How do you get the fluid to flow through the cooler? Electric pump?

this transmission has a mechanical pump driven off the diff for an oil cooler. the factory cooler is laughable, its just an aluminum tube coiled up a couple times.

finally put the car on the road for the summer. i got a few more things done last week and decided it was time. the trans cooler fans are all wired into the car so when the trans goes in its all there. wired in an led so i know when the fans are on. that snowballed into fixing my gauge cluster, a sticker on the inside of the cluster fell off and was sitting on the speedometer needle. also fixed the stupid factory lighting system for the cluster. i gotta actually put a picture up of this to show the stupidity

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/O_...=w1634-h919-no

so the lights are in the back of the cluster, and clear plastic things are "light channels" that conduct the light to the front side of the cluster. originally they were covered in a reflective coating, the one on the left is the remnants of that, the others have been cleaned up. what happens here is the "light channels" just shine light under the dash and the cluster is dim as hell. and a stupid fix for a stupid design, glue tin foil shiny side down to them, this keeps the light in the channels. the fix does work, with new silvania 4 watt bulbs the cluster is nice and bright now.

also got my "new" tires mounted. lucked out and found a set of almost brand new continental dw extreme in 255/40zr17 for the back for a real good price. didnt luck out so good on front tires, but i got some dunlop sp 225/45zr17 with decent tread, but they are a bit old. price was right though. would have liked to put a brand new set of some sticky falkens or michelins on it but its just not in the budget right now. after a spin around the block i had to roll the fender lips on the rear, tires are a little close to the opening. i wasnt going for fitment, but i seem to have gotten their on the back. fronts could come out a full inch though.

so much fun driving it again. still getting the brakes dialed in, they are getting a lot better, i may have to change to a smaller front master cylinder, and im on the fence on the ebc redstuff pads. i dont seem to have much initial bite, but im able to haul it down fast enough to lose oil pressure momentarally (looks like i need to add baffling the oil pan to the list). still only running 8-9 psi at the moment, with the new tires on the back it sticks enough in 1st gear to be scary, when it hits full boost the steering gets noticeably lighter.

cant wait to get the new trans in and turn it up.

Nice setup

Had the same issue on my neighbors 944, ended up adding an led strip in front of the gauge cluster

i saw a lot of posts of people doing that, but every pic of it they were glaringly bright and unable to properly dim it. i hate the cluster being too bright, i tend to dim my gauges quite a bit at night.

i recently started running into some fueling issues. shortly after i originally put the car on the road last year i had a fuel pump failure, or so i thought. i was running an aem 380lph pump, basicly a higher output version of the bosche 044. i started getting the same fuel pump squealing noise with a genuine 044, along with going lean under boost. i opened my billet fuel filter up to have a look, only to find it doesnt actually have a cartridge in it, just a round disc under 1" in diameter. it had some trash in it, so i cleaned it and problem solved. i ended up putting a different filter on, its from performance world, and its basicly a knock off of an aeromotive filter. its got a large cartridge, fuel flow is no longer an issue.

it appears the fueling restriction has been an issue since day one as after the filter upgrade the engine is going dead rich under boost now, talking in the range 10.0:1, and it just starts misfiring. im guessing when it was tuned the fuel flow wouldnt keep up under boost and as a result fuel pressure wasnt increasing as it should. as a result the fuel map was richened to make up for it. now that i think back, i remember my fuel pressure gauge bouncing when it was on the dynos, i figured it was just because it was a non liquid filled gauge.

so long story short, the car goes back on the dyno friday. likely will tune it for high boost, just wont be able to run it on high boost on the street till i get the transmission swapped (at least not unless i want a tow bill).

Tune it yourself or no?

i dont tune this myself, although i tuned this engine when it was running a megasquirt. i havent really learned the microtech yet, but the biggest thing is i have a professional tuner with 20+ years tuning experience with a dyno that tunes it for free. i do want to learn the microtech some more, i played around with it to get the car running and my tuner took over from there.

honestly right now if i knew the system better id trim some fuel out and not worry about strapping it to the dyno.

Get to reading! Haha free is always good, especially if the guy knows his stuff.

well, dyno didnt go quite as planned.

its been having a bit of a misfire above 5200rpm, i was expecting that was because how rich it was getting. turns out that its not a rich misfire, the crank signal starts fluttering above 5200. you can watch the logs and it steadily climbs to around 5200, next will be 5280, then 5220, then 5380, etc. sometimes itll clear up after it happens, however when you feel the power drop the first instinct is to lift. i tried tightening up the air gap on the sensor and it made no difference. it does it the exact same rpm every time, nothing changed after a 45 minute cool down. we are going to try another crank sensor, however i have to track one down first. im using one supplied with the ecu from microtech, its just a bosch sensor but i dont know the interchange.

we had another issue with the idle control circuit, ive had it a few times go wide open on me a couple times. it did this again today during idle down after a pull. with the symptoms im having, along with a ground problem i had during the first dyno session last year (brand new piece of 4 gauge ground cable had high resistance, was corroded in the middle of a section) that cause all sorts of issues, my tuner thinks the ecu may be damaged. if thats the case ill have to send it back to australia for repairs, and thatll be the end of my summer.

Oh bummer, sorry to hear this. Can't believe the sponsor crapped out already

took the ecm apart to find a diode burnt and blown off the board. knew it wasnt good when the ecm was rattling.

looks like the car is going away till next year

:cry:

Man that sucks

:( Sorry about that. This build made me add a 944 with a potential to swap an LNF onto by radar when I was looking for a weekend car.

honestly i wouldnt be as upset about it had we discovered the issue right away. when i built the car i had the money to deal with it, as of right now i havent worked in almost 9 months. really shouldnt have put the car on the road at all this year, but i was essentially the subject of an intervention and told i should enjoy it now in case in the future i wont be able to.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mb...g=w518-h919-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/h7...Q=w518-h919-no

you can see the burnt diode sitting on the top of the white connector, its supposed to go in the "d17" spot. looking closely it appears it may have heated the board up a bit. my tuner was going to talk to microtech and tell them exactly what happened. basicly waiting for the "yes send it itll be no issue to repair" or the "its likely damaged worse than first meets the eye and it wont be a reliable computer even when fixed so you need a new one".

in the mean time im still fiddling around with it. i decided it was time to fix a couple little things i never sorted out, like the washer fluid tank. when i started the swap the washer tank was the first to go because the massive blob was in the way of the intercooler and charge pipes. washer fluid is one of those things you dont know how much you miss till you dont have it. i recently discovered that 88-91 cars have a smaller tank, however at $100 for a questionable condition tank off ebay i figured id come up with something cheaper. for $10 i picked this little tank up at the local wrecking yard

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TM...g=w518-h919-no

its from a hyundai accent. came complete with 2 pumps even. it should have no problem fitting behind the bumper on the passenger side, and the neck is 1.5" diameter so if needed i can cut the neck and do what i want with it. i also modded the factory 944 high pressure pump for the headlight sprayers with a bushing to allow it to fit into the new tank.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ac...Q=w518-h919-no

Theres always some work to be done

Haven't working in 9 months, ouch.

after a lot of thinking i have decided im going to stick with the non turbo front end. i was planning to swap a 944 turbo/ 944s2 front end, however i didnt like the fact that the turbo front end is the more modern looking urethane bumper and the back is still an old school bolt on bumper, it just doesnt really flow that well for me. the front however needed a lip to finish off the front end. i couldnt find a lip and had a heck of a time finding someone who made anything for the non turbo front end. eventually i ran across a thread on a forum talking about a group buy several years ago on a splitter made by Joe Toth composites. when i looked them up i discovered his shop was about 10 minutes from mine. i happened to mention it to my boss the other day, and when i went to the shop today he handed it to me.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nL...=w1634-h919-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xK...=w1634-h919-no

its only propped up right now, i dont have the energy to jack the car up and properly fit it, however so far fitment looks really good. the bolt holes between the side of the bumper to the splitter line up exact, it has mounting provisions to bolt it to the lower rad support, but being i built my own lower rad/intercooler support i have no provisions to bolt it there at the moment.

i think this is what the car needs, itll look even better once i get rid of the dorky 5mph bumpers

Pictures aren't working for me.

how about now?

I see them

Looking good man! Keep up the good work

Yup they work now. Looks good!

This thread makes me want a 944.

The splitter is a nice touch. Your boss seems like a good guy.

time for a new years update

so i got the ecm back from service last week. bad news is the damaged circuit was only for the idle control, and as that explains the random 2400 rpm idle, they had no explanation for the crank signal problem. im hoping the loose piece floating in the case may have been causing it, but ive grabbed another crank sensor just in case.

the car got put in storage a couple months ago at our shop, and ive been told i can have a hoist for the rest of the week. planning to tackle swapping in the transmission i built almost a year ago, get my splitter properly mounted, and get it running again.

one step forward, 8 steps back. got the car running again, that all went pretty smooth. ecm still had the tune loaded in it so it fired up like it always does. i swapped transmissions out, everything went great till it came to run it. initially it was fine, ran through the gears ok, then i started to hear a squeak noise with the clutch out. shut it down, checked everything over and couldnt see anything, topped the oil up and tried it again. had the same squeak for a couple seconds followed with a loud bang that stalled the motor. after some looking, and fighting to get the drive coupler undone, it appears something in the trans broke and locked it up.

guess tomorrow i get to pull it back out and apart.

damn that sucks

Damn man that sucks.

Shit dude, this really blows.

After all that work, sorry man

well, it wasnt the end of the world. pulled the trans back out today, got the end plug out and found no oil whatsoever at the rear mainshaft bearing, just a bunch of dry metal shavings. after getting the rear housing off i found not much oil in the back around 5th gear. after disassembling the bearing i found it had piled the cage up between the balls and the outer race. at least with the lack of oil the metal stayed in one place, there was no shavings in the oil i drained.

all i can really come up with is that when i ran the car in gear it filled the cooler and left the rear dry, although i should have at least had oil residue in the back end. i had wanted to fill the cooler up with oil before i put the trans in but the oil didnt show up in time.

worst part is i was unable to find that bearing, tried the porsche and audi dealers and they both laughed at me. i ended up pulling the back of the old trans apart and stealing the bearing, it looked to be in good shape. could have ordered a new bearing for next week, but i really didnt want to wait a week, nor do i want to pay $300 for a dam bearing. cars all back together and the trans seems to be fine.

Nice! Great job!
I once knew a guy who built a 454 for his chevelle and he was so excited to get it running that he forgot to fill it with oil. Assembly lube only lasts so long....

That would be some shit i would do honestly. One time i was changing an axle on the cobalt and it was getting late so i decided to wait until the morning to finish up. Went to drive the car the next day after finishing up, did a nice wot 2-3 shift and i heard a pop, something felt weird. Pushed the clutch in and all i could hear was gear rattle/noise. My stomach sank. Luckily i added fluid and the trans was fine until i replaced it during a clutch job.

moved along and did some more work. got the front splitter properly mounted. i only had it attached with sheet metal screws, now its securely bolted, and got some trim clips around the bottom of the bumper.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/e2...=w1632-h918-no

one thing the splitter will help solve is my slight cooling issue. one thing i found is it always ran around 200*f just cruising around. the fan would drop it down a little bit, but even when driving on the highway the temps would creep up and till the fan came on and dropped the temp back down. its pretty clear its suffering from a lack of airflow over the rad, and the rad fits fairly far back from the bumper. my old splash shield didnt fit after the swap, so a lot of airflow through the bumper was being lost before it went through the rad, the splitter fixes this issue. the other half of this is the top, there is a large open space spilling air over the rad. i templated out a cover, didnt have any material to make it but at least the design work is done.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rF...=w1632-h918-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Dq...=w1632-h918-no

it work out how i really wanted it to, the linkage for the pop up headlights forced me to push it higher up that i wanted. i had wanted to follow the profile of the hood latch bracket but it just wasnt going to work like that.

gonna try and get my washer fluid tank installed finally. i dont have too much more i want to get done before we get the car on the dyno and figure out if we still have an rpm signal problem or if thats fixed. ive got a number of things i want to get done, like rebuilding the rear suspension, but the bushing i want to run are fairly expensive so i dont want to spend the money there till i know i have a properly running car.

in the mean time, here are some pics of installing the trans. the old greaseball

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/n5...=w1632-h918-no

back of the torque tube
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5b...Q=w517-h918-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/E-...=w1632-h918-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0q...=w1632-h918-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Fj...=w1632-h918-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qg...=w1632-h918-no

I used to dream about owning a 944 turbo in my earlier days.

finally something went right today. i figured today id put the car back in storage, instead i got told if its ready lets put it on the dyno. so right off the bat the rpm glitch issue is sorted out. not sure if it was the ecm causing the problem, or weather the crank sensor gap was too tight before, but on the first pull it went right back to 290hp. in the end, well, here is the chart

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/i2...=w1632-h918-no

414 hp, that was at 18psi, only running around 17 degrees timing, and reving to 8000 rpm. needless to say i havent stopped smiling. im working on editing some video right now.

ok here is some quick hack editing some video together