Sluggonaut's Extended Track #364 - 2007 SS/SC (Turbo) Donor

Rttoys

Rttoys

Goblin Guru
What Ross said.

You should be a bit higher hp than Ross and I, and I know I could smoke my old tires (400tw). For the street, even on 400tw, it stuck pretty good, or at least they were not much of a concern. Hit the track and things changed quickly. Track always translates to street, though. You may not drive as aggressively on the street as you would on the track, but if a critter jumps out in front of you and you yank the wheel or jam the brakes, you’ll find out quickly what will or will not happen. The same goes for stopping.
 
Desert Sasqwatch

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Go find a big empty paved parking lot - plenty of those in Belvidere - early some morning and push it to the limits. Brake hard into turns and accelerate hard out of turns, left and right, to see where the limits are. It may help to better understand if suspension settings are nominal (or not) and how well the tires do (or don't) stick. Also gives an idea where the snap-roll limits are at.

Knowing this can help with aggressive street driving, but could also save you and the car if something untoward were to happen, as @Rttoys pointed out. :D
 
G

Gtstorey

Goblin Guru
Some of this depends on what roads you are talking about. Not sure that the roads in North-Central Illinois are quite the same say Deals Gap or even the Southern-Middle TN. These roads driven "aggressively" need stickier tires, although not a much as track use, unless you close the roads for a hill climb.

You might need to drop your tire pressure down to prevent uneven tire wire in the center.
 
Sluggonaut

Sluggonaut

Goblin Guru
Ross said:
Do you have the Quaife differential (G85 option code)? That helps by using both rear tires.
Is your engine weak, or need tuning? What is your 0-60 times? (I'm low 4 seconds, so not fast compared to the turbo guys)
I enjoy acceleration, and enjoy full throttle, but keeping the rear planted on my Goblin took the Quaife differential and sticky wide tires. Your LSJ-T should be making more than my tired LSJ-SC.
Click to expand...
I do not have an LSD.

The engine does not seem weak to me. It feels normal now, but I'm reminded how quick it is when I take people for their first ride and they're grabbing for the roll bar when I get on it.

The donor was tuned by ZZP for the turbo swap. When I reached out to Al at ZZP after my build to see what my tuning options were, he asked for some log files and checked them for me. He said everything looked good, which is probably why I had no problems with it starting and running. It even ran when I didn't have the evap port plugged - it ran even better when I plugged it.

I have not checked my 0-60 time yet. I saw that as an option in Torque Pro, but haven't tried it yet. What does everyone else use to check their 0-60?

I'm hoping to make it to Goblin Fest so I can compare how it runs to some other builds, especially when it comes to suspension setup.
 
Sluggonaut

Sluggonaut

Goblin Guru
I forgot to mention why the hood is not on currently. The hood is hanging in the garage from a bungee cord so I could get the grill installed. I didn't want the radiator getting any more abuse this season. I also installed the USB ports temporarily until I decide on where those will end up getting mounted.
 
Sluggonaut

Sluggonaut

Goblin Guru
I just received a notification that today is my 1-year anniversary as a forum member.

So exactly 1 year after setting up a DF shop visit with Kimberly and officially starting my donor search, I am preparing to leave for my first ever Goblin Fest.

It seems like it's been so much longer than 1 year considering everything involved and a full driving season in the books.
 
Sluggonaut

Sluggonaut

Goblin Guru
Even though my Goblin is pretty quick, I knew there was more in it because I was only hitting 12 PSI of boost. A quick look at the log by an experienced tuner and the wastegate door was quickly suspected because of the limited boost and the lag in even getting to that point.

I popped the turbo open to take a look and this is what I found...

Wastegate actuator adjustment position as it came off the donor:
36721


Wastegate door position at that position:
36722


I loosened the adjustment nuts so I could close the wastegate door all the way:
36723


Here is how far off it was on the actuator arm - this is where it is at with the door completely closed:
36724


So the next problem on the list is I have found the traction issue I couldn't find previously. I can't get any WOT pulls because the traction disappears just before half-throttle. I was able to roll into it a couple of times but lost traction around 21 PSI @ 4,900 RPM.

Until I can get some new tires on this thing I plan on dialing down the boost on the controller to see if I can find some traction again. The key is to drive it like you own it and not like you stole it. These LSJ's need a boost controller since there is nothing for it in the ECM natively.

It's a lot quieter ride now that the wastegate is not always open, well, at least until 20 PSI goes through the recirc valve. That's a much louder and different noise than it made previously.

Edit for Root Cause: I didn't understand why I was having this problem, especially the way the donor drove - it didn't seem to have this issue. I then saw a post by Fozda reminding a builder to adjust the wastegate after re-clocking the turbo. I reclocked mine slightly during the build and didn't check the wastegate, so I believe this was the root cause of my wastegate being out of adjustment.
 
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Sluggonaut

Sluggonaut

Goblin Guru
I found some used Hoosier R7's on the interwebs and they arrived today. I drove up to my son's shop tonight to get them mounted.

We should have reasonable weather through tomorrow before the cold returns, so I should get a chance to try them out tomorrow and see if they help at all.
 
Desert Sasqwatch

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Fully understand ;):cool:
Just watch out for that sneaky Boone County Sheriff on Squaw Prairie Rd!
Or my favorite mile of Riverside Rd between Olson Rd and the 'Y' at Spring Creek Rd down in the Dell.
 
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Desert Sasqwatch

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Boone County's finest WILL try to get you any way they can - I've left a couple in the dust at the county line in my nefarious past... ;):cool: And been caught a couple times too. o_O
 
Ross

Ross

Goblin Guru
Kevin (Sluggonaut) is sharing his engine tune with us. Thanks! The more tunes we can learn from, the better.
I will add this to my build index.

Here is what he sent me:

Ross,

I saw your tune index and I think mine fills a gap in your turbo swap section.

My tune is for an LSJ, running E85, with ZZP Entry Level Turbo swap kit, K04 turbo, and Siemens 80lb injectors.

Thanks,

Kevin
 

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Sluggonaut

Sluggonaut

Goblin Guru
One mistake I made during my build was using jack stands near the front of the car, but behind where the floor ends. I have a dent on each side right where your feet go.

This annoyed me all summer because when your feet land on the dent it makes a noise as it pops/flexes down and again whenever you move your feet off the dent.

Is there an easy way to remove dents from the sheet metal without removing it? I'm not sure if there is a magical combination of heat, wood block, and hammer that might get these dents out.
 
Desert Sasqwatch

Desert Sasqwatch

Goblin Guru
Dents without creases can be helped with a heat gun and dry ice. Hit it with the heat gun until too hot to touch at all, then put dry ice into the center of the dent. It will take several rounds of this to help shrink the aluminum. It may not pull it all out, but it will be better than it is now.:cool:
 
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