Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

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The locker turned out to be defective...They refunded my money.
It made sense that the thing had to be defective given the noise it was making, and the fact that the freakin thing completely unlocked in the middle of an intersection.
So off to a good start this morning.

Its cold today, and potentially the only day in the next several days that Id have any chance of driving the thing..After today, A winter storm is ”predicted” to move in. And like all “ winter storms” in the deep south....less than an inch of snow ( Hell,....even the prediction of accumulation) will shut the city down for at least one of the two days it’s predicted to last.

My next day off is forecasted at a 95% chance of rain..With the Sunday to follow, ( one week from today) to be decent enough to beat on the car.....safely.

Im watching the roads to see if they look to be dry for this afternoon ( when the temp will make it up to around 40 degrees) I figure if Jeff can take his junk out in Jersey in January and @ThinBlue502 can drive a perfectly clean red notch
on Salt covered roads in Ohio..( Where 40 degree days are perfect excuses for Bikers to get out for a ride)..I should be able to take the monster out for a “ spin”.

But...He is a reptile after all...They don’t like the cold...Maybe the sun will come out...and I can find a nice flat rock where he can sun himself.
 
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The locker turned out to be defective...They refunded my money.
It made sense that the thing had to be defective given the noise it was making, and the fact that the freakin thing completely unlocked in the middle of an intersection.
So off to a good start this morning.

Its cold today, and potentially the only day in the next several days that Id have any chance of driving the thing..After today, A winter storm is ”predicted” to move in. And like all “ winter storms” in the deep south....less than an inch of snow ( Hell,....even the prediction of accumulation) will shut the city down for at least one of the two days it’s predicted to last.

My next day off is forecasted at a 95% chance of rain..With the Sunday to follow, ( one week from today) to be decent enough to beat on the car.....safely.

Im watching the roads to see if they look to be dry for this afternoon ( when the temp will make it up to around 40 degrees) I figure if Jeff can take his junk out in Jersey in January and @ThinBlue502 can drive a perfectly clean red notch
on Salt covered roads in Ohio..( Where 40 degree days are perfect excuses for Bikers to get out for a ride)..I should be able to take the monster out for a “ spin”.

But...He is a reptile after all...They don’t like the cold...Maybe the sun will come out...and I can find a nice flat rock where he can sun himself.
Man that last day I had the car out and inserted my foot in my mouth has it raining and snowing here on and off for 2-3 weeks now . My cars tucked in the garage with the upper intake off and at MCRP getting ported / opened up for the 90mm TB .

this time last year I was cruising in my car no issue though . Big difference in actually getting winter this year .
 
I think Im fixed....
I lowered the boost duty to 40%....
At WOT, the boost duty spikes to 40 as soon as the engine gets into significant boost. At 40% duty, the engine makes exactly the same boost as it did with the old gate at 44%. It goes to 23.3psi, and remains there from 4500-7000, w/o so much as losing .2-.3 psi of boost.
My boost gauge flat out lied though,...the one time I looked down at at during a WOT pull, it read 28psi...After which I immediately lifted.


It doesn't feel like its spinning the tires, but it must at least be hazing them, as every time I slow back down after a pull, the tires are picking up all kinds of dirt and small gravel dust and flinging it up everywhere into the wheel tubs and on the quarters...

It dint ping that I could hear,...It ran strong through the full RPM range.. But despite that I aint setting the world on fire either.

It still feels like a 12 second car to me.


* Edit I spent a little more time studying, and changing the boosty duty cycle map..It's way different now than it was before. I thought I had changed it down to 40% before this last run, but after looking at it, saw that I missed a cell, and it stayed in the 44% range. But nonetheless, the difference here is that It doesn't lose anything once it makes it like before.

This time though,...Boost duty is tuned from about 70% throttle up...(As opposed to 100% before) And this time, Boost duty comes on much lower in the RPM range in an attempt to hold the gate closed at lower RPMS..

But It'll be a week before I can test that out.

When I got back in the garage, I do what I always do, and open the hood, and ck for carnage and leaks...and as always with this engine,....It's always the same....
It just looks back at me as if to say..." What? You talking to me?

For those that can read a MS datalog...
 

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I think Im fixed....
I lowered the boost duty to 40%....
At WOT, the boost duty spikes to 40 as soon as the engine gets into significant boost. At 40% duty, the engine makes exactly the same boost as it did with the old gate at 44%. It goes to 23.3psi, and remains there from 4500-7000, w/o so much as losing .2-.3 psi of boost.
My boost gauge flat out lied though,...the one time I looked down at at during a WOT pull, it read 28psi...After which I immediately lifted.


It doesn't feel like its spinning the tires, but it must at least be hazing them, as every time I slow back down after a pull, the tires are picking up all kinds of dirt and small gravel dust and flinging it up everywhere into the wheel tubs and on the quarters...

It dint ping that I could hear,...It ran strong through the full RPM range.. But despite that I aint setting the world on fire either.

It still feels like a 12 second car to me.


* Edit I spent a little more time studying, and changing the boosty duty cycle map..It's way different now than it was before. I thought I had changed it down to 40% before this last run, but after looking at it, saw that I missed a cell, and it stayed in the 44% range. But nonetheless, the difference here is that It doesn't lose anything once it makes it like before.

This time though,...Boost duty is tuned from about 70% throttle up...(As opposed to 100% before) And this time, Boost duty comes on much lower in the RPM range in an attempt to hold the gate closed at lower RPMS..

But It'll be a week before I can test that out.

When I got back in the garage, I do what I always do, and open the hood, and ck for carnage and leaks...and as always with this engine,....It's always the same....
It just looks back at me as if to say..." What? You talking to me?

For those that can read a MS datalog...

Well, according to the inter webs in similar fashion to Mustangs eating crowd jokes, 1400 hp Supras always still seem to be 11 second or slower cars. So I guess you’re right where the car should be?
 
All those cameras.....and no video.
Why would I bother? Who wants to watch a freakin video of a 6 cylinder Fairmont racing up and down the street?
Im thinking it would've been the same if I had taken it out 6.5 years ago when the delivery driver dropped it off on my street with the factory 3 liter turd that it already had in it.
 
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Got a call last night from Turbosmart ( said that their phone systems had been down for a few days).

I told him my boost leak story...he said he wasn’t sure about whether or not the valve would seal against air pressure applied to it the way I was doing it. He also said he didn’t know whether or not exhaust heat affected the sealing one way or the other...
( Thanks for nothing)
He wants me to turn off the EBC, and see if the thing makes and holds gate pressure w/o the benefit of added pressure to the top dome to hold it closed..If the thing will make 14 psi, and hold it, his reasoning was that he doubted the leak was hurting me. That makes sense to me.
( Thank for that)
 
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Did you say Thank you Cap'n Obvious?

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