Well, one wrinkle is that it's got to LOOK good as well. There are some epoxy putty products available that sound like they would be pretty strong, but might be tough to get a smooth finish with. Generally you are playing beat the clock with this kind of stuff, and once it starts hardening, the more difficult it would be forming it the way you want it. And it has got to be strong, but not brittle. And, oh yeah, it can't be real thick, otherwise I'm right back where I started with the airbridge hitting against the hood.
Hmm, maybe figuring out a way to put a metal or hard plastic ring on the insides of the ends of the airbridge so the clamp would have something SOLID to clamp down on might help?
try spraying the inside of the silicon connector and the outside mating surface of the bridge with hair spray, then assemble, snug the clamp down like normal and allow to dry.
on high boost vehicles, like diesel trucks that run 80+psi that is about the only way we can keep the boots on the pipes and intercooler inlets. w/o the hairspray the boots do not slide on as easily and they blow off easily, especially if oil mist has been introduced through the intake system from a turbo or crankcase ventilation system. the hairspray acts as a lubricant to get the connector over the pipes and as a glue once it dries and isn't permanent so it can be removed later on down the road when needed.
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try spraying the inside of the silicon connector and the outside mating surface of the bridge with hair spray, then assemble, snug the clamp down like normal and allow to dry.
on high boost vehicles, like diesel trucks that run 80+psi that is about the only way we can keep the boots on the pipes and intercooler inlets. w/o the hairspray the boots do not slide on as easily and they blow off easily, especially if oil mist has been introduced through the intake system from a turbo or crankcase ventilation system. the hairspray acts as a lubricant to get the connector over the pipes and as a glue once it dries and isn't permanent so it can be removed later on down the road when needed.
Ah, that sounds like a good tip! I'll have to try that one.
Got a new tune from Mike C. and took the car out for a test drive today. Car was kind of rough starting up from a cold start, and I thought it was going to stall on me. But it came around as it warmed up. Maybe the car just needed to adjust to the new tune. From what I could see in the tune file, Mike smoothed out the main VE (volumetric efficiency) table quite a bit. Same for the extended boost VE table as well.
I logged the data and I could see that the short term fuel trims were pretty much right on the money. But honestly the get up and go wasn't what it was before. Acceleration felt sluggish, and I honestly checked to make sure I hadn't accidentally left the emergency brake on. But I expected we were going to have to have a bunch of iterations to get this nailed down right. I haven't yet looked over the log file myself to see if anything REAL obvious is going on.
But I have to say the gas mileage improved quite a bit. On a level road at 54 mph in sixth gear I was seeing 33 mpg. Be REAL nice to get the acceleration perk back and yet be able to keep that mpg figure.
I repositioned the coupler clamps on the airbridge and they seemed to hold fine this time. I hit 5 psi of boost a couple of times, and when I checked under the hood when I got back, nothing had moved. But still, I'm going to try to improve that situation more permanently. I'm going to replace all those screw type clamps with nice wide T-bolt clamps. And I'm going to try to find some aluminum tubing that I can fit into the openings of the airbridge so the clamps will have something solid to sandwich the airbridge itself between when I tighten down those clamps. I would probably get a much more secure seal if I had the clamps biting onto something more than just that flimsy plastic airbridge. The idea would be to position everything as best I can, then get the airbridge hot so that I could tighten down the clamps REAL tight and the hot plastic would more easily mold into shape for a good seal. Maybe some silicon tape between the metal sleeve and the airbridge would be a good idea too. And I'll try out that hairspray trick that Benjamin mentioned. Connie says she has plenty of different types of hairspray I can try out.
BTW, I put a temp gun on the airbridge when I got back and it registered 158 degrees. Incoming air temperature itself didn't get above 82 degrees, but I'm guessing a cooler airbridge might help keep air temps even lower. I'm going to experiment with trying to insulate the airbridge from engine compartment heat to see if that would help some.
No, no video this time. You all have seen those roads before.
I'm thinking I might go ahead and move the tuning phase of this "build" to a separate thread, since this is pretty much a new era in this saga.
Got a new tune this morning from Mike Carnahan. So I flashed in the tune and took the car out for a drive.
Still feels a little weak at slow speeds, and I stalled the car coming out of the driveway. And that darn drivetrain noise popped up again. Still surges a bit, too. I don't even have to have my foot on the gas pedal and I'm going 11 mph down my dirt road.
But otherwise the throttle response is a lot better! I felt the rear tires break loose in second gear and I was only about half throttle according to the log file. 54% throttle and 5334 peak RPM at the time. Still some minor flat spots in the acceleration, but they'll get ironed out.
Gas mileage too a little bit of a hit, it seems, but not much. Seems to be better at the end of the drive than it is at the beginning of the drive. AFR was right on the money.
The scavenge pump for the turbos seems really loud in this video, but I think it's because I had the remote microphone on the front floor facing towards the firewall. At least it wasn't picking up annoying clicking that the on-camera microphone always picks up on the bumpy road.
The airbridge couplers seem to be holding up fine, but I've got some stuff on order to work on that later on to try to make sure it doesn't become a problem later on down the road.
I feel like I have subscribed to the "tune of the day" club. So I guess I'll have my next "package" tomorrow in my email inbox.
Thought I heard a little squeal when you let the clutch out after the stall. Is that the driveline noise you're talking about? yeah, it did get a little loose at the top of second gear didn't it!
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I Have Noticed That A Lot Of People Demanding Free Stuff Are Not Wearing Work Boots.
Thought I heard a little squeal when you let the clutch out after the stall. Is that the driveline noise you're talking about? yeah, it did get a little loose at the top of second gear didn't it!
Yeah, that's it. Only happens every once in a while and seems to be related to how I let the clutch out. I think it's probably the clutch itself. Maybe I just need to rev it up and dump the clutch to let it know who is boss? Of course, if COULD let me know that I have an expensive repair I need to do. Again....
And yeah, I felt the rear end wanting to come around the right side. Not good with oncoming traffic. But I think my driving on icy roads up in Maryland helps me recover from such things instinctively. Just keep the nose pointing where you want the car to go, no matter what the rest of the car wants to do.
Well, looking at the logged data, I can see where I forgot to disengage traction control. Spark advance dropped down to 1.5 degrees when the rear tires broke loose to cut power. I wonder if EFILive can log when traction control and active handling kick in?
I'm sure there is a way to convert MAP kPa readings so I could tell how much boost is being produced, but darn if I know how to do that.
Be REAL nice to get the acceleration perk back and yet be able to keep that mpg figure.
So I guess I'll have my next "package" tomorrow in my email inbox.
But I think my driving on icy roads up in Maryland helps me recover from such things instinctively. Just keep the nose pointing where you want the car to go, no matter what the rest of the car wants to do. 
Spark advance dropped down to 1.5 degrees when the rear tires broke loose to cut power. I wonder if EFILive can log when traction control and active handling kick in?
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