After selling my Cobalt SS a while back I started missing boost. Z24 has been sitting since. I also came to a point of telling myself this is all a waste of money. But when I’m bored it helps to have a fun car lol. So I finally started working on the LD9.
I’m going with a Felpro head gasket this time. Cometic is not convenient to have to retorque.
GMR has got nothing on this
Nice to see some LD9 love. Did you have a copper gasket before?
FU Tuning
No but I did use copper spray. It was a three layer gasket. I wonder if those dam rivets were the issue.
GMR has got nothing on this
What seats are those, I'm finally getting back to finishing my 2000 Z24 as well and I have a similar engine build to your 2.3/2.4 hybrid with a turbo as well and I can't wait to get it running and drive it again.
Are you going to use the turbo header and downpipe from before?
Jason
99 Z24
LG0/LD9 for Life
10 Year Bash Veteren
What jason said. If you are interested I have a turbo setup for sale. Pm me for details if so.
01' Z24 5 speed
422whp/400wtq
T4 Turbocharged
Built LD9
HP Tuners
DOHC_tuner wrote:Cometic is not convenient to have to retorque.
Who says you have to retorque? Mine's held up just fine over the last 6+ years and 38,000 miles of not-babying it.
2001 Olds Alero (LD9)
650 whp / 543 ft-lb
@turboalero
Seats are red MOMO seats but had seen better days. Found a good deal to get them reupholstered. Red was too flashy so I went with black.
I just received word that my turbo manifold is beyond fixing. Lost $10 getting the welds fixed, now I hear the flange is too warped/bent to fix.
So yes I am looking for a new turbo manifold. If I don't find a good deal I will risk it and go with the ebay manifold.
I have since picked up a SRT4 so the Z24 is jealous when I pull up lol.
I guess its just my luck as many others with that dam cometic head gasket. I didn't break her in either so that may have been it.
I will post more pics soon on some updates.
GMR has got nothing on this
DOHC_tuner wrote:now I hear the flange is too warped/bent to fix.
You can machine it flat. But it warped for a reason and will do it again. I had a poorly constructed manifold warp, I had it machined flat, it warped again and broke a couple bolt heads off, even.
Mild steel on the flange (1/2" thick), stainless on the tubes and v-bands. That's what the guy who's currently making my all new manifold recommended, and he's made over a thousand turbo manifolds for all sorts of projects running bigger turbos and more power than me.
DOHC_tuner wrote:So yes I am looking for a new turbo manifold. If I don't find a good deal I will risk it and go with the ebay manifold.
No turbo manifold fabricators around you?
DOHC_tuner wrote:I guess its just my luck as many others with that dam cometic head gasket. I didn't break her in either so that may have been it.
It either works or it doesn't. There is no break-in. I have used GM, Fel-Pro, Cometic .051" and .074" in my extensive head gasket experience.
The surfaces of the head and the block must be 50 RA or finer. ARP head studs, torque in 3 roughly equal steps to 85 ft-lb.
2001 Olds Alero (LD9)
650 whp / 543 ft-lb
@turboalero
Machine shop was able to machine it flat but the price was not acceptable. They gave it a shot for 10 minutes but said it would require more work. And at the price they gave me I said hell no.
I do have a few options to build one but this project is on the low end of the budget. Don’t plan to go all out.....but I do have Eagle rods and Weisco pistons in there so it would be nice to push it’s limits.
What’s the max psi with a Felpro head gasket?
Sometimes I wonder if I screwed up with some of the vacuum lines and the head gasket was fine all along
GMR has got nothing on this
DOHC_tuner wrote:What’s the max psi with a Felpro head gasket?
I looked up my old thread on Aleromod. "After 5,000 miles of moderate boost (10 psi), the gasket leaked coolant into cylinder one severely after some tuning runs @ 14 psi from the Garrett T3 50 trim .48/.42 turbocharger" (small Volvo OEM one). Multiple others from JBO mentioned theirs also failed at similar levels of use, and the recommendation was to use Cometic at 85 ft-lb.
I used a GM gasket at 75 ft-lb, but apparently only torqued the smaller studs by cyl 1 to 40 ft-lb, and had a leak there 10,000 miles in once I started using the GT3076R and 18 psi.
I melted a Cometic the third time around but that was a detonation issue. Destroyed my pistons/walls/head. lol
4th time's the charm, using the thick Cometic and no issues no matter the abuse.
DOHC_tuner wrote:Sometimes I wonder if I screwed up with some of the vacuum lines and the head gasket was fine all along
I mean head gasket problems are pretty definitive. You either have coolant in the cylinders/oil or not. In my experience the coolant tank gets all bubbly and noisy, you have tons of white smoke, and/or there's coolant puddling on the top of a piston or two. Always had coolant on the pistons when I thought there was an issue.
Right now my car stumbles at cold startup briefly and it scares me because that's exactly what it did when coolant was burning off, but there is absolutely zero coolant in my system, and I'm 99.9% certain my fuel injectors just stick slightly open and leak overnight or after being parked for a long time allowing fuel to sit and have to be burned off at first on cold starts. If it sits long enough there is no stumble, so the fuel probably evaporates by then. Makes sense to me and I'm sticking with it until something happens otherwise. My car runs great with no cooling problems.
2001 Olds Alero (LD9)
650 whp / 543 ft-lb
@turboalero
I had ALOT of white smoke coming out of the muffler. So immediately suspected the head gasket since it only started after a year after the rebuild. I torqued down to 75 ft-lb with ARP head studs.
I want to give the Cometic gasket another shot (with 85 ft-lb) but don't want to spend another $100+ on a new head gasket and still have the same issue.
Are the Cometic gaskets reusable? I wonder if I re-install and torque at 85 ft-lb...would that be the key? Its a 3 layer gasket.
GMR has got nothing on this
So I have been slowly working on the engine in my garage.
City now wants me to prove the car can move in 10 days or I will be fined plus the fee for them to move it out off the premise.
Anyone know any exceptions to this?
I might have to call it quits....no way I can get it all back together in 10 days.
And no the car does not fit in a the garage. Home was built with a garage for a small Smart car to fit in...or a freaking golf cart.
GMR has got nothing on this
Well....with no choice I have to call it quits.....
I have begun parting out the car.
Honestly it hurts to see all the work I have done come to a end becasue of a complaint for having a car sitting on my property.
I will post some parts in the classifieds...really hurts to see all the parts off the car now.
GMR has got nothing on this
DOHC_tuner wrote:
City now wants me to prove the car can move in 10 days or I will be fined plus the fee for them to move it out off the premise.
Anyone know any exceptions to this?
Government (city, state and federal) is really getting out of control. Just look at all the crazy stuff the left is 'hoping' to do in the future. Simply NOT the American way of life. Much closer to the Stalin way,,, if one really thinks about it. Here is an example from my state. I live in Pasco county Florida (red). Freedom to use your property as you see fit as long as it is safe, of course. Hillsborough county to my SW is blue. Far less freedoms of what you can do with your property. And in their minds, adding waste water to the drinking water is a good idea. I kid you not, just heard about their proposal this week. South of me is Pinellas county. When the county was red, they removed fluoride from the drinking water after reports of health concerns from ingesting this toxin. When the county turned blue a few years ago, they put the fluoride back in the drinking water. If one spends a little bit of time investigating other crazy laws the democrats have enacted, without voter consent. You'll find some blue cities/counties either already have in place or plan to make working on your own car a crime! People really need to wake up. I don't know where you live, but I'll take a guess and say it is a blue county.
Disclaimer; While these statements are political,,, it is after all a political matter you are facing.
Is there any way you can put the car in your back yard? Would it be legal to do that?
