New year, new build...v.3.0...R?

Hopefully, it will never crack like mine did . Luckily I caught it before a catastrophic engine failure. To be fair, only heard of failure on the turbo engines.

I haven't seen any issues with the EZ pickup on other forums, but you never know. I changed the one out of my EJ the first time I tore it down. Don't want to take any chances with that shit, as you well know.

 

Anyways, engine is done. I left my laptop at work, so this is the only picture I'm uploading. Too big of a pain in the ass doing this on my phone. Tomorrow I'll have pics of the engine in its new home.

 

Nice work man. Nice work.

Engine is in!

 

I hooked up the oil tank to pressurize the oil system to check for leaks before it went in.

 

Crank angle sensor and trigger wheel sit behind the flywheel.

 

Exhaust fab starts tomorrow. I'll probably put in a good 16 hours. The turbo will sit a little further forward and lower than where it is in the picture.

Not as much progress today as I hoped for.

 

Got the radiator installed. I need to get new fans or hopefully just the shrouds. The ones I have don't fit the 3.0 radiator.

 

Turbo drain hose is hooked up and ready for a turbo.

 

Got one header made up, but when I welded it up it warped horribly. The flange was so warped it wouldn't fit on the exhaust studs. The collector also wouldn't slide over the primaries. So, that had me a bit discouraged. I'm not the best welder and this is the first time I've built stainless headers, so there's a lot I'm learning.

 

After some lunch I came back and started on another header. This time I drilled a massive piece of scrap metal that was laying around, so I could bolt the exhaust flange to it. I also tacked around each tube every 1/2" or so and then just connected the dots with a weld. I let things cool off between each weld. Doing that worked a lot better. There was only a little warping.

 

Now I need to order another flange and some more tubing to build another one.

Keep at it great to see the progress.

Bit more progress.

 

Need to figure out what size of belt I need for the alternator.

 

Got fan shrouds, new exhaust flange and tubing, and some AN wrenches ordered.

 

I think I'll start on the wiring tomorrow.

Not gonna lie, I'm a little jelly.

Fuel system is all done. I ordered my AN tools yesterday and they showed up today!

 

I'm back to waiting on parts. I thought I could get going on the wiring, but there's a few connectors I need to really get going. I want to add a large connector (similar to the OE engine harness one) to run all the additional wires through so I just need to disconnect it when I pull the engine. I also forgot to order the two extra fuel injector connectors.

Not much exciting to show. Started getting into the wiring.

 

Adding the extra coils and injectors is a little messy, but not too difficult. I had to cut open the entire harness to find the 12v and grounds for both.

 

Each injector has 2 pins. The ECU controls the ground. All the injectors share the same 12v source. You can see in the pic the one red wire goes into a "wad" and comes out with multiple leads. Each of those goes to an injector as well as other things that need 12v. All you need to do to add injectors is solder a wire into that wad, run it to the injector (injector isn't polarized, so it doesn't matter which pin), then take the lead from the Hydra and connect it to the other pin.

 

The coils are more or less the same. Each coil has 3 pins: 12v, ground, and signal from the ECU. The 12v and grounds are shared between all of the coils. Just find the wads, tap in, connect lead from Hydra to remaining pin. The 12v and ground wires are the same color on all the coils, so it's easy to see which wire is the signal.

 

I need to look over the EZ30 wiring diagram to figure out how the knock sensors and AVLS are wired.

 

The way things are looking I think this thing will be running next week!

It looks like a mess, but I got a lot done.

 

Injectors and coils are wired. AVCS and coolant temp sensor wires lengthened. Knock sensors wired.

 

Knock sensors were pretty easy. Signal and ground from each one. The grounds connect together then run to a ground wad in the harness. The left knock sensor signal wire goes to the factory signal wire. The right signal wire goes to a pin in the Hydra. The signal wires are shielded. The shielding covers the signal wire up to the large harness connector then connects to a wire that goes to the engine ground.

 

Still have to figure out the AVLS switches. I think the Hydra controls the ground, but I'm not 100% sure.

 

Got my new exhaust flange and tubing. I'll get the exhaust finished tomorrow. I got some tips and coaching from my coworkers on welding stainless. Things should go better with the rest of the exhaust. I'm thinking this thing will be running Wednesday or Thursday.

Spent 12 hours on the exhaust today. Didn't get as far as I'd like, but definitely made a lot of progress.

 

Got both headers finished up and started on the crossover pipe. The collectors have to built from the inside to get them to seal. You tack the collector to the pipes, then cut it off and weld everything up on the inside, then weld the collector cover back on. I really respect the guys that do this for a living. It is a lot of work.

You are competing with Turbo Yoda when he built Supergramps. .

It is a great honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as the mighty Turbo Yoda.

 

Turbo is in!!! The crossover and up pipe are tacked up. This is all way more work than I thought. This thing might not run until next week.

Took a break from the car yesterday, but got back at it today.

 

Got the AVLS wiring sorted. The Hydra controls the ground. I just grabbed 12v from the wiring harness and ran the ground to the Hydra. AVLS is activated with switches so there's no polarity to worry about.

 

Got a brace for the uppipe made and the downpipe tacked up.

 

Tomorrow I'm going to get the exhaust completely welded up including the wastegates and o2 bungs. Friday I'll build the turbo inlet and hotside intercooler pipe. All that's left after that is doing breather hoses and installing the wiring harness. I'm pretty sure I'll have a first start video Saturday or Sunday.

Nice! This thing is going to bark! Thanks for the details updates. Jealous.

wow, cant wait to see some videos!

Exhaust is completely finished. The turbo is in its permanent home. That was an incredible amount of work. I'm really glad to have it behind me.

 

Got the cooling system all sorted out and ready to go. There's a few things that need to be done with the cooling system with this swap. You need a 3.0 radiator. The EZ30 has two coolant outlets on the heads and so you need a radiator with two inlets.

 

The fan shrouds and motors are different. I bought the 3.0 shrouds and modified my motors to fit. I just had to grind the tabs down and pop out the metal bushings around the bolt hole in the shroud and I was able to get the motors to fit. I'm not sure if the 3.0 fan motors have the same electrical connector, so I just modified mine.

 

The radiator cap and overflow tube are different. The overflow bottle is the same and bolts right to the 3.0 shroud.

 

I'm a little behind where I'd like to be, but I'm still on track for a Sunday start.

Everything is done except for a few leads in the wiring harness and some vacuum lines.

 

First start tomorrow afternoon!!

It's done, it runs, and it's amazing! So worth all the work. It sounds amazing.

 

Spent the day finishing the wiring harness. Got everything buttoned up, fired it up, checked for leaks, let it warm up, then dumped the start up flush oil and filter and got the break in oil and OEM filter installed.

 

Now I need to figure out all the features of the Hydra and get it broken in and making some power!

 

First start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8EeL-Oc3j8

 

Revs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pheR9qPxPQ

Congratulations!

Congrats. This is awesome.... You've done soo much so what's next?

 

he needs to start selling bolt in packages so we can all do this to our cars easily.

Congrats. This is awesome.... You've done soo much so what's next?

 

For now I'm just going to get it broken in and making around 500 whp on pump. Then I'll start getting it ready for more power. Bigger fuel pump, direct port methanol injection, twin disc clutch, and finish the 3.5" exhaust. Right now only the downpipe is 3.5".

 

he needs to start selling bolt in packages so we can all do this to our cars easily.

 

Oh man I don't even want to think about building another one.

Keep it at around 550 -600 hp. Dont make it a dyno queen. Maximum area under the curve.

For now I'm just going to get it broken in and making around 500 whp on pump.

 

 

"Just" huh