Yesterday I finished up the passenger side header wrap on the primary tubes.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...wrap_ps_01.jpg

I can't really say that I would want to have to do this again any time soon. :nonod:

I noticed that a few of the cool socks I had on the ignition wires got heat damaged by apparently laying against the headers, so I had to order a new set of them.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/cool_socks_01.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/cool_socks_02.jpg

Looks like the heat just bleached the black color out of those socks, but that area is also noticeably softer to the touch, so I'm guessing they are shot once that happens.

Not sure why I chose black cool socks, but this time around I got light colored ones, thinking they would be better at reflecting heat anyway. The black ones were also only 6 inches long, and it looks like 8 inch ones will cover more of the ignition wires and boots.

Also accidentally pulled off one of the ends of one of the ignition wires when trying to get them off of the spark plugs. Luckily I have a couple of extras that were on the car when it was pulled into Chris Harwood's shop, as those Granatelli ignition wires aren't cheap, and I really wouldn't want to have to buy another set of them just to replace that one wire. Maybe I can fix the broken one......... :shrug01:

I didn't do anything at all today on the car. I think I tried way too hard yesterday to try to make my right hand act like a much more useful tentacle to wrap that insulation around those tubes, and my wrist is complaining fiercely today. I was trying to make my hand twist and turn in ways that God didn't design it to do, apparently. So I figured it would be best to not stress it out more quite yet. Tomorrow will be another day...

Planning on putting together those PTFE fuel lines up front and it will be easier getting to the one going from the fuel rail to the pressure regulator without the ignition wires being in the way.

I still don't have the turbo back together as it is still slowly dripping oil. Haven't heard a word back from Turbo Direct about this, but no big deal as I think I know the cause now anyway. May pull off the compressor housing on the other turbo, since possibly that one has oil in it as well.

Hope this wrist feels better tomorrow. Want to got the car back together and drive it to try to figure out what that drivetrain noise is all about.

Didn't feel very ambitious today (heck, I'm retired, so what's the hurry?), so I only got one fuel line built. Took my time and tried to find the best routing for it so it will clear everything. I figure I need to put a support mount on the firewall to keep it situated correctly, and also put a small amount of tension on that banjo fitting on the fuel rail in a clockwise direction rather than a counter-clockwise direction so as to not have the fitting loosen up over time. Basically slightly pushing up against the fitting rather than pulling down on it. So a clamp mount on the firewall holding that hose will help to do this. That will help to keep the hose further away from the headers, as well as help it to clear the steering shaft underneath the brake booster. I may need another clamp mount near the fuel pressure regulator if it looks like the hose will rattle against anything.

Actually I like this PTFE hose a lot better than the normal rubber lined SS braided hose. For one thing that teflon hose is internally coated with conductive carbon which will prevent a static charge from building up from the gasoline flowing through a nonconductor. I've been worried about this from the start when I decided to tackle the fuel system, even though some people told me it's nothing to worry about. I doubt they would bother putting that carbon layer on the teflon if it wasn't something that COULD be of concern. And I've gained a lot of fear and respect for Murphy's Law with this car.

Also I like the way the fittings connect onto this hose. With the rubber lined stuff, you had to be careful to keep the hose from walking out of the fitting while you tightened the two parts of the fitting together on the hose end. If you're not careful, the hose could walk out slightly and you won't have a good connection. So the hose could blow out under pressure while driving down the road. Yeah, THAT could get ugly!

With this PTFE hose, there is a metal collar (I think they call it an "olive") that fits between the SS braiding and the teflon hose, which accomplishes two things: (1) Helps get a real good seal between the teflon hose and the nipple it fits over top of, and (2) the SS braiding itself gets clamped between the bottom half of the fitting and that "olive" when screwing the two halves together, and therefore holds the hose in place so it can't walk out of the fitting while you tighten it.

And this stuff is no more difficult to work with than the rubber lined hose. The instructions just seemed more complicated, but in practicality, they are just itemizing the details that you really should do using common sense anyway.

Of course, I might be jumping the gun here until I actually hook up the hoses and put fuel pressure inside of them. I might create a fuel/air bomb in my garage when I crank it up. :ack2:

Sigh.....

Not sure how I wound up on a website I found about turbo scavenge pumps (http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/oilsystems.htm), but I was reading the info there when I came to a section about a turbo timer. Apparently this device is designed to allow 12 volts to be applied to the oil scavenge pump a prescribed length of time after the engine is shut off in order to continue oil flow through the turbo(s). The stated purpose of this is to keep oil from cooking within the hot turbo by continuing the oil flow through it till the turbo cools down somewhat. I believe this is mostly applicable to underhood front mounted turbos, as being so close to the direct exhaust coming from the cylinders, they get very, very hot. But once the engine is off, the heat source ends, so the flowing oil then acts as a coolant to the turbo. Not sure how important this is to the rear mounted STS turbos, though, as they don't get nearly as hot as the front mounted ones.

But here's the thing. I recall that after I had the STS turbos installed by Greg at Antivenom back in 2006 or so, I could hear the scavenge pump running for about a minute or so after I shut down the engine. However, since bringing my car back home a year ago, and finally getting it somewhat streetable again, this extended running of the turbo oil scavenge pump no longer takes place. I'm not really sure what this timer looks like from STS, but I do not recall seeing anything that LOOKS like it. Meaning some sort of module with wires coming out of it and attaching to the scavenge pump in any way. I don't have the STS manual handy at the moment to see if I can figure this out, and I'm not sure the new manual I got will be much help anyway, since STS completely redesigned their oil scavenger system to be rear mounted instead of front mounted like I have on my car with the older style.

But in any event, either the timer module is there, somewhere, and has been disconnected by Chris Harwood or Aaron Scott, or the module is no longer even there, having been removed by either of the two mentioned gentlemen while their hands were on and in my car.

I'm going to check with STS to see of what import the lack of this timer may be with my turbo system. I haven't noticed any problems, but then again I haven't taken apart the turbos to see if it appears the oil got too hot inside of them. Maybe that has something to do with the oil still leaking from that passenger side turbo that I have the compressor housing off of. Maybe the scavenge pump needs to draw oil out of the turbos when the engine is shut down to keep oil from building up in the housings. :shrug01:

The webpage indicated earlier in this post shows a turbo timer for sale, and the price is modest, so if needed, I should be able to wire one in. The wiring looks pretty simple to do. But first I need to see if the timer is still in there, I suppose. And get some feedback from STS about this issue.

Ran the PTFE fuel line I built yesterday from the back of the driver's side fuel rail down to the fuel pressure regulator. Also mounted a clamp to the firewall to hold the hose up out of the way and further away from the headers. And covered the hose with convoluted insulation, just for added heat protection.

Yeah, the straight fitting at the fuel rail fits much better than the angled one I was using.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/ds_fuel_line_30.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/ds_fuel_line_31.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/ds_fuel_line_32.jpg

While I was in there, I changed out a section of vacuum hose going from the turbo blow off valve to the vacuum manifold I installed a while back. The couple of times the car has been in boost while I was driving, I noted I didn't hear the blow off valve at all between gear shifts like I used to. So I'm thinking maybe something wrong in the vacuum line that actuates it. There was a short section of vacuum hose that seemed awfully soft and easily squeezed shut, so maybe this was keeping the blow off valve from activating. Maybe it was collapsing under vacuum and not allowing the differential needed for the blowoff valve to trigger opening

Put the new cool socks on all the spark plug wires and before I put the ignition stuff back together, I poked around looking for anything else that needed to be fixed or insulated (looking for signs of melted convoluted tubing or damaged insulation) while it was easier to get in there. Wish I could get a layer of insulation around the starter, but I don't see any way to do that without taking off the header on that side. So maybe the header wrap itself will suffice. Heck, I wish that hot battery terminal wasn't exposed on the starter neither.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/cool_socks_30.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ulation_01.jpg


BEFORE:
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/..._02_before.jpg

AFTER:
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...n_02_after.jpg


The passenger side turbo is still S-L-O-W-L-Y dripping oil. Not sure what to make of that. Maybe the return line just filled with oil without having the scavenge pump running when I was relieving fuel pressure. I may have to leave the turbo open till I put the fuse back in place and do a pressure check on the new fuel lines.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...bo_leak_30.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...bo_leak_31.jpg

Haven't heard anything back from STS about that turbo timer situation I asked them about. But I did find a blurb in their FAQ section on their website stating that a turbo timer is not necessary with their systems. So maybe it's not anything I need to be concerned about.

Oh yeah, here's a pic of some preliminary wrapping I've done on the rest of the headers.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/header_wrap_30.jpg

Not sure if I'll keep it this way or not. But it will do for now, I guess.

Rich, if I ever have a problem with "Peek" you will be the man I seek out for help.:thumbsup:

I would do what I could to try to help. But remember I'm far FAR away from being a qualified vette tech.

Got the crossover fuel line between the front of the fuel rails done and installed today. So while Connie was standing by to look for any leaks, I hooked the battery back up and put the fuel pump fuse back in, and just pumped up the fuel pressure in 2 second bursts without starting up the car. No leaks anywhere, so that was a good sign.

This also ran the STS scavenge pump while fuel pressure was building up, and as I suspected, once the pump pulled the oil out of the lines, the slow oil drip from the turbo ceased completely. Hopefully I'll remember to not do that again when I need to relieve fuel pressure from the system. Of course, this is now it's own problem because I don't know how else to safely do that when I need to work on the fuel lines for any reason. The stock system has a schrader valve (much like you have in a tire valve) to remove pressure, but I don't have anything like that in my fuel system. I guess maybe someone makes something like that with AN fittings, but so far I haven't been able to find one. I sure hate to have to just wrap a rag around a fitting and loosen it up to bleed off pressure. I really don't like working around gasoline much. Sure wish the fuel pressure regulator had something like that to make this easier to do. Basically just a bypass valve to dump the pressure. You would think someone would make something like that, wouldn't you?

Anyway, I put all the ignition stuff back in place so the engine compartment is now all back together.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/engine_bay_30.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/engine_bay_31.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/engine_bay_32.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/engine_bay_33.jpg

I put the back wheelwell panel back on that I had to remove to get to the fuel pressure regulator and got the driver's side front tire back on.

So tomorrow (or whenever) I need to pull off the driver's side turbo's compression housing to drain any oil that might have gotten in there during all this and then put the turbos back together afterwards. I'm going to need to seal up the bolt holes on at least the passenger side turbo compression housing since the lowest bolt hole there was leaking oil, and obviously will leak pressure as well under boost. I'll probably have to seal up the housing bolts on the driver's side turbo too, when I remove it to inspect it.

If I feel ambitious, I may tackle the bunged up brackets on the STS pipes in back of the car I mentioned a while back that got all bent out of whack by someone. Hopefully I won't have to pull the pipes out completely to straighten out those brackets so I can tighten them down to where they are supposed to be. But I may decide to just get the car back on the road again so I can see if I can get Shane's help figuring out what that noise is that I'm hearing taking off from a stop.

Maybe what you are looking for to relieve the fuel line pressure is here.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...ings&FORM=IGRE

I sorted this out of all that other stuff I sent

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...CB0BEF&first=1

Heck yeah, that might actually work! Ideally it would be something mounted at the fuel pressure regulator. I have a plug on one side of the inlet of the FPR that would be great to mount the valve instead of trying to put something into the existing fuel lines. If I remember correctly, it's an AN-10 plug. For the active fuel line, I have a AN-10 to AN-8 adapter. I could use that one above you found for me directly if I can find a cap to put over the actual AN-8 threaded nipple. Maybe I need to check with Aeromotive to see if they have anything.

Heck, I guess I could drill and tap an existing plug for the FPR myself, if need be.

Thanks for researching this for me... I'll have to chew on some ideas.

I got a response from STS today, and apparently a turbo timer really isn't necessary for rear mounted turbos related to oil cooking issues, because they just don't get as hot as front mounted ones, but Ben says that it is really helpful for draining oil out of the oil lines going to the turbos after the engine has been shut down.

I'm trying to find out what this timer looks like to see if maybe it's still tucked away somewhere on the car and I just haven't noticed it. I kind of doubt it, as I've been pretty much all over that car already, unless it is under the dash.

In the meantime, if I drive my car before finding that timer or buying a new one, I may want to just cycle the fuel pump/scavenge pump a few times with the ignition key after I return back home to help pull that oil out of those oil lines and keep it from leaking into the turbo housings.

Well, looks like I've got most of the answers I needed about this turbo oil problem, and at least I don't have to have my turbos rebuilt.

Darn shame this turbo stuff wasn't set up like it should have been when I drove it back home last year. Seems to me that turbo timers are pretty standard on all turbo installs. :banghead:

One of these days I need to sit down and make a list of exactly what was done right on this car from the time I drove it into Chris Harwood's shop and drove it back home from Aaron Scott's shop. That shouldn't take very long at all.

Pulled the rear wheels off of the car today, along with the wheel well on the passenger side. Decided to just go ahead and take care of the bracket on the STS pipe that is all bent up and not bolted where it belongs. Wound up having to take apart a couple of the pipes so I could get to that bracket and bend it back into position. Took a couple of trial and error tries to get it right.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ng_bolt_ps.jpg

I guess I could have pulled ALL of those pipes out and cleaned them up and painted them, but I wasn't feeling THAT ambitious! Maybe some other day.

Also straightened out and repositioned a couple of the coupler clamps that were banging together or against the frame. I think that will take care of the banging noises I've been hearing on that side.

I was surprised to find oil coming from the pipe that connects directly to the output port of the turbo. "Surprised", in that I had drops of oil up and down the sleeve of my shirt before I noticed it. :rolleyes: But there wasn't any trace of oil in the pipe above that first one, thankfully.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/oil_drip_01.jpg

While I had the wheel well out, I opened up the access cover to the fuel evap cannister to take a look in there.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...nnister_01.jpg

I was surprised that I couldn't detect any gasoline odor coming from there. Maybe all of the gasoline smell I have been noticing is coming from fuel just seeping through those rubber lined ss braided fuel lines. Certainly UV light shows substantial seepage coming from them, so maybe that's the complete cause. :shrug01: I guess when I replace those rearward fuel lines running to the fuel pump it will either prove or disprove this speculation.

The bracket on that STS pipe over on the driver's side wasn't so badly bent out of shape, so I was able to bang and bend that one back into place and mount it with the nut to that stud where it belonged.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ng_bolt_ds.jpg

But I am thinking about taking up a second language so I will have a larger repertoire of curse words to call on when needed.

I still haven't pulled off the compressor housing to the driver side turbo. I had to remove the output coupler to maneuver that pipe to get the above mentioned bracket attached, and I didn't have any oil spilling out of that tube. But I took a long plastic wire tie and ran it into the turbo via that open port, and it came back out with some oil on the end of it. So, yeah, I'm going to have to pull it apart. I probably need to seal up the three bolts on the housing that go all of the way through into the compressor chamber anyway.

Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

I pulled the compressor housing off of the driver's side turbo and there was hardly any oil in there at all. Less than a thimble full. But I cleaned it up anyway and just inspected it for any signs of damage or mishandling. Fortunately none of the bolt holes were stripped out on that unit.

Got both turbos put back together again and got all the plumbing situated so nothing is banging against anything else. Double checked all the hose clamps and except for one bolt I have to put back into a flange to the exhaust pipe (pulled it out so I could measure it to replace the bolts with stainless steel ones), it should be good to go this weekend. So I should be getting it back on the road for a bit.

Still don't have a turbo timer on order as I never heard back from STS. I may have to order a timer from someone else, I suppose. But STS has been pretty helpful to me all along with this stuff, so even though they are more expensive, I would like to give them my business. I'll shoot them off another email. In the meantime I just have to remember to cycle the ignition switch a few times after getting back home to allow the scavenge pump to pull excess oil out of the oil lines to the turbos.

Guess I need to buckle down and figure out that that noise is I've been hearing when starting off from a dead stop so I can get that fixed. I do hope it's not anything that means having to pull the drivetrain out again. But if so, I'll have to do what I have to do.

Got everything put back together again on the car, and figured I needed to start it up and do a burn in check on it. I read in the instructions that the header wrap I put on would smoke at first, and sure enough, looked like my engine was about to catch on fire. But it cleared up eventually. Hopefully this was a one time break in period.

As can be seen in the video, I had a lot of smoke coming out the back of the car. I had a floor fan in front of the car to blow the exhaust out the open garage door, so it was blowing the smoke from the header wrap out that way. Plus evidently I had some oil in the turbine housings (hot side) of the turbos and the oil was getting hot enough to start smoking. Also had oil spitting out of the tail pipes onto the floor while this was all going on. So yeah, it was quite messy and disconcerting. I think I may need to do another heat cycle or three till the smoke goes away. Don't want to be driving down the street looking like the car is on fire or something.

Interestingly enough, there was a noticeable difference in the felt heat that normally emanates from the engine bay when the car is running. So the header wrap does seem to be doing it's job keeping the heat within the header pipes.



No fuel leaks from the PTFE hose I put on the other day, so that was a good sign.

I actually had the car up off of it's tires while running it, so I decided to engage the clutch to see if I could duplicate that whining noise I sometimes hear when starting off from a dead stop. But no, unfortunately I couldn't get it to happen. And I couldn't do too much that way, as having the rear tires moving but the front tires stationary was triggering active handling engagement. I guess the PCM thought I was going into a slide. I should have disengaged it, but didn't think of it at the time.

I think I need to move the camcorder further away when recording from in back of the car. You can hear the audio clipping when the volume exceeds what the camcorder wants to try to record.

Got the oil cleaned up off of the floor behind the car, and I guess I'll start it up again tomorrow to try to burn off that oil residue.

Ben at STS got back to me and come to find out that they don't have any turbo timers in stock. He's saying a week or more before he can get me one. :( So I have been looking around for an alternate source.

Been talking to a guy at RB Racing about this turbo timer thing and he feels that all I really need are check valves on the turbo oil lines. I checked and I do already have check valves on the oil feed lines to both turbos, but nothing on the scavenge pump side. But even so, I still think a turbo timer to use the scavenge pump to drain the oil from the return side of the turbo oiling system would be a real good idea.

So I guess I need to try to figure out what the heck type of check valve(s) I need to get to plumb into that return oil line. Heck, I don't have a clue about what type of thread is being used in those brass fittings. And I can't seem to find a -08AN check valve with a female connection on one and and a male connection on the other so I could just pull off the existing ss braided hose and simply put the check valve between the AN fitting on the hose and the brass junction fitting.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...unction_01.jpg

Just plugging away, I guess.......

Ran the car again today for a spell to get the exhaust heated up. When it was heated up properly, I ran it up to 4,000 rpm and held it there for a bit. Not a sign of smoke. But I did see a few smaller spits of oil behind the car afterwards, so there is still some slight amount of oil in the tail pipes. Probably nothing to be concerned about, though. It will all get burned off eventually.

I then pulled the car out of the garage, with the hood open, and had Connie walk beside the car while I worked the clutch putting it in gear both in reverse and first gear. Didn't hear a peep of that noise I commented on a while back. I tried engaging the clutch every which way from Sunday, softly, aggressively, almost bogging the car down, etc., and nothing at all. Maybe it does only happen when the car is cold, as I surmised earlier. Seems to me that once I got out of my driveway and onto the road, I didn't hear the scraping noise at all back when I took the video of it taking place.

Interesting..... I still don't know where the noise comes from, but apparently it only happens when the car is cold. Does that rule out any possibilities and narrow down the potential culprit any? Man, wouldn't it be a HUGE relief to find out that Shane's suggestion that it might be the serpentine belt and/or idler pulley being the culprit? I've already replaced all that, but heck, that doesn't mean the parts can't possibly be bad. Maybe tomorrow I'll try it again when it is stone cold and see if Connie can pinpoint where it is coming from. Actually, it would be just ducky with me if the sound NEVER came back again. Maybe something I replaced or monkeyed around with recently was just rubbing against something else when the engine was cold and under load at takeoff, and I fixed it inadvertently?

Nah, why would I be foolish enough to think that my luck would change for the better now at this late date? :shrug01:

Take both belts off and try it the next morning. OR......start it up to see if the noise is still there, then shut it down and remove the belts and try again. Might show you something.......:shrug01:
Andy :wavey:

Today I pulled the car out while it was stone cold, and Connie and I were able to hear the noise immediately. Still not sure where it was coming from, though. At first she thought it was coming from mid-car, but then said it sounded more like coming from the front of the car. So I kept engaging the clutch from a dead stop while she tried to pinpoint it. But after about only 2 or 3 minutes, the noise faded away anyway. Pulled the car out at 11:48am and pulled it back into the garage at 11:55am.

I put it up on the lift and just checked the belts and tensioners, looking for anything amiss. Nada. Everything looked OK, with no witness marks of something being wrong anywhere. The tensioner for the AC moves smoothly, so it's not like that was messed up as happened earlier before I got the car back home. Pretty much that engine does NOT move at all, so it's not like something is rubbing when the engine torques over on the motor mounts.

After it cooled down a bit, I loosened up the serpentine belt a bit. The specs on that fixed tensioner I have on the car calls for tension to be applied at 25 ft/lbs, so I loosened it up to only 15 ft/lbs.

Then after letting the car cool down for four (4) full hours, pulled it out again for some more tests. This time I used a remote wireless microphone I bought for the camcorder to try to use that to pinpoint the source of the noise. I put the microphone pickup right at the bellhousing, thinking that if not the belt system causing the noise, this area would be my next bet. Well, either the car has to be stone cold for that noise to exhibit itself, or my loosening up the tension on the serpentine belts helped. Didn't hear a peep of any sort of odd noises. The remote microphone worked like a champ, though, as I could hear all kinds of drivetrain noises coming from the back of the engine. Could actually hear the fingers of the clutch fluttering when being engaged and disengaged. So if that noise would have happened and originated from that area, I'm sure it would have been picked up in the recording.

So I guess I just have to try again tomorrow when the car is cold and see what happens. This could take forever to figure out at this rate. But you know, honestly, if this noise only takes place for the two or three minutes it takes for the engine to warm up and then goes away completely until the car goes back to room temperature, just how serious could it be? :shrug01: If I can't pinpoint it (assuming the belt tension was not the cure), then I may just ignore it. It will either stay the same, get better, or get worse. I would only need to do something about it if it gets worse, so to heck with it till then. I'll just drive it till something breaks and/or falls off, THEN fix it.

Yesterday (Thursday) I pulled the car out of the garage and did the same thing as previously, moving it forward and reverse from dead stops. Nothing. Neither Connie nor myself could hear anything. I had mounted the wireless microphone underneath the car with the pickup right next to the bell housing, and when I played the captured video/audio I could hear some noise as the clutch was engaging but I'm thinking that is just the way it is. But apparently it wasn't audible at a distance. At least not THAT day.

So today (Friday), I took the car out for a drive. Coming out of the garage there was no typical squealing noise at all that I have noted in the past, so perhaps the serpentine belt was the culprit. I did note that when tightened at 25 ft/lbs as the instructions directed, the belt was extremely taught at the touch. I popped the hood on the C6Z and compared belt tension there, and it is much more similar to how the belt tension is now with the belt torqued at only 15 ft/lbs. Heck, who knows?

All in all it was a very pleasant drive. The car just drives and handles really well. I have to give Aaron Scott one point, the guy he had do the wheel alignment on the car did a top notch job of it. The car feels solid as a rock on the road.

Anyway, I DID hear a squealing noise three separate times, when pulling off from a dead stop. It seemed to take place whenever I would have the engine revs up higher than normal, and engaging the clutch slower than normal. So I decided to do some digging around on the net concerning that CenterForce Dual Friction clutch that is in there now. Apparently, some people are saying this is normal for this clutch. :shrug01:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z...ce-clutch.html

And here's a short video I took showing three instances of the screeching noise showing up. There are more starts from a stop shown later in the video showing that the screech noise did not take place.



Ah well, I guess this is just one of those things that I will have to ignore unless it becomes worse or something just breaks. So why didn't Connie or myself hear anything yesterday? :shrug01: Just luck of the draw, or perhaps the serpentine belt WAS contributing to the noise? Beats me.

Later on today I drilled some drain holes into the bottom of the exhaust tips. STS didn't include any drain holes in those tips, so they tended to hold condensation which left evaporation marks. So I decided to give the fluid a way to drain out instead of evaporating out.

Figure I might as well go ahead and order the PTFE fuel lines and necessary fittings so I can get that done. I'll have to pull down the exhaust and the tunnel plate to get to those hoses, but I want to replace ALL of that rubber fuel line. The more I read about it in reference to ethanol laced gasoline, the less and less comfortable I am with it being in my car. It's supposed to degrade significantly in only three or four years, and it's already been nearly three years since Chris Harwood installed that funky fuel system in my car.

Besides, the weather forecast is calling for scattered rain over the next several days (which changes every time I check it), so I might as well do this sooner rather than later.

I'm going to line the tunnel plate with insulation while I have it down, and also wrap the exhaust pipes with insulation as well. With any luck I won't find something else wrong somewhere.

Still no word on that backordered turbo timer from STS. I found someone else (rbracing-rsr.com) who had one, but the guy decided to bump heads with me saying that I don't NEED a turbo timer, so he refuses to sell one to me. He says I NEED to use a check valve ONLY in the scavenge return line. WTF? I asked STS about it, and Ben says that is not the way their system was designed. A check valve in that line will cause oil to backup in the turbos. Yet that other guy STILL wants to argue with me about it. Very well. I just won't BUY a timer from him, and will get it from STS instead. Yeah, guess he told me.... :lmao:

Honestly, I believe I'm getting addicted to tools and wrenching. Not sure what the heck I'm going to do if my car ever really gets FINISHED. :hehehe:

Jeesus Feakin' H Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got an email from Ben at STS telling me that they aren't going to make those turbo timers any longer.

I'm not sure this camel's back can handle this additional straw.........

I guess the guys at STS heard my head banging against my desk. They are going to pull a timer off of one of their shop vehicles for me.

Whew..............

Yesterday I put together the wiring for the LC-1 wideband controller. Soldered a power plug to go into the cigarette lighter socket and attached the calibration button and LED. Then I went through the calibration procedures for the controller and the sensor. Everything went OK, so apparently I soldered the wires together correctly. I found a guy selling a single cable that runs from the LC-1 to the EFILive FlashScan V2 module. With the stock parts it would take two cables and a null modem adapter plugged between them, and that's just too many connections for my tastes. A single cable just makes a whole lot more sense to me. But it's not here yet so I may hold off mounting the wideband sensor into the exhaust until it shows up.

Got the stuff in from SummitRacing to replace the long runs of fuel lines going from the engine compartment to the fuel pump area. Minus one fitting that is on backorder until the end of the month, however. So I'm not pulling anything apart till I have everything I need in my hands.

And today I got a package from STS which I presume has the turbo timer inside.

Still spending a lot of time over on the EFILive forum and reading over their tutorials. I need to figure out an make up some sort of glossary of acronyms they all use there. I already know some of them, but man it really slows down the comprehension of what they are talking about when you don't know what that acronym they are referring to means.

Mike Carnahan sent me a new tune, but I haven't flashed it into the PCM yet. I've been using his tune to look at to apply these practical examples to what the EFILive tutorials and threads are talking about. To be honest, there are some things in the tune that I just don't understand yet. But I'm still chipping away at it.

Not sure if I'm just not feeling all that ambitious because of the holiday season or if I'm being smart and just waiting till EVERYTHING shows up and I can dive in and get it all done at one swell foop. Yeah, I'm being smart. THAT's the ticket........... :hehehe: Now, where are those Christmas cookies?

One swell foop? Rich, have you gotten into the egg nog? :lmao:

Figured I could get someone to make a reply that way. Gotcha!

I pulled the turbo timer (they also call this an "after-run timer) out of the envelope it came in from STS, and it's a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Not a whole lot of length on the wires, but beggars can't be choosers. Maybe I better look around in that battery compartment again to see if mine is still tucked up underneath some wires or something and I just overlooked it thinking it was something larger and more obvious.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/turbo_timer_01.jpg

I think the reason I was expecting something larger is because I was envisioning putting this timer AFTER the relay and having it carry the current needed to the oil scavenge pump. Higher current would mean a larger unit. But after reading over the wiring instructions, obviously STS used a much better method. This timer simply provides an extended runtime via the trigger wire from the fuel pump line that activates the relay. So it doesn't have to carry much current at all. Which makes a whole lot more sense then the way I was looking at it. Duh....

I'm just double checking with STS to make sure that this is the correct way to hook it up, as the color coding in their instructions for those wires no longer applies to my system. Since this part is not something I can easily find again, I sure as heck don't want to burn it up if I hook it up wrong.

I'll have to pull the relay out to wire this timer up to it, and I guess I had better solder those leads onto the relay lugs. I only used slip on connectors originally, but I think soldering would be much better and more permanent. If one were to vibrate off, then the scavenge pump would stop working and those turbos will be spitting out oil through the exhaust and intake pipes until the oil pan goes dry. :ack2:

I took some pics of the Innovate LC-1 wideband controller along with the sensor. I should have made better use of heat shrink tubing, but I used silicone wrap tape instead, which will work OK. I'm not trying to win any prizes with my wiring skills. :)

It's a tool, seems to work, so that is all that matters. The button works, the LED works, and the sensor heats up. That's all the soldering I did needed to accomplish. And the wrap keeps loose wires from getting snagged on something.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/lc1_wideband_01.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/lc1_wideband_02.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/lc1_wideband_03.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/lc1_wideband_04.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/lc1_wideband_05.jpg

I guess the cable I'm waiting on from the LC-1 to the FlashScan V2 will get here this upcoming week sometime.

I pulled out the battery today and wired up the after-run timer I got from STS to the scavenge pump relay. I had to basically retrace those wires, since the color coding now had nothing at all to do with what was in the original wiring harness from STS.

I soldered all the splice connections I made and also soldered all the slip on connectors I originally had on the relay lugs. Wouldn't want any of those connectors to loosen up and vibrate off over time.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/timer_relay_01.jpg

Then put shrink wrap on all the connections to insulate them.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/timer_relay_02.jpg

Finally, mounted the relay back on the stud it was originally located on, and put the timer into it's own clamp on the firewall to hold it securely.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/timer_relay_03.jpg

Done.

Haven't hooked the battery up yet to test it, since I've got something else I want to do while power is disconnected. So I just put the batter back into the battery compartment but left all the cables disconnected.

So I'll have to do the smoke test another day.

Oh yeah. I looked HARD while in the battery compartment, and my original timer is nowhere to be found. So apparently it just walked away either in Blountstown or Thomasville.

I can't win......

So I ordered a special interface cable mentioned in a thread on the EFILive forum to hook up the Innovate LC-1 wideband controller directly to the FastScan V2. Just showed up today, so I wanted to hook this all up so I could do some data logging of the air/fuel ratio to see what I have. Only problem is that the end that plugs into the female serial OUT jack is just a tad TOO big to fit. The plug on the stock LC-1 harness measures 6.9mm, and the one I got on this TAQcables (http://taquickness.com/taqcables.htm) custom cable measures 8.1 mm.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...nnector_01.jpg

You can see the obvious difference in diameter.

Here's the jack it needs to fit into. The female jack accepts the male end, and that plastic collar extending from the jack grips the plastic on the plug end to hold it tight in place.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...nnector_02.jpg

That is not a soft rubber collar around that jack. I tried forcing it, but both ends are rather flat against each other, and I'm afraid of splitting that collar by doing a "damn the torpedoes" assault.

Here's how it looks with the terminator in the IN jack on the harness showing how it fits. Even with the correct diameter it was a pretty darn tight fit.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...nnector_03.jpg

Am I being too picky thinking that this should just be RIGHT for the application? Or is this another case of a part having "minor fitment" issues, some machining required? :banghead:

I contacted the seller. Of course I am the only one in the universe who has noted this issue and contacted him about it........ :rolleyes:

Does no one on this planet give a crap about attention to detail and quality of their workmanship?

BTW, I smoke tested that wiring I did yesterday installing that timer, and everything seemed OK. The oil scavenge pump now runs for about 10 seconds after the engine is shut down, so that will help to clear the oil out of the return lines.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...nnector_02.jpg

take a knife and cut what is extended over the socket off. that's the only easy way to make it work.

Yeah, that is certainly one option if I want to damage the LC-1 cable. But I'm tempted to take a file to the male plug end instead and try to remove enough plastic around the front circumference to make it fit. Plus I would rather damage a $20 cable than that LC-1 interface cable. Who knows? I may want to sell it one day, and it would be better to have it "good as new", I think.

Or I could try to find a stereo plug with a smaller body and just cut off that old one and splice a new one that works in place. It's not like I'm rusty on my wiring and soldering skills lately...... :rolleyes:

The seller has offered to take it back and refund my money, so that is certainly one option. But yeah, apparently I am the only person in the world to notice that his plug just doesn't fit that LC-1 connector.

I dunno, maybe this has all just driven me nuts. None of the details concerning quality of workmanship seems to matter to most other people, it seems. At least as far as this car stuff is concerned. Maybe I just expect too much. :shrug01:

I took a file and some sand paper to that male plug end mentioned earlier and got it to fit the female connection properly. So with that out of the way, I pulled one of the rear O2 sensor hole plugs out of the exhaust and installed the wideband sensor in it's place. Got everything hooked up, and amazingly enough it didn't take much trouble at all to get EFILive detecting that serial wideband signal. This is a whole lot better (I think) then using an analog signal where you have to apply a scaling factor to convert the analog signal to digital. In that case, you basically have to tell the program what digital AFR value to place on the analog input coming in from the sensor. The serial interface bypasses that complication.

Anyway, with the wideband hooked up, I too the car out yesterday and did some data logging to see what the AFR looked like. And it actually looked pretty darn good, in my limited knowledge of this tuning stuff. I could compare the commanded AFR (14.63) with the actual AFR and for the most part it was pretty darn close. I actually put the car into boost a little bit, and I can see where that likely needs some fine tuning, because it looks like the AFR just goes rich (11.70) no matter what the other parameters are, instead of being scaled for RPM and MAP values.

It also looks like my O2 sensors are actually working, which surprised me as I thought the harness on the passenger side had been butchered on the PCM side of the connectors. But I can see them toggling from high to low like they are supposed to when in CLOSED LOOP.

I did notice some fluctuations in the timing and fuel that didn't look right, but then I noticed that something is wrong with my IAT (incoming air temperature) signal. It was averaging 72 degrees or so, but would intermittently climb gradually to an unrealistic number, or suddenly just pin the needle at 284 degrees, and then just as suddenly drop down to 72 degrees. It never went BELOW the normal temperature. So it appears that I've got a problem either with the IAT sensor or the wiring harness.

When I got back home, I pulled off the connector on the MAF housing (for those of you who don't know, the MAF housing not only houses the MAF sensor, but also has the IAT sensor incorporated into it as well) and sprayed the male and female connector pins with electronic contact cleaner and then reseated it a couple of times to clean the contacts with friction. I looked at the female connector plug itself, and all the wires were nice and snug in the pins and did not pull out with a tug. I looked at the scan log and the MAF sensor readings itself seemed legit, so the problem seems to be solely with the IAT alone.

I have read that engine backfires can destroy an IAT sensor, so no telling what happened before I got the car back home. I don't know when exactly this IAT problem showed up, because it is pretty nearly impossible to tell you have a problem like this unless you actually monitor the signals via some sort of scanner. Evidently it's not at all unusual for one or more wires in the MAF/IAT connector to break eventually, so it's probably something everyone needs to keep in mind to check on with these C5s getting some age on them.

Anyway, this morning I hooked up EFILive again, and just turned on the ignition to put power to the sensors. The IAT was registering 72 degrees. Yeah, I know, I thought that was too much of a coincidence, too, but I broke out my IR temperature gun and sure enough, that was the temperature of the MAF housing. So that was an accurate reading. Anyway, while power was applied, I tugged, pushed, pulled, and shook the wiring harness going to the MAF/IAT and banged around on the MAF housing itself, and the reading didn't waver at all. Shook the car itself while it was off the ground on the lift. Nothing. Signal stayed rock solid. I guess when the weather clears up again I'll have to take the car out and monitor that signal to see if it goes crazy again. If it does, then I guess I need to try to diagnose the cause to fix it. I'm probably going to check around for a used or reman MAF just to use for diagnostics purposes. Start from that end and work my way back to the PCM looking for a problem with one of the wires. Should only be a ground and a single signal wire if I'm reading the description of the wiring harness correctly, so it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out.

I've been out of the loop--how's the car going overall now? Enjoying it or still having to do more work on it than fun?

Well, let's see what I still have facing me.

1. The IAT sensor readings are bonkers.
2. An odd intermittent noise coming from the drivetrain when the clutch engages.
3. Need to replace the two fuel lines going from the engine compartment back to the fuel pump and fuel filter from rubber lined to PTFE lined.
4. Insulating the exhaust some to keep the heat off as many other parts of the car as I can.
5. Some minor tuning tweaks to smooth out some rough edges.

That's what I know about so far, so it's not too bad, I think. The worst one on the list is the drivetrain noise, but that might just be that Centerforce clutch. Some people have commented on other forums about that clutch making some squealing noise when engaging.

The car actually runs REALLY strong. When I took it out for the data logging the other day, I kicked it a bit and I could REALLY feel the turbos kicking into boost. The car wasn't any slouch BEFORE boost kicked in, either! And I don't believe I had the throttle any more than 50 percent. And that was with the IAT signal telling the PCM that incoming air temperature was around 284 degrees, so timing got pulled and the fuel went a bit rich to compensate. So I would imagine when the above mentioned issues get straightened out, the car could be quite a handful if I'm not careful with it.

So it's just minor stuff that is most certainly fixable. Just all in due time, I suppose. I'm treating this like a hobby and trying to put all the bad crap done by the other shops behind me and move on. Those guys have their own consciences that they have to live with and look themselves in the mirror. I am just glad that I am not like them and would REALLY prefer to never have to come in contact with people of that nature again. Well, enough of that.

Anyway, it's definitely a learning experience, which I think any interesting hobby really should be. And yeah, it does border on being fun when I think about it. Not so much finding and fixing all the things I have found done wrong on the car, but wrenching in general. Just something satisfying about using tools and making things right with them. Heck I was looking at a DIY thread just the other day of someone pulling apart a C5 differential, and I caught myself thinking "That doesn't look too tough to do". :lmao: Like Shane at the local dealership recently said to me, it's all just nuts and bolts.

I think anything on these cars can be fixed if you just don't give up.

I think that is true with anything. I always say success is achievable 100% of the time as long as you keep your failure:don't give up ratio the same.

I found a MAF/IAT extension cable that I'm going to convert into a signal breakout box thingie. I can take the two wires of the IAT sensor cable coming from the PCM and just put a resistor across it and then see if that fixes the problem when I take the car out for a drive. If it does, then the MAF/IAT is bad. If it doesn't, then the problem is in the wiring harness. The IAT sensor is really nothing more than a thermistor, which provides a resistance value based on the temperature it is exposed to.

I took the car out Thursday for another data logging run, especially watching for the IAT to go bonkers. Drove up to Tallahassee and got gasoline at the Sunoco that carries ethanol free 93 octane and then drove back home. Drove around for about an hour and a half, all total, and I didn't see the needle on the IAT display move off of where it was supposed to be. So when I got back home, I watched the logs looking for anomalies that I might have missed while driving and spending more time watching the road than the laptop display. And at 42 minutes into the drive for only 6 seconds, the IAT glitched about a half dozen times, pinning the needle at the highest reading, and then dropped back to normal. As best I can tell, this happened right after I pulled out of the Sunoco and seemed to be related to me pushing a little bit of acceleration then getting off of the gas pedal. But I did the same exact thing all throughout the drive from any dead stop, as this was nothing heavy footed at all. Just something like 20 percent throttle and barely getting to 3,000 rpm.

So it's not fixed completely, but it is definitely better than last time. I'm thinking I should clean the MAF/IAT connector contacts again, maybe after I get some more electronic contact cleaner. This stuff I have been using is so old it should be in the Smithsonian. So maybe it's lost much of it's potency.

Oh yeah, I heard that drivetrain noise again right after pulling out of the garage and starting out forward down the driveway. Pretty noticeable and loud. I thought, "Oh boy, hope the cell phone is charged up in case I need to call for a tow truck!" But the entire rest of the drive it didn't make a single peep again. Beats the heck out of me what is going on.

I may pull out the exhaust and tunnel plate sometime in the next few days and get the last two fuel lines replaced with the PTFE stuff. I also want to line the tunnel plate with reflective insulation and maybe wrap more of the exhaust when putting it back together. When it's all put back together, if that doesn't invoke a Murphy's Law to make whatever is making that noise BREAK in the drivetrain, so I have to pull it all apart again, then nothing will.

BTW, looking over the data logs I've been doing, I'm pretty amazed at what the wideband output is telling me. The AFR is pretty much dead on based on what the commanded AFR is, and what is actually being delivered. The wideband signal is like a low amplitude sine wave with the commanded AFR being the center line of that sine wave. It would be pretty darn tough to improve on that. Pretty impressive when you consider that Mike Carnahan only spent a few hours on this tune. :thumbsup:

Oh yeah, since Mike sent me the new tune engaging the stock O2 sensors and running in Closed Loop, gas mileage has increased quite a bit. I was surprised to see 30 mpg during some stretches. It was hovering around 25 mpg before this. So definitely an improvement in that department.

Aw dang it. I got in the parts I ordered to do that IAT sensor problem troubleshooting, but apparently I ordered the wrong parts. What I got were parts for an LS3/LS7 MAF/IAT harness. Rats. They are not interchangeable with the C5 connector. Well, I'll just have to figure out what the correct part numbers are for extension harness and replacement ends and get them on order.

Probably a good thing that I decided to tackle the rear fuel lines first anyway. So I got the exhaust off, at least. I was planning on pulling down the tailpipes that go over the differential, but heck, I'd have to pull off the rear sway bar, the lower braces on the transmission, and I think the blow off valves to do that. I was just planning on cleaning up those pipes and putting a coat of heat paint on them and then wrap them with insulation, but heck with it. I think I can get the insulation wrap on them without pulling them down. It will be more tedious, but maybe less so than pulling off all those other parts and putting them back on again.

But good thing I did take a hard look at the tail pipes. I found that the vacuum line running to the passenger side blow off valve was only hanging in there by a thread. I just barely turned it and it came right out in my hand. Doesn't look like the threads are damaged, just hadn't been tightened down, or just came loose over time.

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...um_line_01.jpg

But certainly it was a vacuum and boost leak for a while. Not to mention that the blow off valve on that side wasn't working at all. So I'll have to put sealant on both of those vacuum lines when I put this all back together again.

I got a late start working on the car today, so I only got the exhaust from the headers to the tail pipes off. I tend to do more looking than doing when I am working on the car, to see what I am in for and how best to do something. But it looks like that's all I need to do in order to get that tunnel plate out, I think. Fortunately the headers can stay in place.

I'll be taking off the tunnel plate tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to finish replacing those two fuel lines. Hopefully I won't hit any snags along the way. I'll be doing some more cleanup of areas I haven't been able to access before, and planning on putting insulation on the tunnel plate and maybe up on the bottom of the passenger compartment area as well. You can bake cookies in that console sometimes. And I'll be insulating the new fuel lines, too. So I doubt I'll get everything done tomorrow.

Ah well, today didn't go quite as well as planned. :nonod:

I got started rather early, for a retired guy anyway, and got the tunnel plate off. Clipped off all the wire ties holding the fuel lines in place, and checked out what I will have to do to pull those old lines out and put the new ones in.

I'm pretty sure now that the gasoline odor is just coming from those SS braided rubber lined hoses on the car. The smell of gasoline was pretty potent when I pulled off the tunnel plate and had my head up close and personal with those lines. I had insulating convoluted tubing around some sections of the fuel lines, and the gasoline smell had permeated them to where I'm going to have to discard them. I broke out the UV light to take a look at those fuel lines, and it was very obvious that they were weeping gasoline through them. Matter of fact, maybe even weeping enough to be dripping gasoline on some lines below the fuel lines. Jeesus, this was a catastrophe just waiting to happen. I didn't realize what thin ice I had been driving on. So I'm glad I didn't delay getting to replacing those fuel lines any longer.

In case this point has not be driven sufficiently home yet, do NOT use plain rubber lined stainless steel fuel lines for GASOLINE! It's just not made to hold up to the modern ethanol laced gasoline of today, and I would go so far as to even say the stuff is just downright dangerous to have on a car. Your mileage may vary, but I can see with my own two eyes and UV light what has been going on with my fuel lines. So a word to the wise....

But anyway I did hit a snag in my plans for today. Like a dummy, I filled the car up with gasoline the last time I took it out for a drive. I didn't stop to think that in order to pull off the fuel line that runs the return from the fuel pressure regulator to the fuel pump, that the connector for this line is below the midline of the gas tank where it connects into the fuel pump plumbing. That didn't even hit me till I was loosening up the fuel line connector. I loosened it slowly as I expected some gasoline to come out, but when it soaked the rag I had at the ready, and no sign of stopping, that's when it dawned on me that I'm going to be having a LOT of gasoline come out. So I tightened it back up and cussed a little bit. Oh well, not going to put the exhaust and tunnel plate back on again now, so I grabbed the 5 gallon gas cans I had laying around here from the last time I ran into the gas tank draining problem. Mounted a funnel underneath the fuel line fitting and positioned the gas tank under the funnel and loosened up the fitting just enough to get a slow stream of gasoline coming out. And that's about all that I've been doing all day. Watching that slow stream of gasoline. I am on the second 5 gallon tank right now, and it does seem that the stream is tapering off ever so slowly. So maybe it will be done tonight, and I can cap off the fuel pump end and that fuel line end. Luckily that fitting on the fuel pump is at the top of the pump, so I won't have to drain ALL the gasoline out of the driver's side tank as I did when I was pulling out the fuel pump itself.

Oh yeah, I did get something else accomplished. While standing guard over the fuel drip, I measured and cut the insulation for the tunnel plate. So at least I don't have to take the time to do that after the fuel lines are in and I'm anxious to get the car back together again.

Anyway, hope that darn gas tank stops dripping before I want to go to bed tonight. But at least it IS draining, and just a matter of time before it stops.

Well, the gasoline finally stopped dripping out of the tank, so I was able to put a cap on the fuel pump line, and a plug on the end of the fuel line hose. Maybe I'll be able to get the fuel lines built tomorrow.

Anyway, here's some pics I took while I was messing with the tunnel plate waiting for the gasoline to drain.

This pic is of the tunnel plate still in, but after the exhaust after the headers was taken out.
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...late_in_01.jpg

Then a few after I removed the tunnel plate, showing the torque tube and the snake's nest of hoses and harnesses.
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ate_out_01.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ate_out_02.jpg

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/...ate_out_03.jpg

This is the tunnel plate itself, looking kind of weary from being pulled out of the car so many times over the past three years, it seems.
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/tunnel_plate_10.jpg

I cleaned up up real good, then applied some adhesive backed insulation on what will be the top of the tunnel plate facing towards the torque tube.
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/tunnel_plate_11.jpg

Than I will have another layer of insulation underneath the tunnel plate facing the exhaust pipes, and held in place by the bolts holding the tunnel plate mounted to the car.
http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/tunnel_plate_12.jpg

That should help to cool down the temps in the tunnel area, and subsequently in the passenger area above that as well.