Needless to say my projects have received very little attention since I picked up my Opel Calibra 4X4 Turbo.
Recently I've found some time to get away from the shop and work on my original cars manufactured by Daewoo.
The high power 2.0L turbo from the silver "GSiTurbo" ( Pontiac Optima / Opel Kadett ) has been pulled after many hours of fighting with the various engine management systems and wiring in the vehicle.
After spending quite some time trying to convert it over to run on a Megasquirt II I had several problems getting the car to run due to assembly errors by the company I originally purchased it from ( blown injector and ignition drivers due to incorrect heat sink installation, among other things )
After being cut up and spliced into three different engines with four different management systems the stock wiring is a nightmare with wiring colors that sometimes change three or four times depending on the past system. ( Lemans/Sunbird/Nubira harnesses spliced together )
So my solution was....
1 ) Remove the T20SED turbo engine, remove entire wiring harness
2 ) Remove the C20GET from my red project car, remove entire wiring harness
3 ) Transplant good harness and C20GET into the silver "GSiTurbo"
4 ) Remove T20SED head, install Opel C20LET head, transplant combination into Opel Calibra
So far I have the T20SED out, the entire wiring harness from the red car and 80% of the C20GET removal completed.
Now that I have removed the T20SED I now find that many of my engine management problems were partially caused by a faulty clutch.
Near the end when I parked the car I had a number of problems, the car would go like a bat out of hell, but yet I had problems with surging at times and even shuddering, especially when I let off throttle
The high performance 6 puck ceramic clutch was disintegrating on me a piece at a time.
What I now know is that despite the fact that most of the power was being put down to the wheels, the clutch was actually slipping most of the time.
What was happening on a strong pull is that I would let off and the car would shudder almost like a severe engine detonation, but yet I wasn't hearing anything that sounded like a detonation.
It was confusing, I tried everything to work this glitch out of the management system, all the way along I thought it was the factory ECU cutting fuel before the boost was let off.
In reality it was a situation where the clutch was slipping and once I let off the throttle the clutch grabbed hard and dropped the RPM by roughly 1000 almost instantly in a severe jolt, which I mistook as a severe engine misfire/detonation.
One clutch pad had about 50% of the material missing, three others with about 30% missing and the last two were nearly complete.
It's the strangest situation I've encountered, I really did not suspect the clutch, it would even grab hard off a high RPM dump into 2nd gear.
So... now I have to machine the flywheel and find a new clutch to mate to the F20 gearbox being attached to the C20GET.
I haven't figured out how to combine the Opel C20LET head with the T20SED bottom end yet, there are some significant differences between the two ( 8 bolt crank vs 6 bolt crank, different timing belt shapes ) but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
I had problems with the 4X4 system in the extreme cold climate of Edmonton Alberta Canada, so the Opel was parked mid winter and I picked up a 2011 Lancer Ralliart with the dual clutch AWD turbo.
The Ralliart is a shit car, I should have bought an EVO MR.
I really do miss the Calibra as my daily driver, but the Calibra was getting beat down by the daily commute back and fourth to work and it's starting to show it's age.
Parts have failed, parts have broken off ( door handle broke, roof liner fell down, alternator needs replacement, one wheel flare fell off, 4X4 system is now only functional when it's above freezing, various issues with paint )
So all in all everything is in piss poor shape and I have nothing fun to drive
I have thought about dropping the cars off at local shops, but really, do I really want my Opel/Daewoo cars to be in the hands of a some 21 year old mechanic who has only worked on riced out hondas ?
So there you have it... some progress... some resolution to figuring out problems.... but nothing significant to show from it.
Hopefully I will have more time this summer to work on the projects, I hope to have the "GSiTurbo" up and running strong with the C20GET / F20 combination in the next couple of months.
Should be fun even if I have to limit my appetite for boost and keep the power down in the 200whp range.
