V1 Josh's City Goblin - 10 XFE Donor

[jirwin]

Got ~120 miles of breakin down today on a windy river road. Recorded it with my Insta360. Messed up the export perspective, but I'm too lazy to go back and do it again. Timelapse turned out kinda neat regardless: https://streamable.com/0oivmy

That makes ~300 miles of break in. Technically should be enough, but I'm not sure what the clutch calls for so I'm going to shoot for 500 before applying the power.

 

[jirwin]

First rip went well! Oil pressure still good with a lighter weight oil (10w40 break in to 5w30 Redline). I don't exactly know what boost I was running because I have to unplug my ODB speedo to run HPTuners. Looking st old logs it looks like I'm running 4-5lbs more, which puts me at roughly 16-17lbs. We'll see when I get my gauge hooked back up. Good news is no knock! Methanol did its job! IATs actually went down under full throttle. Pretty wild

 

[jirwin]

Is there anything preventing me from getting another same engine Cobalt ECU, writing whatever my current tune is to it, and swapping that out whenever? I kinda wanna go E85 but I want a backup. An ECU with a 93 tune would be fairly simple to swap... Assuming I don't have the engine covers on

 

[Gtstorey]

You will have to at least do a key relearn after the swap. It’s unclear wether this will include the relearn of the fuel continue password from the bcm to the ECM. Service manual says it won’t but several experienced mechanics on HPT forum have said it will. I need to replace mine since the o2 heater doesn’t work but it still drives fairly well so haven’t done it yet. If the key relearn doesn’t do it, it will have to be done with either a high end scanner or through the online GM system.
On top of that you may have to do a throttle body/accelerator pedal and clutch relearn.

much easier to just have a laptop and write in a different tune.

 

[SmsDetroit]

My 2009 LNF willl let me swap between my stock ECU and my tuned with no issues. Plug and play. Don’t even need to do a key relearn

 

[Gtstorey]

Maybe I've been worrying more about it than I should. It's hard to tell what is needed to swap them out, lot of conflicting info around. And the service manual is written in very generic language.

And there is also the ability to clone an ECM that might have been used with you stock ECM. Was your tuned ECM just a random used or new one that you loaded a tune on, or did you send your old one to someone else to start with?

My 2009 LNF will let me swap between my stock ECU and my tuned with no issues. Plug and play. Don’t even need to do a key relearn

 

[jirwin]

Y'all think its possible to install the BC coilovers without disassembling the whole rear suspension? Ie. just remove the old struts 3 bolts and put the new ones in?

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Spring compressor to keep the strut from fully extending - sure. Remove the bottom strut bolts, the LCA will drop away - be carefully to not over-bend the axle. Remove the top strut bolt, being careful with the hand grenade, sorry, spring. Reverse the process to install, compressing the spring first. Piece of cake!

 

[jirwin]

Funny you say hand grenade. When I was plastidipoing the stock coils I was disassembling them in my house. "Eh one spring compressor is enough". Loosened the top bolt. The non compressed side grew 2-3" violently and bounced up off the floor. At least I was smart enough to point it away from me hahaha

 

[SmsDetroit]

That should be easy. If you are currently running stock struts there is nothing you need to transfer over. Unbolt them from the spindle and upper mount a chuck them. No need to disassemble them

 

[jirwin]

Rainy day so I started installing the coilovers. A lot easier install than I imagined. Didn't need spring compressors for disassembly. The left rear shock was busted - leaking oil - so that may have helped. The camber bolt did indeed fail. The threads were all galled up, allowing it to fall out of alignment, ruining the left rear tire. I'm confident that when I get a "new" strut bolt from the junkyard tomorrow I can get this properly aligned with proper camber.

 

[Robinjo]

Yes, that coil over replaces the whole strut/spring assembly. These adjustments in the pictures (linked below) get you very close to good, just minor tweaks.

Helpful Photo Albums

Here are some random helpful photo albums. I've ordered them by location on a Goblin, from the front to the rear. Heat Exchanger Front Suspension Rod End Mounts (steel version) Front Bearing Hub Inner Cap Installation Brake Reservoir Relocation Late Model Windscreen Steering Column...

dfkitcar.com

 

[Gtstorey]

Maybe I've been worrying more about it than I should. It's hard to tell what is needed to swap them out, lot of conflicting info around. And the service manual is written in very generic language.

And there is also the ability to clone an ECM that might have been used with you stock ECM. Was your tuned ECM just a random used or new one that you loaded a tune on, or did you send your old one to someone else to start with?

As a follow up to this I swapped out the ECM for the replacement one. I had to do a key relearn and a clutch switch position relearn but no other “immobilizer” relearn as instructed by the service manual. I didn’t try to put my old ECM back in to see if it still registered the key.

 

[jirwin]

I was just going to ask that while reading your reply haha. Well if you get bored and try it, let me know lol. Thanks for sharing

 

[jirwin]

Well, I had to switch back to the L shaped intake. I put in a "custom" coolant reservoir and couldn't get it to mount how I wanted to. I used it for a few weeks, but realized the thing was way too low. While trying to move it, I also realized that this new reservoir did not have a vented cap. When I opened the tank, due to these two things, it spewed coolant everywhere. That was enough to convince me to go back to the old ugly stock setup. Thankfully there were no issues with the "new" intake setup. Effectively compared to my last L shaped one I was having issues with, its identical. The only difference is the placement of the MAF being before the elbow instead of after. Apparently that makes all the difference because it drove just fine. Lessons learned.

 

[Robinjo]

I have a spare new stock reservoir laying around. Free plus shipping? Or I can bring it to GoblinFest if you are going?

 

[jirwin]

Thanks but I'm ok with the stock one. Its working and that's all that matters for now

 

[jirwin]

Copy paste from another thread.

Growing up as a kid I made a lot of stuff out of PVC pipe because it was cheap and versatile. I figured it would be a good fit for this project, at least as a "Version 1" setup. The plan is basically to use coated clamps to attach this PVC structure to each side of the frame. Attachment points and weird angled PVC joints are 3D printed. The radiators are off of a DRZ400. I have one, and one of the reasons I love is is because it was made for 20 years so all the parts are dirt cheap. A pair of were ~$60-70. They also perfectly fit 120mm PC fans. I will be putting a couple old 120mm static pressure optimized fans on there to start. Not as good as the 7" "stock" heat exchanger fan, but because of the location it should still be an improvement. To make it look acceptable, I plan on covering the side and top with a bent piece of sheet metal - similar to the side panels. Then the front will get some sort of mesh to protect/hide the radiator. The whole thing will be plumbed into the heat exchanger loop (in parallel probably), eliminating the front "stock" heat exchanger's heat soak issues.

 

[Gtstorey]

I'm not sure that this will eliminate the heat soak issues, at least not what I think of as heat soak. This is caused by the big lump of metal and coolant sitting on top of a hot engine when stopped allowing all of it to reach hotter temps than when the cars is running/moving.

 

[jirwin]

Heat soak from the radiator into the heat exchanger. It just blows hot air directly on it currently. This it'll at least have ambient air in all cases. I don't have (nor can I use) the NACA duct setup that would help prevent that since I'm running a hinged hood.