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Messages - Dont Panic

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1
General Buick Tech / Re: High BLMs
« on: February 24 2019, 12:29:17 PM »
I put the order in with Steve for one of his 62mm TBs.  My folks are snowbirds, so I'm trying to get whatever I need sent to them before they come back to Canada.

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General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 08:12:19 PM »
I got the turbo, injectors, converter and chip (red93) as a package but it was a long time ago (maybe 2004).  I think it was a red armstrong LU converter but I could be wrong.


I'll get all the leaks fixed and see how it goes before looking into the converter.



I'm pretty sure I will go with the new MAF and translator.  That seems to be the overwhelming consensus.  It is also the cheapest and easiest solution, which works for me.

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General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 02:55:56 PM »
There is a 4in available. and it's a ford part.
However 26 mph in the back half on 19lbs boost with all 3in. 3850 lbs Buick w driver;
Get rid of all that flexhose. JMO :icon_lol:

I was thinking of running a straight section of 3.5 inch smooth tubing from the turbo to the exit out of the engine bay (with MAF mounted somewhere in the middle) and then 4 inch flex hose over the wheel well down to where the filter is.  I have a lot of length and bends so not sure if 3" would be a restriction.  It sounds like it isn't a restriction in your set-up.  Maybe I'll stick with 3" for the straight section since the 3.5" MAF is less than the 3" tubing cross section anyways.


4
General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 02:06:56 PM »
3.5 maf.  :cool; how fast are you looking to go ?

Thanks, I'll go with the 3.5".  I would like to make the intake piping and MAF as large as possible now to future proof it.  If a 4" MAF was available that better suited 3.5" piping I would likely buy it even though it is currently overkill for my setup.

5
General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 01:15:55 PM »
Powerlogger is a much better investment than another chip.  There is no performance in going from a 5.7 to a 6.1.  It just makes it a bit harder for you to screw up :D  DirectScan was great in its day but lots of things can go wrong in the 1.4 seconds that it takes DirectScan to update.

I'm pretty sure the DS has a fast refresh rate, maybe 18 frames per second.  I'll do some research on the powerlogger.

6
General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 01:04:26 PM »

On this theme: At what point is it beneficial to move to LS-1 MAF and 3.5" plumbing VS LT-1MAF and 3" plumbing?


The point to move to a LS1 is the day Bob announced the birth of the Translator.

Between the two, the LS1 has less pressure drop over the LT1, so it wins hands down. The only reason to go LT1 is if you just refuse to buy a new air filter.
On the plumbing, there's no real reason to go to a 3.5" pipe other than cosmetics. (I will admit my 3.5 kit looks ''meaty as hell'').   The cross sectional area of the 3.5" MAF is only 80XX% of a 3" pipe.  (the LT1 is in the 60's percentile).

Is the LS1 still the largest most reliable MAF available today?

7
General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 12:27:46 PM »
On the topic:Highway Stars appear to have a significant discounted sale on their plastic LS-1 MAF currently.

Yes, I had seen that and would likely be getting that combo if I go the MAF route which I am leaning towards.

8
General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 12:08:31 PM »
Thanks for the comments.

The engine is in an 87 Thunderbird Turbocoupe (one of the few 80's cars that hasn't appreciated in value).  Lots of room upfront but less on the sides.  Parts like headers / crossover / downpipe don't exactly bolt in but that would be the case with most hybrids.

Grumpy, what kind of MAF and pipe sizing are you using?

I have the turbotweak 5.7 chip now and I am using direct scan.  Based on the first few responses I am leaning towards getting the upgraded MAF and translator.  If I get the car dialed in and I still want more, I could then upgrade to a 6.1 chip, wideband and power logger.  That probably makes the most sense for me.  I should post a wanted add for a used set.  With all these new ECUs out there, I'm sure there are people with a used MAF setup looking to sell.

My turbo spool is far from instant right now but I need to replace my throttle body shaft seals and block off the EGR so that might help.  I will try out a boost controller as well.  I got something that looks like the RJC controller, I just need to install it.  Putting the stock intercooler up front may not have helped.




9
General Buick Tech / Re: MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 22 2019, 08:06:35 AM »
Quote
For a street car, Translator and modern MAF all day long.

Thanks for the comment, but why?

I'm also wondering if going without a MAF would allow for less airflow restriction for faster turbo spool, or would that be negligible with a TE44, 3.5" MAF and 3.5" piping?

I have a good straight stretch of intake that would help create laminar air flow for the MAF (if that helps).  I also have a straight section of intercooler to TB piping if I wanted to go with a blow through MAF setup, although that scares me a bit in case something came apart in the MAF and got into the engine.  I will try to attach a pic of the engine bay. 

10
General Buick Tech / MAF Upgrade or SD?
« on: February 21 2019, 11:42:07 PM »
I was looking to upgrade my stock MAF with a 3.5" LS MAF and increase my intake piping diameter (~$300 for the translator and MAF + piping cost).  So I started researching and I see a lot of threads on removing the MAF and going SD.  So now I start researching SD for a few hours and I see there is a turbotweak SD2 chip but you need a powerlogger and 3 bar MAP which I don't have (I only have Direct Scan presently) so I would be into $850 for that setup. 


Then I start looking at the aftermarket ECU / engine management systems which look interesting and I cam across the XFI Sportsman which replaces the ECU and is $999.  From my research it seemed most people using the XFI Sportsman have more serious cars than I have, so it may not be good for what I have now but I could be wrong.


So now I am in a conundrum.  Do I buy the MAF and translator or do I put the money towards the SD setup which is only a few hundred more.  Which one is better for street driving?  If the XFI sportsman can be used on other engines in the future that would be a plus (I'm sure I can find this with some research).  Is the XFI sportsman much less of a system than the other more expensive SD options (MS3PRO, Eric's ECU GN, or the standard XFI model)?  I really like the look of Eric's ECU GN but I can't justify getting something like that with my set-up.  If the sportsman can interface with a universal gauge like this, or communicate with an android dash than that would help future proof it.  I have read a lot of good things with the SD2 chip but there is less information on the sportsman, likely because it is fairly new.  If the sportsman is simple enough to tweak once you get experience with it, then it would enable me to update it myself as I add parts in the future which would be a real plus.


Is anyone running the sportsman in a less aggressive street car?  Does anyone have experience with both the SD2 chip and the sportsman and if so what are the pluses and minuses of both? Would SD be noticeably better in performance for a set-up like I have or is it just more fun to tinker with?


Details about my set-up:- 42 lb injectors- TE44 turbo- 2800 stall converter- Front mount intercooler - Adjustable fuel pressure regulator- Turbotweak chip
- Plan to add alcohol injection next.

11
General Buick Tech / Re: High BLMs
« on: February 21 2019, 10:48:00 PM »
I finally got the car out of storage last summer and brought it to the house to work on, hooked it up to the computer and found high BLMS.  I started troubleshootin g, trying to figure out what was going on, and went on the forums and came across this thread.  Funny, I forgot most of what I had gone through 6 years ago.  So I called up Eric, and got a 5.7 chip.  This cleared up the BLMs during driving but I still had high BLMs at idle.  So I got into trouble shooting again.  I tried Seafoam, carb cleaner and propane with no luck, so I pressurized the intake using an inner tube to block off the turbo inlet, and putting compressed air into a vacuum line.  I found a major leak in the throttle body rotary cup seal and a leak in the EGR.  Also potential leaks in the injector o-rings.  I then pressurized the exhaust by putting a piece of the inner tube rubber between the downpipe and exhaust and pressurized it using a compression tester in the O2 bung location.  I found a pin hole in the crossover and a big leak at the crossover pipe to driverside header ball and socket joint. There was also a big leak at shaft for the waste gate puck which doesn't really matter but it was annoying because it was hard to build up pressure with air coming out of there.  I know this leak doesn't effect performance but do these shafts generally leak?  If not, maybe I should get a new elbow.


So from my experience, I could not for the life of me find the leaks until I pressurized the system and then it was obvious and all the leaks were found within minutes.  The method used was makeshift and I will figure out something better for future testing.


I welded up the crossover (after buying a mig welder, some gas - good excuse to buy more tools), and welded a new socket joint to the header and crossover.  The new socket joint is better but it still bubbles up with a soap test under pressure.  I will get a new throttle body as I can't seem to order the correct rotary cup seals with the metal outer here in Canada.  Perhaps I will go with a larger one while I am at it (likely Steve's 62 mm refurbished one).  My turbo spool up became a bit better after addressing some of the crossover issues but it still is not great.  Hopefully the intake leaks will help as well.


I'm also going to increase my intake diameter and either go with a new LS1 MAF or a SD setup, but I will create a new post on that topic to get some feedback.




12
General Buick Tech / Re: High BLMs
« on: July 28 2012, 12:08:43 PM »
Borrowed TT chip works good. Idle blm is 127, and all others are around 123-129. It must have been the chip all along. I will ask Eric to send me another chip for my set-up.

13
General Buick Tech / Re: High BLMs
« on: July 28 2012, 09:48:43 AM »
I am going to try out a 42lb TT chip from another member.  It is burned for a stock set-up though and not for a TE44.  I believe if I stay out of boost and just cruise around, the blms should be close to 128 with it, so I could at least use it for testing.

14
General Buick Tech / Re: High BLMs
« on: July 27 2012, 07:58:24 PM »
 I think if the chip was faulty it probably wouldn`t work at all, or it would work in limp home mode which would result in a rich condition (batch fire mode).   I had experience with a faulty computer in the past.  No matter what I did I couldn`t get the blms to come up.  Turned out to be a faulty computer that was running in limp home mode.  That one messed me up for a long time.

I will get more time in with the R93 chip.  Maybe a few times around the block was not enough time for the blms to settle.  Maybe I will use that one for my 2 hour drive on Sunday and see what happens.

15
General Buick Tech / Re: High BLMs
« on: July 27 2012, 06:17:24 PM »
I checked the id's on the injectors and they are 42 lbs which is correct. The chip was supposed to be burned for the 42s and likely were, but if Eric happened to have made a mistake I think I would be relieved as at least everything would make sense. Otherwise it is back to troubleshootin g and scratching my head.

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