86 RX7 Turbo LM7 and Megasquirt EFI

[mobythevan]

Luckily I had my project thread backed up before the other forum died, so I am copying it back up here.  It may seem kind of weird that it shows up all the sudden with twenty some posts.  I started this car build on June 7th, 2007.  At first I swapped an LS1, but it ended up having a cracked block.  All pictures in this build thread have been put on norotors gallery and linked from there except the ones people quoted. Bye Bye Photobucket.

The first drive is here-->https://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=5271.msg245290#msg245290

Link to LS1/LM7 Megasquirt Writeup
http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/56981-ls1-megasquirt-install/
 _______________________________________________

I have been on hybridz for a while and seeing Scottie leave to build his RX7 got me thinking this direction.  I picked up the car about a month ago and have been researching on this site.  Thanks to Silicone_Boy I picked up the LS1 last weekend.  I went ahead and ordered the kit from Grannys.  Grant said all the parts are in stock so I am expecting the kit by the end of the week.

I am going to put a 700r4 behind it to get started because I have one already and the aluminum driveshaft to go with it(from 89 firebird).  Unless its extra pricey to get the aluminum driveshaft shortened.  I checked with the local shop and they will shorten but I didn't talk about price yet.
 

Here are a couple pics from the weekend:

[mobythevan]

Ok, I have some updates.  I got my kit in from Grant.  Everything looks good.  I am going to powerwash the engine bay and transmission tomorrow.  Also got my adapter spacer for the 700r4 behind the LS1.

The two biggest things I will be doing different on my swap from most people is using the 700r4 and Megasquirt ECU on the LS1.  I know that will draw some flak, I read the old posts :ugh: .  The problem is that to make the stock LS1 ecu work I need hptuners/MAF sensor/MAP sensor/IAC sensor (all missing on my engine).   I am not familiar with it and that is a lot of money.  I would not be happy with just a reprogram, I have become use to having a tuneable ECU and wideband on all my cars.  The last part of my defense is that I have installed megasquirt on 7 cars now and I know it inside and out.  That is worth a lot to me at this point, so megasquirt it is and I'll just have to take the flaming.  That desicion right there knocks $700 off my build price.  The total build of the car looks like it will $4000.  This will be no AC, no PS, no Heater for now.  I am targeting July 31st to hit the track.  I've been through a few swaps so I think I have a pretty clean plan this time and I am willing to add PS,AC, heater and other misc stuff in a second phase over this winter.

Parts I have on order:
radiator
radiator mounts
TV cable kit for LS1 (from bowtie overdrives for the 700r4)
walbro 255 in tank pump
Battery relocation kit
LS1 Lokar throttle cable
LS1 flexplate (went ahead and bought one off ebay, hope its right)
Bolts to cap power steering
B&M hammer shifter

Parts I have:
86 RX7 sport (I think)
Megasquirt ECU and relay board
adjustable FPR
LS1
LS1 700r4 flexplate adapter spacer thing
700r4
swap kit and diff flange (just stick with NA diff to get going)

The biggest time consuming things from my past experience will be the exhaust which I will just fab myself from aluminized mandrel pieces and shortening the aluminum driveshaft(waiting on the shop because there welder is down). 

The Megasquirt on the LS1 is a pretty big unknown because only a few people are running it and the code was just updated on June 12th to support the cam sensor input correctly.  I always have the stock ECU to fall back on, just a more expensive and unknown option for me.

Anyway, that is the first update, see where I get this week.  I can't wait to drive this car after riding in Silicone_Boy's LS7 car.

[mobythevan]

Hello purple power degreaser, goodbuy skin.  Better wear gloves next time, but it works great for the engine bay. 

I got the exhaust, driveshaft and heat shields all removed.  Removed the seats.  Removed the clutch master.  Cut the tunnel bumps out and cut the radiator steel out.  I think I'm ready to install, but I'm still waiting on a flexplate.  Hope it shows up this week so I can try installing the engine and tranny.  I went ahead and purchased the C4 driveshaft to make life easier and save some money over shortening my firebird aluminum shaft.  Oh, I also plugged the 3 holes in the power steering for now. 

Here are a couple more pics, this car was in really good condition.  And yeah, I live way out in the country.

[mobythevan]

The flexplate did not make it in yet.  Well it gave me time to go over everything twice this weekend.  I attached the motor mount plates to the LS1.  I had to drill a hole out bigger on one of the LS1 adapter plates because the GM motor mount would not line up with all three holes, hmmmm.  I test fit the engine cradle to the engine out of the car.  It fits, so I put the engine cradle in the car loosely.  It took me two hours to get those two PS hard lines to connect with the cradle installed, what a pain those fittings are to get the threads started.

Here is the quick list for the last weeks worth of work:  Cleaned my engine, installed the walbro in tank pump, removed the mazda ECU and harness, put together my vette drivehsaft with conversion u-joint and granny's flange, blocked off the EGR and AIR holes on stock LS1 exhaust manifolds, removed intake manifold/starter/alternator, test fit my shortened serpetine belt, made an IAC blockoff plate, blocked off LS1 oil sender hole, test fit engine cradle, installed engine cradle in car, replaced the filter in the 700r4 and added a drain plug to the pan.

Where is my FLEXPLATE????  Damn shippers.  I am ready to see the engine setting in the car!  It should be here tonight. (wife called while I was typing this and said the flexplate came in, )

Jack Stand Racing


Cleaned and prepped LS1


Drain Plug Installed (yawn)


Cradle installed with bolt loose

[mobythevan]

Got the engine and tranny installed tonight.  Thought I would post this while I can remember the details.  People said I would have to slot the holes on the LS1 flexplate to work with the 700r4 converter pattern of 298mm vs the 4L60E pattern of 300mm, but I didn't have to because the other set of bolt holes lined up perfect.  I was just getting ready to slot it and put the flexplate on the converter again, whats this, the other hole pattern works.

Engine went in smooth, having the right tools makes all the difference.  I installed it by myself, nice and easy.  Didn't bang the firewall or anything.  Both bolts started easy in the cradle(just had to pull on the engine a little with one hand and start them with the other.  Measured the tranny output shaft for center between the framerails, looked good.  Drilled the holes and that was it, its all bolted in. 

There is pretty much only room for a knats a$$ between the pssgr head and the firewall.  But it doesn't touch.  I am very pleased with Granny's kit at this point.  Not sure how my tranny dipstick is going to fit??  That was the biggest thing I saw tonight that could spell trouble.

Also test fit the vette driveshaft.  With the slip yoke slid all the way in, it looks like I have an inch of space on the rear flange.  So that seems to confirm that a longer slip yoke would work.  I will look at it more closely tomorrow and see what I think.  I have a longer slip yoke, but it is 2 inches longer, so I'm pretty sure that won't work.  The vette shaft as is may engage enough to be fine.


Spacer for the 700r4

[mobythevan]

Just came in for lunch and encountered a few things this morning. The vacuum port on the rear of the LS1 intake does not clear the firewall without some hammer work. The drivers stock LS1 exhaust manifold clears everything with plenty of room, but the passenger one hits the firewall at the flange. This is in the rear mounting holes on the cradle. I plan to cut off both factory flanges and weld on new smaller ones.

Also, the lip on the firewall virtually touches the LS1 intake, so I bent it up with a crescent wrench. I got pictures of all this, I will post them later. Other than that I just continue marching down the list. Hope to start wiring up the megasquirt tomorrow, but I may burn out and have to go do something else for the day.

I will be using megasquirt for fuel and spark. Now they have new code to support the crank and cam sensors for wasted spark. I will be firing two coils at a time. The megasquirt will still run in batch mode firing alternating so half the injectors then the other half that way you can split the pressure drop on the rails. I'll probably set it up to fire injectors like 1,3,6,8 then 5,7,2,4 or something like that.

My rx7 was a 5 spd so I didn't have the factory auto shifter or I would have tried to use it. But the Hammer looks like fun.

[mobythevan]

I had to cut about 4 inches out of the support on the hood to clear the LS1 throttle body.  I didn't get pictures of that yet.  Also looks like I will need to cut a little to clear the radiator cap.  That way the radiator sets high enough to hopefully make the belly pan install easier.

Bending proportioning valve out of the way


Had to hammer firewall for vacuum port clearance on LS1 intake


Lip on firewall to close IMO, bent it a little




Radiator first pass, got to add isolators now


Vette slip yoke versus firebird slip yoke.  Firebird is 1/2 inch longer(even though I messed the picture up, it is 1/2 inch), which looked worth swapping since I needed to put in a new u-joint anyway.  So I used the firebird one and the driveshaft looks good to me, before it was marginal on whether it engaged into the tranny far enough.  The extra half inch makes me feel better.


And then the shifter saga, cut the tunnel and built a box like everyone else.

[mobythevan]

Went to the junkyard yesterday and picked up a two speed taurus fan for $15. That was one of the last pieces I need for the car. I am down to what I am calling the final three:

1. Exhaust system
2. Wire Megasquirt
3. Wire battery/starter/alternator

That is about all that is left before starting and test driving. I still have to finish the gauges, but I will have megasquirt to read out everything critical except oil pressure. I will hook up an oil pressure gauge for the first few drives, then it looks like I will be going with a whole new set of autometer gauges.

Oh, and the snafu this week, I was sent the wrong TV cable kit for LS1 and 700r4 combo. So another one is on its way.

Pretty much have the Megasquirt wired and modded for 8 cylinder wasted spark.  I need to buy some terminals today to finish connecting the battery and alternator wires.  Also got my fuel filter and FPR mounted, but didn't get a pic of that yet.  I am all but done with wiring megasquirt and starter/battery/alternator.  BTW, I went ahead and installed one of those self excited regulators in my alternator.  Down to exhaust now and then start trying to fire up:D

Clearanced the hood for TB, intake pipe, radiator cap.  Everything clears now.




Intake pipe with air temp sensor for megasquirt.  Fan is not mounted yet.


Ever see an LS1 harness hacked off like this? :ohnoes:

[mobythevan]

Thought I would snap a quick picture, the radiator is a little crooked because I haven't put the rubber isolators in yet.  The main thing in this picture was that I wanted a fuel pressure gauge on the rail, but the gauge sticks up too high and hits the hood.  I use a -4AN to 1/8NPT to put the gauge on the schrader fitting.  To clear the hood I had to use one of the 45 degree 1/8NPT fittings and angle the gauge down.  I really need this because I am using a boost reference adjustable FPR, so I want to keep an eye on the pressure as I go. 



Hey guys, a huge oppurtunity for this car just fell in my lap. I haven't finished the deal yet so I can't tell you what it is. With any luck next Monday I will be able to unveil the new buy....

As for firing my car I am waiting on the TV cable system for the 700r4 and a mechanical speedo tailhousing. Should be in this week then I can get serious about starting it and verifying that the megasquirt code is going to work for ignition control.

Finally got the right TV cable kit for the LS1.  Got it installed last night.  I had to replace a spring inside the transmission, but it wasn't too hard to do under the car.  In order to make it to the drag strip by August 3rd I decided to temporarily locate the battery in the stock location.  That is done.  I also just tossed the factory overflow bottle on the pssgr side.  I will remove both of those after August is over.  The track is closed after august 24th for Friday night drags so I have to hurry. 

Looks like I will be firing or trying to fire this weekend.  Now that the transmission is finished I only have to run the tranny cooler lines, mount the electric fan, do one heat shield by the brake booster, finish the radiator hoses, and the exhaust.  That still gives me 2 full weeks to work out any issues with heating, tuning, etc.  I am just going to borrow the wideband from my Talon to tune the car.  I am stoked, I haven't been to the drag strip since August 2006.


If you look close you can see how I set up my fuel system using an MSD adjustable regulator.  The FPR is before the fuel rail just like the corvette filter/fpr combo.  I ran a hard line under the booster up into the corner where I located the fuel filter.


Just another pic from the front.  Tranny dipstick is installed (lokar one was awesome, thanks for the tip guys).  Tranny cooler location.  Battery and washer bottle temporarily mounted so I can make it to the track.

[mobythevan]

Got my dual 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust done Saturday. Wired up the megasquirt today and fired the engine. Just ran it for a few seconds. I have to make some updates to the megasquirt notes.

Now I just need to get my lower radiator hose in and wire the electric fan before I can take a test drive. Oh, and I have to do 2 heat shields by the fuel lines.

My rx7 oil gauge is not working even though I can measure like 68 ohms with the multimeter throught the wire to ground??

Pretty awesome to see it fire up with megasquirt, no hopefully every thing else is fine with the engine and tranny, won't know until I run it some more.

[mobythevan]

Here are some pics from the exhaust install.  Since the manifolds are just steel, I added the downpipe section to them.  I like the way it turned out.  I need a couple heat shields by the fuel lines, but the pipe is pretty far away.

driver side manifold


pssgr side manifold


Got the car a bit higher with 6 ton jackstands to have some room.


pssgr side below the car


Driver side pipe


Everything installed

[mobythevan]

Ok, I have it in my hands now, so I can let the world know.  I'll get some pics to show the monstrosity, but if you looked at the single turbo LS1 in the thread that Scottie linked from hybridz then that pretty much gives you the idea on size.  But don't fear, I will drive the car at least a few months and get 1/4 mile times, then probably mess with this over the winter.  I take what oppurtunities I can and when this showed up locally I talked to Majestic turbo about coupling it with the LS1. 

But first thing is first, get the car to the track August 3rd. 



I am pretty sure it will fit behind the pssgr headlight, will definitely require some cutting and fitting in that area. I think I have a pretty good plan using a water to air intercooler. We'll see. The AR is large, that is why I talked it over with majestic turbo.

[mobythevan]

I am down to just a handful of small things before I can drive the car.  Last night I wired the neutral safety and backup lights to the B&M shifter.  Also finished my crank vent setup.  Still on the list:

1. Exhaust hangers
2. Move the fuel return line(too close to the exhaust manifold by brake booster)
3. heat shield under car for fuel lines
4. lower radiator hose
5. Ordered the 31052 bump stop for pinion snubber, but don't need that to test drive.
6. Wire the electric fan (megasquirt controls the relay for it)
7. Re-wire coil power to megasquirt to stop key on backfires
8. Wire tach (megasquirt runs stock tach using configurable tach output pin), don't need this to test drive


Here are the mockup pictures for the turbo, but I am not going to do any serious work on this until probably October.  Hotside flange will come up just below the LS1 water pump heater hose outlets.  Charge pipe goes straight down and clears everything.  Plenty of room for downpipe.  Only thing is a custom weird bent intake pipe to put the air filter in front of the radiator.  Looks like it will clear the hood because in the pics it was setting a couple inches high due to heater hoses in the way.  BTW, if the TV71 flow is not enough for you the housing can be turned to fit an 88mm wheel.  I've got an extra set of LS1 heads (casting 241?), I plan to send those in for CNC porting and when I do install the turbo I will swap the heads and change the cam. 



Don't pay attention to the pvc coupler in the top radiator hose, that was for mockup.  I am making a steel tube to go in there for real.

[mobythevan]

check out this link, a little ways down the page it has the exact dimensions of the TV71.

Turbotech - Australia's specialist in turbochargers - Garrett Turbochargers

It will be very difficult to get it to fit and keep the headlight and hood as is, but I think it can be done.  I wondered about having the water pump heater outlets cut off and welded shut (have to research if that causes a flow problem or not).  Like I say, I am just tossing the idea right now like you.  But I don't have anything planned for this winter

[mobythevan]

Unbelievable !!  Major BAD news guys, my LS1 was apparently destroyed when I bought it.  I was told (and I have no reason to doubt it) that is was a 99 LS1 with 89K miles, but ran good.  Might want to freshen it up, or just toss it in and have fun.  I figured it is a good engine, so I didn't pull the plugs or check compression. 

Well, here goes the story.  Sunday I fired the engine to verify that megasquirt would start it and everything was wired correctly.  I am not exaggerating here, I ran it dry (no coolant) for 15 seconds at idle.  Just enough to see it start and idle and then me and my friend go WTF?  What is that weird high pitch sort of whistling grinding noise?  It immediately made the noise upon firing, seemed to be coming from the intake air filter.  Fired it again for about 10 seconds to listen at the air filter, yeah it was loud as hell there, just a continuous high pitch whining like sucking maybe 10,000CFM or something.  So shut it down and hoped that maybe running the water pump dry was making a whistling sound or something?  My thoughts were to re-visit once the coolant was in and I could let it idle longer to listen with the stethoscope.

So last night everything is put together, I mean everything.  I was hoping to take it for a test drive.  Fire it again with coolant full and there is that high pitch whistle/grind noise from the air filter.  I shut it down right away.  OMG, this can't be happening.  So I think for a second, then pull the dipstick to check my oil level for lack of anything else to do.  OMG, coolant in the oil and I mean like a gallon of coolant in the oil.  Pull the radiator cap, yes the coolant level is way down.  Pull the oil drain plug and about 3 quarts of straight coolant setting under the oil comes out.  At this point I am pretty much in shock, no dragstrip on August 3rd, so much for my great deal LS1 engine, I'm not even going to get a test drive......

I pull all the plugs next.  I don't think they were ever pulled before because they had the resistance from thread treatment all the way out.  And number 1 I pulled the other day to locate TDC, it didn't have the resistance so I think the plugs were not pulled by the other owner.  I haven't called him yet because I don't believe he knew any of this, but I'll call him just for any other info he might have.  Anyway all the plugs look good except number 8.  The electrode is smashed in and wet as hell, oh ♥♥♥♥!  That is pretty much were I zoned out and just went into mindless mode.  Pulled the intake, coils, valve cover, head. 

Here are the pictures, sleeve is cracked all the way, block is cracked, piston is destroyed, head is destroyed.  What in the hell would have caused all of this?  This was suppose to be a pullout from a running car that was wrecked.  Wrecked with the throttle wide open until the cops arrived???  Can any of this be salvaged or is the block just scrap now?  This had to be this way when I bought the engine, there is no way I can believe that kind of damage would occur from 3 15 second runs at idle.  We would have heard devastation like that if the piston was flying apart right?  I have never grenaded an engine but I have heard various noises before and my new exhasut is quite.










I don't even have a plan at this point, I'm still trying to pull together.  If the block is toast, then I only seem to have 3 options:

1.  Buy another pullout LS1
2.  I have a TPI engine in the garage
3.  I have a 454 with roots supercharger built for my streetrod, but the streetrod is years from being finished.  It would be ridiculous to put the BBC in the rx7 right?