ENGINE WORK  October, 2008

Oct 1 - with help from John Moody, recreated my timing marks.  I'll need to know 10 BTDC for the SDS setup, and I stupidly cut off the plastic timing marks, thinking I'd never need them with a computer-controlled engine.  Also been exchanging emails & pics with Ross Farnham regarding best place to put water temp sensor.  Removed plug from water pump/thermostat housing.  Lay out & install mixture knob.  Removed old oxy and EGT sensors.  Spent some time looking over the PLX AFR components.  Wired mixture knob into harness.  Wired air temp sensor connector into harness and installed the sensor into the intercooler.  Started wiring injectors into harness.  Exchanged emails with various other STi users.    6.5 hr

  I had stupidly cut off most of the timing marks for access for the SDS crank sensor (the red thing at the top center of the pic), thinking I'd never need them.  Then I found I need to initially set up the SDS timing to 10 degrees BTDC.  So, with John Moody's help in determining what should be where, I used a hot glue gun to build up an area to make a new mark.

  Current water temp placement by Eggenfellner is on the LT of these 2 blue towers.  While still not the best place, according to Ross, it's far better than where Eggenfellner had originally put them - on the radiator.  Egg did the same dumb thing with the inlet air temp sensor - on a supercharged engine, he put it at the inlet duct.  I'd corrected both of those things long ago.  You can see the GRT EIS water temp sensor on the blue tower on the RT side of the pic.

  For the STi engine, this brass plug on the water pump & thermostat housing is where Ross recommends placing the water temp sensor.  It's 1/4 NPT, rather than the M12 used on the towers.

Oct 2 - Exchanged more emails with Ross.  He is going to send me new air and water temp sensors.   I need one with 1/4 NPT to go in the water pump/thermostat housing, and I found out that the air and water temp sensors are a matched pair, so both have to be same type.  That means the inlet air temp mount bracket I so laboriously fabricated will have to be redone.  I can probably just  redrill & tap it to the larger 1/4 NPT thread, rather than re-machining the whole thing from scratch.  More SDS harness work; injectors & coils/plugs wiring.

Oct 6 - Took old and new supercharger sprockets to the post office and got an accurate weight measurement on them.  The old one weighed 1 pound, 1/2 ounce.  The new one, with Trantorque bushing, weighs 3 pounds, 2 ounces.  Fabricated a bracket to mount the PLX oxygen sensor/Air Fuel Ratio (AFR) module that came with the SDS system.  Drilled and retapped inlet air temp sensor mount for 1/4 NPT.    2.0 hr

Oct 7 - Two more Eggenfellner customers have decided to remove their STi engine and install a Lycoming, citing the many remaining design problems, compounded by Eggenfellner's hostile and unhelpful attitude.  Of the original 25 people who paid Eggenfellner $40k for these very poorly thought out packages, nearly all have now either sold their engine to someone else or simply written off the cost, removed it, placed it in a corner, and installed a Lycoming.  I believe the only remaining people trying to make this POS work are me, John Moody, Peter Costick, Randy Crothers, and 3 new guys who bought their engines from one of the 25 original Eggenfellner STi customers.  Worked awhile on PLX mount.  1.0 hr

Oct 8 - received new air & water temp sensors from Ross at SDS.  Air temp sensor is 1/8 NPT & I was expecting 1/4.  Emailed Ross to ask about it.  Worked on mount bracket for PLX.  0.5 hr

Oct 9 - installed water temp sensor, worked on PLX mount bracket, removed RT exhaust and supercharger mount.  Also had to remove alternator & crank pulley yet again to get the header pipe off.  4.0 hr

Oct 12 - Drilled out bung plugs I got from PLX people, so I can install Grand Rapids EGT sensors where the old oxy sensors were installed.  The PLX instructions say their oxy sensor should not be installed as close to the exhaust port as the ones from Eggenfellner were.  I will get a new bung welded in, further down the pipe, for the PLX sensor.  Also, welded, cut, fabricated a third version of the inlet air temp sensor mount bracket.  This time, it's for 1/8 NPT to match the sensor I got from SDS   2.5 hr

Oct 14 - ream & tap (1/8 NPT) the 2 bung plugs (for GRT EGT sensors) and the IAT sensor mount plate.  1.0 hr

Oct 15 - layout for EGT wiring, order more EGT thermocouple wire from GRT.  Install IAT sensor mount.  1.0 hr

  Eggenfellner had placed the oxy sensor bungs too close to the exhaust port.  PLX recommends placing their oxy sensor much further down the pipe.  So, I ordered a couple bung plugs for the existing oxy sensor bungs, then decided to just drill and tap the plugs for GRT EGT sensors, as the bungs are in a perfect location for measuring EGT on each side.  Here, on the LT, the lower bung was used for Eggenfellner Subaru EGT, so I'll just plug that one.

Oct 16 - Calculated how much to shorten the supercharger mount bracket arm.  New SC sprocket diameter is 0.6" larger than old (0.3" radius).   Laid out sprockets with belt.  That method suggests shortening it 3/8" (0.375").  John Moody suggested 0.425".  Positioning the SC by hand near the bracket suggests I could shorten it by as much as an inch or so.  So, John's 0.425" seems just about right.  Ground paint off the bracket where I'll cut & reweld it.  Spent a HUGE amount of time dealing with issues getting PLX box mounted.  Installed intake manifold and torqued to 216 in lb.  Not sure how tight to clamp the injectors down with the Eggenfellner-modified configuration.  4.5 hr

  Here's the PLX oxy/AFR sensor box mounted.  The box is just an extrusion, with no mounting provisions, so I made a plate that slides through fingers in the extrusion.  One of the mount bolt holes turned out to conflict with an angle on the F721A-R, so I spent lots of time installing a nutplate and dealing with that.  You can also see where I've mounted the SDS ECU, MAP sensor, and programming display in the upper LT of the pic.

  I laid out the crank pulley, belt and old & new sprockets to see just how much the SC sprocket centerline changed.  It was just about 3/8"

  this clamping arrangement, with the aluminum round bar, was provided by Eggenfellner to replace the stock method of attaching and securing the nozzles. Probably the stock methods fastens via the 2 bolt holes above the aluminum clamping bar.

  The clamping bar in the background and one of the nozzles in the foreground. The black ring is the seal. The little silver part below it is the actual nozzle. The gold part above the black seal is the nozzle body or case. The nozzle and body don't touch the holes they sit in.

Oct 17 - Got some advice from John Moody on how tight to get the injector hold-downs.  Tightened up injector hold-downs and mounted throttle body to intake manifold.  1.0 hr

Oct 19 - Prep for drilling header pipe for welding; need 7/8" holesaw.  Mill 7/16" out of supercharger mount bracket.  4.0 hr

  Here is the supercharger mount bracket after using a 7/16" mill to remove 7/16"  from the bracket arm.  Using the mill ensures that the two edges to be rewelded are perfectly parallel and thus should not affect alignment.  Now, I'll get this welded back together.

Oct 20 - found out that YET ANOTHER Eggenfellner STi customer has decided to throw in the towel.  He's going to sell his RV rather than continue to deal with this nightmare of an engine.  That leaves only 3 original STi customers and 3 people who bought their STi from one of the original 25 STi customers.  Bought a 7/8" holesaw & cut out hole in exhaust pipe for oxy sensor.  Sent out 5 Requests For Quote for getting larger custom radiators made.  Mailed original SDS water & air temp sensors back to Ross at SDS.   0.5 hr

Oct 21 - took SC bracket and header pipe to welding shop. 

Oct 22 - picked up welded bracket & header pipe from welding shop - they did a nice job.  Sealed Throttle Body to spacer with Permatex and made a gasket between the spacer and the intake manifold.  Custom radiator research  1.5 hr

Oct 23 - more custom radiator research, talking to vendors, and exchanging lots of emails with other users.  Installed throttle body and Grand Rapids EGT harness.  1.0 hr 

Oct 28 - One of Eggenfellner's customers posted a Jan Eggenfellner rant on VAF, severely attacking Steve Wood because a Sport Aviation article about Steve (N600FY) very briefly mentioned that he'd had problems with his Eggenfellner STi engine.  I posted a rebuttal, but it was pulled down by the moderators within an hour or 2.   I think the moderators there get a little too carried away with their role.  As with Eggenfellner's list, no dissenting voices are allowed; Eggenfellner's rant was allowed, but any rebuttals were immediately deleted.  Even more extreme than deleting my rebuttal, another poster's rather innocuous reply to Eggenfellner's rant was immediately deleted when he said "It sounds like you "went along" multiple times by your own account here, so hard to understand your allegedly reluctant involvement. You had numerous chances to just say "no" with this fellow who you have branded as a scammer. Were you hoping for publicity or???? To be honest, sound a bit disingenuous."   After that deletion, the thread was then closed to any further discussion.  Not cool, Mr. Moderator.

well, with lots of "getting ready for winter" tasks to do around here, I wasn't able to get more done.

move on to NOVEMBER, 2008 ENGINE

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