Northstar T is taking shape

[Northstar T]

I had a little energy left after work this evening, so I spent a couple hours in the garage playing with sheet metal. I began by cutting out two matched pieces of 3/4" plywood in the size of the filter OD. a piece of 18 guage sheet metal was cut about 3/8" larger than the plywood, and then the whole sandwich was drilled at the location of the center of the future intake pipes (show earlier).

once bolted together, the edge was hammered over to form the flange. a few cuts were required at the curved ends, but I just let them form a lap joint and hammered it all down as smooth as I could.

After some minor finish body work, the lap joints at the ends were welded, then the edge was ground smooth with a flap disk on my side grinder. this is as far as I got this evening.

both of the plates I made this evening will actually become base plates, so I may make similar ones for the covers, or perhaps use 3/16" aluminum to fabricate some. no sence planning too far ahead I say.

Cheers,

Russ

 

[Ted Brown]

Russ, that is a very nice looking setup, should also work great... Sorry we missed each other on my trip there... Maybe my next visit I will make it by...

 

[putz]

T buckets really bring out the ingenuity in people great job.

 

[Northstar T]

Ted. Spring is always a zoo for me at work, and hard for me to even catch a breath, but hopefully you'll get up this way again one of these days. you have a standing invitation anytime, so hang onto our contact info.

Putz. Buckets are a great place to utilize ones ingenuity for sure. I'm really loving being able to practice some fabrication technics, and I never have been good at following the path of others, so it's all working out I guess. ha ha.

After work this evening I played in my shop again for a few hours. A friend of mine donated a chunk of 1/4" aluminum, so I carved out lids for the filters (I'll do some ball mill work on them when I have more time). I also got one of the base plates drilled and welded together with the tubes. the second set is on the welding bench also, so I should be able to finish this part up tomorrow.

Russ

 

[one finger john]

Can't wait to see the finished set up in the daylight.

 

[Northstar T]

You know how sometimes an idea comes along, you build it, and it just doesn't look as good (I have plenty of those) as it did in your head? well this ain't one of those times folks. :hey: :hooray: .

I just could not be happier with the way this intake system came out. sometime down the road I plan to do some fancy mill and paint work on the covers, but other than that I wouldn't change a thing

The color shift paint is very hard to capture on film, but these two pics should give some idea of what it is. The green is the predominant color, with the purple/copper color popping up in highlights as you walk by the car. the gold colored bands are just paint with clear over it to carry on the overall theme used elseware on the car.

Car show next weekend, and I got my trip permit yesterday, so I've got some more jamin' to do between now and then.

Cheers,
Russ

 

[Northstar T]

My new office.
I'm making good headway, but this stuff is hard for old farts like......... you.
I have made a couple breakthroughs on tuning the Holly Commander for the ITBs, and actually having fun at it.... in a masocistic sort of way.

Russ

 

[deckofficer]

Russ,

When I was upping the power of my diesel, it was impossible to gauge by "seat of pants" small improvements on an 8000 lb. truck. I bought the G-tech and it worked great. Have you tried one for final tunning?

http://www.gtechpro.com/prod.html


Bob

 

[Youngster]

Your buckets lookin' great Russ. Won't be long now!!!!

Ron

 

[deckofficer]

Russ,

Since I gave you the hyperlink to G-Tech I noticed on their website that the model I have is no longer produced and the improvements of their current models are HUGE. My model had just a single precision accelrometer so you had to mount it level in the forward axis for hp and 1/4 mile times and then had to turn it 90 degrees for cornering forces. It also did not pick up rpms so could not plot a dyno graph. The new ones have 3 accelrometers, lets you mount in any position, gives all performance data, logs it, produces dyno chart, o-well, needless to say I just bought the new one.

 

[Northstar T]

Russ,

Since I gave you the hyperlink to G-Tech I noticed on their website that the model I have is no longer produced and the improvements of their current models are HUGE. My model had just a single precision accelrometer so you had to mount it level in the forward axis for hp and 1/4 mile times and then had to turn it 90 degrees for cornering forces. It also did not pick up rpms so could not plot a dyno graph. The new ones have 3 accelrometers, lets you mount in any position, gives all performance data, logs it, produces dyno chart, o-well, needless to say I just bought the new one.

I bought a G-tech a couple years ago (new version) but only used it a few times. a fun toy IMHO and not much more. perhaps I just didn't play with it enough to see the value.
It's really not vital to know the actual performance for the tuning I'm doing now. I've made a few changes on the injection, mostly in how it gathers a MAP signal, so I'm creating a whole new base map to utilize the changes. for mid and upper rev ranges the car needs to be driven just to produce the various loads and rpm so I can see what air/fuel ratio the car wants under each parameter. I could actually change the map wile driving, but I've found it to be safer to park somewhere after gathering data to make changes :cripple: . the software has a data logger feature also, but I haven't even gotten to that level yet. I've always had to go over new things a dozen times or so before they actually sink in, so it's been a slow process.
I did drive the car to work the other day, and it got rave reviews :sun:


Russ

 

[deckofficer]

Russ,

Don't leave us hanging, you drove the T to work, tell us about it. Yours is one of the current builds I'm interested in. As far as the G-Tech, I bought the first one because performance upgrades on a 8000 lb F350 diesel is hard to gauge by seat of the pants. I find it handy to make changes and check the results. Easier on the car and wallet compared to dyno runs.

 

[Northstar T]

Russ,

Don't leave us hanging, you drove the T to work, tell us about it.

I'm starting a whole new thread right now !!!!!

Russ

 

[Ted Brown]

Russ, Ain't T Buckets a kick in the you know?? Super fun to drive... and folks from 9 to 99 love them... I never stopped anywhere that the car failed to draw a huge crowd...

 

[Northstar T]

Russ, Ain't T Buckets a kick in the you know?? Super fun to drive... and folks from 9 to 99 love them... I never stopped anywhere that the car failed to draw a huge crowd...

Yup. I drove the car to work twice and have discovered that if I want to get any work done then I'd better drive my beater 87 ranger. people were asking me all day "is that your car?" "I'd love to hear that motor". etc. loads of fun, but hard to get work done at the same time.
I won't be driving it for at least a couple more weeks now however. I fried the ECU . If everyone would like to line up behind me for a free kick, I'm certainly deserving. Ever since I installed this motor in the car it really hasn't run 100%. it ran great on the test stand, and it ran great in the Fiero it was purchased for before that, but not so much in the T. that really had me losing sleep for many a night trying to figure that one out. "what could have changed in this swap to make it run so poorly???" I ask myself over and over. It actually seemed to be getting worse and worse all the time, so last weekend I pulled out the whole ECU/engine wire harness (not a trivial task) and checked resistance on every single circut. all checked great. then I checked each and every sensor on the motor. perfect. then I set up a separate battery, outside the car, to run nothing but the engine electronics. I figured if there was some interference from another circut that would certainly isolate it. No change. So I replaced the harness into the car again and the final task was remounting the ECU, which was mounted under the seat............. into the plywood floor............. hey!!! does this need to be grounded?? why yes it does you MORON [that would be me]. I set up a ground strap with high hopes of success, but unfortunatly I guess it was too late. the ECU is apparantly terminal. I spoke with Alan at CHRfab (the Northstar guru and parts supplier) and he confirmed that, yes, that will make the ECU suffer an agonizing death. $865.oo has been added to my Visa card, and Alan will be setting up the firmware to run the N*, but it may take a week or two to get to me. We live, and sometimes we learn, but dang it costs a lot of money to get educated these days. :dummy: .

the idiot

 

[Gerry]

Yup. I drove the car to work twice and have discovered that if I want to get any work done then I'd better drive my beater 87 ranger. people were asking me all day "is that your car?" "I'd love to hear that motor". etc. loads of fun, but hard to get work done at the same time.
I won't be driving it for at least a couple more weeks now however. I fried the ECU . If everyone would like to line up behind me for a free kick, I'm certainly deserving. Ever since I installed this motor in the car it really hasn't run 100%. it ran great on the test stand, and it ran great in the Fiero it was purchased for before that, but not so much in the T. that really had me losing sleep for many a night trying to figure that one out. "what could have changed in this swap to make it run so poorly???" I ask myself over and over. It actually seemed to be getting worse and worse all the time, so last weekend I pulled out the whole ECU/engine wire harness (not a trivial task) and checked resistance on every single circut. all checked great. then I checked each and every sensor on the motor. perfect. then I set up a separate battery, outside the car, to run nothing but the engine electronics. I figured if there was some interference from another circut that would certainly isolate it. No change. So I replaced the harness into the car again and the final task was remounting the ECU, which was mounted under the seat............. into the plywood floor............. hey!!! does this need to be grounded?? why yes it does you MORON [that would be me]. I set up a ground strap with high hopes of success, but unfortunatly I guess it was too late. the ECU is apparantly terminal. I spoke with Alan at CHRfab (the Northstar guru and parts supplier) and he confirmed that, yes, that will make the ECU suffer an agonizing death. $865.oo has been added to my Visa card, and Alan will be setting up the firmware to run the N*, but it may take a week or two to get to me. We live, and sometimes we learn, but dang it costs a lot of money to get educated these days. :dummy: .

the idiot

Sorry to hear that. Thats no light visa bill. Still youre in good company. I have made a few 'mistakes' believe me.
Think Ill run a ground to my ECU... JUST IN CASE, so your learning curve is not wasted
Gerry

 

[Keeper]

ouch, some lessons cost more then others it seems. Glad you at least found the issue.

 

[one finger john]

Sorry to hear 'bout the unintentional, self inflicted, slowly-developing, good-times-ending, demise of your computer (in your car). I have to assume that the NEW computer is especially blessed by CHRfab, hence the exztra, special, super duper price. So how did it die? No ground equals damage to circuits? How could it function? Obviously couldn't go to a junk yard and plug a good used one in. Oh well, it's only money. Car will be like new now.

You are not an idiot, just human. By the way, does the wifey know yet? Does she get equal compensation? $865.00 for the car, $865.00 for her projects? John

 

[Northstar T]

Sorry to hear 'bout the unintentional, self inflicted, slowly-developing, good-times-ending, demise of your computer (in your car). I have to assume that the NEW computer is especially blessed by CHRfab, hence the exztra, special, super duper price. So how did it die? No ground equals damage to circuits? How could it function? Obviously couldn't go to a junk yard and plug a good used one in. Oh well, it's only money. Car will be like new now.

You are not an idiot, just human. By the way, does the wifey know yet? Does she get equal compensation? $865.00 for the car, $865.00 for her projects? John

Actually the compleat Holley setup sells for over 1700.00 . and they don't normally sell just the ECM by itself. so I feel somewhat releived that CHRF would do this for me. nothing really special in the ECM that isn't done for all N* setups, which do require that some changes be made to the firmware in the box as it comes from Holley. you can't buy a Holley Commander from Holley and make it work on a Northstar. Cadillac Hot Rod Fabricators is the only one authorized to do the conversions.
As I understand it, the brain actually functions by way of it's own ground circut, but the voltage regulator inside requires the case ground to function, so it dies due to the resulting high voltage (also makes it run poorly, as it's essentially on a load of crank).
"does the wifey know"? are you nuts??!! of course she knows "it's getting repaired for a couple hundred dollars".

Russ

 

[putz]

Thats the bad thing with electronics they aren't really electrical. Because I have found out everthing electrical runs on smoke it works fine till you let the smoke out. Electronics on the otherhand must have a smokescreen.