i managed to rotate the turbo and now i have a downhill slope on the oil return line but the leaking problem is still there.i am not ready to give up on the subaru turbo just yet ,but for those of you thinking of doing a turbo ,i think the subaru is not a good choice .to get the oil to flow properly ,i am pretty sure the return pipe has to point straight down . that would require a custom manifold , one expense i am trying to avoid . i may try running a pump on the return line to create a vacuum but this might be just good money after bad .the only electric oil pump i have found so far cost 175.00 at summit racing.i am going to try ebay and see if i can find something cheaper.i cant run the car the way it is because it is also leaking oil into the intake charge pipe.
when i did all my research into doing the turbo install ,i completely missed finding anything about turbos that are mounted in non OEM positions.since my turbo is not mounted at all similar to the way it would be in a subaru ,the oil will not drain properly and causes the seals to leak into the exhaust .the drain pipe needs to go straight down in order to drain properly and this is impossible using the stock cavalier exhaust manifold .this is also a problem with all low mount and rear mount tubos , as i found out while looking into scavenger pumps .i found a site showing a rear mounted turbo cavalier and he has used a shurflo pump for 15000 miles with no problems .so i called our local TSC store and they have one in stock.so i am going over tomorow to get a pump and i will have it installed by friday .and the snow is now melting so i should be able to test drive it on sunday(unless it snows)
i tried a bigger return line already.the return line improvement changed it from leaking all the time to just leaking till the engine oil is fully warmed up .i think the pump is the only way to fix the problem . the engine has a nice sound to it and it is quieter than it was with the muffler.the only difference is it makes more noise when you back off the throttle quick .but i should be able to fix that when i do some proper tuning.
i hooked up an oil return line pump and the oil leak problem is now solved .i havent driven the car with the turbo on it yet but it is driveable now.i still have to repair my leaking cv boot and make my new centre consule and then it will be on the road again.
I just did a quick glance thru, and I wanted to say something about the ECOtec. You'll NEED a 1 1/4" socket for the oil cap. I just got one and changed the oil in my VUE and I was about 30 minutes faster doing it that way instead of trying to fit a wrench in that tight space. Just thought I'd pass that along for anyone wanting to do this swap.
i put the car back together today and took it for a ride .the blow off valve has quite a distinct sound to it.but i did not get to open it up because i got a mile down the road and the boost pipe blew off the airbox .it was pretty dark out by then so i put it back in the garage.i tightened the clamp on the pipe and it should hold now.i had to build a new centre consule to cover my shifter mods and finishing that took most of today .so here are some more pics:
got the pipe back on and have driven the car for the last 2 days.i cant floor it because the boost causes knocking .i was expecting this but i wanted to drive the car before tuning so i would know what i needed to buy.you can feel the extra power in top gear.so i have a new fuel pressure reg. coming and a methanol injection kit coming.that will be a start on the tuning process.
Yay! You're BACK! YAY! I just checked and YAY! WFTB, you should have a pm waiting for you with a question about the master/slave issue. I finally recieved the Cobalt master cylinder and flywheel!(Thanks Monster Parts!) And I saw that you mentioned my swap on page 4, cool. Yes I'm away often even when my ship is inport. My department (reactor department) is on 2 section duty meaning that I get 16 hours off out of every 48 with a 2hr commute both ways from Everett WA to Bremerton WA. I'm still looking for parts that I need as I make slow progress on my swap. I had to go to a dealership to get my electronic accelerator pedal to control my throttle body since my engine has the fly-by-wire controls. And I've still got the A/C lines issue to resolve.
John
[This message has been edited by FieroCustom (edited 03-29-2007).]
Yay! You're BACK! YAY! I just checked and YAY! WFTB, you should have a pm waiting for you with a question about the master/slave issue. I finally recieved the Cobalt master cylinder and flywheel!(Thanks Monster Parts!) And I saw that you mentioned my swap on page 4, cool. Yes I'm away often even when my ship is inport. My department (reactor department) is on 2 section duty meaning that I get 16 hours off out of every 48 with a 2hr commute both ways from Everett WA to Bremerton WA. I'm still looking for parts that I need as I make slow progress on my swap. I had to go to a dealership to get my electronic accelerator pedal to control my throttle body since my engine has the fly-by-wire controls. And I've still got the A/C lines issue to resolve.
John
Welcome to the ranks hehe, do you have a build thread yet? Im just in need of my flywheel before I can start mine up
Fosgatecavy98, I had a build thread, but then I got sent of to Virginia for training then when I came back the big wigs at the shipyard in Bremerton decided that everyone needed to work 115 hours a week in preperation for getting all the work done on the Uss Abraham Lincoln. So we've pretty much been working every other day for months on end. I've been taking pictures though. I'll be putting them up sometime. The most progress I made was the first couple and the last day of leave I took. I started fabbing the mounts yesterday, have some nice pics such as this: Now I'm off to work again, hopefully I get to come home tonight.
i relocated the blow off valve to the top of the air box because i was getting the deadly "whistling sewing machine" sound that meant it was not opening when i closed the throttle to shift .i capped off the hose where the bov was before and tapped that plug for my boost guage .since i have still not received my new fpr and methanol injection kit ,i left the hole open so the car builds a small amount of boost for now .even with the hole ,it still builds enough boost to cause knock at about 4500 rpm.but it is much easier to drive know.i picked up a gtech pro ss to guage the improvement once i tune the setup.no need to drive a 100 miles to the nearest drag strip now
it started snowing 3 days ago and hasnt stopped.so the fiero is back in the garage and i decided to clean up the turbo plumbing and get rid of the stock air box .the air box (now that i have had a good look at it) only serves two functions :a place to mount the maf sensor and vacuum line to the fpr and intake noise reduction .so i dont need it anymore and it takes up a lot of space .with it removed you can see how there is lots of room for the supercharged motor .the airbox sticks out from the engine a lot further than a supercharger does.some of you may be wondering why i am using plumbing pipe for this installation .simple: its cheap and it works.i didnt want to buy fancy silicone elbows and chrome pipes until i am satisfied with the setup .so i have less than a 100.00 in my turbo plumbing so far and it still isnt exactly what i want yet ,but it is getting closer.
i got my water/methanol injection system today ,and my aeromotive LT1 style fuel pressure regulator .the fpr responds to boost as well as vacuum ,something the stock one cant do .the injection system comes with an electronic variable controller and a 150 psi pump .i have to work tonight so installation day is tomorow .so i will finally be able to use some of the boost i have available .i hooked up my Gtech and i will post some numbers when i test it out.cost of the turbo setup so far : turbo 599.00 plumbing 100.00 fpr 159.95 snow injection kit 389.95 subaru gaskets 48.00 plate steel 19.00 misc nuts an bolts taps drill bits glue ~100.00 oil evac pump 116.00 braided line , rubber hoses , clamps and fittings ~100.00 total 1631.90 so now i have spent more on turbocharging than the whole engine /tranny swap cost .pics
i have spent some time tuning the motor using the aeromotive fpr and the methanol injection kit .i can now run it to the redline in first and second gears without detonation .once i hit third gear the pinging starts at 5000 rpm .so i am not ready for the drag strip yet .i have some 32 lb fuel injectors on order and that should get rid of the last of my detonation problems .the car runs amazing well .it idles a little rougher than it did before but out on the road it is very smooth .and it is still being controlled by the stock computer .i am very impressed at how well this engine runs without much in the way of tuning . did i mention the car is fast? it really throws me back in the seat now .i hope to get a 0 to 60 time with my gtech tonight .there is a nice flat stretch on the way to work that should work to get a run in.no one lives along this stretch so it wont attract attention .owning the only running fiero gt in bruce county does have its disadvantages .everybody knows whos car it is if i get reported ! the whole driving experience is different now .this is my first turbocharged car .it is really neat to hear the turbo spool up and the rush of air going to the intake is something i had not experienced before .the sound from the blow off valve when you shift adds to the mechanical mayhem going on now. it is a little noisy without a muffler ,so i hope to add one soon .i ordered some tight mandrel bends from summit and these will arrive with my bigger fuel injectors . pics of the fpr and boost cooler installed:
first run i bogged it off the line and ran 0-60 in 6.62 sec.second run i smoked the tires !(kumho ecstas 16"245/ 55r)i need a little practise at drag racing so i am going to grand bend when it opens.funny thing about my first ran is i hit 58 mph in the mid 5sec range and then the graph flatlined while i shifted to third .on my next run i am not going to use first gear and see how i do .second run was bad(7.6)but it said i produced 189 hp at the wheels.
thanks for the replys ,fosgatecavy.i think there is more interest in what we are doing over on the ecotec forum ,but i can only post pics here for now so i am still going to post most of my stuff here for now .i do have a lot of people reading this thread ,just not a lot of posters . i did two more runs today .first i tried a second gear launch .that didnt work ,too much bogging .0-60 =high 7's .then i tried another first gear launch .still bogged it a bit ,better than yesterday ,but still room for improvement .but launching that little bit better shaved over 4/10's off my time .i did a 6.19 0-60 time .with some more practise to eliminate the slight bog coming off the line ,i should be able to get in to the 5's .the hp figure on that run came out at 160 .i then looked at how i have the gtech setup and realized i forgot to add my weight(185) to the weight of the car .so hp is probably on the low side .i got the highest hp (189) on the run that i spun the tires on.pics of gtech: on the way up on the best run i did 0-10 .647 , 0-20 1.587 , 0-30 2.367 , shift ito second @34.8 mph 2.84sec .graph is then a flat line until 3.425 sec .what seemed like a quick shift actaully stalled my acceleration for almost 1/2 of a second 0-40 3.910 , 0-50 5.034 , 0-60 6.193 , shift into 3 @61.4 mph 6.433 sec not accelerating again til 7.102 (i gotta build an automatic car!) a waste of 7/10's , 0-70 8.505 ,0-76.6 9.608 secs.that ended my run cause thats when the detonation gets too bad to keep it floored . but what a great tool the gtech is .it shows all the areas i need to improve on and you can anilyze to no end with all the stats it spits out.when i go to the strip ,the gtech will be along for the ride . i am going to go on some car mag sites and see by comparison what a 0-60 time of 6.19 equates to in the quarter .it will only be ballpark but keep in mind on each of these runs to avoid detonation i use a 1/4 of my cooler bottle .so when i get my larger injectors i will run quite a bit faster .
i did some reviewing of the data of my run that i got the wheel spin on .i forgot that what totally ruined that run was that i managed to hit the rev limiter at the end of first gear .my 0-40 time was 2.789 sec .that is a full 1.21 sec faster than at the same time as my 6.19 sec run.maybe a little wheelspin is the way to go afterall.
Thats pretty cool, that transmission sounds like its geared almost like what my old cavailer was 1st 35 2nd 55 3rd 85 4th 108+
Yeah, I am really quiet sad there isnt more interest in ecotecs anymore, i hope sooner or later there will be because in IMO these are far superior than 3800sc and I think your setup proves it.
If you need help posting pictures let me know I can show you or post them for you.
And by those times I think your putting down much more horsepower than 189, the cobalt ss (205hp) does 0-60 in 6.4, although I would assume a fiero would out-launch a cobalt anyday.
There's still an interest, just a less out-spoken one. There's a lot of R&D that needs to go into some of these Ecotec swaps. (Like wiring and such. Especially for the later VVT ecotec motors.) I'm going to be starting a build thread once the new cradle arrives and I can start taking measurements and a list of what exactly I need to go from automatic to manual, etc.
Also - a Fiero would out-launch a Cobalt any day indeed. It's also lighter by a couple hundred pounds. A stock LSJ would leave the Fiero faster than the Cobalt with a stock LSJ.
[This message has been edited by Ravant (edited 04-19-2007).]
the hp rating is off because of the wrong weight being in there .according to what i can find out from from road test data ,the car as is (with the bigger injectors) should pull about 13.5 in the quarter with some launch practise on my part .i really think this is a great motor for a fiero .the more good numbers i can post ,the more believers there will be.
Well as far as wiring goes, I have mine megasquirted, since the motor is not in the car I cannot test it all together but I have done all the major sensors and inputs for it except the ignition, because I have it mounted to the motor now. Extremely cleaned and took about a day of sodering. Im working on this setup to be able to be plug in play for any 2.2 na ecotec put into a fiero. It is extremly nice setup and allows it to be tuned and upgraded later on.
Anyways, WTFB you have any date yet as when you will be going to the track? And do you have the stock 2.2 ecotec injectors right now or the LSJ injectors?
Right - but what happens if you wanted to be able to tune with the continuously variable valve timing of the newer ecotecs? I don't think megasquirt offers a module to do so. You'd have to do a lot of work on wiring to make the harnesses work in these cars. I'm going to start sometime either this month or next in designing a harness to allow the stock systems out of a cobalt to work in a Fiero. Could take a few days, weeks, or even months, but with the ability to phase the cam lobes up to 90* each, I'm going to have to say, that offers a LOT of tuning potential. (I don't mean to thread-hijack here, but I'm just trying to consolidate all the ecotec info towards one thread, so most of it is not lost.)
i think incorporating the cobalt harness into the fiero and making the two harnesses work together would be great .then you could leave the interiour all original .on the other hand i tend to think of my fiero as a platform to be modified so i did not try to make the fiero harness work with the cavalier harness ,i just used the cavalier harness and ecm bcm and ignition switch and instrument cluster etc .the cavy ignition switch is no longer used,just hidden under the consul.now that i am experiencing the kind of power you can get from a 2.2 ,the v v t 2.4 varient doesnt interest me that much.they are a little harder to find ,and have more electronic gadgetry as you know. on another note ,i saw some 1/4 mile times for the cobalt ss on motor trends website and 0-60 was 6.0 and1/4 was 14.4 sec @93.4 mph .i think i can go 13.5 based on my 0-40 time on one of my runs . i havent got my bigger injectors yet so i cant go to the strip yet.i dont think they open till may anyway.
I agree, the VVT would be nice, but those motors are much harder to find for the price of a 2.2 ecotec. I would love to get ahold of the 2.4L crank for the extra stroke but the ring on them is not supported by MS yet, it can still be done but its harder to do.
WTFB, I cannot wait to hear some 1/4 mile times!!! I forgot to metion, on the ecotec forums people are selling the LSJ cheap, I beleieve everyone of them that goes Stage 2 upgrade they get to keep the stock injectors, not sure what size they are but quiet larger.
i started another thread on the chat board to get a rise out of people but the gist of it is this:i really know very little about tuning and my car already runs really well .how fast would an eco fiero go with a pro tuner calling the shots? dont like 4 cylinder cars?get over it ,or get left behind .
cuz your my hero. Cant wait to hear the 0-60 times, 
