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V1 David K's Extended Track Goblin #343 - 06 SS Donor
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
Another project I've been working on is a functional delete for the heater and oil cool lines from the thermostat housing. I Know there is one online already but it blocks the engine coolant passage completely which from my research would not be very good... Here is the original design I made up in Solidworks before reaching out for opinions from both ZZP and DF:
This model is designed around using half of the inline thermostat housing from Jegs by bolting directly to the wider end. Feedback I received noted that the engine outlet was way to big and should only be a 1/2" ID hole. Which I updated below, After printing this original design on my 3D printer I also learned that going straight won't work as it'll interfere with the transmission bell.
Notes from DF on this design were to include a turbo coolant hole but all else looks good. I don't have a turbo thermostat housing so as of now I have no way of measuring to include it. If others are interested in this project I could possibly setup a group buy once I've done some testing and am comfortable with distributing.
Here is a picture of the first model on the engine:
I am definitely open to feedback on this project and if anyone would have an extra turbo thermostat housing I could borrow I would design around making it work as well!
This model is designed around using half of the inline thermostat housing from Jegs by bolting directly to the wider end. Feedback I received noted that the engine outlet was way to big and should only be a 1/2" ID hole. Which I updated below, After printing this original design on my 3D printer I also learned that going straight won't work as it'll interfere with the transmission bell.
Notes from DF on this design were to include a turbo coolant hole but all else looks good. I don't have a turbo thermostat housing so as of now I have no way of measuring to include it. If others are interested in this project I could possibly setup a group buy once I've done some testing and am comfortable with distributing.
Here is a picture of the first model on the engine:
I am definitely open to feedback on this project and if anyone would have an extra turbo thermostat housing I could borrow I would design around making it work as well!
dastrups
Well-Known Member
- dastrups Well-Known Member
I’m in the same boat. I’m running a base sway bar but I would like to try the SS sway bar. I wonder if it will reduce the slow speed understeer for autocross setups but then cause some problems on the track at higher speeds. I read this bit of info on a forum but I still want to try both setups to see what it will do.
“if you dial out understeer at low speed ( high-steering angle) situations.....be prepared for high-speed ( low-steering angle) situations to get you more neutral or even to pucker-factor inspiring oversteer! The best compromise is to alter technique for low speed, autocross-type work because dialing out understeer for that kind of work can backfire on you for high speed turns where you inadvertantly dialed-in some oversteer.
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
Jumping back in for another update on my Goblin build! Most of my build progress has been recorded on video and posted to my YouTube Channel so if you are interested make sure to go check it all out!
This posting is related to the rewiring process and is mostly just a "Yay I'm finished" and a "That wasn't so hard" post. For anyone out there unsure whether or not they want to tackle the wiring themselves, It is definitely not as big of a job as it seems. Personally it took me about 15 hours over a single weekend but I recommend you take your time and double triple check your work.
Along with the wiring, I finally did my write up on how to reset/change your odometer reading so go check that out here: Odometer Reset - How To
This posting is related to the rewiring process and is mostly just a "Yay I'm finished" and a "That wasn't so hard" post. For anyone out there unsure whether or not they want to tackle the wiring themselves, It is definitely not as big of a job as it seems. Personally it took me about 15 hours over a single weekend but I recommend you take your time and double triple check your work.
Along with the wiring, I finally did my write up on how to reset/change your odometer reading so go check that out here: Odometer Reset - How To
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
Well I guess I've sorta neglected the build log here since the last I've made a big update. The goblin is running and driving and is scheduled to be street legal before the nice weather rolls in! I have no idea how I'm gonna structure this post but I think I'm just going to upload the photos, videos, and info in order as it is on my phone and figure it out as I go...
To start out, I guess I jumped into finishing the car after the wiring harness pretty quickly. Everything just clicked together like adult Lego for the most part. I decided to jump onto the road/track with a set of Nitto NT01 245/45ZR17 tires on some 5x114.3 17x9 +40 Konig hypergrams. Side note for anyone deciding on wheels and tires, a 40 offset is dangerously close to rubbing the rear suspension when running the BC coils. I ended up putting some 10mm spacers to clear the shocks but it is still pretty close and definitely does not leave enough room to mount the fenders. According to the dates on the photos I had the first ever drive in the goblin on May 29, 2022. I proceeded to cut it close and run to my first autocross June 4, 2022. The first drive was short, but I was hooked almost instantly. I definitely still needed a lot of work as the rear brakes were grinding and the engine was freshly rebuilt/upgraded with a stock tune on it. The car was very touchy on the throttle and would start to buck and oscillate violently when trying to drive at low speeds. With a little over a week I jumped into learning the tune the car myself. Long story short, I was in way over my head... Worked with a recommended cobalt LSJ tuner to dial in the MAF using LTFT (long term fuel trims) and STFT (short term fuel trims) which made a huge difference in the bucking but there was still a bunch to go. My biggest problem with the tuning was the lack of a wide band O2 sensor which I will cover later.
Finally! The moment I've been waiting for! Getting onto a track to race this beast. Photos make it look great however, I was slow, a novice, poorly tuned, broken down, and every other adjective you can think of but I didn't care. I brought my homemade racecar to drive at an event. It didn't matter how much trouble I had because everyone at the event and on the forums was super helpful and supportive. Not only that, nobody in the area had ever seen a goblin and I made lots of great friends. Oh, Did I mention that I spun the thing on my very first lap out... Learned in that moment I need to seriously learn how to drive this car and be mindful of what It can do and how quickly it can go wrong. Glad I learned this lesson on a closed course.
Wish I had a better camera for my first autocross event so all I've got are spectator views. In short I learned at the first event to work on my throttle control, smooth steering inputs, the supercharger sounds amazing but easy kicks the tires, and that I had a severe oil leak coming from where the bell housing connects to the engine.
Forum only allows the posting of 20 photos at a time so I am going to start another post right after this one!
To start out, I guess I jumped into finishing the car after the wiring harness pretty quickly. Everything just clicked together like adult Lego for the most part. I decided to jump onto the road/track with a set of Nitto NT01 245/45ZR17 tires on some 5x114.3 17x9 +40 Konig hypergrams. Side note for anyone deciding on wheels and tires, a 40 offset is dangerously close to rubbing the rear suspension when running the BC coils. I ended up putting some 10mm spacers to clear the shocks but it is still pretty close and definitely does not leave enough room to mount the fenders. According to the dates on the photos I had the first ever drive in the goblin on May 29, 2022. I proceeded to cut it close and run to my first autocross June 4, 2022. The first drive was short, but I was hooked almost instantly. I definitely still needed a lot of work as the rear brakes were grinding and the engine was freshly rebuilt/upgraded with a stock tune on it. The car was very touchy on the throttle and would start to buck and oscillate violently when trying to drive at low speeds. With a little over a week I jumped into learning the tune the car myself. Long story short, I was in way over my head... Worked with a recommended cobalt LSJ tuner to dial in the MAF using LTFT (long term fuel trims) and STFT (short term fuel trims) which made a huge difference in the bucking but there was still a bunch to go. My biggest problem with the tuning was the lack of a wide band O2 sensor which I will cover later.
Finally! The moment I've been waiting for! Getting onto a track to race this beast. Photos make it look great however, I was slow, a novice, poorly tuned, broken down, and every other adjective you can think of but I didn't care. I brought my homemade racecar to drive at an event. It didn't matter how much trouble I had because everyone at the event and on the forums was super helpful and supportive. Not only that, nobody in the area had ever seen a goblin and I made lots of great friends. Oh, Did I mention that I spun the thing on my very first lap out... Learned in that moment I need to seriously learn how to drive this car and be mindful of what It can do and how quickly it can go wrong. Glad I learned this lesson on a closed course.
Wish I had a better camera for my first autocross event so all I've got are spectator views. In short I learned at the first event to work on my throttle control, smooth steering inputs, the supercharger sounds amazing but easy kicks the tires, and that I had a severe oil leak coming from where the bell housing connects to the engine.
Forum only allows the posting of 20 photos at a time so I am going to start another post right after this one!
Attachments
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
Following my first autocross event, I took the car out to Ecotecfest hosted by a fellow goblin builder here in central PA. Really cool event with everything ecotec powered at the old Test track park of Berwick. I guess we technically weren't supposed to drive the goblins around the park but couldn't help ourselves but to cruise around and give other ecotec enthusiasts rides.
Upon returning home from all my first adventures with the goblin I had a lot of work to do.... First problem was the significant oil leak coming from the bell housing but I knew exactly what was wrong and it was all my fault. While I was replacing the clutch slave cylinder while building the car I had to drill out a bolt because the head was stripped out. Well just my luck I got the threads with the drill. Work got really busy so I didn't have the time tear the entire power train out for a while until about a week before the next autocross... Crunch time was on me when I finally got around to drop everything, find my problem, and JB weld the threads... Not necessarily proud to admit I just used JB weld to fix the threads but I didn't have any other options at the time to stop the leak. I mentioned I discovered another problem at Ecotec fest, Turns out I must have damaged the laminova cores of the A2W intake. At this time I thought the o rings in the intake were just bad so I replaced those while the power train was removed.
Well, My second autocross event was riddled with problems... the O-rings I had replaced turned out not to be the problem. Turns out when I was removing the cores to install the dual bypass endplate I must have damaged the cores themselves. I'm sure the pictures speak for how much coolant the car started drinking. Not only was the car drinking coolant, I had made what seemed like backwards progress on the tune. I struggled to pull out from a stop and the car would start bucking violently under full throttle.
After my second Autocross event with all of these issues I was very frustrated with the car.... To be honest, I took a break from it for a few weeks after getting home as everything seemed to be fighting me. Tune was still awful, the car was chugging coolant from the supercharger, and I missed out on my last two runs of the day because the car could barely hold idle and eventually locked up from what seemed like vapor lock. Lucky the engine was not hurt and started right up after letting it sit for about and hour. I did take the oil pan off after to check if it was still healthy on the bottom end. Eventually I got the drive to work on the car again and took my time in fixing the coolant leak, installed a second O2 bung, and worked on the tune every second I got. Note for anyone else, Do not try to run a single wide band sensor and simulate the narrowband for the ECU. the simulated narrowband works but has a delay large enough to freak the ECU out.
The final Autocross of the season had come quick but I felt prepared for this one! I had slowly and meticulously worked on the major issues I was experiencing throughout the season and it felt amazing to have such great runs. The tune is very basic so far but at this point I dropped the tuner that was helping me and I tuned the MAF using wideband afr error. Simple slow single variable tuning made a huge difference in the performance of the car. The tuner I was working with would see something and change a whole bunch of different variables making some things better and some worse... The car is still at stock if not lower power but runs way better, I plan on power tuning the car as soon as the weather clears up. In the mean time I've been working towards getting the goblin street legal. To anyone struggling with your LSJ going into a sorta limp mode or bucking under power with airflow mods installed make sure to check you are not triggering a P0101 code. The code is a sanity check code withing the ECU that will limit power for a short time to get certain variables back under control. Problem is the code will clear itself if the car runs ok again for a few seconds so by the time you can pull the laptop out after stopping the code goes away. You can disable the P0101 test on HP tuners.
Upon returning home from all my first adventures with the goblin I had a lot of work to do.... First problem was the significant oil leak coming from the bell housing but I knew exactly what was wrong and it was all my fault. While I was replacing the clutch slave cylinder while building the car I had to drill out a bolt because the head was stripped out. Well just my luck I got the threads with the drill. Work got really busy so I didn't have the time tear the entire power train out for a while until about a week before the next autocross... Crunch time was on me when I finally got around to drop everything, find my problem, and JB weld the threads... Not necessarily proud to admit I just used JB weld to fix the threads but I didn't have any other options at the time to stop the leak. I mentioned I discovered another problem at Ecotec fest, Turns out I must have damaged the laminova cores of the A2W intake. At this time I thought the o rings in the intake were just bad so I replaced those while the power train was removed.
Well, My second autocross event was riddled with problems... the O-rings I had replaced turned out not to be the problem. Turns out when I was removing the cores to install the dual bypass endplate I must have damaged the cores themselves. I'm sure the pictures speak for how much coolant the car started drinking. Not only was the car drinking coolant, I had made what seemed like backwards progress on the tune. I struggled to pull out from a stop and the car would start bucking violently under full throttle.
After my second Autocross event with all of these issues I was very frustrated with the car.... To be honest, I took a break from it for a few weeks after getting home as everything seemed to be fighting me. Tune was still awful, the car was chugging coolant from the supercharger, and I missed out on my last two runs of the day because the car could barely hold idle and eventually locked up from what seemed like vapor lock. Lucky the engine was not hurt and started right up after letting it sit for about and hour. I did take the oil pan off after to check if it was still healthy on the bottom end. Eventually I got the drive to work on the car again and took my time in fixing the coolant leak, installed a second O2 bung, and worked on the tune every second I got. Note for anyone else, Do not try to run a single wide band sensor and simulate the narrowband for the ECU. the simulated narrowband works but has a delay large enough to freak the ECU out.
The final Autocross of the season had come quick but I felt prepared for this one! I had slowly and meticulously worked on the major issues I was experiencing throughout the season and it felt amazing to have such great runs. The tune is very basic so far but at this point I dropped the tuner that was helping me and I tuned the MAF using wideband afr error. Simple slow single variable tuning made a huge difference in the performance of the car. The tuner I was working with would see something and change a whole bunch of different variables making some things better and some worse... The car is still at stock if not lower power but runs way better, I plan on power tuning the car as soon as the weather clears up. In the mean time I've been working towards getting the goblin street legal. To anyone struggling with your LSJ going into a sorta limp mode or bucking under power with airflow mods installed make sure to check you are not triggering a P0101 code. The code is a sanity check code withing the ECU that will limit power for a short time to get certain variables back under control. Problem is the code will clear itself if the car runs ok again for a few seconds so by the time you can pull the laptop out after stopping the code goes away. You can disable the P0101 test on HP tuners.
Attachments
comegetjoe
Goblin Guru
- comegetjoe Goblin Guru
What made you go with the NT01 vs say the R888R or another super sticky?
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
To be honest I don't quite remember the main reason I chose the Nittos other than seeing a bunch of good reviews and talking to others about a good street and track tire. When I first got them I was also concerned about being able to rotate my tires and they are non directional like the r888r. This year I picked up some slightly used A7s to try at autocross and see how they compare.
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
I'm not very good at this forum thing but I've got some time and guess its a good time for an update. My goblin was officially a legal car as of May 17, 2023 when I got the title plate in the mail. Since becoming legal I have put about 1200 street and track miles on the car. Not to much has changed about the car since the last update because I was out enjoying it and trying to attend as many events as I could! With the weather now cold and the goblin on stands I have a lot of work to do.
Fueltech Setup!
The first big step I've got for the goblin this year is the installation of a Fueltech FT 550 standalone ECU. This is absolutely not needed for most goblineers but I have some big future plans and Fueltech offered me a great discount to support my build. I am very overwhelmed by the amount of work the ECU install is going to take so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Engine Health Checkup
I originally had planned to do a minor rebuild of the motor due to a few minor leaks that I was struggling with. However, when I did some health checks via compression tester and leak down tests I found cylinder 2 was not doing well. I was notified by a few guys at events that it looked like I had a decent amount of blow by at events so I shouldn't be surprised by the readings...
Compression test
Autocross Season
On the bright side I got a ton of WOT seat time this year at multiple autocross events. I started a thread for PA goblin autocross postings and kept that fairly updated with my progress. I hoping to gather more goblins at the track here in PA and learn how to drive this incredible platform. So far I have driven with 2 other goblins in PA. My thread on PA autocrosses could be found in the thread Pennsylvania SCCA Autocross.
Build Season Checklist:
- Fueltech Install
- Ported Head
- Powder coat touchups
- Health check/motor rebuild
- New wrap
- Clean up loose ends
Fueltech Setup!
The first big step I've got for the goblin this year is the installation of a Fueltech FT 550 standalone ECU. This is absolutely not needed for most goblineers but I have some big future plans and Fueltech offered me a great discount to support my build. I am very overwhelmed by the amount of work the ECU install is going to take so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Engine Health Checkup
I originally had planned to do a minor rebuild of the motor due to a few minor leaks that I was struggling with. However, when I did some health checks via compression tester and leak down tests I found cylinder 2 was not doing well. I was notified by a few guys at events that it looked like I had a decent amount of blow by at events so I shouldn't be surprised by the readings...
Compression test
- Cylinder 1: 200psi
- Cylinder 2: 140psi
- Cylinder 3: 195psi
- Cylinder 4: 195psi
- Cylinder 1: 2psi Lost
- Cylinder 2: 40psi Lost
- Cylinder 3: 4psi Lost
- Cylinder 4: 4psi Lost
Autocross Season
On the bright side I got a ton of WOT seat time this year at multiple autocross events. I started a thread for PA goblin autocross postings and kept that fairly updated with my progress. I hoping to gather more goblins at the track here in PA and learn how to drive this incredible platform. So far I have driven with 2 other goblins in PA. My thread on PA autocrosses could be found in the thread Pennsylvania SCCA Autocross.
Build Season Checklist:
- Fueltech Install
- Ported Head
- Powder coat touchups
- Health check/motor rebuild
- New wrap
- Clean up loose ends
comegetjoe
Goblin Guru
- comegetjoe Goblin Guru
Hoping to get out gour direction by the end summer next year and at least attend an event to see what its all about. 2024 is going to be a good year!
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
I've had a few issues with it. which one in particular are you curious about? The latest issue I discovered was a warped/burnt valve in cylinder 2 causing it to have no compression. The car is currently torn apart for the Fueltech install and the head is being rebuilt/ported by Josh over at Category V Port worx
Keckster
Well-Known Member
- Keckster Well-Known Member
The leading theory is that the engine was running really lean for a while. I was struggling to tune it for months because the AFR never seemed to be right. Turns out the WB o2 sensor was bad and giving me inconsistent readings that always seemed to be just out of reach (Within 5-10% but never closer). The car never seemed down on power, I just did a compression check before winter to see how it was doing. Maybe I've never driven it with power lol
