Chat:Silver's ecotec atom 2 upgrades

[silver]

let the games begin




Build Thread is Here Chat stays focused in this thread please.

[capblaster]

[Karl]

[silver]

OK car's back better late then never.....no new intercooler the one I purchased online was too big they totally measured it wrong, it was advertised as 23.5 external width it was 28 inches wide.

BUT, with the new pump and the reversed flow at least my improvised bleeder valve works like a champ now  so when I can borrow Spanky's aeroforce gauge we'll have hard core numbers to show the IAT2 reduction IF ANY, honestly I don't expect much but a few degrees would be nice.

I'm just waiting on delivery of the new blower then I'll slap it on along with the 60lb injectors and load the starting tune and go from there.  I now have access to a dyno with a wideband that will allow me to tune remotely while on the dyno so I can be sure the tune is a perfect as it can be.


For now the BIGGEST CHANGES are no more whine....I guess the air intake not being right by your head makes the whine go away.....honestly I like it this way, the whine was too loud before, now it's quiet....and will I guess get quieter with the harrop....now I can enjoy my awesome sounding exhaust.


Any questions?

[DarthChicken]

So wait, you put your new larger diameter intake on without the new injectors or tune?

[silver]

Yes, the supercharger was supposed to be here almost 2 weeks ago, sooooo, for now it's got the new air intake but your tune and the 300 update 45 lb injectors...or whatever they were.

it still drives ehhhh ok....it's smooth under acceleration but idles sloppy....that's fine not like i'm going to be driving it much before I put the blower on.

[DarthChicken]

Umm.. there's a reason for that.

STOP DRIVING THE CAR 

The reason for a larger intake tube is to fool the ecu into thinking there is less air coming in.  The MAF only measures a fraction of the air, but assumes a certain diameter tube.  Tuning the car always involves tuning the MAF, so that when you target a certain air fuel ratio, you hit this.  You do this by adjusting the grams of air vs. hz the MAF responds with.

By putting a larger tube on, and not tuning, you're letting in more air "around" the sensor.  The same amount of air is going in, but the MAF is measuring a small amount of it.  So.. less air measured, equals less fuel injected.  You're running lean.

In addition to that, the advance curve is also based on the amount of air measured.  Less air measured, means MORE advance.  LOTS more, probably 2 or 3 row higher on the map (so like 3-5 degrees). 

Keep driving the car under boost, and you WILL blow a ring landing, guaranteed.

[silver]

no worries, I just brought the car home and that's all the driving it's going to do until the blower is swapped and the tune is changed.

Thanks for the explanation, I figured as much would be the case which is why I didn't extend my drive home....accelerated a few times yes, but no full pulls through all the gears.

The diameter tube for the air intake is almost identical to the stock, it's 3.0 diameter and that's supposedly what the stock is..but as I understand it the stock isn't really perfectly round all the way through and it's not exaclty 3.0 inches.

[DarthChicken]

Not blowing up engine is a good thing.  Never change an intake without logging what is going on, BAD things can and do happen.

The stock is like 2.75 inner diameter.  Is yours 3" inner, or outer? 

[silver]

3" outer sir.


as per your head's up I will forgo doing any IAT2 measurements in it's current form as I would like to see the results but would rather not buy a new engine

[Lane]

Silver - can you post the specifics of your pump upgrade?  Make/model, flow difference, what car it's from, etc.

[silver]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Bosch-Co ... ccessories

that's a link so you can see the pump and harness.....you can buy them together for $120 or seperately for about $10 less if you want to source them seperately.

the pump is the same size and flow of a stock cobalt pump and the cobra mustang pump and the ford lightenting pump.  the pump in our cars stock is NOT from the cobalt.

I don't have the flow rates, but if you search the flow rate of the stock cobra / lightening pump that's what this is.

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="silver"]
[/quote]

I've never been a big fan of screw-type hose clamps. And it seems that Brammo wasn't, either - there are very few of them (on the 4 front-to-back coolant lines) on the Atom. I've had too many cheap clamps fail on me in the past.

The GM clamps (which Brammo also used) on the engine are "Stepless® ear clamps" from Oetiker. These are readily available in the US. The only drawback to them is they're single-use - you cut them off if you need to disconnect the hose. There are "special" right-angle and straight tools used to clamp these, but they seem to actually be plain old tile nippers. You can also use dull diagonal cutters to clamp them. The tool is just used to draw the clamp closed - the actual retention is done by a ratcheting mechanism on the band.

If you're going to use screw-type hose clamps, a good brand to use is Gemi. They make the clamps used by Porsche and BMW. These are somewhat hard to find in the US, but Pelican Parts has them. The specific part linked here is the exact one used by Brammo for the 4 coolant lines.

Another option (if you want the clamps to be less visible) is the Herbie Clip. This is what Brammo used on the brake and clutch fluid reservoirs and master cylinders. These can be purchased from many computer stores as they're quite popular with the water-cooled PC crowd.

What all of these clamps have in common is 360° coverage - there isn't an un-clamped section to blow out.

[silver]

good info, I'll keep an eye on them, for what it's worth the brammo clamps had lead to 2 different leaks when the work was done the leaks were found and they were at the clamps, so I wonder if there's a life cycle to those single use clamps, perhaps they should be changed out every 2 or 3 years?  or maybe they were just ever so slightly not clamped on good enough at the factory, he said the leaks were small not major

[Terry Kennedy]

[quote="silver"]
good info, I'll keep an eye on them, for what it's worth the brammo clamps had lead to 2 different leaks when the work was done the leaks were found and they were at the clamps, so I wonder if there's a life cycle to those single use clamps, perhaps they should be changed out every 2 or 3 years?  or maybe they were just ever so slightly not clamped on good enough at the factory, he said the leaks were small not major
[/quote]

I doubt there's a lifespan on them - certainly GM doesn't expect people to bring their cars in every few years to get the hose clamps changed

It is more likely that whoever installed the clamps (either Brammo or GM) didn't use the right size clamp or didn't crimp them properly. It could be GM - one owner had an oil leak which was traced to GM not putting the sealant bead all the way around the block during assembly.