BUILD The misadventures of sktchys turbo 3800 catfish

[sktchy3.8]

Well. It really ran better than ever when I took it into town. Enough to hit another cell on the maf where I still have it buried in fuel and skewing numbers but I do believe it's gonna be time to put the afc on soon as I've already got it scaled down to where the maf number is closer to wheel than crank hp when it's dialed in and I've only got about 4 cells left before I'm trying to shoot the moon on the last one. Seems low for pump gas but I would suppose the e10 has a little more ethanol in it than the sticker on the pump says and even e10 over straight 93 is gonna change things up a little bit.

But it only did it a couple times and same as last time after I started it back up from sitting for 5 or 10 minutes it was spitting again. This time it popped the wire off the plug and it fell back into the header

So me being me and running out of plug wires laying around I decided to get stupid and cut one of the fiberglass boots apart and wrapped it around a wire a few times with the stock steel cover on the boot itself. Tied it up with mechanics wire and I guess we'll see what happens.

It's ugly as hell but whatever. I could care less if it stops this bullshit without having to tear it all out and start over again and it's really putting a kink in my plans of doing exhaust this weekend.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Dimple that shit if you get a chance. Well worth it even if it is 1/8 inch.

Also I had better luck with good quality wires on the Astro. Small block chevies suck for plug wires.

 

[sktchy3.8]

I think that's gonna be the plan and then put the msds back on it. That big ass collector is not gonna give two shits about a dent in it anyway.

My frankenwire is holding up for the moment and I at least gotta run it around for a while with the tops off making some pulls and getting some really good data without anything catastrophic happening. Think I'm finally ready to lean it out to high 11s on the afr side and I'm alot more comfortable driving it around without worrying about it doin somethin dumb.

I don't think I'm gonna make it to the lift today but I did grab a few pieces of scrap and my flux core welder and brought em home so I might try and get a start on a straight piece or axle dump by the time the nights over. That little exhaust surely isn't helping a damn thing and it really quiets down the actual turbo a lot.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Also I have it building boost in 1st again and moving air out to 5500 so it really is running great other than probably needing some more ve work on the down low side of things. And to be fair had this been an automatic car, I would've never seen any of these quirks I have on decel so I'm really just stupid ocd about how it runs. Any inconsistency and it's back in the garage getting looked at.

I've got some more dumb ideas cooking like trying to use a simple Mac valve, a manual boost controller and a toggle switch for a stupid hoodrat scramble switch since I've always wanted to do that to this car for whatever reason but that'll have to come after I switch over to e85. I'm hoping since fuels pretty close as it is that I can set the afc for 35 % and land it all just a hair on the rich side but I doubt things will work out the way I want it to there.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Well. This is what I got accomplished last night. I'm not sure what the hell I was ever thinking before but it's wild I thought I could make power with all those little pieces and birdshit welds just because it was straight through.

I'll need to get a high flow cat to keep the fuzz off my ass and it definitely needs brought out of the rear of the car now because a 3 inch pre axle dump sounds like a damn tractor at idle.

And like Chewbacca taking a shit when your foots in it.

But, if you have an ear for these things you can hear it go lean and start breaking up up top now. But it's not consistent either. My first boost was beautiful and it ran like a scalded bastard. The second and third did this shit. The only difference I can pick out on the log is that the map sensor passes 103 kpa (which I don't think I've ever seen it do until now) and goes up to 104. Loading fuel into the maf doesn't help and just makes it rich when it doesn't do it, the maf isn't maxed, and I'm no where close to out of fuel with it. Commanded stayed at 11.5 the whole time so there almost has to be something goin on that it's moving just enough more air to pop me over into a different cell and things are sketch real fast.

I'm not going to go dig back through 3 year old logs to try and find out for sure. But I'm pretty sure this is what happened when I turned the boost up on my original engine and broke a #3 piston.

Ve has helped quite a bit on the lower end of things but it still hunts for idle when it's rolling in a neutral gear position and going lean is going to ruin all of my fun real fast. I'd really like to figure it out before I trash this bottom end because with it running right I have 30 psi of oil pressure at hot idle. But it suck because I've gotta push it way up there to test after changes and it feels like playing with fire. Ugh.

 

[sktchy3.8]

#4 plug wire was loose on the damn plug again. I suppose that would makes sense where it only showed up under hard boost. Hopefully that's all it was since there wasn't really any knock to go along with it and I can go back to making this exhaust halfway tolerable.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Well, I more or less think I have the mid pipe done. At least it's fully welded up and bolted on anyway. Piecing that together was an absolute breeze compared to trying to fit things right going over the axle. Every time I get it stuck where I want it I end up with a big ass gap somewhere or my tack weld breaks and I've gotta start over again so I'm trying to fit all that one piece at a time and then fully welding that joint and moving on. The tricky part is getting somethin welded that I can get back up in there or get back out after I have it tacked to finish it and getting the exit angle somewhat decent looking.

I've stuck it together probably 10 different ways and I'm still not happy with it and it's getting late so I'm giving in for the weekend. Maybe I'll find another piece or two in the bin tomorrow that'll be the key to getting it all together.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Flash burned my eyes so bad I couldn't sleep more than a couple hours so here I am watching the sun come up and marking spots I need to cut back out and redo. After moving all these pieces around a number of times I think I've finally come up with a configuration that'll work without having issues and be easy to whack a cat and another resonator in if needed.

I'll need to move the v band further back to where the clamp is in the arch or cut the weld out of my twist going into it and put it there depending on how clearance works out but it's looking pretty good other than my shitty welding.

Which really isn't so bad considering I'm rolling around on the garage floor using a 110v harbor freight flux core mig and butting these loose pieces of what was basically garbage together and trying not to burn holes (hence the lack of penetration) lol, penetration. Probably shouldn't be doing stainless with it either but whatever.

It's been a lot of fucking around but I don't think it's turning out too bad and it'll match the rest of the sketchy bullshit on this thing just fine.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Dudes this project may have to sit for a couple days before I can try finishing it. I really fucked up this time.

All the times I've squinted my eyes and tacked up some mild steel without a helmet I figured I could just get away with it and didn't even think twice. Apparently where stainless is shiny it amplifies the hell out of the arc and I torched my eyes to all hell. I managed to get a half day at work in before it got real bright out but it basically feels like holding a lit match to both eyes and I caved and might hide in the dark for the rest of the day.

Another lesson learned the hard way.

 

[SpeedSpeak2me]

Dudes this project may have to sit for a couple days before I can try finishing it. I really fucked up this time.
View attachment 163503
All the times I've squinted my eyes and tacked up some mild steel without a helmet I figured I could just get away with it and didn't even think twice. Apparently where stainless is shiny it amplifies the hell out of the arc and I torched my eyes to all hell. I managed to get a half day at work in before it got real bright out but it basically feels like holding a lit match to both eyes and I caved and might hide in the dark for the rest of the day.

Another lesson learned the hard way.

Start with a cold compress over your eyes, reduce the inflammation. Toss a few damp towels in the freezer so you'll have some to grab later.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Definitely tried that and that helps momentarily. I've had some friends tell me to cut a potato in half and put it on them and it helps too but I don't really wanna drive back to town to the grocery store

I've had flashburn before but never like this that's for sure.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Man that was rough. Got to a point last night where i had to shut myself in my bedroom with all the lights off and couldn't even look at my phone screen with it as dim as it would go. Nothing helped at this point, cold compress, painkillers, nothing but darkness was saving me at all. Easily up there in my top 5 most painful things I've dealt with in life.

Almost caved and went into the ER but I wasn't about to try and drive anywhere and I just kept telling myself if I needed to get through the night and if it wasn't better I'd go in today.

Sure enough went I finally fell asleep I was out hard for a good 10 hours and woke up will all the crustys on my eyes. But the pain has gone down drastically and I can see just fine. Lights don't really seem to bother me near as bad today but I'm not quite 100% either. I think for sure ive got another day or two of wearing my prescription sunglasses around and hopefully it doesn't flare back up in the sun today but I think I'm gonna be alright.

Most of all if you ever do this to yourself leave your eyes the hell alone. It's super easy to wanna rub them to relieve the pressure and get some of the built up fluid off of them but it burns like hell when you mess with it and it ends up in your whole eye instead of the corner of it. My best suggestion is to shut yourself in a dark room and drop a couple NyQuil and put yourself to bed to get through the worst of it.

 

[LomileWE-2]

Hey man hope you get better soon sorry I missed seeing you at bowling green

 

[sktchy3.8]

Hey man hope you get better soon sorry I missed seeing you at bowling green

You must be thinking of somebody else? I'm out in the middle of Nebraska lol. I appreciate it tho I think another day or two I'll be gold.

 

[LomileWE-2]

Okay man still best wishes

 

[v6buicks]

You must be thinking of me! Sorry I didn't see you there. Couldn't have asked for better weather.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Dang turbo V6 fbody guys anyway

 

[sktchy3.8]

So because I don't know when to quit, I've got the tailpiece tacked up and ready to weld. I don't really like the funny kink I had to put in it but I had to make an angle with the pieces I had left and maybe it'll sound cool. I used up basically every bit of what I had for pipe so by the end I was really trying to make whatever work.

Feels like I put a gm u bend in it and shot myself in the foot and I'm gonna have some lovely gaps to fill, but a 3 inch custom stainless exhaust for the price of a night in hell isn't really all that bad of a deal.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Also I believe I found my oil issue. Just for the hell of it I took some heat tape and wrapped my oil pressure sender and some of the filter housing. I don't plan on leaving it that way but for testing purposes it's fine.

The last time I had it out I never saw pressure drop under 30. So I think it's time to wrap my turbine housing underneath the blanket and that collector after I heat it up and knock a dent in it and maybe come up with a metal heat shield to fit between there.

 

[bs009]

I wouldn't stress about the bends too much.
Glad to hear you're recovering from that eye deal. I see guys on the internet tacking with sandals and no hood all the time and I always wonder how that's actually working out for them. Crazy stuff

 

[sktchy3.8]

Man I'm not gonna lie last night was rough, fortunately a coworker brought me some antibiotic eye drops this morning and those helped a ton. My face is about as red as my car too

I just really wanna hear this thing fire up and sound and run awesome. Where I've got it hung up all nice and sturdy I've got half a mind to hang a flowmaster 40 or somethin off the end of it to help with the rasp but I don't want any thing real restrictive either.

 

[sktchy3.8]

Got it all finished and back up on the car, what a pain in the ass.

Apparently I'm fat on fuel at idle and my return line for my turbo sucks, I hope, seems like a lot of pressure on the radiator hose and it kinda wants to spit at idle a little. Shit. But it sounds pretty neat for a bunch of stuff put together out of trash.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

She makes the right noises.

 

[sktchy3.8]

In all fairness I would think if it was the head gasket it'd would've blown one of my coolant hoses to the moon when it's in boost. I'm hoping its fuel and oil smoke because when the fuel mixture changes my miss goes away or gets worse. Might need to check my wideband sensor before doin much more.

 

[sktchy3.8]

And now it just wants to misfire all over at idle. Haven't even gotten to drive the thing. Gone through the wires and can't find anything. Tightened a couple of the coil pack bolts a little after one of the packs shifted on me messing with wires. Changed some stuff in the tune. Still missing like it has a cooked wire. So back to it's usual bullshit.

This car is as toxic as any girl I've ever met