Entries by Dr. Jeff Harper (34)
Some New Parts
Monday, May 3, 2010 at 7:02AM I made it down to the race shop in Pattaya yesterday. The work is more-or-less complete. Just the unavailability of a 1/16NPT tap is keeping the thing from being 100% ready for the dyno three days from now. The motor starts immediately, but still revs to 2500 at idle . . . . we determined that it is because we used a thicker head gasket which is making the intake manifold 'ride to one side' when it is installed, uncovering the intake ports on the opposite side and allowing air in.
The TB adapter was welded on and then hand blended on the inside for a smooth transition.
The working end of the new, high quality 80mm Throttle Body (TB).
The engine bay is complete. Now . . . I need to find a vacuum leak and dyno tune it.
Blended to the intake manifold . . . a little gasket trimming needed.
In case I need to laugh at the drag strip. But really . . . . some events here require you to qualify at a faster e.t. than you would want to race at every round. A little 70hp shot of "dry" NOS will help. I will dial in the fuel enrichment on the dyno. I have used a "NOS Safety Kit" - an extra solenoid near the bottle to make sure there is no NOS leakage and to take the pressure off the front solenoid.
New Drag Slicks Arrived, New Fuel Pump Ordered (and some progress)
Friday, April 23, 2010 at 6:35PM I ordered a pair of Mickey Thompson 11.00X28X15 drag slicks about 5 months ago and they finally arrived (sea freight). You have to plan in advance if you want to drag race in Thailand.
These Mickeys are a great fit for my race truck. The Goodyears are available here in Thailand in a similar size (10.5X28X15), but that particular tire happens to be for a heavy Super Stock drag car (stiff sidewalls), not my little 800 kilo thing. I would rather run Goodyears, but . . . . . they cannot make a drag slick for EVERY car combination.
These M/Ts combine for 23 inches of width. Nice.
The progress part: I have been in pretty steady contact with my shop guys and although the progress has been far from swift, it seems like all issues have been sorted. The starting and idling issues related to the fact that the Subaru injectors DO FIT the 1UZ intake manifold, but they do not fit well. . . . the rubber swelling issue is prevalent no matter what gas you use. So, the fix is to make some small aluminum "washers" top and bottom of the injector so that the rubbers are held firmly in place (the lower washer) and also to make sure the injector does not get jammed too far up into the fuel rail (the upper washer) to compress the rubbers so they have no room to expand (like the standard 1UZ injectors). I discovered this from other 1UZ racers here. What a hastle . . . but necessary. They do not suck air around the injectors now . . . and they will not allow boost to blow out either. With that done the thing starts up immediately, but still wouldn't idle below 2500 rpm . . . what's up? After a long search the throttle shaft of the throttle body was found to be so loosely fitted that it sucked gobs of air in there. I have a better, high quality throttle body to fit now. These little details . . . flaws of quality, have cost me a lot of time. So now I am only waiting for a day when I am off work and the dyno is open at the same time . . . . and I am not on vacation! That day looks like May 6, 2010. Wish me luck.
I got to worrying that my single Bosch fuel pump would not be enough if I ever added a dry NOS set-up . . . and Jeg's was having a sale on the Aeromotive A1000 FI fuel pump . . . . so I had one ordered with fittings. The specs are great:s
A1000 (#11101) Specifications
As can be seen from the accompanying chart, this is a very good fuel pump which should provide me with adequate fuel delivery for any future modifications up to 800+ horse power.
What is this?
Fame!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 9:12PM Well, not really. I Googled myself the other day and turned up this photo of my racer that I hadn't seen.
Thanks "Citrus Racing On Tour King of Truck" for posting this on your site.
Listen to this!
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 7:53AM [Read from the top down - newest entries are at the bottom of THIS posting.]
It Runs!
Last Saturday night we cranked up the little blown 1UZ HEMI for the first time. WOW, what a sweet sound! We had a couple of small sorting-out issues (a little oil weeping from here and there requiring tightening), and an oil pressure gauge not working (we pulled the oil line to confirm oil flow and pressure). Using the super-duper GT Unleaded Racing Gas (115+ octane rating), we didn't get a final tune in the ECU because the header collectors are so short we could not get a stable O2 reading, and there appeared to be a vacuum leak which yielded novel tuning outputs. Some collector extension pipes are being made this week (for tuning purposes only), and new rubber grommets for the injector bottoms are being fitted (the source of the vacuum leaks, we believe). We will go at it again this Saturday at noon . . . and hope we can run in that night's big program.
Art and his 'crew' from Voodoo Racing Inc. in Pattaya, Thailand were on hand Saturday night to trouble shoot the initial start-up. They did a good job.
Dr. Jeff Harper
On Saturday night (Nov. 28, 2009) we thrashed the little HEMI to get it running so we could race. But it was not to be: my 1UZ would not start and run properly - so no tuning map yet. We chased what we believed to be a coil wiring flaw, but ended the evening suspecting the fuel injectors (more than one) were hanging open causing the starting and idling problems: we were drowning the plugs. We did accomplish something: the 7 pound blow off valve sprng arrived and it was installed. There was a large crowd on hand to see the first NITRO funny car in Thailand (it smacked the wall right off the starting line), and this crowd eventually filtered around to my shop to stop in and admire my race car and the new V8. Oh well . . . "if you can't go fast, at least look good." I hope that is not going to be the theme of this race car. I am sure it will not be . . . I may have pop for NEW, and expensive injectors. Oh well.
Dr. Jeff Harper
So, today I talked with my builder/tuner who just got my injectors back from the injector shop: several of the injectors were stuck open . . . a not-uncommon problem with new 'high impedence' injectors (they use less power to open and close the injectors). They have all been 'worked over' so they all are functioning properly now. This is the problem that caused my race car not to run properly -- to pop and sputter, and to eventually drown the plugs and quit. We will be back at it this week-end -- and will bring a set of the standard injectors to test the theory.
Sometimes new high impedence injectors stick when first used. I had several of these (565cc Subaru) injectors stick open, confusing us as to what the problem was. All eight are now working properly.
Dr. Jeff Harper
I spent another frustrating evening not getting my 1UZ to run. It popped, banged, and threw burning fuel out the header and onto the floor! Now that the injectors have been checked out as OK, it looks like I am back to the "coils are wired wrong" theory. I will have to get my tuner and the electrician at the car at the same time to sort this one out. I hope we didn't hydraulic the motor in the process. I had some time to take some nice pics though.
Details, details, details
High Tech air filter - designed to strain birds and large debris out of the high speed intake air column.
Looks good -- won't start, I got dem ol' new car blues!
Cutting edge air filtration technology pioneered by my friend John, a.k.a. 'The High Road Skulker'. It also doubles as handy track-side food strainer. Helpful hint: tell your wife prior to borrowing kitchen appliances lest she sees photos on your web page. Yes Dear, I'll take that trash out right now.
Dr. Jeff Harper
To test the theory about the injectors (perhaps some have become 'grounded' causing them to stay open all the time), they were sent to the injector shop for testing and made right, then they were mounted on another supercharged 1UZ, along with loading my race car AEM ECU map into the other 1UZ's AEM ECU -- low and behold, the other 1UZ ran perfectly! It revved just fine. So, the problems we are experiencing are electrical. We will next try plugging in the AEM ECU from my race car into the other supercharged 1UZ's plugs to see if it works (to test that my ECU is not at fault). If my ECU is functional on the other 1UZ, then the problem is wiring . . . most likely a grounding of the injector wires somewhere . . . . . Of course, there could still be some wiring problems with the coils . . . just to add to the fun. We will sort it out . . . if I can get my tuner together with the wiring guy at the race car with some test equipment.
Dr. Jeff Harper
Last night we all thrashed the little 1UZ. The electrician tested every wire, every connection, and every plug on the coils and injection. We traced everything from ECU to terminus - all O. K. The cams are installed in the right places. We swapped in another AEM ECU (with same map) - and had the exact same result/symptoms. One last suggestion by the electrician: check the senders for accurate pulses/waves. Eureka! The camshaft position sender was sending intermittent signals (only one out of five or six) which confused the ECU (and made the symptoms appear that the cams were out of sync). We tested the sender and the sender wires (in and out of the car), and even closed the gap between cam sender and pulley bump (and, yes, sanded the bump too). Unfortunately we didn't have another 1UZ sender on hand. We will go at it again tomorrow evening.
Why/how do senders fail?
We were trashing late last night.
I had a lot of help from both my tuner's (Art) shop and the wiring guy's (George) shop.
The night air was very nice (for Bangkok) for working, in the low 80s (f).
Dr. Jeff Harper
Another night spent sorting out the new combination, with the same results: it doesn't start and it doesn't run. Another electrician was found, and there are new theories, but they have yet to be tested. Meanwhile, time marches on.
Dr. Jeff Harper
No progress lately: I just got back from a fantastic 9-day, 1000 mile road trip around Northern Thailand with some visiting good old friends. I will get going on my race truck project in a week or so.
Happy New Year!
Jan 2, 2010. Still no progress: I just got back from four days at the beach (Hua Hin). I will tow my race truck back to Voodoo Racing in Pattaya on Monday to sort out the wiring and build a new ECU map. The drag strips in Thaiand are closed for a month, so I am in no hurry.
Dr. Jeff Harper
I got a call from the shop to say that my 1UZ is now 100%! He started it so I could hear it over the phone. Sweet. All the wiring was traced (again) and several wires were run correctly but were not plugged into the right pins for the AEM ECU. With that straightened out, it started right up, Art was able to put in an initial "safe" map, and gave it a few revs . . . but only a few revs . . . until the neighbors started to call complaining about the sound. Art says,
"Hi Doc, I had your truck inside the shop when I tried to see how much boost you made. It was too loud inside, and I got some complaints. Tomorrow I'm going to move your truck right next to the front door of my shop, and put in the header extension on. This way I can get a good reading on the A/F and point the pipe out side so it won't be too loud ;) I had your truck in the back of my shop, it shook the second floor office."
I will go down and get it in a couple of weeks.
Dr. Jeff Harper
The Bangkok Drag Avenue will open for the new season this coming week-end (Jan. 22 & 23). I will tow my racer to the track on Saturday for some initial strip tuning, now that all the wiring and other issues have been sorted. I am crossing my fingers.
Dr. Jeff Harper
Well . . . all is good in Thailand.
My race truck is completely sorted now, and only needs a strip tune to get it ready for the dyno. I like to race a few week-ends with a somewhat 'rich' strip tune before I go on the dyno to be sure the mechanicals are tip top. I will strip tune this Saturday night. The problems I have been chasing were electrical in nature: some wiring was done 'correctly', but was not plugged into the AEM ECU in the right holes. Also, there was an issue with the cam position sender wire not being shielded, and the AEM 3.5 bar MAP sensor being wired the wrong way. In a 'free rev' at the shop, the little motor made 6.5 pounds of boost at 6500 . . . through a lot of piping and a large intercooler. I am fine with that. I plan to program the PCS to shift at 7000 for the fast brackets, and 5500 for the slower brackets. We will see what it does under a load this Saturday night (Jan. 23, 2010). I am still trying to secure an AEM Twin Fire CDI to boost the spark -- they have been unavailable for many months now while AEM 'redesigns' the product -- but I will run without one in the meantime. I will wait to dyno it until I have the CDI, however. Remember, my project is not to see how much horsepower I can make from this engine combination: I am a bracket racer, and what is important to me is reliability, tunability, and repeatability. I need ONLY to 'run (and accurately predict) my number' in back-to-back-to-back quarter mile passes. I was doing that just fine with my old turbo 1.5JZ . . . but the lure of an uncorked all-aluminum V-8 was just too much to resist! Wish me luck.
Dr. Jeff Harper
So . . . . I go all the way down to Pattaya to tow my little racer back to the track for some serious 'test & tune", and perhaps to race, last Saturday . . . only to discover that the PCS trans controller had not been wired correctly . . . so it would not go into gear: there was no power to the trans solenoids. I felt pretty foolish not to have thought to have checked to see if the trans worked before now. Oh well. I am off to Los Angeles, California for a week, then when I get back, I go to Northern Italy for the following 10 days, for a total of three (racing) week-ends out of Thailand. Oh well, I will try and make the best of it by picking up an MSD 'DIS-4" CDI unit in The States . . . since thre is no chance of sourcing an AEM unit any time soon.
Dr. Jeff Harper
Dr. Jeff Harper
Progress Report: After Los Angeles for six days, then home in Bangkok for only three days (and some surgery
), I was off to Italy for eight days. I am finally back home and trying to get into a routine that includes 1UZ race car stuff! Sheesh! The news: The MSD DIS-4 was installed and the engine started right up . . . there are no problems with the motor running now. All previous problems were caused by the wiring guy "wiring the car correctly" but plugging the wires into some wrong pins on the AEM ECU -- which resulted in trying to tune the beast based on spurious input sensor data. Sheesh! Somehow I think this qualifies as "Not wiring the car correctly." Next, the same wiring guy "wired the PCS trans controller correctly" but plugged some wires into the PCS box in the wrong pins. These "errors" were either caused by the inattentativeness of the wiring guy, or mis-communication between my shop guys and the wiring guy. I don't care which . . . I just want it done right. After two new wiring guys refused to touch the PCS ("Too complicated" they said . . . and I appreciated their honesty). The new, new, new wiring guy figured it out and tested it. Perfect. Sooooo . . . next week-end I test and tune . . . . IF, and it's a big IF . . . they don't shut down the local drag strip again for running a nude dancing show in the track side bar 
. Only in Bangkok! Sheesh!
Dr. Jeff Harper
Well, every project needs a major miscalculation, and I have had mine. Nobody to blame but myself . . . . sort of. My builder/shop guys 'could have' caught it, but I'm the guy who supplied what were suppose to be the "right" parts. The part in question is the 1UZ bell housing which is "suppose to" be able to mount the 1JZ automatic transmission "perfectly". Well, the mounting surfaces and bolt pattern of the 1UZ bell housing are identical, the only problem is that they are not the same DEPTH! No Good! Of course this means that the splines of the trans input shaft do not engage the torque converter or ride in the pilot bushing. No good! I made various inquires on the Internet with experts, visited a ton of sites, and even called up legitimate, big name experts on the subject at reputable transmission shops and was assured by all that the 1UZ bell housing would mate the 1JZ automatic trans. Nope. I am guessing that there are more than one 1UZ bell and more than one 1JZ auto box involved here and that I have the novel combination. My fault was not measuring (let that be a lesson to us all!) or simply placing the bell housings side by side.
Yes Virginia, the 1UZ and the 1JZ automatic trans bell housings have the same mounting . . . . .
. . . . they just are not the same DEPTH.
So, what to do. There are two possibilities: one -- (best, but not what I am going to do) is to disassemble my 1JZ built racing trans and install the input shaft (and pump) from a 1UZ of the correct length (assuming that they fit . . . . and I do not know that they do); or two -- make a spacer ring (with a pilot bushing allowance) between the current flywheel (ring gear) to ANOTHER flywheel which will have the torque converter bolted to it, and bolt it all onto the crankshaft. The length of the "spacer ring" is about 2 inches. It will work, and only adds the weight of the spacer ring and the additional flywheel. I will do this at the machine shop using a dummy block for measurement.
Dr. Jeff Harper
Dr. Jeff Harper
Lesson: A 1UZ automatic transmission bell housing will not "perfectly mate" a 1JZ torque converter and transmission to a 1UZ engine. What to do? Extend the mounting "tabs" on the ring gear/flex plate (shown below), then add 45 degree gussets (not shown) in both directions of acceleration and de-accelaration. Also note the extended "pilot bushing" that registers the front of the input shaft to the end of the crankshaft flange.
It was great to see the race truck again. It is very close to completion now. It starts, runs, sounds very healthy. If all goes well with the torque converter mounting fix, I will try to dyno it next week-end.
UPDATE: Because these torque converter mounting "stands" (above) looked like they were too long, we welded on "gussets" in the direction of loading and unloading for strength. They look like this:
The new torque converter mounts now strengthened.
The race truck is still not on the race track . . . and now I am travelling for the next three week-ends. Oh well.
Still under construction. It is essentially finished . . . just a few small details . . . and surprises, I'm sure.
Only in Thailand: a supercharged Toyota 1UZ V-8 going into a fairly new model BMW 325i! This is at the shop where my truck is getting worked on.
Dr. Jeff Harper
The state of the race truck: a video tour.
The Engine is Complete
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 6:11AM Yep, the motor is completely assembled and installed. We "finished" the assembly of my 1UZ last night, but didn't start it . . . it was just too late for any of us to be in full command of our senses. We will start it up, and trouble-shoot the inevitable little "new combination issues," tonight.
All of the senders, lines, and tubing are complete. I splurged on some braided lines. The mapping was loaded into the AEM ECU and the PCS trans controller was re-installed. The AEM CDI I ordered is still not available (they are revamping and 'upgrading' it - now they say "late November 2009"), so I will fire the coils with the Toyota Supra 2JZ ignitor box (a CDI of sorts).
The spark plug wires were the last things to install. As I am running a "wasted spark" set-up with the AEM ECU, I had to route some wires from one side to the other. We bled the air from the fuel lines and ran it up to high pressure . . . and found no leaks. The new braided oil line to the supercharger can be seen here.
"Puke tank" and water overflow tanks installed, header collectors sealed (so no false O2 readings), and some nice aluminum polishing. Everything clean and tidy . . . and serviceable.
The Tial 50mm BOV location - I will use the 7 pound spring when it arrives - but I am still searching for the special Tial "3-pound spring for supercharger applications," as their catelog states. Notice the heat shielding on the fuel lines and electrical conduit and the AEM 3.5 bar MAP sensor
