Brunton Stalker XL #22 Build

[Kitcat]

At some point this project stopped being mechanical and turned into art!

May I suggest that you relabel the Union Jack button from "No button function" to "shorted out". It just seems more intuitive:)!

[toedrag]

At some point this project stopped being mechanical and turned into art!

May I suggest that you relabel the Union Jack button from "No button function" to "shorted out". It just seems more intuitive:)!

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

I love the "shorted out" idea!

[coffee break]

At some point this project stopped being mechanical and turned into art!

May I suggest that you relabel the Union Jack button from "No button function" to "shorted out". It just seems more intuitive:)!

 

Or it could be the "LUCAS" switch

[toedrag]

:hurray::willy_nilly::party:

 

(mufflers off, btw)

 

[xcarguy]

:hurray: . . . . . . :cheers:

[toedrag]

Got some bugs resolved and making progress on others. First, it appears that the oil pressure transducer that came with the engine is DOA; no matter what the engine is doing (off or idling), the output voltage is pegged at 4.6V (which is 117psi). I suppose it's theoretically possible my dash did something to it, so I'll test its replacement first without connecting it to my dash. Should get the replacement tomorrow.

 

I think I finally figured out the CEL riddle. The CEL signal has two states: when active, the ECU grounds it. When inactive, the ECU doesn't drive it to either +5V or +12V. Rather, it has a high resistance (and variable resistance) path to ground. It's not just a passive resistor to ground inside the ECU, and without seeing the output driver structure, I can't really be sure what's going on in there. But, what I can tell you is that with my engine running and with the CEL inactive, I can put a 100k ohm pull-up to Batt (+14.5V) and it results in a 6V value on the CEL and thus allows my LED to turn completely off.

 

For those you who are schematically inclined, here's what it looks like:

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28581&g2_serialNumber=2

 

The other major bug that is now resolved is the Alternator. I've been banging my head against the wall trying to understand why it wouldn't charge. I triple checked connections, then got it tested last night, and it passed. Put it back in the car and no worky. Turns out, it was the wiring harness from Current Performance Wiring, but it's not what you think. It wasn't a case of mixed up wire labels or swapped connections. No, it was that darn 470 ohm resistor that I discovered a while back. That little guy was causing a 6V drop, which meant the Alternator's Excite/Ign terminal was only seeing 6V, not 12V. After talking to Stalker HQ for a few minutes, Scott suggested shorting 12V to the excite terminal and BAM!, the Alternator starts charging. So, I promptly deleted that 470 ohm resistor and got everything buttoned back up and confirmed that the alternator works now! Woot! A picture of the devil resistor, removed & circled in Red.

 

It's worth noting that, apparently, some alternators commonly used with LSx motors do require this 470 ohm resistor (which is why I didn't remove it when I first found it months ago), but clearly not the aftermarket 14809 alternator on the M-Spec shopping list.

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28577&g2_serialNumber=3

[toedrag]

Great day today!

 

Oil Pressure bug resolved: Two issues were present: First, the harness from Current Performance Wiring had swapped 5V & ground at the oil pressure sensor connector. Second, the sensor was DOA, which presumably was caused by the wiring issue. The replacement sensor works great with the corrected wiring. I was able to compare the oil pressure reading from an OBDII gauge to what my bar graph was showing, and everything worked as it should have. Woot!

 

My Tach circuit appears to be working too; it seems to agree with the scan gauge when idling at 900-ish rpm. Since my shift light array doesn't turn on until north of 3700 rpm, I'll continue testing once I'm street legal and can drive to a parking lot to rev the engine some.

 

With the rear wheels up in the air, I put the car in 1st and confirmed that the speedometer works.

 

On the topic of TX Title & Registration, I'm finally clear on the process and have my plan on what I'll be doing. Step 1 was completed today: getting an LEO to fill out a form to validate that the serial numbers of the frame, motor, and transmission aren't stolen. The best part is that they made a house call, so I didn't have to trailer the car anywhere - Bonus! Late next week, I'll be visiting an ASE Master technician for the road-worthiness inspection, getting a certified vehicle weight, and lastly heading the county tax office to turn in all the paperwork.

 

An EFI Live Autocal is now on the way from Patrick Guerra, who will be doing some remote tuning for me.

 

Aluminum panels for the tunnel, seat back panel, and hip panels are now installed.

[toedrag]

Oh Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm officially street legal. And BONUS - I'll have the "Custom Vehicle" plates, which means no annual inspections....ever (or until the law changes)

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28669&g2_serialNumber=4

 

However, I found a few niggles that I need to resolve before I start the on-road testing:

• slight exhaust rattle caused by the muffler mounting flange contacting a screw head on the underside of the side panel
  
• P0171 & P0174 (lean on Banks 1 & 2), which likely means either a vacuum leak and/or exhaust leak. I'm guessing the exhaust bolts have loosened a skosh
  
• On the touch-sensor controller for the lights, I suspect one or more wires came loose (thankfully, after the ASE Master inspection). The downside here is that I may have to remove the scuttle to do the troubleshooting.
  
• It seems that the springs in the rear are pretty soft, and now that the car is fully assembled and with me in it, the ride height is about 3/4"-1" too low, and that's with the heims threaded out quite a bit. I've ordered another pair of longer rear pushrods since I don't want to simply change the spring pre-load to raise the ride height while sacrificing shock & spring travel. If you remember, I already went from an 8" pushrod to the current 9". I've ordered a pair of 10" ones.
  
• I received the EFILive Autocal, and sent the stock tune to Pat G; Pat analyzed the existing tune and saw an anomaly with the idle speed and idle airflow. Since the current idle speed is 900 rpm, it may mean the ECU I have was paired with an LS3 Hot Cam engine. Apparently, normal idle speed for the LS3 is 650 rpm. Pat will adjust the tune accordingly since I have the stock LS3 engine, not the hot cam one. Not sure if this would also be related to the lean codes mentioned above...
  

 

I'm taking a welcomed break from the garage for a few days, so I'll start this stuff next week.

Edited August 1, 2015 by toedrag

[jevs]

Congrats! That was quick. I think our process is a little more drawn out unless you want to drive to the Capital.

 

So..... Where in the heck are these fully assembled pics?

[toedrag]

Congrats! That was quick. I think our process is a little more drawn out unless you want to drive to the Capital.

 

So..... Where in the heck are these fully assembled pics?

 

Thx!

 

It was a 3-day effort counting the s/n verification and theft search by LEO, trailering the car to a weigh station, trailering the car to a nearby shop with an ASE Master mechanic, and finally the visit to the county tax office to turn in the mountain of paperwork :-) I also had a ton of help from Jason Minehart since he had registered his AXR in TX a few months ago.

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28671&g2_serialNumber=1

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28673&g2_serialNumber=1

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28675&g2_serialNumber=1

 

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28662&g2_serialNumber=2

[xcarguy]

Way to go, Brit!!!! :hurray::cheers:

[toedrag]

Been working through those recently found bugs. Exhaust rattle is fixed. Touch-button controller is fixed. The new tune for the ECU is in, and idle is now a pleasant 650 RPM, not 1000 rpm. I still need to do some data logging to send back to the tuner. I replaced the rear 9" pushrods with 10" ones and moved the rear pushrods' upper heim to the middle hole on the rear rocker arm; those two corrections have raised the rear up another 1.5". I expect that the springs will continue to settle after driving, so I'll take another look at the ride height after some miles have been put on the car.

 

Today, I let the car idle for about 10 minutes and compared the coolant temp reading from the OBDII scan gauge to my circuit/bar graph, and they are almost perfectly correlated. Another interesting data point is that after this 10 minute idle period, the coolant stabilized at about 200 degrees, with the pusher fan running.

 

For measuring oil temp, I placed two sensors on the engine. The first one is at the oil cooler adapter location, just above the filter. The second is on the passenger side down low in the sump where, on OEM cars, there is normally a dual "oil level & temperature" sensor (which is woefully inaccurate, btw). I can report that, without a doubt, after 10 minutes of idling, the oil was about 20 degrees hotter at the oil cooler adapter location than the passenger side sump. Intuitively, this makes sense, but it's good to confirm it. I'll be using the oil cooler adapter location to feed my oil temperature bar graph.

 

Next on the list is to fill up the gas tank all the way, and then turn on the Fuel Level sensor to let it self-calibrate. After that, it's engine break-in time, which also means I get to finally see the shift light array in action.

[toedrag]

Have about 45 miles on the car now, and holy moly is it wicked, wicked fun. I've frightened myself a few times....not getting sideways or anything truly out of control, just the pure straight acceleration is out of this world. Some observations:

 

• Throttle pedal travel & feel are excellent. No slop whatsoever - all around great control & modulation
  
• My shift light array is spot-on! Will do a video soon.
  
• In the brightest sun, the LEDs on my dash display are still easily visible
  
• I love having the turn signal buttons on the steering wheel
  
• The braking is other worldly
  
• The engine sound is glorious! I'm still working with Patrick Guerra on the last details of the tune - not for any issues mind you - just getting him more data logging at various RPMs and throttle positions to make sure he's got a good picture of everything.
  
• The cooling system is holding up fine in the 90+ degree TX heat
  

 

I haven't had a chance to play with its lateral capabilities yet, but I'm really looking forward to that.

 

Regarding the speedometer calibration, the Intellitronix speedometer I bought is, by default, expecting 8000 pulses per mile. Here are my calculations to figure out how many pulses per mile my setup should be producing:

• Inflated tire diameter is 24-11/16" (24.6875"), I have a 3.73 final drive, and the T-56 Magnum has a 17-tooth reluctor for the speed sensor
  
• 5280/(24.6875*pi) = 68.07 tire revolutions per mile
  
• 68.07*3.73*17 = 4316 pulses per mile
  

 

So, what I did was put the speedometer in calibration mode, and just drove around very slowly (could have also put the rear end up on jackstands) while the speedo counted up to 4316 pulses, then pushed the button on the speedo to stop the calibration, and BAM! it's now perfectly calibrated.

 

Very happy camper so far.

[xcarguy]

. . . . . holy moly is it wicked, wicked fun. I've frightened myself a few times....getting sideways and everything . . . . truly out of control

 

Brit,

 

Fixed that post for ya'! :jester:

 

 

. . . . The braking is other worldly . . . .

 

Please expound on this.

 

 

. . . . I'm still working with Patrick Guerra on the last details of the tune . . . .

 

Brit, you may want to consider SNL. This is where I had my car dyno tuned and they did an excellent job.

 

And yes, video please! :cheers:

[toedrag]

Please expound on this.

I'm just amazed at how fast this thing slows/stops, and I'm not anywhere close to threshold braking. Pedal travel is perfect; pedal feel is perfect. I'm still working out my heel/toe action, but I think I'm fighting pedal positioning and just need to maybe move the throttle back another 1/4-1/2", which only requires a turn of the threaded rod in the throttle linkage

 

Brit, you may want to consider SNL. This is where I had my car dyno tuned and they did an excellent job.

I'll pocket the reference, but I trust Patrick G without question. He's done so many LSx cars throughout his decades in the biz.

 

--

My 5 yr old is bouncing off the walls today because I told him his booster seat for the Stalker should be arriving; he keeps checking the porch to see if a package has arrived.

[toedrag]

Tachometer/shift light test

 

In this video, I'm testing my custom shift light circuit against the actual RPM of the engine.

 

Using an Aeroforce Interceptor scan gauge that connects to the OBDII port, it displays the engine RPM. On my dash, there are 6 lights representing the Tachometer/shift light array. The lights should be fully lit at each of the following thresholds: 3700, 4200, 4700, 5200, 5700, 6200 rpm. In this test, I had just finished a 2 hour drive in the hot TX sun, and the engine only has about 130 miles on it so far. I stopped the test around 5200 rpm simply because I didn't want to rev the engine any higher at the moment, which is why you don't see the last two LEDs (1 yellow for 5700 rpm and 1 red for 6200 rpm)

 

[toedrag]

Here's some CSI-like grease splatter (or is it spatter?) I discovered today:

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28753&g2_serialNumber=2

 

It appears to be a leaky boot on the inner CV joint of the driver's side axle. New boot & clamp are on the way from the supplier. Having never replaced a CV boot before, I might be learning a new skill or will just take it somewhere to have someone else do it. It seems like the CV joint needs to be disassembled to replace the boot, and I'm not sure I want to get into that.

 

Here is the spot of the pin-hole leak. Looks like the band clamp actually cut into the boot in this picture where you can see the tiny 1mm glob of grease poking out. The clamp almost looks kind of flat-spotted and scratched in this area too, maybe from a tool during boot installation at the supplier? My tools haven't touched this area, and I've not driven over anything on the road that could cause such deformation. All other clamps/boots are fine.

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28755&g2_serialNumber=2

[xcarguy]

Brit,

 

Have you tried wiping the grease away, followed by a test hop, just to ensure it's not residual?........And I think it's splatter....or for that matter, it could be smattering of spatter. :rofl:

[toedrag]

Brit,

 

Have you tried wiping the grease away, followed by a test hop, just to ensure it's not residual?........And I think it's splatter....or for that matter, it could be smattering of spatter. :rofl:

 

Good tip, I'll give it a try!

[toedrag]

The boot replacement was easier than I anticipated. It took about 3-4 hours, working at a relaxed pace. The boot kit from the axle supplier came with 1 boot, 2 clamps, and 1 pack of grease. Since the grease was in an unmarked ziplock bag, I'm not sure what its make/model is.

 

Here's a better picture of the suspect area with the axle removed from the diff:

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28758&g2_serialNumber=3

 

And now with the clamp removed:

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28761&g2_serialNumber=3

 

In the middle of reassembly:

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28775&g2_serialNumber=3

 

All buttoned up. Notice how the new clamp is much narrower than the original:

http://www471.pair.com/stalkerv/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=28777&g2_serialNumber=3

Edited July 6, 2015 by toedrag