bodies and sensors

If anyone else is counting, this will be no less than the third time I've taken off the new throttle body since TDC Auto. I guess it's a good thing they changed their name ... Heads Up Motorsports of Spartanburg, SC ... ha. But don't get be wrong, the welding fabrication on the fmic endtanks, intercooler piping, and plenum flange and throttle cable mount are great. One would think that the sensor, and butterfly for that matter, would be set like the throttle body that was replaced.

One would be wrong. You can see here that not only was the sensor not positioned in relation to the butterfly valve correctly, but the butterfly flat itself that the sensor sits on was not at the right angle, about 90* rotated between them. The plastic input hole of the position sensor also seemed to be damaged which may be part, or all, of my current sputtering issue, but I'll get to that later.

Here's the TPS set to 0% and installed over the q45 tb, the butterfly also set to 0%. 

Here's the TPS still set to 0% and installed over the new tb, the butterfly of which was also, still set to 0%. The mounting points don't even line up.

Originally I was going to drill new mounting holes into the mounting ring that bolts around the butterfly valve shaft. I even went so far as to mark the new locations. I was not looking forward to either threading new holes or having to get correctly sized bolts to clear the gap between the mounting ring and the throttle body. I tested it at 0 and 1oo% positions to make sure the input shaft rotated within the range of the sensor mounted in this position, as well as having some room for adjustability.  

And yes, I tried flipping the mounting ring around instead, and it would have worked except for the counterbore feature of the bolt holes that were used to mount it to the throttle body. The ring could only be installed in one direction while using the current mounting holes, not backwards. Back to drilling...

...but not for long. As it turns out, there was a set screw on the output shaft. The set screw is opposite of the flat face of the adapter that actually goes into the TPS. There was actually a flat face on the butterfly shaft as well, which was a bit disappointing as it was simply opposite of the adapters flat face.

It would have been much easier to adjust the adapter via the set screw if the flat on the butterfly shaft wasn't there, but the flat on the butterfly shaft does keep the set screw, and ultimately the adapter, from rotating independently of the butterfly. To adjust the adapter on the butterfly shaft, the set screw would have to be rotated completely beyond the flat's edge in order to be able to seat, but again, it would need another flat at that new location to stay. In theory, I could cut another flat at the new correct angle on the butterfly shaft, but I would have to know exactly where to put it which may be difficult, as there was already one flat on a small shaft. But again, the new flat would have to be at a different enough angle and center that the set screw wouldn't roll over onto the old flat, or at the very least make sure the new angle was cut deep enough to encompass the original while not loosing integrity of the shaft.

This is why I think the RB is currently sputtering at WOT. Under part throttle the fueling may not be as dependent  on the TPS, but under full load the engine fueling simply doesn't work without a correct signal. This obviously can't happen if the adapter is moving all over the place because the set screw never set because I never cut a new flat onto the butterfly shaft, and simply rotated it JUST enough to barely clear the original flat's corner.

I don't want to talk about it, but I'll report back.

The adapter is rotated so that the TPS is in the correct positions and the set screw sits JUST around the edge of the flat on the butterfly shaft. Again, I did not cut a new flat, and it's currently sitting on the round edge. I use that word loosely because more than likely it's not sitting anywhere, and just spinning.

Maybe the set screw was tight enough though, as the TPS shouldn't exert too much pressure on the adapter, but if the TPS hit it's limit and locked, which could easily happen during adjustments or during use afterwards, the butterfly valve could then easily knock the adapter loose, assuming the adapter made it that far un-rotated. 

I trimmed the hanging flange from the TPS so that the sensor would sit flat on the mounting ring, not that it would matter if the shaft adapter is not set, but that's besides the point.

9o mm tb with set tps, welded radius, and reducer silicone coupler.

It looked good and ready to go.

Even got new allen hardware for the sensor mounting which would be easier to loosen and tighten while adjusting later with said wrench.

TPS finally installed.

I spent some time cleaning the faces of the intake plenum and throttle body of old RTV residue.

Got together all the throttle body hardware.

Gel locktite is amazing.

Added new RTV to the throttle face.

Installed in car.

I undid the t-clamp on the maf flange elbow in order to allow it to slip into the coupler in the radiator core support. This allowed room to install the maf and tb coupler. Finally I pulled together the maf flanges, bolting them together and attaching all the t-clamps.

Connected.

After connecting the throttle cable it was time for a test. It ran a bit rich.

engine prons

Enjoy.

sparky

After running the car for a few minutes I quickly realized something was wrong. This was even more quickly confirmed via visual check of the leaking coolant from the intake plenum. Why you need external/internal coolant passages zig-zagging through the plenum runners and flange is beyond me, but that's besides the point.

I decided it was a good idea to pull the coil packs and check out the spark plugs as well. The engine had been upside down on a stand for a weekend, not to mention out of the car and not running for over a year. I'm sure the entire head was soaked in oil, including the plugs.

As it turns out there was actually standing water in the plug wells. This obviously concerned me as I was not sure where it came from. At first I thought somehow it may have leaked from inside the cylinder due to the unknown amount of coolant coming from the intake. It definitely wasn't coolant though as it was completely clear. It also looked relatively fresh. Maybe TDC Auto left my car outside in the rain and it collected without the hood on? The 28o z was always garaged and rarely even driven in the rain.  The engine never left the garage after pulling it out. It also wasn't that long before pulling the engine that I changed out the plugs previously. I really don't know where the water came from and won't be able to confirm either way.

I cleaned out the ports with compressed air, blowing all the debris and water out before removing the plugs themselves.

I'm not really sure why I took this next picture, but it seems to be a blurry shot of the series one ignition chip on the aft plug cover from the drivers side. 

The plugs are NGK BKR7EIX Iridium's. Before I ended up with these, I was having major issues in the 28o z with blowing out my spark at high boost (18# range). These are one level colder than stock as well as being the performance plug that NGK makes. After the oem ones, I switched to standard 7e's, and even with the decrease in temp they were still blowing out causing on/off loss of power to the point that the car would buck from full accel to not and back again during boost. The Iridium's worked well and are apparently also cleanable if needed.

For now I cleaned these and put them back in. As a side note I had some sputtering in second the other night after a quick run through first, shifting quickly to second. Slow rolls in all gears however seemed fine. Maybe the quick blast of high boost blew out the spark. Maybe there is still significant squatting between gear shifts and the tires hit hard enough to buck the car. Maybe I'm low on fuel and the fuel pickup ran lean.

I'll report back, but what do you guys think of the condition of these plugs? I think it's weird that they could work at high boost from a slow roll v high boost after launching out of first which makes me think it may be another issue entirely. 18psi is 18psi, right? They've been in the engine for over a year unused, and spent a weekend possibly submerged in oil while the engine was flipped upside down. Get new ones? Run it a while to burn off any coated oil and pull them to inspect again? I also couldn't find my gapper at the time so can't confirm if they've opened up. The Iridium's are relatively more expensive, but worth it if it fixed the issue.

smoke and coolant

As seen previously, the condition of the intake gasket left something to be desired after TDC Auto's install. Although KK's repair job was amazing and worth the effort, but maybe not the pain of hammering one's thumb, it sadly didn't work.

After spending a day and a half wiring, the engine started first crank. The exhaust was not build yet, the downpipe fitted but open, none of the hydraulics even poured, and as will also be seen later, the new throttle body and its sensor were set completely in the wrong direction.

This was right around the time I got an iPhone, which takes great pictures I might add, but in the process I seemed to have misplaced a few days of photos. I don't know if they're on the camera I can't access, or my old phone I can't find. Either way I will make a post of this replacement later, but essentially I had to do what I dreaded after the car came back from TDC. I pulled the intake plenum while the engine was in the car. 

This was a very involved process which included buying bear claw wrench tops in order to remove the rear most nut on the plenum near the firewall. I had to get several extensions including one with a curved input adapter which enabled it to angle a few degrees. This combined with a fully jointed connection and an allen head socket of the correct size were all required.

I cleaned the intake plenum and head just to make sure, running the car a few times. It was also pouring smoke out of the downpipe. Before pulling everything apart I tightened the bolts around the area which was leaking to no avail. This reduced the leaking coolant on the head webbing, but not completely, and the coolant burning smoke did not dissipate. It was pretty frustrating to have to remove the intake piping connections, drain the radiator and remove the upper hose, not to mention the plenum itself, all while the engine was installed. There were enough other reasons that pulling the engine last time was still warranted, but still.

As it turned out, I also had to remove the throttle body in order to allow the plenum to clear the two studs in order to slip the gasket in. With the TB bolted to the plenum, the welded intake pipe hit the side of the engine bay a mite too early. Again, look for this coming up in detail. It was extra work added to extra work, but at least I was physically able to remove the throttle body since changing out its hex bolts with allen bolts when the engine was out of the car. Without a doubt, I would have had to remove the engine and transmission mounts, lower and angle the motorset, just to get access to the old style bolts that the shop put on the throttle body to begin with.