Freddy McShreddy: Midlife Crisis FRS thingy

Brave man on the Kraftwerks!

However, I'm curious why it has larger injectors. The stock fuel system......like stock everything, is well documented to be able to support 275-280whp.

z31maniac said:

Brave man on the Kraftwerks!

However, I'm curious why it has larger injectors. The stock fuel system......like stock everything, is well documented to be able to support 275-280whp.

I think the previous owner may have ran e85, but not sure. I don't plan to run them at this point. There are hundreds of folks that feel it necessary to up the injectors or pump without any need to do so. Same with the clutch, some just gotta have a 6 puck for 220 ft pounds even though it's not necessary.

I'm hoping the Kraftwerks kit isn't a big mistake. It seems like most of the failures were due to improper belt tension and/or size. With the larger belt kit, and me keeping an eye on things, I hope to dispel the myth that the kit can't be tracked. I still would love a Jackson setup though.

captainawesome said:

z31maniac said:

Brave man on the Kraftwerks!

However, I'm curious why it has larger injectors. The stock fuel system......like stock everything, is well documented to be able to support 275-280whp.

I think the previous owner may have ran e85, but not sure. I don't plan to run them at this point. There are hundreds of folks that feel it necessary to up the injectors or pump without any need to do so. Same with the clutch, some just gotta have a 6 puck for 220 ft pounds even though it's not necessary.

I'm hoping the Kraftwerks kit isn't a big mistake. It seems like most of the failures were due to improper belt tension and/or size. With the larger belt kit, and me keeping an eye on things, I hope to dispel the myth that the kit can't be tracked. I still would love a Jackson setup though.

Honestly, with the sensitivity of these motors to oil temp and oil psi, I wouldn't go forced induction unless:

1. This isn't my primary vehicle. 
2. I already have another engine in the garage to swap in. 

Just go check the FT86 forum. I think the only people who have tracked for long on a stock block FI car are vendors. Maybe Ian (senpai86 on Instagram). Even NA guys are spinning the #3 (or is it #4) rod bearing.

I'm keeping my eye out for a spare motor just in case. With it being only low boost I'm willing to take the gamble though. I think the amount of failures is probably smaller than it appears from a forum perspective. How many people post up to say their boosted car is running great for 30k miles VS the 15 who have issues? People love to post up when they have issues, but don't typically shout from a mountain when all is well. Also it seems most of the failures are due to either a bad tune or like you said poor oiling. That's mostly user error in my book. Either way I bought the car to have fun. If the motor goes, I'll just find another. Technically this is already on it's second motor since the previous owner swapped in a newer 2016 with only 30k miles when the 2013 valve springs let go. Might as well go for a third.

The car is kinda my primary source of transportation, but only by choice. I've got a beater Montero to use when needed plus the wife's h3 if crap really goes bad. Always good to have a backup.

With that said, I am installing an oil cooler, and keeping an eye on temps/pressure to make sure all is well. I'm getting a tune from Delicious, one of the best in the business and well trusted. I'm running 5w30 instead of the stock 0w20 as recommended by all the trusted track guys. A lot of guys throw mounds of boost at these cars just to see a dyno chart. I want reliability, and superchargers are the best option for track heat management. Turbo can be done, but it requires lots of extra work to keep underhood temps down. My only real concern about any of this is the Kraftwerks kit has a reputation for eating belts, but that seems to have died down once the larger belt kit came out.

Even guys well below 300whp are blowing up engines on track. 

The only thing is, poor oiling isn't user error (assuming you have an oil cooler). It's a limitation of the stock oil pump under track conditions. I do believe there has been an upgraded oil pump available for a while. 

z31maniac said:

Even guys well below 300whp are blowing up engines on track. 

The only thing is, poor oiling isn't user error (assuming you have an oil cooler). It's a limitation of the stock oil pump under track conditions. I do believe there has been an upgraded oil pump available for a while. 

I guess I haven't seen an overwhelming or even just whelming bit of that posted anywhere. I'll take a look into it, but Mike from Counterspace Garage has been thrashing these guys on track for years in multiple formats, and I believe any of the failures he/CSG seen were from early production models. Between the valve spring recall, the timing case oil leak repairs, etc. all being boiled down to using too much silicone to seal parts from dealer fixes I haven't seen this mentioned in mass. Also are we talking about cars running slicks or 200tw? Early production motors or current? What revs are they running at? Honestly anything I can do to prevent a failure will be explored, but some people just love to fix an issue that "may" happen to their car because 3 people posted about it over the internet. I've read where people have fuel starvation at half tank under stock power on corners, but not once have I had that issue. I know that is completely anectdotal. I would just rather avoid running around fixing problems that aren't there. I do appreciate you bringing my attention to it though, and it will be thoroughly examined. On to the googles....

It's been maddening trying to get to install this Kraftwerks kit. Our whole fleet has been in some sort of needy crisis, so it's been on hold.

We bought a used 08 h3 for the wife which starting having issues the morning after purchase. Number 4 cylinder throws a misfire code, so I throw a cheap Autozone coil pack at it to just get it back on the road. The next day throws some o2 sensor codes and the exhaust got terribly loud at the manifold. It wasn't super silent before, but now it's frickin loud. After pulling the heat shield I see the exhaust manifold cracked terribly by the 5th cylinder, and three of the bolt heads were already broken off before I got to removal. Maybe a clogged up cat?Took a minute to get all the parts in and fixed up. Then we realize that the transfer case is locked in 4 high. Parking this thing in a tight spot or low speed maneuvers is a pain in the ass. Apparently the plastic selector fork they used in the earlier models wears out, so that required dropping the transfer case for an aluminum replacement. While I was at it, all new NGK coil packs and plugs, oiling the K&N air filter since it was installed dry. So far it's functioning like intended.

Then our 01 Montero started sputtering and throws a light for o2 sensor and misfires. I've been putting off a timing belt service, and there's some terrible oil leaks so it was decided to just get all that done at the same time. The timing belt stuff was simple, but the oil leak, plugs, intake stuff was a mess. Three million brackets, gaskets, oddly placed bolts, a broken bolt in the lower intake, drill/tap, etc. It's all done now and running like a top again, but fought me the whole frickin way. Still leaks oil too, so that sucks, but for now it's going to be ignored.

Yesterday I cleaned the garage and prepped the intercooler for paint. I wanted to be in stealth mode, so a quick spray of Duplicolor satin black wheel paint did the trick. The powdercoat or paint was flaking on the brackets, so I scuffed them up good and painted them as well. After some dry time I got out a table to lay out all the parts. I spent a few minutes removing the smaller pulleys and brackets that will be replaced with the upgraded kit. I've got all new hardware from Bel Metric, Rotrex supercharger oil, supercharger filter, Derale thermostatic switch to plumb into the oil cooler kit, viton o-rings for the oil cooler sandwich plate, Racer X catch can, header gaskets/hardware, etc.

Tonight I start pulling the header, unmarrying the OFT tablet, and if time allows start getting the oil coolers and intercooler installed.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

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Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Last night I got in my new number magnets from Spnywoosh. It was a Black Friday deal, and I'm a sucker for a bargain. I opted for the vintage Toyota colors, and I chose well. They even sent an embroidered keychain, so that can stay with the valet key.

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After eating dinner with the family I got to work. The car was set on blocks and I proceeded to remove the Tsudo header/overpipe to make way for the Ace A350. Removal was easy, and install for the Ace was relatively straight forward. I had read that some people have to jack the engine up to help get the 2-1 overpipe over the subframe. So I removed both motor mount nuts and jacked it up just in case. I also read that you should install the studs after all the pieces are in place to ease assembly. All of those little tricks made the whole ordeal super simple and trouble free.

With that out of the way I spent a few minutes cleaning and "recharging" the K&N filter provided with the Kraftwerks kit. It's now done and ready for showtime.

The last order of business was reflashing the ECU back to stock so I could "unmarry" the OpenFlash Tablet to make way for the ECUTEK setup. The reflash to stock was easy, but since I have acquired a new laptop I no longer have the OpenFlash manager program. For whatever reason the program spent over ONE HOUR doing some silly update before I could erase the data and sell it on to the next user.

So that ended my evening. Tonight I plan to pull the front bumper and start routing the intercooler, oil coolers, and mount the oil cooler thermostat.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

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Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Oh and a pic of the magnets on the car. Still waiting on some M letters so I'll have SM ready for SCCA events.

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Why'd you have to change the header?  I get it on a turbo car but a supercharger is belt driven, so no reason for an exhaust change...

In reply to docwyte :

I was changing the header regardless, just wanted it done before starting the SC install, plus my tune is specifically calibrated for this one. The one I've been using isn't the best fit, it's unequal length, and the new Ace header is the top of the line for the twins with 4-2-1 format. It makes more power throughout the curve compared to all others even in forced induction applications. In my opinion it's the best sounding as well, never been a fan of the boxer noise. So not necessary, but totally rad.

I have a supercharger in the car. It's bolted in there. The belt tension is set to ~60 hz using the Gates belt tension app. There, I said it. I've still got plenty left to do, but the whirly gig is in.

Oil cooler sandwich plate has been installed with new filter and viton o-ring to make way for routing the oil cooler lines. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how the SC cooler and oil cooler should be bolted in since the instructions are out of date for the SC cooler, and non existant for the oil cooler. The SC cooler is bolted to the passenger side condenser with the hose barbs pointed towards the passenger side, but I'm going to adjust the placement a little higher since it's touching the plastic undertray. The oil cooler bolts to the driver side condenser bracket and to the crash beam hoses up. Once they are snugged up, the intercooler fits in place without contact. Now that I know where everything goes I've been planning my attack on how to plumb in the oil cooler thermostat. It's pretty big, and I think bolting it to the crash beam is the best place. Unfortunately that makes hose routing loop a little more than I would like, but it looks like the best solution.

The SC oil reservoir bracket/mounting solution kinda sucks. I'm going to scratch my head on it a bit before committing to anything.

This kit removes a lot of the ducting that forces air through the rad up top from what I can tell. Once everything is all in place I'll figure out a way to have functional ducting again.

Also, yesterday I realized that I've put 9563 miles on the car since purchasing in late April.

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Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

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Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Still haven't wrapped up the SC install. Got the piping routed last night and confirmed what fittings were needed to finish the oil cooler setup. The -10AN fasteners that came with the kit were pretty well worn, but one specifically wouldn't spin freely when trying to snug it down to the sandwich plate. I ordered up some Vibrant hose, all new fittings, clamps, etc. to get it all wrapped up from Summit and paid extra for shipping to get here by tomorrow.

The Tial blow off valve that came with this kit isn't stock. It's bulky as hell, and because Kraftwerks piping location happens to be tight, it is difficult to plumb. I'm probably just going to vent to atmosphere at this point.

When routing the piping I found a bunch of wiring modules for the aftermarket headlights and fog lights. Two of the modules were not in use, so they were removed, but I've got some spider web wiring to sort out before calling it done. I wouldn't mind ripping out the fog lights, but these work and I don't want to mess with it.

Tonight I want to finalize Rotrex reservoir and filter location. If time allows I'll get the Delicious tune uploaded with the ECUTEK software.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

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Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I finally have a car making whirlybird noises! It took a lot of effort and time to hash out the minutiae, but it's officially drivable.

So when we last left off I was waiting on those -10an fittings to refresh all of the oil cooler lines. I paid for next day shipping to get them real quick like, and Friday afternoon they were in my hands. I planned to install them Saturday morning, and hopefully wrap up the last details on the car. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong size fittings. I never measured the original fittings, just what was mentioned in the Skunk 2 advertisement for the kit I have. It mentions -10an for the oil cooler so I just assumed that was correct. What wasn't mentioned was that they neck things down to -8an. Whoops. My Saturday morning was now in shambles. I quickly ordered the proper fittings and paid for next day shipping again with a delivery date of Christmas Eve.

I spent hours running lines and checking for any clearance or rubbing issues. There was also plenty of time trimming some of the plastic ducting to fit around the thermostat and oil cooler lines. The new Vibrant oil cooler fittings/hose worked out perfect, and the Derale cooler thermostat found itself a home. The Rotrex got primed and topped off with oil. Then a quick oil change and top off with some more 5w30. After a few minutes of tinkering, Delicious tune was uploaded through the ECUTEK software. The check list was looked over another 100 times to make sure I didn't miss anything.

IT'S GO TIME!

A quick turn of the key and it fires right up. Idle speed at startup is a bit high, but settles into the proper RPM after 30-45 seconds.

Rotrex fluid gets topped off.

I start to check on oil leaks. It took a minute to show itself, but there was a small leak on one of the thermostat fittings. The car was shut off, and it got sealed up quickly and without much of a mess. The Derale thermostat works perfect.

First impressions. It's frickin LOUD! The whine on this thing is a bit more than expected. I must be an idiot cause I just didn't realize it would be at such a high decibal level.

Anyway, I thrash to get the bumper back on to take it for a spin. I realize there's some stuff that has to be removed from the bumper that's fouling the intercooler piping.

Power delivery is great. Pretty sure the clutch is slipping at the top of the RPM range. Good thing I bought an Exedy Stage 1 a couple days ago.

These street tires are struggling for grip.

I'm in love.

Pretty sure my diverter/bypass valve is plumbed wrong. I plan to fix that this evening. The belt tension system takes a minute to figure out, but not too terrible. Using the Gates belt frequency app I am able to get a repeatable 64.0Hz cold and when warmed up a 79.9Hz. I believe this is to be in the proper range. For some reason though the belt overhangs the crank pulley like a 1/16" or so. Gotta figure out if all of the idler pulleys need shimmed or they sent me the wrong crank pulley.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

No progress on belt alignment yet, but I wanted to put some numbers up for others to see. I've had a few people ask me how much the SC has cost me all together from soup to nuts. I've kind of been afraid to answer that because while I have a vague idea, I almost don't want to know. Ignorance is supposed to be bliss. Out of boredom I started to tally up anything I consider essential to what I paid to install. Luckily I got some really good black Friday deals and just pure luck for others. Sometimes I spent a few days a week just googling part numbers or key phrases in hopes to find the deal that beats all others. It's paid off I think.

Kraftwerks c30 used supercharger kit with oil cooler upgrade kit: $2100

30mm pulley upgrade: $178.99

Stainless hardware (not all was used): $41.13

Stainless T clamp: $2.67

Rotrex fluid: $84.99

Rotrex filter: $15.14

Spare belt (mid level spec): $32.98

Traded stock header/up pipe for ECUTEK cable and dongle: $0

ECUTEK license: $290.52

Delicious tune: $328.01

K&N recharge kit: $10.98

Derale thermostat kit with 1/2" barbed fittings: $58.32

1/8" NPT plugs pack of 5 (only 1 needed): $5.99 (technically $0 since I used Amazon rewards)

Viton 10 pack sandwich plate O-rings: $9.99 (technically $0 since I used Amazon rewards)

Oil cooler O-rings 6 pack: $1.99

2 pack 3/8"-1/4"-3/8" brass T (only 1 needed): $9.99

Vibrant -8an fittings, hose, and clamps: $111.38

Zip ties: $1

All of that stuff totals $3,284.07

If you remove the stuff I got for $0 from Amazon rewards I'm at $3268.09 out of pocket cash money.

I also may be at the limit of the stock clutch, so I'll factor in the $200 Exedy Stage 1 used clutch and flywheel with super low miles. They haven't been installed yet, but will soon. Total with that stuff included is now $3468.09.

So for $3468.09 I got the car equipped with a supercharger and a good oil cooler setup to battle any heat issues on track.

A brand new kit without tune, oil cooler setup, spare belt, stainless hardware, Tial diverter valve, etc. is about $4k. The oil cooler kit is another $500. ECUTEK cables and tune bundles run about $650, so about $5150 not including taxes. I saved a good chunk of change. I'm happy with that.

Then there's the $1400 elephant in the room.  That was the price shipped of the ACE header. Here's the thing though, the header wasn't a required or necessary mod to get this kit functional. Either way, if the ACE is added to the mix at the full paid price I'm still only $4868.09.

One other thing to mention is that I sold the OFT Tablet for $350 and the Tsudo header for $200. Technically that was cash out of pocket, but spent long before this endeavor, so with some of that recoup figured in I'm at $4318.09. Okay that's enough math for the day.

Awesome job on the install, great Christmas present I'm sure. It's got to be a riot to drive now. Also, your car's stance is perfect, it looks so sharp. Great job all around. 

rico750sxi_2 said:

Awesome job on the install, great Christmas present I'm sure. It's got to be a riot to drive now. Also, your car's stance is perfect, it looks so sharp. Great job all around. 

Thanks! Hopefully all this effort was worth it. I'm excited to see how she rolls when the warm dry weather comes back.

Time for an update!

I've been hesitant posting any news while I tried to get some customer service from the Kraftwerks team. As mentioned before, I had a belt alignment issue with their 30mm pulley upgrade kit. For whatever reason the idler/tension pulleys don't place the belt completely over the crank pulley by about 1.5-2mm, or the crank pulley should have been wider than they manufactured. While waiting for a response, I purchased some 2mm thick washers and placed them between the bearing spacers provided with the kit. This placed the belt completely on the crank pulley, but because the washers weren't that large in OD they started to cause too much bearing play and allowed the idler pulley to barely touch the oil filter lip of the block.

At that point I was ready to rip the whole kit out, sell it all at a loss, and just keep it NA. So it sat. For a couple weeks. I figured I would at least wait to see what Kraftwerks would come up with before tossing in the towel.

After a little time to blow off steam, I ordered some fender washers that had the closest specs to what I thought might work. They were 10.5mm ID x 35mm OD x 1.25mm thick. This places the belt almost completely on the crank pulley. So friggin close.  Like a hair away from being ideal. I think for now this is going to work, but for long term I ordered up some 1.5 and 2mm washers with a proper OD to see if I can get it just about perfect.

As far as what Kraftwerks had to say at this point, well today I was basically told to kick rocks. Their R&D department couldn't "recreate" my alignment issues with any of the versions they have distributed over the years under any circumstances. I was informed that since I bought the kit from Amazon, and not directly from them, they couldn't rectify the situation. Send it back to Amazon for a refund. Complete BS considering I know for a fact they have taken care of others when they purchased from any of the retailers they distribute to. I kinda figured this was how it would end up, so I politely said thanks for nothing. In the same email I asked for them to at least confirm the dimensions of the parts that I think are potentially the problem, but have my doubts as to whether they will bother. They have had belt snapping issues over the years with this kit, and haven't been known for quality customer service. I knew better, and that bargain kit I stumbled on kinda bit me in the ass.

I'm not bitter anymore. It is what it is. At this point I'm dedicated to get everything aligned properly and in the mean time plan to build a roadside kit for belt replacement. I have one spare belt already, but will probably buy a couple extras just in case. I'll probably pick up some spare pulley bearings as well so I can press new ones in if needed. I've gotten pretty good at shimming the pulleys and having it all tightened back to spec quickly. I'll buy spare tools as well to make sure I have everything I need track or roadside without leaving half my toolbox at home empty.

As of this afternoon I have put around 80 miles on the kit. Not much at all yet, but it's punishing the street tires. I'm traction limited. It doesn't help that I've only gotten cold or wet pavement to test on, so hopefully some warm dry weather will pop up for a day or two. I'm in love with the power. It's really addictive. Maybe e85 is in my future too.

These are pics of the 1.25mm washers in use.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

This kinda shows how tight the pulley by the oil sandwich place is. I think with the 1.5mm washers I'll have enough clearance and also have 100 percent belt engagement with the crank pulley.

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And a pic to show stealth mode on the intercooler.

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Remind me to never consider Kraftwerks whenever I decide to throw some boost at my 2.5 liter Duratec I4 in my Mazda.... That just sucks man.

Bill Mesker said:

Remind me to never consider Kraftwerks whenever I decide to throw some boost at my 2.5 liter Duratec I4 in my Mazda.... That just sucks man.

It sure does! What's sad is that I bought the used kit knowing the 20mm system was a little weak. I figured a future 30mm belt upgrade would fix all of those issues, but it just gave other issues to contend with instead. As of right now I'm about 95% confident the shims will be all I need to keep everything copasetic. If I were to do it all over again I would have waited for a Jackson Racing kit which has none of the glaring flaws associated with Kraftwerks.

In reply to captainawesome :

I probably would've done the same if I'm honest

That sucks but I've been sucked down the rabbit hole of a good deal on a used forced induction kit too.

Love the build!  What kind of HP/TQ numbers vs stock are you expecting?  Will you have it tuned up on the dyno with a wideband or run with a canned tune?

84FSP said:

Love the build!  What kind of HP/TQ numbers vs stock are you expecting?  Will you have it tuned up on the dyno with a wideband or run with a canned tune?

I believe somewhere in the ballpark of 290ish HP and 220ish TQ on 91 pump gas. If I decide to go e85 it will bump that quite a bit. As for the tune I'm currently on a canned version from Delicious, but plan to run some logs and have everything cleaned up to suit all of my needs. If funds and dyno availability happen, that would be neat!

New shims should be here any day now. Pretty happy to have this just about wrapped up. Kraftwerks basically dropped contact at this point. I don't even care any more.

At this point I should have already run some sort of logs to make sure I'm not about to burn holes in things or window the block. I read through the Ecutek log info provided by Delicious tuning and saw that in order to do the WOT or even partial throttle the ground needs to be dry so I have traction and don't put myself in a ditch. Monday evening we were blessed with warmer temps and dry pavement, perfect to get all my logs done.

First log I do is the idle. 12 minutes fully warmed up with no throttle input. Super easy and everything looks good as I can monitor while sitting still. AFR sets at 14.7 like a boss, and no funny business anywhere from what I can tell.

Second log I do is the partial throttle. 3rd gear pull with 30-40% throttle from 1500rpm to 5k. Everything looks normal at this point, but hard to say as it's dark and I just wanna stay on the road.

Third log is WOT pull. 3rd gear again from 2k to redline. I believe I captured that log, but apparently when I finished the second log or was about to start the third something got clicked or unclicked. What I actually captured was the top of my WOT pull as I was slowing down. I didn't realize this until later.

Fourth log was cruising on the highway with cruise control engaged for 12 minutes. Because the third log timing was off, so was my cruise log. I only captured my return to the house which wasn't exactly what I needed to turn over to the tuner for possible tweaks. Again I'm oblivious to the fact that I have only two of the four logs properly captured.

Lap top and logs are pulled up when I get back home and on the WOT I immediately see 20.39 all over the place. At the time I didn't realize this was on deceleration. I kinda freaked out. Because I'm new to all of this whole tuning stuff I wasn't interpreting the data properly so I sent the logs to Delicious. They in turn scheduled me for a revision session this coming Monday.  Yesterday I kept thinking maybe I didn't write the file provided to me properly, so I sped home on lunch to make sure. It was all good. The tune was there and when I revved the car up the AFR was exactly as it should be. WTF.

On my way home from work it hits me. I knew the logs were a bit off, but realize that the 20.39 were all on any decel. Just seeing the rpm drop with no throttle input settled it. Unfortunately it was cold and wet again so the logging will wait until this evening or later in the week.

What I was able to extrapolate from the data that I have so far is this:

I'm at 1.94 bar through the map sensor at 7500 rpm with 75% throttle angle. If my math is right, that's ~13.63 psi?

At 6500 rpm 75% throttle angle reads 1.61 bar so ~8.84 psi?

Am I getting almost 14 psi of boost from what should be 9 psi? Gotta do some more logs. I don't have a boost gauge, so is the MAP sensor the best way to see? I assume anything above 1 bar is the actual boost? So many questions.

A few tuners have said these kits run a bit higher on boost than advertised, but with the ambient temp being so low that certainly makes matters better/worse. I've been reassured not to worry from Delicious all the while receiving tunes that are running too lean after 7k rpm. Long story short I've switched tuners. See at first I thought it was still safe to run 14.7 AFR since that's not lean. Well plenty of folks saw a log I posted, and until they mentioned it's not good under boost conditions. Hell, I would have been happily bouncing off the rev limiter like a boss without a clue. Delicious never said a word.

Delicious tried to adjust things without any instruction or direction, but nothing was changing and I grew worrisome about melting some of my rotating assembly. Communication has been pretty vague and super slow for any updates. I've been twiddling my thumbs waiting for a revision just to find out I'm still gonna nuke some stuff. I'm running out of injector with my setup from what Delicious says..... gotta install a larger pump and injectors.

So I don't want to just talk trash on Delicious. They offer a Flash N Go tune that is marketed for ALL of these setups and should essentially be good to go out of the box. That's what I bought, and it just didn't meet my needs. They have agreed to continue tuning my setup once I have installed the injectors and pump, but because they are so busy the turnaround time is too long. Even on a day that was scheduled to specifically work on my tune, I took off work. They didn't send a tune for me to test until 5 pm that day. In other words I could have gotten things copasetic, but it would have taken another week or two to get things in the "okay" zone. I was informed after finally calling, that in order to get my stuff quicker, I need to call them each time to ensure it can be pushed at the front of the queue. They are just that busy.

And then a caped gentleman in Italy offered to help me out. At first I was apprehensive as I spent good money with Delicious but I figured he's the guy that pointed out many flaws in what the big D sent me. Within a couple revisions he has just transformed the tune to something I can safely drive without upgrading injectors or pump. Due to the temp being so low we have to limit RPM to 7300 as I'm hitting 14.5 pounds of boost. That's just too much for 91 and that's keeping the injectors from completely maxing out. So far we are on the 7th revision over the course of only 2 days! Did I mention he's in Italy? He says we have a few more revisions to go, but it's almost there. As of right now I'm happy it's running healthy and feels great.

Because everyone needs more power, E85 is on the horizon. I'm going to start collecting the parts necessary to make that happen. I've got larger injectors that came with the kit I bought, but no one knows what size they are because Deatschwerks doesn't mark them and the guy I got them from has no clue. The kit was on the car when he bought it. So I am going to send one in to Deatschwerks to test flow. Next will be a dw300c fuel pump from Deatschwerks and a flex fuel sensor. Funds are tight, so I'm selling off some spare parts to fund some upcoming track days and maybe pick up a couple of the parts mentioned above.

Oh, I'm also looking at scheduling a few baseline dyno pulls soon. More than anything I just want to see what difference the e85 makes when I return.