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V1 Mikes Extended, Full Frame Goblin - 2009 Cobalt LS with 135k donor
Ross
Goblin Professor
Dale E
Goblin Kinsman
- Dale E Goblin Kinsman
Maybe a couple of visuals will help understand how the cylinder walls contact the coolant and the general coolant circulation. Most thermostats may have a "jiggler" in them. Some folks pull them and just have the hole. This is a weep hole to help with coolant flow through the system and help keep air pockets in check.
ah.b.normal
Goblin Guru
- ah.b.normal Goblin Guru
AND???????
- mike_sno Goblin Guru
Well, the first thing I noticed: The gas tank is to small 
Was driving for quite a while. My son had a blast! I am happy to be back on the road. Don't quite feel 100% comfortable trusting the engine to last. Always monitoring every liquid in the engine... Kind of panic for no reason. I stayed in a reasonable distance to home. Had to top the coolant off one time since it was getting low. (Way before the warning lamp would come on.) I guess the last bubbles worked its way out of the system.
The gearbox seems to send a wrong speed signal. Have to calibrate it.
I noticed 2 things: Way more noise from the engine. Especially when the supercharger is screaming! That did not bother my son, he feel asleep anyway. Mission accomplished
I also noticed a lot more heat coming from the engine towards the seats. I believe that's the supercharger. Will see how to deal with that, maybe a fan blowing on it?
The engine is idling, but I would give it a 7 of 10 in compare to the other engine which had a 9 of 10. It feels like sometimes the rpm drops a bit to low, then it overshoots until it's idling fine.
I also noticed that sometimes when I throttle up the engine gets in a weird oscillating circle. Wants to go, but then it has no power, then it wants to go again,... I am not 100% what that is. Have to connect and log with HP Tuners. It does not happen all the time, I believe mostly in second gear when I at around 1800 rpm and floor it. I looked at the belt of the Supercharger and that belt is moving quite during that situation. More investigation necessary.
Power: It's noticeable better, but still way to driveable. Had a Dodge Charger in traffic next to me and I needed to completely floor it to keep up with it. It wasn't a hellcat, just the regular one, guess around 450hp or whatever they have. Did not do any drifting,... Also no 0-60 runs, as my OBD 2 Speed signal is off.
My obd2 scanner app on my phone reported boost up to 0.5bar. Depending on how high the rpm,... I saw a lot boosts in the 0.3bar area.
Rerouting of the shifter cable is a lot better! Had in the past problems that the first gear jumped out and it feels like a lot better as it is right now.
Looking back it took me almost 1 month. If the head would be fine, I would be able at least 1 week faster.
Was driving for quite a while. My son had a blast! I am happy to be back on the road. Don't quite feel 100% comfortable trusting the engine to last. Always monitoring every liquid in the engine... Kind of panic for no reason. I stayed in a reasonable distance to home. Had to top the coolant off one time since it was getting low. (Way before the warning lamp would come on.) I guess the last bubbles worked its way out of the system.The gearbox seems to send a wrong speed signal. Have to calibrate it.
I noticed 2 things: Way more noise from the engine. Especially when the supercharger is screaming! That did not bother my son, he feel asleep anyway. Mission accomplished
I also noticed a lot more heat coming from the engine towards the seats. I believe that's the supercharger. Will see how to deal with that, maybe a fan blowing on it?
The engine is idling, but I would give it a 7 of 10 in compare to the other engine which had a 9 of 10. It feels like sometimes the rpm drops a bit to low, then it overshoots until it's idling fine.
I also noticed that sometimes when I throttle up the engine gets in a weird oscillating circle. Wants to go, but then it has no power, then it wants to go again,... I am not 100% what that is. Have to connect and log with HP Tuners. It does not happen all the time, I believe mostly in second gear when I at around 1800 rpm and floor it. I looked at the belt of the Supercharger and that belt is moving quite during that situation. More investigation necessary.
Power: It's noticeable better, but still way to driveable. Had a Dodge Charger in traffic next to me and I needed to completely floor it to keep up with it. It wasn't a hellcat, just the regular one, guess around 450hp or whatever they have. Did not do any drifting,... Also no 0-60 runs, as my OBD 2 Speed signal is off.
My obd2 scanner app on my phone reported boost up to 0.5bar. Depending on how high the rpm,... I saw a lot boosts in the 0.3bar area.
Rerouting of the shifter cable is a lot better! Had in the past problems that the first gear jumped out and it feels like a lot better as it is right now.
Looking back it took me almost 1 month. If the head would be fine, I would be able at least 1 week faster.
- mike_sno Goblin Guru
I wanna say thank you for all the helpful tips I recieved! It was the first time for me stripping a car engine down that far, building a harness,... But it all worked out at the end. I'm most surprised how well the wiring harness came out. I thought there would be more trouble. Cruise control is not working at the moment.
I still have a few things to finish. Mainly the wiring needs to be tied to the side, another oil charge, new sparc plugs (anyone having a recommendation for one?), gearbox calibration and maybe a new tune.
Then I can continue with my other projects, digital dash, new ecu and general tuning, now where I have a good base engine.
I still have a few things to finish. Mainly the wiring needs to be tied to the side, another oil charge, new sparc plugs (anyone having a recommendation for one?), gearbox calibration and maybe a new tune.
Then I can continue with my other projects, digital dash, new ecu and general tuning, now where I have a good base engine.
Ark :D
Goblin Guru
- Ark :D Goblin Guru
All the information you need is scattered amongst these threads/posts:
https://www.dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/led-headlight-turn-signal-brake-wiring.1563/
https://www.dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/cruise-control.1053/
https://www.dfkitcar.com/forum/inde...-187-2008-ss-tc-donor.1301/page-62#post-77751
The gist of it:
https://www.dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/led-headlight-turn-signal-brake-wiring.1563/
https://www.dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/cruise-control.1053/
https://www.dfkitcar.com/forum/inde...-187-2008-ss-tc-donor.1301/page-62#post-77751
The gist of it:
- Get a 50w, 6-ohm resistor like the ones DF sells on their store.
- If you have a third brake light, tap into the light blue wire ahead of your third brake light and run a wire from there, to the resistor, and then from the other end of the resistor to ground
- If you don't have a third brake light, just connect the light blue wire to the resistor, then run a wire from the other end of the resistor to ground
- If it still doesn't work, check the solder job on the back of the DF dash switches, assuming you bought them
Robinjo
Goblin Guru
- Robinjo Goblin Guru
The gearbox seems to send a wrong speed signal. Have to calibrate it. --> Easy to do in HPTuners if you have it.
I also noticed a lot more heat coming from the engine towards the seats. I believe that's the supercharger. Will see how to deal with that, maybe a fan blowing on it? --> When I cut my new windshield I used the old one as a blocking plate, it helps a lot with the heat pouring into the cabin from the engine. I usually only noticed it at stops though.
I also noticed that sometimes when I throttle up the engine gets in a weird oscillating circle. Wants to go, but then it has no power, then it wants to go again,... I am not 100% what that is. Have to connect and log with HP Tuners. It does not happen all the time, I believe mostly in second gear when I at around 1800 rpm and floor it. I looked at the belt of the Supercharger and that belt is moving quite during that situation. More investigation necessary. --> I did a plate and spring that helps the surging but it still happen some. This is a LSJ issue. You need to roll into the throttle instead of stabbing it. That helps the most.
dfkitcar.com
Power: It's noticeable better, but still way to drivable. Had a Dodge Charger in traffic next to me and I needed to completely floor it to keep up with it. It wasn't a hellcat, just the regular one, guess around 450hp or whatever they have. Did not do any drifting,... Also no 0-60 runs, as my OBD 2 Speed signal is off. --> something isn't right. You should have dusted that thing easily.
My obd2 scanner app on my phone reported boost up to 0.5bar. Depending on how high the rpm,... I saw a lot boosts in the 0.3bar area. --> You should be in the 12-15 psi range (0.83 to 1.03 B). Are you getting any CEL codes?
Rerouting of the shifter cable is a lot better! Had in the past problems that the first gear jumped out and it feels like a lot better as it is right now. --> Check your radiator hose on the drivers side. It's known to interfere with the shifting components. Also, Lonnie's method for getting the shifter setup is a guideline and fine tuning will be needed to get it perfect.
I also noticed a lot more heat coming from the engine towards the seats. I believe that's the supercharger. Will see how to deal with that, maybe a fan blowing on it? --> When I cut my new windshield I used the old one as a blocking plate, it helps a lot with the heat pouring into the cabin from the engine. I usually only noticed it at stops though.
I also noticed that sometimes when I throttle up the engine gets in a weird oscillating circle. Wants to go, but then it has no power, then it wants to go again,... I am not 100% what that is. Have to connect and log with HP Tuners. It does not happen all the time, I believe mostly in second gear when I at around 1800 rpm and floor it. I looked at the belt of the Supercharger and that belt is moving quite during that situation. More investigation necessary. --> I did a plate and spring that helps the surging but it still happen some. This is a LSJ issue. You need to roll into the throttle instead of stabbing it. That helps the most.
simple throttle pedal spring kit *it works*
I made up this prototype throttle pedal spring bracket to help with starting in 1st gear. 1) bracket designed to fit in throttle pedal bolt holes, I used some left over 6061 aluminum I had. it sandwhiches between the pedal assembly and the mount. 2) Spectre throttle springs I found at autozone...
Power: It's noticeable better, but still way to drivable. Had a Dodge Charger in traffic next to me and I needed to completely floor it to keep up with it. It wasn't a hellcat, just the regular one, guess around 450hp or whatever they have. Did not do any drifting,... Also no 0-60 runs, as my OBD 2 Speed signal is off. --> something isn't right. You should have dusted that thing easily.
My obd2 scanner app on my phone reported boost up to 0.5bar. Depending on how high the rpm,... I saw a lot boosts in the 0.3bar area. --> You should be in the 12-15 psi range (0.83 to 1.03 B). Are you getting any CEL codes?
Rerouting of the shifter cable is a lot better! Had in the past problems that the first gear jumped out and it feels like a lot better as it is right now. --> Check your radiator hose on the drivers side. It's known to interfere with the shifting components. Also, Lonnie's method for getting the shifter setup is a guideline and fine tuning will be needed to get it perfect.
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- mike_sno Goblin Guru
Yes, have HP Tuners, just need to buy new credits I guess. Did the same thing on the LAP.
I definitely noticed it while driving. Seems to be radiation.
Ahh, interesting. Will first try to adjust my foot, if that does not work I try that. Kind of annoying, if you have so much electronic in the car, it should be able to handle flooring the pedal in any situation... IMO.I also noticed that sometimes when I throttle up the engine gets in a weird oscillating circle. Wants to go, but then it has no power, then it wants to go again,... I am not 100% what that is. Have to connect and log with HP Tuners. It does not happen all the time, I believe mostly in second gear when I at around 1800 rpm and floor it. I looked at the belt of the Supercharger and that belt is moving quite during that situation. More investigation necessary. --> I did a plate and spring that helps the surging but it still happen some. This is a LSJ issue. You need to roll into the throttle instead of stabbing it. That helps the most.
simple throttle pedal spring kit *it works*
I made up this prototype throttle pedal spring bracket to help with starting in 1st gear. 1) bracket designed to fit in throttle pedal bolt holes, I used some left over 6061 aluminum I had. it sandwhiches between the pedal assembly and the mount. 2) Spectre throttle springs I found at autozone...
Well, interesting. I would not trust my cheap adapter and the torque pro app to much. Until a few minutes ago, I did not know that the HP Tuner device has the TDN app which allows to log via cell phone. When my kids are in the car there is no space for the laptop. I guess I will have to make a real log with HP Tuners to see what's going on. I noticed the the torque pro app switches between bar when under boost and in/hg when under vacuum. Not sure if that tells you something if that is the right value to monitor.
I posted in another thread here in the forum that it seems that I have the Stage 2 Kit and was looking for a tuning file. While I only looked at model year 2007, there are 2 files in the 2006 HP Tuners repository. I downloaded both files and compared them against each other. The are identical. That let me believe they are untouched stock stage 2 files. Then I compared the file against mine and I see that mine has quite a bit of alternations. I watched a ton of goat rope tuning videos and it seems like that a lot thing he talks about were changed in my tune as well. I was wondering why they reduced the idle rpm, that might explain the not to well working idle.
Now my question: I know I have the 42lb/hr injectors and it seems like I have the stage 2 pulley as well. What else did GM do to make it a stage 2 kit? If nothing else, I would just make a backup of my current file and flash the GM Stage 2 standard firmware.
Before I do that, I will hopefully get the opportunity to dial in the speedometer and make some 0-60 runs.
Rauq
Goblin Guru
- Rauq Goblin Guru
Sorry that wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. I do have a few small tune observations, though. Please forgive the mind vomit.
If you know you have GM's Stage 2 injectors, I would use the injector data from the GMS2 tune. The injector data in your tune is not the same, and while I obviously can't say which is better, that is one area where I'd trust GM's calibration more than anyone else.
It'd be easy enough to try increasing idle RPMs to see if it idles better. It's my understanding though that 42's are still within the realm of small enough to idle well at normal RPMs/pulse widths. For reference, my injectors are almost twice as large and I idle at 900 rpms. I don't have much experience with running a stock (non-Goblin) tune in a Goblin, but I think there's probably some idle smoothness and other performance to be gained by tuning the VE table and MAF curve in the Goblin. Good injector data also makes a difference in idle quality.
MAF, VE, and spark tables all look different than GMS2 (which I think you recognized), but they look different to me in a way that suggests that someone fine tuned the tables for *an* application (although perhaps not your particular Cobalt donor). I know some folks are fans of running tunes that are almost entirely MAF (Dynamic Airflow Disable at or near idle speeds), but I'm not one of them. Stock is like 5600, GMS2 and my tune are 3500, and ZZP likes it lower than that. Yours is set at 7000 RPMs, meaning that the computer is interpolating between MAF and VE operation all the time. I think general consensus is that VE is definitely not great at high RPMs. I'd be curious what kind of changes you'd feel setting Dynamic Airflow Disable to like 3500, but I'd want to follow that up by fine tuning the MAF curve.
I will say, I like the power enrichment curve in your tune more than GMS2.
The lack of power you described doesn't sound like it'd be solely attributed to the tune. Neither yours nor GMS2 limit boost in 1st gear or in any way that you should be consistently incurring. I think you should take another look at your supercharger bypass valve and controls. How confident are you that everything's copacetic there?
You're welcome to try flashing the GMS2 tune and see if that works any better for you. And/or we can point you in the right direction (or... *a* direction) to refine your tune for your particular application.
You also need to go under Speedometer > Calibration and set VSS Pulses Per Rev to 29 and Pulses Per Mile to 22,846 for the F23 trans.
If you know you have GM's Stage 2 injectors, I would use the injector data from the GMS2 tune. The injector data in your tune is not the same, and while I obviously can't say which is better, that is one area where I'd trust GM's calibration more than anyone else.
It'd be easy enough to try increasing idle RPMs to see if it idles better. It's my understanding though that 42's are still within the realm of small enough to idle well at normal RPMs/pulse widths. For reference, my injectors are almost twice as large and I idle at 900 rpms. I don't have much experience with running a stock (non-Goblin) tune in a Goblin, but I think there's probably some idle smoothness and other performance to be gained by tuning the VE table and MAF curve in the Goblin. Good injector data also makes a difference in idle quality.
MAF, VE, and spark tables all look different than GMS2 (which I think you recognized), but they look different to me in a way that suggests that someone fine tuned the tables for *an* application (although perhaps not your particular Cobalt donor). I know some folks are fans of running tunes that are almost entirely MAF (Dynamic Airflow Disable at or near idle speeds), but I'm not one of them. Stock is like 5600, GMS2 and my tune are 3500, and ZZP likes it lower than that. Yours is set at 7000 RPMs, meaning that the computer is interpolating between MAF and VE operation all the time. I think general consensus is that VE is definitely not great at high RPMs. I'd be curious what kind of changes you'd feel setting Dynamic Airflow Disable to like 3500, but I'd want to follow that up by fine tuning the MAF curve.
I will say, I like the power enrichment curve in your tune more than GMS2.
The lack of power you described doesn't sound like it'd be solely attributed to the tune. Neither yours nor GMS2 limit boost in 1st gear or in any way that you should be consistently incurring. I think you should take another look at your supercharger bypass valve and controls. How confident are you that everything's copacetic there?
You're welcome to try flashing the GMS2 tune and see if that works any better for you. And/or we can point you in the right direction (or... *a* direction) to refine your tune for your particular application.
You also need to go under Speedometer > Calibration and set VSS Pulses Per Rev to 29 and Pulses Per Mile to 22,846 for the F23 trans.
- Gtstorey Goblin Guru
Never just write another tune into your car. Copy changes from the new file into your original base file and write that. There are many more tables in an ECM than HPT has unlocked and you can't tell which one of those are different. It's not likely in this case to lock your ECM, but no reason to risk it.
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