turbocad's custom fx

yeah, I spoke to him after the fact, said I could send it to him & he'll do the mod for it... I originally ordered the pump assy from injected performance, that's where I got all the parts for my build really, Hal at injected is the man when it comes to Haltech tunning & even has a few haltechs running on HR engine Z's. he's the guy that originally developed the haltech for the 350Z working with haltech in the first place, figured it'd be an advantage to me to have spent all my $$ with him if/when the time comes that I need some support/ tech advice, & he's going to provide me with a custom base map for the HR with this setup...

ray, my turbo setup & fuel & management is all being built to at or above the 700 mark, but I'm building stage one to be ~550-575bhp, so figure a little less than 500 to the wheels... don't think I can get an automatic build up for too much more than that. if (& that's a big IF) I ever do decide to go to stage 2, that would be an R34 skyline awd stick conversion, replacing the rods & pistons, & then maybe I could push past that 600 mark, but really right now I'd be satisfied with ~480whp as I'm building it now, just rather build in some room for growth if I ever do decide to go for more. some things having extra capacity don't hurt, like brakes, cooling & fuel supply. I'd rather have excess fuel supply & only have to run the injectors at say 70% duty cycle at full load than have them reaching there peak in normal use. Hal insures me I'll have no problem getting these 800's to idle well so no real drawback to the bigger injectors as long as he's right on that one. fuel pumps will be staggered & run on pump one until it hits boost where pump 2 will kick in. one walbro may have been just enough for my stage one, but 2 walbro's is just better & I really don't want an external pump either for the noise :smile (2):

I bought those calphalon cooking sheets just to build these jigs:laugh:, I was hunting around for the right piece of steel to use as a base & while I needed it to be somewhat rigid, I didn't want them to be overly heavy either. they looked like they'd do the job fine & not be heavy & they seemed to have worked out well. now if I ever get a second gen fx35 I'll already have the jig for twin turbo headers for it:tongue (2):

I'm also going to eventually pick up a new R35 GTR upper intake manifold & adapt it to this engine instead of keeping the plastic intake of the HR... it's nice, all aluminum with individual runners... much nicer than the plastic HR manifold. might not play with that though until I at least get it running as-is
 
You are now touching on what I am currently going through with regards to tuned power. My single 35R setup has the ability to hit 450whp with 550cc injectors, but my built transmission is still the limitation. I'm only guessing we will end up around 425whp - a number I can live with.

Going back to my old Jumbo transmission thread, I have made it a point to remember a couple of Rookie's posts:

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You don't have to read between the lines to know that the higher we push the power, the less life our transmission will give us - even built, which are the examples he gives. After reading those posts, I hit a bunch of forums to try to find as many VQ/manual transmission builds as possible. Wish I had good news.

That being said, I hope you get your value for the larger injectors and fuel system. Sounds like you at least have Stages planned in your head, though this is the first I think I've read about it in your thread.
 
yeah man, I've read all the threads I could find too & I've heard all that viet has said, which is why I'd rather think about a complete tranny swap rather than spending thousands & thousands for something that is going to fail anyway. a rwd would be so much easier to deal with & if I was rwd I'd probably want to swap in a 4l80e or something & then put some real power down, hell at that point mighta went twin turbo lsx even from the start, but awd complicates things a lot & there really are no practical options like that while keeping the awd. a r34 skyline stick tranny is so far the only option I can even somewhat come up with for more power handling while retaining the awd system period. honestly I don't think I'd want to get that crazy & hopefully I can be satisfied with what I get & hopefully it lives a while without tranny problems.

far as value from the large injectors & fuel system, as long as it idles well enough & can provide more fuel than I"ll ever need I'd consider that worthwhile & enough value to warrant it. all I want is the piece of mind in knowing my fuel system is more than adequate under any conditions I could see. I started out just wanting to make sure my fuel system was good enough, this should be good enough. the guy from cj motorsport was the one who recommended staging the pumps, this can also be a plus if the return system winds up being too restrictive at idle to get a low enough fuel psi with 2 pumps going at idle where most of the fuel delivered will be returned anyway & one of the reasons he recommended the possibility of staging the pumps, but I like the thought of that mainly for the noise levels tbh... the walbro is a bit louder than the oe pump to begin with, I'm thinking 2 of them in the aluminum bucket in the tank may be pretty loud, so just having one running until I'm really on boost might be a nice advantage. gotta see how the regulator copes with the surge of the second pump kicking in... were both thinking it should be fine & handle it without any significant surge in pressure.

I really don't want to think much about stage 2, only reason I do is because like said the automatic tranny is the limiting factor, & if I ever got to the point of getting past that limitation then there'd be no reason not to push it a bit more I guess..
 
I run SARD 800ccs and idle fine, you'll be ok staged pumps or not. My exhaust is so loud, the pumps don't really make much noise. :tongue (2):

Boosting this auto has it's challenges. I try not to inject too much negative into your guys builds, don't want to sound like a broken record with blah blah blah. But those are the realities, Chinke's thread on my350z was updated with new numbers and I really hope he's not having trans issues. Most of those shops that sell the trans parts or built trans say good to xxx power. Show me some dam proof!

SFR is pretty much a joke, can't finish any big project they say they're doing. GTM is rip off artists, cover up kings, and delay masters all rolled up into one you couldn't pay me to drop off my car to them. Both farm out the trans work, so how much can they really guarantee if they don't do it themselves. Canadian on g35driver has his trans parts all swapped out for new "built" internals and ended up killing his trans tracking it. Now he's doing a 6MT swap.

450-600 is absolute max and those aren't even the tq numbers which turbocharged comes in the middle of the powerband just after full TC lock up. I question if those are all the time numbers, and on a chassis with less load on it too so take my posts as what I've seen, experienced and read.

The only guarantee in the performance parts industry is hopefully your parts list is correct. Other than that, anything made by anyone can break if pushed hard enough.
 
Are you guys talking about crank Hp's or at the wheels. My goal is to get 450-500 at the cranck. Have Level ten internals and a TC from Edge Racing, so same as Jumbo.
Would be fine i hope......don't wan't to even think on going MT or such....too much hassle for me honestly. Even though i miss MT sometimes.

The turbonetics kit came with 380CC injectors. But i swap the 60.1 turbonetis turbo for the GT35R so want to go bigger injectors as well. Now i can get my hand on some 440's but thinking on going maybe for the 550's from the GTR wich jumbo has also. What you guys think...??

Viet you have a RWD as well. Is that stronger then an AWD...??

John crazy numbers buddy.....!! You seem to have a little bit of the same problem in your head as i do........that is i think we all do.....there is always the little man on you shoulder that will say.....what if......you'd go that...then you get more more more.....but as with everything at a certain point you have to tell yourself.....this is enough and be satisfied with it......

Viet this does not concern you.......your just little bit crazy :wink (2):
 
damn, since I started building my twin turbo HR swap I've really hit a few road blocks... first biggest setback is having my headers welded by someone else & ruining them, that alone was a disaster. secondly I've been having trouble getting anyone to build me intercoolers exactly how I want them, not how they have them or how they can get them or how they come, but the way I want them.... all of these problems are stemming from the one fact that these are things I just can't do myself... I mean I can do 90% of the job myself, but the extra 10% that involves tig welding stainless & aluminum I'm at someone else's mercy... this has been extremely frustrating for me & has been a road block in my build & my fx is sitting dead & useless while I sit here & have to rely on others... too frustrating

well, I finally made up my mind that I'm done with this crap, done with having to rely on anyone else when it comes to building my fx. I just ordered almost 5k of welding equipment & supplies, got the best new portable inverter tig welder miller makes... totally kick ass setup, now all I have to do is learn how to use it :rofl:

there is a bit more things I want to do in aluminum like all my turbo piping & redo the whole radiator/core support for radiation & intercoolers & stuff in aluminum too. the thought of having to deal with others to do all this on top of what I'm already going through with the headers & intercoolers has just pushed me to this point of insanity...

originally I started to seriously consider getting a tig myself the past few weeks, but got put off by the almost 5 grand to do it right, as I always have every time I've ever thought of getting a tig. I mean sure it'd be nice to have but??? at work the miller mig welder I have is more than enough for my shop duties & does everything I need really for body repairs, so I started to look at economy tigs, china stuff, did a lot of research, slowly worked my way up to looking at better name brand entry or hobby stuff, & one thing lead to another,... compromise is not one of my best qualities & I really didn't want to spend a fortune, but I really wanted a nice setup too, anything less just felt half assed, so I just got to the point of screw it, went for the Cadillac of welders...

so what this means is #1, I'll be able to finish & have built my whole twin turbo HR swap 100% with my own 2 hands & no one else's on anything at all, & #2, I'll now be able to build almost anything... steel, stainless, aluminum, even titanium & other exotic materials if I was ever so inclined... I def look at this as an investment & I'm sure that this setup will last me many years & allow me to do so many more things than I wold have been able to otherwise. now that I've actually went out & did it I feel so relieved... I mean really I should have seen that this is something I just should have done from the begining, hell, I spent a fortune on building that whole vacuum setup & mold making stuff for just the clear corner lights alone, so this just makes the most sense... I love tools,.... gotta keep telling myself that this was a good thing :biggrin:
 
Haha awesome.

Out of curiosity, what TIG welder equipment did you get (e.g. what is the Cadillac of TIG Welders)?

Father-in-law is a welder and has a ton of equipment, always interest to learn more about the stuff.
 
Wow John, you just keep surprising me and leaving me speechless, lol. You can open your own high performance fab shop now!
 
It's always awesome that you can finish up your own projects 100% by yourself. Guess it will not be long to see your custom FX running. :tup:
 
almost anything can weld. you can weld steel with nothing but a battery & some heavy gauge wire, aluminum with just a 110v extension cord plugged into the wall, a welder just controls & refines & regulates this power with a means of making it usable, even a cheap machine can weld....

a "welder" itself is just a regulated power supply & a way to convert the power available from an electric outlet to a more refined & controlled voltage & amperage to weld with, but there are other parameters of the power that matter too. more advanced units have wider control of the frequency or hz of the signal & also can do high frequency and high frequency startup... an advanced unit can also modify the ac signal in such a way that the positive step & the negative step in the alternating current can vary from just a 50/50 waveform signal, conditioning the output. very advanced units can even vary the actual waveform from just a square wave to a more smoothed squarish wave to a round wave to a pointed triangular wave, they can also pulse the signal so it can maintain an arc at a lower power setting & helps a lot with lighter thinner materials or situations when too much heat would be a problem ... all this extra control helps to be able to develop a perfect bead & is very important when it comes to ac welding & aluminum. aluminum is very difficult to weld & even more difficult to weld while looking pretty, an advanced welder has the control necessary to dial in to a perfect, real pretty bead with a variety of aluminums in a variety of conditions.

one of the hard things about welding aluminium comes from the fact that aluminum is almost like a metallic sponge, very porous, easy to contaminate or "soak up" oils, dirt & other contaminants & this all affects the weld. by adjusting the settings you can get a cleaning action going where the welding is cleaning the surrounding area with a wider concentration of energy, or get deeper penetration with less cleaning action with a narrower focus... the more control the more potential for better welds. consistency is also a big factor, & really advanced units you can tweek & adjust parameters & once you get the combo dialed you can save it in memory like a preset...

tig welders need precise control over the power supplied to the tip of the tungsten & do a lot of conditioning, regulating & transforming of the power. older tigs used transformers & were monster machines & needed huge input power, a 250amp machine would be huge & run on only 220-480V 3 phase & use a ton of electricity, some older tigs are bigger & way heavier than a big refrigerator & of course even they were very expensive to buy & very expensive to run. I'd have no space for a conventional tig welder at all really...

latest technology instead uses inverters rather than transformers, there 100% solid state, consume & even run on much less power while still giving the same output. the unit I got can do a full 200amps, has full control of all the parameters necessary on both ac & dc along with pulsing at various frequencies, high frequency startup & all computer programmable. it has a special power supply that allows it to be used on anything from a regular 110v 15amp home outlet (output will be limited to ~140amps) all the way up to 220-480v 3 phase for the bigger jobs where the amperage is going to be pushed up. 3 phase also supposedly gives a better weld, but that's commercial only, this welder can work in that situation, but also work just about anywhere else too including at home... the whole power supply (welder) weighs 45 pounds & comes with a shoulder strap, it's that portable . this is the unit I got, miller dynasty 200dx http://www.millerwelds.com/products/tig/dynasty_200_series/
 
I have a friend who used to weld aluminum bike frames for Santa-Cruz and wore a suit in a cleanroom to achieve beads up to their standards. He told me welding Al is childs play compared to Ti...
Any plans for some warm up tig welding projects or are you going to jump right in?

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Orbital tube welders FTW.

We use OTWs on the active thermal control system (ATCS) for the International Space Station for welding pressurized nitrogen and ammonia lines. I've never seen a better bead on a tube because welding is robotic. Set up the tubes and push a button and the welder tracks around the tube all by itself - but that's all it does. Tubes. It sits on a cart and is pretty small but I have no idea how much they are.

Learning to TIG weld is a pretty big commitment just because of the variability of it's capability. I don't expect you will be learning on the actual headers you will be using on the FX. You'll probably practice a bit first? Since you have a shop I can see it's more of a long term investment but in your place I would have just taken the time to find a place that does pay attention to the details like you want them to. No need to compromise as long as you have the time to find the right place. I have two or three shops around here I would have no problem trusting for such a task. Some of these places I know because of my FX project and others I know because of my career. I deal with a lot of contract machine shops and there are several who can do anything - for the right price, of course. I guess at this point you are going forward with doing it yourself so it's a moot point. Just more money and man hours...
 
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honestly I didn't make this decision because I don't believe there isn't someone out there who can give me what I want, I more made this decision because it will put me in full control without having to depend on anyone else. I don't expect to be able to pick up a tig for the first time & be able to produce stellar welds that rival what a pro could do with many years experience either. it will take me a bit of time to get to the point of being able to even produce decent welds I would think, but, like anything else, the first step is to just start...

I mean I'm thinking that in just a few hours of playing with the machine I should be able to get the hang of it enough to be able to produce functional welds, theres a big difference between functional welds & cosmetically pleasing welds too, I can't say that I really expect all my welding to be 100% top notch looking welds any time soon, nor can I expect that my fx welding job will be flawless or my finest work, it will be my first & it will be a learning experience.

I've come to the realization though that I will be happy with being able to weld everything myself even if it could have been prettier had I had a real pro do it. I'm confident that I can get to the point of providing adequate welds that are not hideous. I'm thinking that I can be happy with doing it all myself & having it be good enough, as opposed to having everything farmed out but better & prettier, & I'm also hoping that I can get to be good enough to at least produce better than decent results just by shear determination & dedication to giving my best effort, def will take some practice & I won't just dive in welding the headers until I have enough practice that I'm comfortable & confident with the results.

this decision may make my project take even longer, but that's part of the price I guess... I mean if I just dropped my fx off at a performance shop & had it all done for me from the beginning I'd expect that it would take much less time & I'd be driving her already, but the big difference is that by doing it all myself I have total control of each & every aspect of the job... I'm very critical & I know I will find fault in anything. I find it easier to accept fault in myself than to accept fault in others who are paid for top quality but then produce just another job... no one is going to care about my job as much as I will & no one would put up with how critical I can be at times... I feel much better knowing that it's all 100% on me now...

maybe a more sane person would rather just pay someone else & accept what they get, or just do without what they envision for lack of attainability, but this is what makes me who I am & what allows me to create & build the things I do. me getting a tig welder will def open up my scope of creativity & building abilties both now & in the future, I could never be a great tig weldor if I never got a tig & started welding, & the situation I'm in now has just pushed me to the realization that now is the time for me to start.... if sanity is judged by what the masses would do then yeah, guess that would classify me as insane in this particular situation, but that's fine for me, & who knows, maybe the results of all this will be me eventually winding up with insane welding ability too. the possibility is now at least there for that, where there would be no possibility of that if I never decided to start... hell, if I was really sane I'd have just bolted on a JWTT & be done with it from the beginning, but I believe that I will wind up with so much more satisfaction by doing it my way, & in the end I guess that's really what life is all about, satisfaction.

the reason I went with a kick ass welding setup right from the start is because I want to know that my limitations are all me, I don't want to have to second guess weather it's me or the equipment
 
You sir are an artist. I for one think it's awesome that you do all this yourself. Not many people take such pride in their work.


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