HaHa first thing I did 1 second after seeing the PVC: http://www.ipexna.com/media/2086/pvc...ance-guide.pdf

Ethanol is "generally resistant", Gasoline is "Less resistant than R but still suitable for some conditions"

The source I posted indicated that PVC is more resistant to gasoline than ethanol and your source indicates PVC is more resistant to ethanol than gasoline. In my application the PVC is not subjected to significant stress and should be fine. Here is a company advertising PVC as an excellent material for chemical resistance including gasoline.

Im interested to see how it performs without the bottom of the canister. The point of the bucket is that the pump is always submerged in fuel. This also helps to keep the pump cool.

Ive seen before whenre someone added a stock pump that would lay in the bottom of the tank and fill the canister, basically making a makeshift surge tank setup inside the fuel tank itself.

I thought of this too but the AEM comes with a isolator/insulator sleeve that goes around the outside of the pump in certain applications. Because the sleeve acts as an insulator I assumed the pump would have adequate cooling from the fuel that is flowing through it internally or they would never be configured this way. With the Hydramat that fuel supply shouldn't be interrupted unless I run it completely dry which I have no plans of doing. Another purpose of the stock housing holding fuel is to keep the pump primed as the fuel sloshes about in the tank and away from the pickup which the hydramat should accommodate for. We will see but I think it will work fine this way.

So I was finally able to start making progress on the dusty Cobalt again. Installed the LSJ head with provisions for hall effect cam/crank sensor. Discovered the LSJ head utilizes an exhaust cam sensor that I don't have though I don't need. So I used my cutoff wheel to make a crude block off plate. Since I fabricated my own plate maybe I can refer to this as a "build" now. Someone on facebook is indicating the second to bottom hole is an oil feed port and suggesting tapping an plugging it. I'd rather not mess around with potentially introducing metal shavings from tapping the hole so I think I am going to try just driving a freeze plug into the hole and then covering it off with the plate which shouldn't have any problem holding in place with the bolt that close.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...77fbed6ec4.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...c42df9fdc0.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...d5343f90c0.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...3aca52e773.jpg

nice build. good custom part

Forgot to post pictures of the head
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...8ff354d167.jpg
Cam/Crank hall effect sensor provisions
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...0ed59a88cf.jpg
Exhaust ports opened up a bit
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...0352c94973.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...c61a522e76.jpg
Honda K-Series coils muckup

Glad you are still moving forward

I was waiting on my head to get finished which was a 6-month period or I wouldn't have ever stopped chipping away. Now that it's back I should be moving along pretty well. No reason I shouldn't have the engine back in the car this week other than it's a busy time of year and I may get pulled away some. Then it's just wiring, diagnosing, and trying to fire it up. Still not sure what I am going to do about getting it tuned.

Friends or discounts I understand long wait times I do it too (my shit is priority sorry), but full paying customers will light a fire under my ass idk what it is...I'm a man of my word?

Tune it yourself, standalone makes it simple.


Also, why does it look like the exhaust porting is only half done? If that was smoothed out with a die grinder it would flow much better.

That's just running a good business.

He did that for free. I think he said something along the lines of he was using it as a test piece. I assume it has to be better than stock. I received the head assembled and clean so wasn't concerned enough to want to mess around with sending metal shavings all over. That's the way it's going to be for now as I already have the head bolted on.

Will you help me with some tuning guidance? I honestly know nothing about it. Probably should have been reading up on it over this time period.

Thats cool that he did it for free, basically makes it really easy for you to achieve identical port sizes, just have to smooth out the transition. Looks like its going to cause some turbulance so I cant say if it will be better than stock or not. Ive never tuned a standalone but the principles behind it are the same for any ECU. I can try to answer any questions you may have. Luckily for you, the AEM is widely used so there is a lot on info out there on how it works. HP academy also has a free introductory video series on tuning for beginners.

I'd be willing to bet there is a base map he can start with, which is a huge help.

JD here is a pretty good cover everything book

Banish has some good books.

Here are the free videos I was talking about. After you watch them they give you the option to choose flash tuning(hptuners or EFILive style) or standalone tuning like your AEM or haltech, motec, etc...

https://www.hpacademy.com/courses/efi-tuning/

That Banish book is a pretty good intro to tuning and some of the basic need to know definitions and calculations. He does have a section on standalone from no base and extrapolation for standalone.

Trever said he would help me with the map from what Chris uses on his car. Mine should be similar though his is E85 and he has a way bigger throttle body.

Have you personally utilized that book?

Yeah thats what I started with when I was thinking about getting into tuning 6ish years ago

I own both Greg Banish books, they are filled with theory however it's put in laymens terms. I hear the DVD has detailed info, like the fuel injector calibrations where forum posts were removed as people were sharing them. Greg has done something incredible and has successfully and continues to enforce his copyrights. When I was onsite with FCA I tracked him down and tried to collaborate with him in exchange for his DVD series, he never responded (I was building a youtube channel and have a in-depth series on tuning, I was going to push the DVD series for him!). I've seen this legend at my work place about a month ago onsite as a customer, I wanted his autograph but figured it would be weird to ask him to sign my kindle.

:lol: @ the signing your kindle. I need to pickup his second book and see about the cost of his dvd series

I'll order it. Is there any advantage to kindle version like for quick navigation?

I learned a long time ago (from Wagner or Gage) that the benefits of a smooth exhaust port is to prevent carbon build up; this could be ideas from the 90's so not trying to imply I'm an expert here. Also I was taught to consider there is zero air velocity on the surface therefore the surface finish has a lower significance to overall airflow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_layer_thickness

Another thing that comes to mind is the dimple port jobs, the polar opposite of a polished finish. Let's say you don't gain or lose anything with the dimple port job, that would still say a lot, like for sure the surface finish has little to do with flow. There isn't a whole lot of hard evidence, mostly speculation like this here.

Advantage is they are somtimes less expensive and it's on demand you can start reading it now, and can read it on your phone too; but there is nothing like reading a real physical book with pages. If you're a techy nerd get kindle, if not I recommend physical books.

Also consider I have purchased tech books (arduino stuff) and the charts/graphs/visual aids were all screwed up but that could be the publishers fault maybe idk.