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Project BPU! DD 945 turbo

So after all the dyno research, and assuming that fab work is free/negligible in terms of time invested, would you put a Garrett core down low or up front, or use a DO88 stock location core? This assumes either the -91 or 92+ formats and A/C is functional.
 
So after all the dyno research, and assuming that fab work is free/negligible in terms of time invested, would you put a Garrett core down low or up front, or use a DO88 stock location core? This assumes either the -91 or 92+ formats and A/C is functional.

kinda depends on power goals. I'd say for a moderate setup (350-400ish maybe) the ease of install for an npr/do88 is fine. putting the intercooler out front isn't a bad idea and doesn't generally cause issues as long as care is taken with ducting and sealing (see also, evo's), and you'd have a hard time putting something like the big garrett core anywhere but out front. There are any number of ways to solve this issue, I wouldn't mind testing the blue car's intercooler against some of these other ones, but that would be a challenge. might almost be easier to figure out how to hook them up on the blue car and just use it with the test coolers hanging out the bottom. May contemplate trying that one day.
 
been a bit, of course I haven't done a whole lot to the car other than drive it. Finally took/made the time to work on it this weekend. so far, got the tps adapted and installed (and now I'll find the yoshifab adapter that I have laying around somewhere... oh well), flipped the idle over to that, looking forward to having all that stuff working the way I really want.. it wasn't bad but there was that last little bit that was missing.

this will also let me run ecu controlled boost (ran the wires for that too... going to play with a couple different valves because why not.. got a pierburg off an R, and the venerable MAC valve that's served me well on a number of installs), so that'll be cool. I need to drop the fuel tank as well, and fix the sender :grumble:

Couple other odds and ends left to deal with--transmission (new one is apart on the bench, will probably put that together tomorrow as well.. it looked fabulous on the inside, so I'll just replace seals, put the better frictions in, and let it ride with a new filter).

I have a feeling the rear end is not in good shape (no, I didn't do it.. I don't think), but I'm going to ignore that for a bit. when Sam gets the replacement cam from IPD I'll take some time and do that swap, and that should round out the performance mods for a few months at least. (really anything beyond this will require some serious thought given to the transmission side of things.. and as much as it pains me I would probably make the jump to a 4L60 unless one of the newer cooler 8 speeds becomes easier to control)
 
Not sure if it's dyno worthy, but the 4 port MAC valves are intersting too. You need a 2 port wastegate actuator on the turbo to do that, but it's kinda neat. I'm running one of those on my 16v car and the ability to pressurize the backside of the actuator is helpful for forcing quick spool and reaching places pretty far above the spring setting.
 
^ yeah, I need to get one to play with on the gold car I reckon, although currently it's riding the pine.


Soo BPU failed me (I thought) xmas week.. I moved it under the carport ahead of heavy rain, and when I went out to run some errands the next day, it wouldn't start. (it was cold-ish, figured it was my poor cold start tune). tried again the next day, still no dice.. so I grabbed the laptop, aaaand no rpm signal. dammit. Fine. Ordered parts, didn't need it for a week or so (was out of town, spreading covid far and wide). popped the hood yesterday to replace the sensor and discovered that I've been visited by some sort of rodent. on the carport. ****er chewed the wiring for the sensor, then chewed on misc. rubber lines (couple chew marks here, couple there) sampled the wiring on one of my coils. At the moment it appears little else was gnawed on.

Replaced the sensor, car cranked right up. yay. Rpm drops out at 1600. Boo. I got the bogicord sensor from fcp rather than the actual oem sensor (regretting that now I reckon), and I'm curious what/why it would do this. at the moment I have little more info than it's missing the tooth right before the missing teeth. it's there at 1500, and vanishes at 1600 lol.

Also warranteed the stereo, new one doesn't play sound either (DAMMIT) so I guess the door panels are coming back off to review potential shorts. Second heater core has been ordered, we'll see what these are all about. first one was pictured as copper(and cost a premium over the rest), but was delivered as plastic ****, so.. not having a good go at it right now with parts.
 
dammit. self ownage is the worst. started troubleshooting the 1600 rpm dropout, fully prepared and ready to condemn this brand new sensor. turns out, after checking everything and getting ready to pull it out in favor of another old sensor, I didn't get the bolt snug. sensor was loose. :-/. (make no mistake, the bolt was tight in the threads, but not tight against the sensor)

popped the door panels off, got the stereo working again.. something got mashed somewhere. I'll take better precautions next time it stops playing music, but for now I need the car back on the road. trans replacement to commence possibly this weekend.
 
news and updates (quick vid to follow)
got the rebuilt aw-71L installed, seems to be working well, may need some more kickdown massaging, but aside from that, crisp shifts.
Did a compression test yesterday (in troubleshooting a sudden appearance of coolant under the car), numbers were pretty good considering how loud the engine is.. 150-150-140-150,
plugs look good as well.

need to install springs and then cam, but I'm going to get in a little dyno time before that just to see where things are at this point, as it feels much better than it did back in September and I wanna know if it actually is, or I've just settled into it (lol)
 
finally got an all metal heater core. will see how this works (its alu). it looks to be soldered, so that's a plus. the cross section reminds me of the plastic-end tank heater cores, so I may see if I can pressure test it before installing it this weekend, but maybe not. the old core has gone south at an alarming rate, so I can't put it off any more.
 
I came in here to say that you needa blow some **** up again like old times, that always fueled the progress. I know life is different these days, just wanted to say hi and I miss the old days of you popping up in the newspaper. Doug may even have a car done soon. Miss you, love you. Blow some **** up
 
Still all quiet on the western front. have had various crank sensor issues since the above posts, did swap in a rebuilt aw71L that really highlighted those crank sensor issues.

Car is currently parked and waiting on parts, but Jared's recent 244 updates have given me several ideas for things to do, so I'm going to start making a list and stacking more stuff up I imagine.

Am contemplating the cd009 swap, for the fun factor of course, this is not going to be a drag vehicle.. I'll need to dig up the numbers I came up with a while back though and see what kind of rear gear I'd wanna swap to and start looking for that as well (in the mean time I may swap in a 4.10 to get the lockup rpms higher. hmm)
 
aiight. got some parts to swap on today (coil brackets), finally tracked down a new dsm CAS (and am waiting on the setup from josh as well, he ran into the same issues I did RE available supply of parts).

that has fixed the issue I had with the car bucking and acting stupid when locked up at 18-1900. Throttle response is very poor at the moment, worse than I remembered, but between the mechanical fan and what I think is a failing (or possibly failed, haven't checked the logs from the test drive) alternator that could be the big issue.

now I can get back to the testing and modifying :-D
IPD turbo cam coming up!
 
while the car is back by the shop and I've got space, I went ahead and did the e-fan swap, which coincided with a 100amp alternator swap... efan works great, alternator apparently is dead. The old alternator on the car was/is a 70 amp model that also was on it's way out, so I reckon I need to check the parts shelf and/or order up a new one. wheeeeeee!
 
If it?s a denso and the bearings feel good there?s a great thread on here about refurbishing them with some easily available parts. Took me about $60 with shipping and maybe 45 minutes of time.
 
If it?s a denso and the bearings feel good there?s a great thread on here about refurbishing them with some easily available parts. Took me about $60 with shipping and maybe 45 minutes of time.

I'll check that out! In the mean time, I also ordered a new/reman 100amp alt, so I'll be covered both/all ways. gotta try and tune this el camino and then I should have the car on the dyno for a check up/state of the union/2022 baseline.
Some of the things I'm going to (try) and test, now that the car should be fairly well sorted:
-effect of new valve springs (not expecting a delta with these, but curious)
-t cam to ipd turbo cam real #'s
-aftermarket intake manifold (this one is a bit more... fluid... may bring in a different car for that test)
-other intercoolers vs the npr (or at least the currently available new npr crop)
-possibly something else. I may (likely will) replace the rear end sometime this year, and switch to a 4.10, which shouldn't make a big change but while we're testing , why not test that as well?

-negative dyno run? find out what the 'real' driveline losses are.
 
cool, $70 to basically redo the whole thing, that works for me. a good hot spare is a good thing
 
Well fiddlesticks. we have a fledgling headgasket issue that I probably wouldn't have caught if I hadn't been fooling around with the cooling system last week.
I think I posted about this, but if not... after replacing the crank sensor I started having trigger issues, that were exacerbated by the aw71L install... because they happened the worst at around 1800rpms, and that's right in the butter zone for locked up and cruising at ~50mph. no amount of changing the timing map would correct the issue I was having, which is what led to the CAS install. The cooling fan switchout was not without issues either, as I tested and verified everything...except that the ecu was actually turning it on. this lead to a warmer than desirable drive home last friday (~230 degrees or so, dash gauge never moved, and I took it easy on the way home, but a lot hotter than I would like). That was a simple forgot to turn it on in the ecu (enabled the output, set the criteria, aaaand didn't set the on value...dammit!)

corrected that, went to drive the car monday and it had a bit of a variance in cranking compression.... uh oh... it did it again this morning, but slightly less pronounced. then this afternoon with everything working correctly the temps started creeping again, but with the fan working. pulled the plugs, and 1, 2, 4 look great (if not a little aggressive on the timing marks)..and 3.... she's a bit rusty.

oh well, good time to put the upgraded valve springs and retainers in, and make sure everything looks good.. also it's about due a timing belt, so meh. not really what I wanted to get into, but not the end of the world.
 
Yeah ye old leaner number three. I had to do two headgaskets last summer myself. Had 30 thou taken off the 95 wagon, machinist said dat too much. I said take it off. Working fine so far, had 200k on it. Actually bought with slightly blown gasket, found out after a high octane pull on the road..
 
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yeah. FCP came through with the seals (I probably should stock up on OEM front mains since those have to go out of prod at some point), early next week on the rest of the stuff. if I have time this weekend I'll get the shop straightened up and get it in and apart. probably wouldn't be a bad idea to run it down to the machine shop for the ol skimrooskie either.
 
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