That video was taken midway through the day, and I'm pretty sure that was caused by spark blowout, as well as the trigger wheel being slightly out of round. After that run I put in new plugs gapped a little closer and didn't have the stutter as in the video. I had to get out of it at 7000 rpm anyways, though, because my trigger wheel was vibrating loose. Since then I got an aluminum spacer machined to fix the trigger wheel issue and I had no problems associated with tuning that would have caused the rod bolt to break. If you go back and look at the pictures -- and maybe they don't show the bolt well enough, but you can see that it was a clean break, and the rod just snapped right off. We sent all of the parts to ARP, and they agreed that it looks like the bolt failed before any other parts did. They have cut the bolt in half and are taking core samples to see about the strength of the metal, and they may be sending the bolt to their engineers to look at under an electron microscope. I'm calling a few people tomorrow about pistons and stuff, since the Ross pistons burned away at the thin spot between the intake valve reliefs and the side of the pistons. I'll keep everyone updated!
--Bryson

quote Originally posted by bryson: ... I'm calling a few people tomorrow about pistons and stuff, since the Ross pistons burned away at the thin spot between the intake valve reliefs and the side of the pistons. I'll keep everyone updated! --Bryson

That is very cool with ARP going to shuch lengths about the bolts. I'm not claiming to be an expert or anything, btw. The info. in the quote above though sounds like a lean condition/high speed knock. What was the knock sensor telling you? Did you data log much?

How do you like the tec 3?

I love the TEC3, and I agree with what saying that it sounds like a lean condition, but I am pretty sure it just burned it away. The areas that burned away were probably less than 1mm thick, so I don't know why I didn't think about that right when I got the pistons. If I do order from Ross next time, I may point this out to them, or I may just take a file and progressively finer sandpaper to the piston to prevent a hot spot from forming.
--Bryson

[This message has been edited by bryson (edited 11-18-2004).]

If you don't mind telling the world what did you pay for the Tec 3?
What other accessories did you purchase to use with it?

Thanks!

We became dealers for Electromotive, so I got it at a dealer price, which isn't too much less than the price that the public can buy it for. We got the ECU, the wiring harness, the trigger wheel, the 1/2" crank sensor, and the coil packs for around 2300 bucks. So far, I don't regret it at all. I am running the car in full sequential, which only fires the injectors once per two revolutions of the engine, so I don't have to run an insanely low pulsewidth to make the car idle with 850cc injectors. Also, the general purpose outputs can be activated at different percents by using the volumetric efficiency table. I haven't messed with the MAP/TPS blend table yet to see if I can get rid of the little lope from the cams. I can add lots of different enrichments for different things, as well as adjest individual cylinder trims for injector pulse and timing.

Bryson check your PMs.
Matt J

Well? Any luck? I'm real sorry to hear this bud.......

Austin

what's the latest?

I will be ordering the pistons and rods next week it looks like -- I made a good chunk of change this week, so I'll be getting a forged crank as well. I plan on doing a little head work, which I will take pictures of, and I am finished cutting and splicing all of the wires shorter and much neater than before. Happy holidays all!
--Bryson

Pistons and rods for what build combo?

I'm just going to stick with the 2.3L because I found a forged 2.3L crank, and I would rather have the safety margin than the slight increase in displacement. I'm ordering from CP pistons this time around because it seems that they make a better piston, and I am going to go ahead and design the shape of the dish to match the combustion chamber to maximize what little quench I have with the *almost* hemispherical head design. I'll post pictures before I order the pistons -- I'm going to cc the heads and send them that measurement, as well as the shape of the combustion chamber.

I also am considering runing conventional (not gapless) rings, because I have heard that compression can get trapped between the gapped top ring and the gapless bottom ring and prevent the rings from sealing, resulting in a little blowby. I don't know how true that is, but I'm still trying to decide what to do.

[This message has been edited by bryson (edited 12-25-2004).]

When I got my rings from Total Seal, I ordered a gapless top ring. We'll see how well they seal when I get the block honed again (correctly this time...)

What were your old pistons?
I've heard good things about CP pistons... like that they pay special attention to the surface finish of the sides of the ring groove, because that can have a big effect on ring seal. I called them about Northstar pistons... they said they could do it (duh) but that they like to supply their own rings. Not only would that cost whatever CP pistons cost, but who knows what issues I'd get into with their rings vs. Total Seal rings, etc... and if I ended up not using TS rings, I'd be out the cost of those...

So, umm, yeah...

My old pistons were Ross pistons, and I was happy with them, but hopefully the CP pistons will be a little nicer all around, in the machining tolerances and attention to things like you mentioned. I have access to a large industrial oven, so I think I may also coat the piston crown with a ceramic coating and the skirts with a dry film lubricant, and maybe the underside with something referred to as an "oil-shedding" coating. I'll definitley take pictures of all this if I decide to do it. I'll also take pictures of the forged crank when I get it.

quote Originally posted by Will: What happened? Looks like a bolt broke...

Sorry to post this so late (thanks to Jeff from the quadfourum for reminding me), but we did get a reply back from ARP. They first thought that the bolt just broke, but after a Rockwell hardness check and further inspection of the pieces we sent them, they concluded that the bolt was up to specs and broke because of improper torque or irregularity on the spot face of the rod for the bolt. I can assure that the bolt was torqued as specified by ARP. It certainly is possible that there was an irregularity caused by pressing out the original rod bolts prior to installation of the ARP's. I guess sometimes bad things happen to good people We've gotten over it (the incident) but still have the mountain (money, or lack thereof) to climb. We'll press on and make it better!

Oh, as Bryson mentioned, we did order the CP pistons and decided on the Total Seal rings...their gapless top set. Those have been ordered as well as the Eagle rods. We're now working on getting Cometic to make us up an MLS head gasket. We need to have a minimum order on these, so anyone with a Quad4 to build, let us know if you have an interest.

Thanks to everyone for their support and encouragement!

Bill

I thought it would be kind of cool to share a few progress pictures with you guys. This is the mold of the combustion chamber before I sent it to CP pistons to have a piston made.

I cleaned the combustions chamber really well, then sprayed it with WD40 and poured bondo body filler into it, and set cardboard on the head and put a weight on it to hold it flat with the head surface.
These are the coolant tubes that I made up to run the coolant for the intercooler up to the front of the car. It is 1/2" stainless tubing.

I think I'm going to pick up a few radiators today and see which will fit best in the front of the car.
--Bryson

------------------
88 Fiero GT Quad4 Turbo =) 396 whp!

Short Questions here,,,but what would be better a Quad 4 or a 2.3 Tc out of a transport..

Sorry if this question has asked before,,but right now i dont have the time to do research i need a quick answer before some one else buys the engine i want

[This message has been edited by ducattiman (edited 01-21-2005).]

for a good answer, check out www.quad4forums.com they know the quad and the tc and the major diffs. great site for info on the quad4.

I did a little work on the head this weekend. I'm taking my time and doing a much better job than the first head. I got some advice from a guy that builds some pretty insane engines. Although he was vague, and admitted that nobody would give away their tricks of the trade, he told me pretty much what I expected. I'm going to smooth out all of the casting on the intake ports, and do the same to the exhaust ports, except maybe open up the roof and the sides. He said the short side radius felt pretty good already, and that all I really needed to do with it was smooth it some too. I would like to get another head and port it a little differently and run both heads on the dyno with the same boost and everything. Here's a little stand I made out of wood to hold the head while I worked:

Here's the head on the stand to give an idea of how it sits. The stand was incredibly easy to make -- 10 mintues with some scrap wood, a saw, and some screws. It puts the intake at a great angle when you're sitting in front of it. You don't have to bend over all awkardly to see what you're doing.

Here's a closeup of what I have started on the port. I have only used 60 grit so far.

Here's an idea of what's going on closer to the valves. This is where the casting marks are more prominent, and probably where it's most important to have no added obstruction (as if the valve isn't enough).

Any comments, advice, or ideas are welcome!!
--Bryson

[This message has been edited by bryson (edited 02-13-2005).]

Care to give me a PM on those pistons you got lettgin me know how i can get some too , looks good though, it takes a lot of guts to build another of the same engine considering the first one had some bad luck, and also considering anyone on any quad 4 forum is calling you crazy. Good luck and keep surprizing them your doing a great job.

im using cp pistons and gapless top rings in a totally different application. they are working very well together so far.
hope that is some encouragement

quote Originally posted by bryson: Here's a closeup of what I have started on the port. I have only used 60 grit so far. Any comments, advice, or ideas are welcome!! --Bryson

Knife edge the divider that splits to flow for the two valves...

My uncle made a stand like that out of steel for machine porting Corvair cylinder heads.

Yeah -- I definitley plan to on the intake side, as well as the exhaust. I didn't have the bits the other weekend to get in that far, but I should have them this weekend. Thanks!
--Bryson

BTW- I should have some new pictures, because I'm in Charleston today and for a little bit of tomorrow.

your car is awesome and im glad your getting to work on it more
post the stuff you did this weekend so i have something to read
<3

I didn't get much work done on my car this weekend. I ended up leaving the transmission with someone who had the correct tool to split the case, so I'll get that back sometime soon and hopefully I don't need anything special to put it back together. I spent all day Saturday working on my dad's car.

I got all of the old putty off the front bumper and repaired what I could, then painted it. I think it looks pretty good! I'll probably start a new thread because this one is pretty dead. I'll send you the link jam
--Bryson

quote Originally posted by bryson: I spent all day Saturday working on my dad's car.

Aww that Beemer brings back good memories ..Reminds me of my M3 ! Oh well got a Fiero or two ..or 3 or 4 to ease the pain

[This message has been edited by Erik (edited 02-28-2005).]

Yeah I love the M6 It has a lot of the characteristics that I try to model the Fiero around.

Bryson!!! I have just one thing to say to you...

------------------
Petty Officer Michael C Casaceli
Aircraft Electronics Technician Third Class
Patrol Squadron Ten
United States Navy

hahaha that's disturbing!

But you must admit, freaking hilarious

-Free bump-

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/060778.html

Started up a new one; this thread was getting a little long. I'll reference this thread in it, I forgot to do that when I made the first post.
--Bryson