V-12 Engine into 308 Build, over on Grassroots

I love all the yellow accents! it looks so beautiful and purposeful!

 

The replacement TPS connector came the other day and I got looking at the old one, it sure look like the tire threw a stone cuz it sure didn't look like this when I installed it the last time...but its replaced now
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New oil and filters and and the system primed....and so far the oil is staying in
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I went to install the coolant tank but the little rubber isolator broke...and then the stud broke removing it. so delay for that
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Then hooked up the ECU and....no spark on channel 1 or 2, the same 2 channels I posted good scope traces from so WTF? Spark on all the rest....back to the test bench and spark on all 6? hmmm if I wiggle the test lead it comes and goes and 1&2 but not on the others. Tried resoldering the pins to the board but no change so I got a bit more extreme and move the outputs to other pin. I have no idea how a failure like this happens but there is now spark at all 6 coils again.
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The front hub seals came today so I'll pop them in tomorrow. That will let me bleed the brakes and that will let me test the clutch pedal throw. Then see if the engine will make noise and the oil stays in. A lot of ifs...but if all that goes ok I'm thinking I may register for an autoX so I have a deadline to get it all sorted.

 

I'll lead with the engine is running again so that is good news

It is just pissing oil out Image Unavailable, Please Login .... but the engine itself is clean and dry as far as I can tell, I found no oil anywhere but on this hose
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I think its just the fitting, a new one will be here tomorrow so should be an easy fix. The brakes are bled and the pressure sensors reading correctly again.

There is a lot of stuff hanging that needs to be tied up or installed so that will be the focus for the next few days so it ready when the shock arrives.

 

The new fitting came, I thought about just popping the new fitting on but decided to cut the hose back like ? I'm supposed and WTF? The ID is completely blocked
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A new hose is on the way so a couple day delay until it runs again....but how bizarre. When i was looking for the leak I was sure the hose was leaking but couldn't see any damage so figured it had to be the fitting....nope, the hose was leaking. Its also completely blocked so I question if this pickup was doing anything last fall when the oil leaking started.

There were a couple dips on the other side today too but I couldn't see from where. The plan is run it at least 1 more time on the stands, maybe I'll find it then.

I did try to register for the Pocono autotX 6/28-29 but registration doesn't open until 5/26 so I put a reminder on my calendar so that is the current target.

 

Low pressure side? Possible collapse? On the low pressure scavenge hoses I ran the internal wire spring to keep it from collapsing and also avoid kinks. If not, that's wild.. what's it plugged up with?

 

Yes, the suction side and the hose imploded, like layers (that shouldn't be there I don't think?) delaminated. The hose looks fine on the outside. The plan is replace it and if the problem repeats switch to hard lines as there is no reason these are flexible other than easier to make.

 

I use aeroquip startlite hose, yeah not very budget friendly. But excellent hose.

Highly recommend the wire spring coil insert as a cya.

 

The shock is done and shopping today so I need to crack on the the important work of wire and hose routing and tying....I think this is a winner for the engine bay:
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So......I'm pretty seriously thinking I'm going to paint the burned rear panel satin black to match the bumper and diaper
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my teenagers talked me out of the black treatment but I could maybe try to talk Lana in an advance to letting me buy some blue paint, that strip above the bumper and rear the license plate is pretty burned.

The bumper needs a little repair from the fire and that got me wondering if I could do ANYTHING with the $500 each burned left tail lights so I wasted like 2 hours sanding and polishing to get them to an ok at like 20ft condition.
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The hose will be here tomorrow so back to needed work.

 

Suppose you could get a scrap bit of vinyl wrap and see what it looks like.

 

Yeah, wrap is an option. The goal is just get it looking presentable from 20 ft as it drives past, not looking right. The blue paint is burned and missing but the plan for now is to finally drive it a bit not rip it apart for respray....so what to do with it....

 

the plenum looks excellent...

+1 on satin black for the rear - it will be better than burned and you can always go back and do the blue down the road but you can drive this season...

...see you got some zip ties from Home Depot!

 

Are you going to have to modify the rear deck lid?

 

No, no, miles of room
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I had the plenum and lid on in the fall so for sure it fits. Just cleaning things up now to make it look as bit neater in the engine bay. Well...trying to clean things up a little everywhere really so it in a more drivable/useable/finished looking state.

 

20 ft away and moving……Give it a good rubdown with WD40. It will shine like new for a few days.

 

The good news is the new hose came and doesn't leak. Also its sitting in the garage on a warm night holding 80C for about 20 minutes. Shut down then come back 10 minutes later and run another 10 minutes and it was90C at fireup the right back down to 80C. Idle oil pressure maybe 25psi after like 10 minutes and held there so all good. When I shut it down the floor was dry.

The bad new is an hour later there's oil on the floor
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And all over the transmission.
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Last time I believed the oil returns head to block were leaking and had goo'd then with RTV but I was messy and I thought the issue was the oil pump housing so I cleaned all that shi...stuff off when the engine was out but it turns out 2 things can be true, the oil pump housing was for sure leaking but I'm pretty sure so are the oil returns on the rear head. I'm going to leave everything untouched, make sure its dry above the headers then pull the headers so I can see and be certain where the leak is.

And its not running right. Remember back I said I thought the ECU was losing its mind when I tried to use 2 stroke mode to avoid the damaged ignition channels, well that is still there just not nearly as bad. Its got a roughness it shouldn't have and for sure the rear bank is wanting to drop a couple cylinders. I'm suspecting coil 3 output (spark to cylinder 3&4) is not behaving exactly right. I'll look at the plugs tomorrow and probably move the out put to a different pin like I did for coils 1&2.

 

Headers off, clean, silicone on (need a mirror to see) headers back. There is a chance this works, I'll find out tomorrow.

There was also a little fluid dipping from the clutch hose connection. I snugged it yesterday but ok, I'll snug it a bit more...and strip both the hose end and adapter fittings. The adapter I only saw at Pegasus, if it ships tomorrow I should have it Saturday I hope.

And the shock is here so if I can get it to stop leaking everywhere I can drive.

 

Yesterday's effort had 0 effect on the leak
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I can see the oil running down the what was the motor mount boss
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.....tomorrow when its cool I WILL find it.

I move the coil 3 pin and nothing changed, still a little rattly as rpm drops. As I was pondering it occurred to me that at 6degree idle timing I should see the timing mark and I can't....its ignoring my idle timing setting and using the main table....I buggered something in the program and it HATES 15 degrees below about 1200rpm when its hot and that is why I thought the ECU was losing its mind before. I'll get that sorted before next run.

I had it starting pretty good cold but it didn't start well the other day when it was 75+ out and kind of gas fouled at least 1 plug. I have temp based corrections and could could sort it I'm sure but I decide to change my start strategy a bit. I usually cheat and put a pretty high VE in for cranking rpm...that is left over from the days when that was the ONLY option. Today I cut that way back to a number that the engine would probably like running and am moving the extra fuel to the start enrich where it belongs so bit more work to do there to get back to where I was.

Last I cleaned the plug before starting and still I have cylinders that want to drop. I leaned it out quite a bit from where I was....it could be it just doesn't want to idle near stoic. I'll look at the plugs again tomorrow and decide how to proceed.

 

That is such a small space. Do you have an inspection camera to see in there?

 

Have you tried UV dye to track it's origin?

Timing? Have you ever had it running at 6°? We've got similar cam profiles and I just can't get the 4.0 v8 flavor to idle that low. 900-1200 @ 10°-12°, below that it's not smooth and fights the burn efficiency. Technically it should run that low but it's a real fight.

 

A hand will fit in there, just not when its 200F ...but yes I do have a camera that I may try
I have not tried die but another buddy tells me road dust is the only way to find leaks...garage dust and dies are no substitute LOL

I can see it RUNNING down the mount so its a big leak just above, What is just above is one of the oil return bosses I added to the block and head. I kind of though the gasket wasn't sealed there but smearing that space with silicone did nothing......that has me questioning my welds. whatever it is its a good size hole.

Timing.....it was set wrong for all the testing and driving I've done. I remember setting it, I have a battery timing light I bought 5-6 years ago specifically to make checking timing on this car easier....and yet it was 4 degrees retarded. I remember when I switched the ecu to 2-stroke I checked the timing and wanted it right where I have it now and that confused me. When I reloaded the 4 stroke tune that reloaded the old timing but since I was having spark issues I had the timing light out and noticed and corrected it.

So before, the 15 degree base idle timing was actually 11 degree and now its 15 and knocks a bit and wants to kick back when rpm gets down into the 500-600 range. Before idle 6 was actually 2, yesterday it was ignoring my 6...I broke something when I added the code to try spark to throttle pedal it seems, I'll get that sorted before running it again.

I played a little yesterday with the timing locked and as you say 10 (confirmed with the timing light) is a pretty good number and because its a pretty good number the engine has no interest in running below about 1200rpm and I suspect that is only true because it was dropping a couple cylinders as seem here on the green bank 1 lambda line looking like a staircase when the orange bank 2 is flat
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This is likely because the throttle is basically fully closed so even small cylinder to cylinder errors really bugger the mixtures. Timing in the 0-4 (actual) range lets me open the throttles enough to good cylinder to cylinder mixture control. At 10-12 degree timing there in no way I can get idle working right I don't think so I'm not surprise you can't either on similar engines but with the timing at 0 degree I can turn the rpm down to 400-450ish and with the 10w60 oil still see pressure that doesn't scare me.

The coolant temp is another matter. Yesterday it was 82F and the afternoon sun beating in on the car while it ran at 1200-1500 rpm most of the time and the coolant settled in around 97C. Its ok.....but it really seems like the 5.4liter wants a bigger radiator than the 3.0liter needed, strange right? My hope is still that if I keep idle down to 1000 or less then it will be fine....but that is starting to feel like more hope than reality.

Last that graph is way zoomed in so the rpm line looks tame, but its hard to describe just how fast this thing builds rpm free reving. 1000-5000 is a blnik...10th of a second? Standing next to it there is no question it means business

 

The gray RTV I put on the other day has turned to goo from the heat so it was never going to work
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Its for sure the right hand side above that motor mount so at lunch today I cleaned off the goo and slathered it with the high temp orange and went back to work to let it dry. After work I decided to let it dry more and installed the repairs shock, found and fixed the idle timing issue ("Spark Timing" is the table, "Spark_Timing" is the output from the multiplexer that selects between the main table, idle table, and pedal blend calculation...the "_" matters), then played a bit more with the cranking fuel calcs and fuel timing and gave it a try. The timing was fixed but I also fixed it so it didn't start and the cranking drained the battery. After dinner and some time on the charger and a few more fuel tweaks it popped right to life better than ever. I let it get to about 70C and....its leaking. Its also still dropping a couple cylinders.

The good news though is its leaking differently so for sure I disturbed the leak. Its wet above my RTV on the left side of the bung so probably a weld on the metal I added to form the oil passage. Above the header flange its dry so I can probably slather on some more of the orange RTV to seal the leak and hide the mess with the header. Tomorrow problem

The clutch line parts are not coming until Monday, so I can keep messing with t5his without feeling like I should be driving.

 

I got a late start but I believe victory is mine. I found a pretty big hole in the oil return passage hiding on the bottom of the head.
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Ideally I would weld it.....but today, engine in the car the answer is JBweld. Tomorrow I will leak test it before reassembling the header to be sure.

With the rest of today I think pull the plugs to see if there is any hint at why its misfiring. They are currently gapped at .025, I forget why I did that but I know it didn't fix anything so I think I'll open them up to 35 or 40 and see if anything changes. The OEM gap for the coils I have is 40 so that is where I think I'm heading....and maybe a compression test to see it something's gone wrong.

I want to get the wheels on this weekend and see if I can get a sense of where the toe is....so I know its ready to drive once the clutch fittings arrive.

 

Not sure if I'm impressed or just a bit worried that you'd trust your engine to a bit of JB Weld !

Can't think what we are all going to do with ourselves (or read about) when you get this thing up & running & reliable. (But nonetheless we are all rooting for you to get there!)