Golden's 2010 Evo GSR

[FreshandClean]

Michael,
Great job my friend, this is for sure one of my favored builds to keep up with. Great write ups/pics as well. Keep it up!

[Golden]

I washed my car yesterday and took some pictures of the exhaust. Not that you can really see much of the exhaust while it is on the ground, but here you go:

[Golden]

While washing my car yesterday, I was able to try out some of my Detailers Domain products.

The Grit Guard:
There was gravel in the bottom of my bucket, not in my sponge. What more do I say? It rocks.

Microfiber Towel:
This thing is amazing. I've tried several different products (towels and shammies) to dry my car, and none of them worked like this. I'm going to order another. It's as big as a beach towel.
If you look careful in my exhaust install post, you can see it being used to prevent scratching on the side of my car while I worked on the down pipe.

Picture for Reference:

[Golden]

I installed my Air / Fuel Gauge (aka UEGO) last night. I didn't take any pictures. I guess I didn't think anything was really that interesting. But in hind site, I guess I should have.

First I tested the meter. I think I will write an actual how to on this in the "How To" section. Not that its that hard, but sometimes its nice to see it done first.

The quick version goes like this:
Meter On; Sensor in open air; Full Lean


Meter On; Sensor in Break Cleaner soaked Rag; Full Rich



Install:
My O2 sensor went in my down pipe. The TurboXS dp has an extra bung just after the dp's stock O2 sensor. The bung and ultimately the sensor face the drivers side of the car, but there really is no where else to fit an O2 sensor in there. I followed the Stock Front O2 lines. I punched 2 small holes in my heat shield and stuck the plug for the new O2 into it. The plug has one of those plastic ribbed push in a hole things like what holds most of our interior together. With the plug attached to the heat shield, I zip tied the line to the stock O2 line in several places. The Stock O2 line goes towards the passenger side and into the cabin through a rubber grommet under the passenger side carpet. I simply pulled back the carpet, fed my wire through and routed it to the center council. There is plenty of room for it, because again, I just followed the stock O2 line.
I then pulled my center council half way apart. All you have to do is yank off the plastic piece around the Parking Break and unplug the ASC switch (if you have one there). Then pop off your shift knob and unscrew the two screws holding the shifter boot plate in, and unplug the accessory plug (cig lighter). I coiled up the excess sensor wire and placed it on the drivers side of the shifter. I pulled the individual wires out of the accessory plug (cig lighter) and soldered a wire to them. The accessory plug is switched, so my gauge will turn on and off with the car. I then soldered the gauge's power wires to the new wire that I added in the previous step. I took another wire about 1.5 feet long, and soldered it to the serial out of the gauge. This wire was tucked in between the council and the passenger side carpet, so that I can simply pull it out, solder a serial port plug on it, and use it for data logging.
To finish it up, I simply pulled the 2 wire bundles needed for the gauge through the crack in the front drivers side shifter boot plate. Everything gets put back in its place, and I used some 2 sided tape to tape the gauge to the top of the cubby under the climate controls. I need to get an actual gauge pod, but this will do for now.

Again, sorry for the lack of pictures, it won't happen again. lol

[Golden]

My last part arrived today. Perrin FMIC

First off, the packaging was awesome. I've gotten a lot of packages in the mail over the last few weeks, and this by far takes the cake. And the intercooler is heavy, according to UPS, 37.5 lbs (including packaging). Box was dented, but you could just about throw this off a moving UPS truck and still not hurt the IC.

Construction of this is amazing. With its cast end tanks and its perfect welds, you almost want to just mount it on the wall as trophy. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Front view:


Top View:


Thickness:


Core:


Cast End Tanks - on the inside, very smooth


Hardware:


I need to get some more t-clamps like these. They are even stamped with Perrin's logo on them.

Stats:
Stock EVO 9 19.50" x 11.5" x 2.5625" 566.5 cu-in 25 (.167"tall charge tubes) .268" tall ambient fins
Stock EVO X 19.50" x 11.5" x 2.5625" 566.5 cu-in 25 (.167"tall charge tubes) .268" tall ambient fins

PERRIN EVO X 20.75" x 12.375" x 3.625" 930.8 cu-in 15 (.375"tall charge tubes) .375" tall ambient fins

Now I just have to tear the face off my baby shark and mount up this bad boy. I also get to remove my last piece of stock crappy flexible hose.

[Golden]

I installed my Perrin Intercooler tonight. It was a fairly simple install, but I wish the instructions would have told me to remove the bolts from the holes that the new FMIC uses to attach itself to the car.

Also, I couldn't quite get it to move to the left another 1/8th inch. Not a big deal, but I try to make everything perfect. I can't slide any more to the left because of the mounting bracket on the bottom. I think they may have just welded it off a bit. It should have been designed with oblong holes to allow lateral movement.

I took lots of pictures.

Stock:


Radiator cover and Intake scoop removed:


Front cover:


Evo minus front:


Good shot of the stock intercooler:


Intercooler gone:


Another one, you can see the radiator:


Stock vs. Perrin
Standing:


Front:


Top:


Stock's internals:


Stock cast end tanks:

You can compare this to Perrin's in the post above.

Perrin FMIC Installed:


Done:

[HEISS X]

Nice,looks good man. It was'nt hard to pull that bumper cover right?

[Golden]

No, not at all. Just a little scary ripping it out of the fender. After taking it off, I wonder how it actually stays on. lol A couple bolts here and a hand full of plastic pop things there and it all falls off.

[Golden]

Here is another stat to compare the new FMIC to Stock:

I calculated the actual volume of the passage ways that the air travels.

Stock = 208.6 cubic inches
Perrin = 423.1 cubic inches

That means that the air travels almost exactly half the speed through the Perrin, or put another way, the air has twice as long to cool off.

[HEISS X]

ya

[HEISS X]

Ya it's crazy not much holding it on.

[Golden]

I found another Hot Wheel

#4

[Golden]

I was doing some more research on my waste gate actuator that has yet to be installed due to my lack of AP map.

I found these posts by Mike@Forge on a different site, but I'm quoting them here for my own benefit.

Design

19-24 PSI base spring pressure is standard, but a 14-18 PSI spring is optional.

The units are still manually adjustable like the stock units within the respective spring pressure range.

Due to the positioning of the wastegate flapper within the exhaust housing of the turbo, the exhaust gas pressure is directed staight against it, which can easily cause it to open prematurely thus limiting boost.

The housing is cast differently from the 8 and 9 turbos. On those exhaust housings, the flapper is positioned laterally to the exhaust gas flow, whereas on the X housings, it's more inline with the flow, so the problem is a little worse on the X's, so the benefits from the upgrade are more substantial.

More on Design

As I said earlier, the higher spring pressure within our unit allows for the wastegate flapper to be held closed tighter and for longer against the exhaust gas pressure flowing through the turbo.

With the weaker spring of the stock unit, as well as the poor placement of the wastegate flapper within the exhaust housing, the exhaust gas pressure can easily force the wastegate flapper open prematurely. When this occurs, the exhaust gas that is supposed to be spooling the turbo is dumped which will slow the speed of the compressor wheel and limit the potential to build boost further.

Tightening the stock unit will have the same effect as ours, as many people are finding, but to a much lower degree. You're working with an altogether weaker spring to begin with. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 PSI base pressure.

We assemble our units with a 19-24 PSI base spring pressure, so the possibility of the exhaust gas pressure prematurely opening the flapper against this higher spring pressure is minimized, if not completely eliminated.

All of the exhaust gas is kept within the exhaust housing of the turbo and is forced to continue spooling the wheels keeping boost at it's peak potential.

A boost controller will still allow you to adjust up from the base actuator spring pressure, and it will open the actuator when the target boost pressure is reached, but with the stock unit, there is still the potential for the exhaust gas pressure to prematurely open the wastegate BEFORE peak boost is reached and the boost controller would send the signal to open the actuator.

With our unit, the boost controller will still function in the same way, sending the pressure signal to the actuator to open it fully when the target boost level is reached, but there is far less chance of the exhaust gas pressure opening the flapper before that occurs.

Depending upon how the units are adjusted, you will see changes like quicker spool, less tapering, and an overall increase in the area under the boost curve. The units are piston based, and fully rebuildable. They carry a lifetime warranty.

Setting Pre Load

No, the units are NOT pre-set from us out of the box.

You will need to manually set the pre-load of the turnbuckle based on your particular car and the desired amount of pre-load/base boost you want within the spring's pressure range.

You want to adjust the turnbuckle so that you need to pull on the rod slightly in order to attach it to the wastegate lever and secure it with the pin/clip. The more pre-load you add, the more you will need to pull on the rod to attach the turnbuckle and the higher the base boost will go.

We would typically recommend running a line directly from the pressure source to the actuator without any sort of boost control in order to dial in the actuator's base pressure. Once you have this set where you want it, go back and add in the boost controller to make your adjustments up from that point.

Lock Nut, Spring Rates and Water Tight

The lock nut is generally not needed on a unit with bent rod like the Evo 8 and Evo 9 actuators. Once the turnbuckle is attached and secured with the pin/clip, it's not going to spin on the rod at all.

The Evo X actuator has a straight rod, however, so even once the turnbuckle is attached and secured, there may still be the slight potential for the turnbuckle to spind on the rod, even though it's under a pretty decent amount of tension, so I would suggect using it on a straight rod actuator like the X. We always supply them regardless.


Other companies offer "higher boost" actuators, but they are just stamped OEM based units with slightly higher tension springs. Still typically not as high as what we can offer with the 4 different springs available. They still have a minimal range of adjustment and aren't rebuildable.

We typically build the units with the red spring, but the base pressures available by request are:

Green spring - 5-10 PSI
Yellow spring - 10-15 PSI
Blue spring - 14-18 PSI
Red spring - 19-24 PSI

The units are manufactured from billet aluminum and stainless steel and we offer a lifetime warranty on them. They're piston based, so there are no diaphragms to fail over time. Also, the piston design provides a wide range of articulation of the rod through the full range of motion of the wastegate lever without any adverse affects of lateral load being applied internally which can lead to excessive wear on diaphragm based units.

We also assemble our units with a flexible water-tight seal between the base of the body and the rod to prevent any intrusion of water that can damage the internals of the units. This problem is far more prevalent on the 8's and 9's with the actuators mounted upside down under the hood vent, but we include them on the Evo X actuators anyway.

[Golden]

Cobb released their Access Port maps for the 2010 Evo X last night around 6:00 pm. I downloaded the new software and upgraded the firmware on my AP. I removed the pill from my fine waste gate actuator vacuum line. Then I installed the AP on my car along with Cobb's Stage 2 AEM Intake 91 Octane map.

No pictures were taken, because its all just plug and play. But, after dropping a screwdriver in the engine bay again, I'm really hating the under tray on the Evo. Yeah, I know it's great for aerodynamics and such, but it sure does like eating tools.

Later, after the new flash, I went out for a drive to do some data logging. My car hit a peak of 28 lbs of boost and tapered to 17-18 lbs at red line. AFR was 11.4 at red line. Judging by their Map notes, they wanted it to be around 11.8 AFR, so I'm good. But they wanted the boost around 23-24, so I'm not sure what to do. It was cold last night. I think in the 20's.

Once I get the Access Tuner Race, I can install my Waste Gate Actuator and 3 Port. I'll probably just adjust my WGDC to achieve a peak of 23-24.

As far as knock goes, I logged all there was to do with knock, "Knock Retard (CA)" and "Learned Knk. Ret. (%)" The Learned Knk. Ret. (%) was always 100. But Knock Retard (CA) hit 1-1.7 here and there. I'm still researching if thats bad, ok, or normal. I'm used to everyone talking about knock count, so I need to figure out what exactly "Knock Retard (CA)" means. I'm guessing it's the amount of timing pulled.

[SMP3000]

[Golden]

I found out this stuff while searching on other sites. Again, like before with my waste gate actuator stuff, I'm quoting here mostly for myself.

In evo land:

1 KnockSum = 0.35 timing retard

Which is why a lot of guys only see 1* timing retard on 3 KnockSum

My guess is Cobb's "Knock Retard (CA)" is just "KnockSum * 0.35"

Louis,

I have forwarded this thread on to one of our tuners and I will endeavor to get back to you in a timely manner on this topic.

Knock Sum is the total amount of timing being pulled for a knock event.

Knock Correction is the timing adjustment made when knock is dectected

Knock Learning is a long term adjustment when repeated knock is encountered. 100% means there is no knock learning. The smaller the number, the more knock learning is being applied.

Travis
COBB Tuning

2 things to note here.
When doing the math on my logs with:
KC = KR / .35
The math ends up working out perfect for all the values I saw from KC = 1 to 5.

Second, what I get from Cobb's quote is that my knock is not going to blow my motor up, but it's still not ideal. I may either try the lower octane map or simple see what happens when I fix my boost spike. I think the knocks are simply due to too much air entering the motor. It was very cold out and my intercooler stayed very cold. I would describe it as ice cold. That would result in some very dense air entering the engine.

Oh, and I just realized that because my boost was over 25 for a good second, my BOV must be holding boost well.

[HEISS X]

Ok some small problems but,how does it feel?

[Golden]

Another quote for my own good.

On AFR:

you can generally run 12.5-13 upto 10psi, and then quickly drop to 11.3-5 ... then run that flat to redline.

a lot of guys will say just run 11.5-7 - but I find that a little bit of a safety barrier (in case you tuned on a hot/cold day or WB02 was out a bit) is a good thing

[Golden]

Ok some small problems but,how does it feel?

So far my observations are:
Idles smoother
Starts less jerky
Throttle is snappier
Lateral G's are definitely higher (aka butt dyno)
Spools a bit sooner
Motor decelerates faster when I let off the throttle and push in the clutch
(the engine RPM used to hang for a sec before it dropped, which bugged the crap out of me)
It's richer while spooling - I think they disabled my lean spool that only 2010's have
It's leaner at the top 11.4 instead of 10.0 - but I still need to data log AFR so that may not be exact


Oh, and one unrelated thing I figured out. You know how sometimes when you are slowing down and you've let off the gas, but the engine doesn't want to engine break. On my AFR gauge it usually shows around a 12 to 13 when its doing this. The ECU doesn't know that you want to engine break. So, I figured out that all you have to do is tap the clutch, not even enough to disengage it, and the ECU will cut all fuel and begin to engine break.

[HEISS X]

I know I noticed that it drives me nutz. Going from an VIII to the X was a huge difference,my VIII never did that and it took upgrades alot easier,but once I get the X figured out it will be great and i'll be alot happier.

[aftershock141]

So far my observations are:
Idles smoother
Starts less jerky
Throttle is snappier
Lateral G's are definitely higher (aka butt dyno)
Spools a bit sooner
Motor decelerates faster when I let off the throttle and push in the clutch
(the engine RPM used to hang for a sec before it dropped, which bugged the crap out of me)
It's richer while spooling - I think they disabled my lean spool that only 2010's have
It's leaner at the top 11.4 instead of 10.0 - but I still need to data log AFR so that may not be exact


Oh, and one unrelated thing I figured out. You know how sometimes when you are slowing down and you've let off the gas, but the engine doesn't want to engine break. On my AFR gauge it usually shows around a 12 to 13 when its doing this. The ECU doesn't know that you want to engine break. So, I figured out that all you have to do is tap the clutch, not even enough to disengage it, and the ECU will cut all fuel and begin to engine break.

I usually just tap the gas pedal. Its because of the electronic throttle sensor.

[Golden]

Tapping the gas doesn't seem to always work for me. Like less than 40% of the time. But the tapping the clutch works 100% of the time. The ECU thinks you just down shifted.

[Golden]

Ever wonder how MIVEC timing works?

I found this via google. It talks about the valve timing after the 7 minute mark.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb4zdcD0G-Y[/ame]

[Golden]

Today I am going to install my Forge Waste Gate Actuator and Perrin 3 Port. But first, while I was bit bored this morning, I took apart the WGA.

Here it is in pieces:


I put it back together without the spring so I could check out the throw. Throw information will be very valuable when I'm setting the preload on the spring. I will try to measure the throw on the actual Waste Gate for reference.

First I made a mark at the base / beginning of the throw:


Then I measured the throw at almost exactly 9/16" aka 18/32" as shown in the pic:


I also noticed that the bottom set screw is the stop for the piston. I was hoping it was a sealed area for me to use vacuum on with the course wga solenoid for better mileage at low RPM. Oh well.

Here is the piston assembled with the spring on:


You have to compress the spring this much just to screw it back together:


I buttoned it all up with some loctite to prevent any screws from coming out.

[Golden]

Forge Waste Gate Actuator and Perrin 3 Port - Install and Tune

Install:

Remove heat shields to gain access to the waste gate:


There it is. Disconnect arm, pop off.


Take off intake inlet hose along with BOV:


Waste Gate Actuator is removed via 2 screws. Once off I measured the throw of the stock one:


It comes out to 12/32" or 3/8". The Forge has 3/16" more than stock. More room for preload.

Install the 2 bolts and set your preload. I just guessed for the first round. I set it like 5 or 6 turns in from the tip. i.e. if you turned it 6 turns the other way, it would fall off. I used some compressed air to make it real easy to put back on.


On to the 3 Port. I unbolted the stock 2 Ports. The brown one is the Fine one and the Black is the Course one.


Better view of the mounting bracket:


I removed the Fine 2 Port and bolted the Perrin 3 Port in it's place. This picture is a little blurry, but you can see it a bit better in the next one.


Here it is installed in the car.


I plugged a vacuum line from port 2 to the WGA and a line from the turbo outlet to port 3. Port 1 is unused. I connected the 2 extra vacuum lines from the intake to both ports on the Course 2 port. It will be turned off in the ECU and will serve as a nice place holder.

Install done.

Tune:
I had baselined my setup before I made the changes. I was using the Cobb Stage 2 + AEM 91 map. This is the map that I will be editing.

After the install, I changed both my Course WGDC and Fine WGDC to 0. So the 3 Port is acting like I hooked the Boost Source directly to the WGA. I then ran some logs with this setup. It held around 17 psi. Not bad. Stock would have been 11 psi, but I didn't log mine.

I then added 2-3 turns of preload onto the WGA's arm. Then I logged again with the same WGDC = 0 map. It held to around 20 psi. I left it here for now, but it can be adjust higher if needed during my dyno tune.

I edited the Stage 2 + AEM 91 map to have 25% of the WGDC. This brought the boost up higher to a 22 psi peak.

WGDC was increased to 50% of the Stage 2 + AEM 91 map and boost peaked around 28 psi, just like the original Stage 2 + AEM 91 map did. I had to stop here because it was getting late, and I saw 2 cars pulled over while I was doing my last 2 pulls. I didn't feel the need to get a ticket tonight.

Here is a graph of the 4 boost curves. I stopped the 0 WGDC logs early, because I really didn't care about redline boost. The new setup is holding 2 psi more boost at redline. Almost all the X's out there with the stock turbo have a boost taper to around 17-18 psi. I'll take my 20. Oh, and notice too that I have full boost at 3000 RPM. With some MIVEC tuning, I think I could make it another 200 or so RPM less. I also want to try having the 3 Port block some of the boost hitting the WGA at those low RPM.

Graph of Boost at RPM:

[Golden]

I said in the last post that the stock WGA would run at 11 psi. Well I had a buddy online log his, with the WGDC set to 0, just like my tests. His peaked at 12 and held 11 the rest of the way. I kept the scaling the same as my previous graph.

[Golden]

I've been working on my boost curve in my spare times. I do a pull or 2 on the way to work and on the way home.

I'm not sure why its so jittery, unless thats just how it is. The data in the graph is raw data, no smoothing. The 3 port is very sensitive to changes and the ECU like to choose it's values a bit randomly. According to my logs, it doesn't always interpolate right. It's close, but not exact... but thats assuming the values in the logs are taken precisely. That coupled with the fact that it reacts a bit slow to changes makes it a tad touchy to tune. But fun to play around with.

So I was able to take down the spike a bit and get it to spool a good 200 RPM sooner. Not to mention it holds 2 more psi at red line. I've left it at ~50% duty cycle in the taper, because I'm pretty sure that it can't hold any more boost. So letting the waste gate open a bit will help keep temperatures down. If I had the time, I would set it a hair above the point it starts to drop.

Also, I think messing with the MIVEC tables could bring spool a bit earlier. I would just need to add some advance to the intake cam and some more retard the exhaust cam. Cobb has them a bit tame.

Here is a graph; Stage 2 is the Cobb map with the stock components, and the other is my new hardware and my tune for it.

[Golden]

I finally got around to painting my side mirrors today. I also painted the chrome ring around the button on the trunk.

Mirrors pop off really easy. Remove tweeters by pulling them out. There is a pop in thing on top and 2 plastic tabs on the bottom. So pull at the top and don't break the bottom. 3 nuts and mirrors pop off. There is a snap on tab thing on the outside so the mirrors won't fall off.

The button on the trunk is just as easy. Remove a handful of plastic pop tabs that hold the carpet on the trunk lid. Then pull off a metal tab that holds the button on.



No Mirrors:




No Button:


Once the mirrors are off, you just have to pop the chrome covers off the back. This part could be done with the mirrors on the car, but it would be a huge pain. There are 3 hook things on the top and side, and 3 non-movable tabs on the bottom. Also, it has 2 strips of 2 sided tape, so be careful and go slow and easy.

Here are the parts:


Primed:




Painted - I used satin black:


Assembled:




Installed:


I couldn't decide which looked better:
No Flash


Flash


Side:


Chrome mirrors = Gone!

[Golden]

Blacked out Headlights and Tails. I didn't do these, they came this way from the factory. The 08's got screwed on this, and they have different looking tails. A lot of 08's replace their tails with Ralliart tails, which happen to look a lot like mine.

I'm really glad mine are blacked out, because it matches my black paint very well. Now I just need to darken the rims up some. (Or get new ones.)

Here are some pictures.

Tails:




Heads:

[Golden]

I'm posting this here because I think it's funny. This is my park job the other day at work. I park in this spot every day. Look closely at the tire tracks. I only had to back up about 3 feet, which is about as close as I would want to get to that big snow pile.