S14 project

[Harrythook]

I've got to ask: why didn't you just pick up an unmolested KA to restart the build from a fresh start when you ran into all the issues?

I am a firm believer in "you want to run it, build it". Most kids around here are provided cars, and don't even know how to check the oil. My son now knows not only the theory of internals, but what to do when something goes wrong. And when this motor gets used up, I can sit in the chair with a beer and supervise the next build.

Same thing with the tuning/turbo install. Need bigger fuel and intake? Understand what happens, put your hands on it and make it work. We have one of the best tuners 25 minutes away, probably would be cheaper to let him do it, but the only thing you learn there is how to open the wallet. Nistune is a great teaching tool!!

[SoundEfx]

Nice progress on the build.

Small question about Nistune. Was soldering the board to the ecu difficult and are you going to create all of your maps from scratch?

[Harrythook]

As to the soldering, I have 2 ECU's here. One I did and the other was bought pre-installed. Soldering in the board was not difficult, the prep was the hard part. I borrowed a vacuum de-solder tool and had to use more heat than I wanted. The mother board in the ecu is muti-layer so to get clean holes in it took some work. But in the end both worked fine.

I also have multiple maps here, beauty of nistune. I copied the base map out of the ecu I chipped and have adapted that to the larger injectors and MAF in the car now. The "change" function in nistune worked well as a starting point but there was a lot of fine tuning needed to get car running right. Latency was way off, and off idle was a b**** until I worked it with O2 disabled. Now runs a bit rich through 5500 rpm but we will leave it that way.

I did find a copy of a complete tune that I will load on the second ecu once turbo is installed. I will have to modify this set of maps quite a bit, so we have made a deal with a local guy who has a mustang dyno. Bought 10 hours of time in 2 hour blocks. Once done we should have a track tune and a street tune that can be swapped by ecu change. A couple of short street runs to ensure boost is set right after change, and we should have the car switched in less than an hour. Great plan if it works.

I am gonna make some videos of me driving the car with laptop strapped in, doing a wide open 2nd gear run up a hill to trace. The local cops laugh when I pull into the parking lot at the top of the hill cursing, and start making changes.....