usually quite good at it too. It'll take some getting used to.
The neutral balance shafts make the car's natural vibes feel different, but not any harsher, if that makes sense.
On basically a stock tune, I was making a max of about 10psi with the ported head and cams tonight.
We took the car out to heat cycle it and go seat the rings and got a little over half a dozen 2nd/3rd gear runs/cycles on low boost with it. It revs very quick. Between the lightweight flywheel and the grabby clutch, it's a bit of a challenge to get moving, but after that, it's a bit like normal. I've already stalled it once. lol Rev matching the downshifts is much different than before too. When I blipped the throttle to try rev matching a downshift I kept overshooting my target due to the engine revs jumping up so fast. lol It was like "okay, downshift... revs up to 4K... wooow 5K!". lol I'm usually quite good at it too. It'll take some getting used to.
The neutral balance shafts make the car's natural vibes feel different, but not any harsher, if that makes sense.
On basically a stock tune, I was making a max of about 10psi with the ported head and cams tonight.
Last edited by Stamina; 02-24-2012 at 12:48 AM.
02-24-2012, 11:00 AM
#69
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I don't think Brand Penn makes a full syntetic oil. and using brad penn oil will harm your cataltic convertor (if you have one) But it is GREAT oil.
I use it in both of my cars but in my cobalt I use 4.5 qts mobile 1 and .5 qt brand penn 0w30
I use it in both of my cars but in my cobalt I use 4.5 qts mobile 1 and .5 qt brand penn 0w30
02-25-2012, 04:56 PM
#74
Senior Member
Thread Starter
You have to disconnect it so you can unbolt it and reinstall on the new engine. It also helps get all the piping out of the way so you can work on things.
On that note...
The major things that you'll need to unbolt from the old engine to put on the new one:
-A/C Compressor
-Alternator
-Starter
-Oil Cooler (Coolant-Oil heat exchanger by the oil filter)
-Coolant piping by the water pump
-Valve Cover
-High pressure fuel pump
-Intake manifold
-Exhaust manifold (and turbo, obviously)
-Tranny/subframe/car... lol
It came with spark plugs installed (at the standard .035 gap), but we had some fresh ones already gapped for .032 that I wanted to start at, so we switched them out. They added a level of protection from anything falling into the engine while we worked though. We also thought we'd need a new water pump, but a fresh one came included. This actually made sense though because the engine comes with the timing chain already installed/timed, and that's what also runs the water pump. It just didn't occur to me.
On that note...
The major things that you'll need to unbolt from the old engine to put on the new one:
-A/C Compressor
-Alternator
-Starter
-Oil Cooler (Coolant-Oil heat exchanger by the oil filter)
-Coolant piping by the water pump
-Valve Cover
-High pressure fuel pump
-Intake manifold
-Exhaust manifold (and turbo, obviously)
-Tranny/subframe/car... lol
It came with spark plugs installed (at the standard .035 gap), but we had some fresh ones already gapped for .032 that I wanted to start at, so we switched them out. They added a level of protection from anything falling into the engine while we worked though. We also thought we'd need a new water pump, but a fresh one came included. This actually made sense though because the engine comes with the timing chain already installed/timed, and that's what also runs the water pump. It just didn't occur to me.
Last edited by Stamina; 02-25-2012 at 05:16 PM.