Tag Archives: ecotec

Ecotec Motor Mounts, Rear Suspension and Headers…

Oh yeah!  Today we have some really cool pictures.

The frame is starting to really take shape.  The front suspension is pretty much done.  The following picture shows how things are looking right now.  The front suspension towers are in place, coilovers and lower plates.  No more spring compressors, just the real deal:  coilovers.  The front sway bar has also been located as well as the steering rack.  The square stock bar in front of the pulley is not part of the build so don’t wonder what that is there for.  Finally, there are quite a few welds that need to be finalized – right now there is a lot of stuff that is tack-welded.  Oh…  And the Ecotec is now mounted on the table in order to finalize where it will be residing.

The next picture shows the driver’s side motor mount.  Since the frame is being made from scratch, we can use the original mounts.  Nothing wrong with them.  However, these are the ones that attach to the frame not the ones on the engine block.  Those would have been way too wide, so new plates have been made.  Look closely, and you will see the factory intake has been removed.  When fitting an Ecotec on a TR6 the original intake has to go – otherwise it will be in the way of the steering assembly.  There will be a custom-made intake so more room can be dedicated to the steering.

Next, let’s take a look at how the rear suspension is looking.  This is really trick.  Here we have a four point suspension also with coilovers.  They are not in place but they are identical to the fronts – however the spring rates are different.  The control arms are all finished with heim-ends; my cousin used polyurethane ends on the TR4 but they soon failed.  I’ll have a future article on that.  The diff is not in place yet nor the axles.  This will all be ordered soon.  The plan calls for a 3.80 to 1 axle with posi-traction.  This will give the car a great response at speed.  Special note must be taken:  this is not a drag car, instead it is being designed to excel at speed.  This is what the rear looks like:

Finally today’s real work of art:  the new headers for the Ecotec.  The headers have been hand-made, from stainless tubing.  The flange on the block is GM – they sell a special flange that gives an excellent base for the headers; there is also a GM flange similar to this, for the intake.  The header does not have a bung for a O2 sensor – that will be placed on the bottom tubing, after the flange.  These headers should flow very nicely and since they are very close to the block, it will prevent the body from having to be cut.  All this stuff is being built for a reason!

And finally, another shot of the lower part of the headers, showing the motor mount on the passenger’s side.  This mount has a special heat insulator – that is stock from the factory due to its close proximity to the header.  Cool, huh?

Like I said before, things are being tack-welded now.  Much easier to cut a tack-weld than if it were permanently welded in case we have to make adjustments when the body is fitted.

Comments?  Questions?  Drop me a line…

Engine Fitment in the TR4

A fact has been brought to my attention:  “Amazing that in the TR link, with all the hype about the engine, there is not a single pic of the engine in the car!”.  My bad.  Time to make amends; time to really document the engine in the car.  Some facts:

  • The engine is a 2.4 litre VVT ECOTEC from a Pontiac Solstice
  • The transmission is a five speed AISIN also from a Pontiac Solstice
  • The wiring harness has been lifted from the Solstice and modified.  It has been vastly simplified.  How?  RTFM.  Seriously, all the info is available in the Factory Service Manuals – trick is finding it.  😉
  • The ECM has been reflashed in order to disable VATS.
  • This ECM is fully programmable – in this case we have HPTuners on a laptop.  Right now, we are running the stock configuration – hopefully soon we will spend some quality time on a dyno and then tweak the thing.
  • The stock plastic intake has been replaced.  The intake you see in the pictures was all hand made from aluminium and welded to a flange in order to make the runners match the intake ports.  This is done for a reason:  the original plastic intake does not give enough room for the steering column in a TR4.
  • The stock throttle body with its fly-by-wire controls has been retained.
  • The exhaust manifold has been discarded.  Like the intake manifold, the header is all hand made from stainless.  This is also welded to a special flange in order to match the ports on the engine block.

 

As stated above, the throttle remains fly-by-wire.  There is nothing ‘weird’ about this.  Actually it is extremely fast and the throttle body reacts to small inputs as well as full throttle acceleration (done that many times).  Matter of fact, my wife’s HHR (it has a 2.4 Ecotec as well) has the same fly-by-wire setup and it is very responsive.  I have no problems running this furthermore this is the way more and more modern cars operate.

The intake and exhaust manifolds have been altered and this is done for a reason:  the body needed to remain intact.  There has been some work done to the tunnel though.  A new transmission cover has been made as well as the driveshaft cover between the seats.  I don’t have a way to show that since the TR4 is assembled now.  However when I put bowtie6 back together once his ECOTEC is in place, I’ll have better pictures to show of how that all fits.

If you have questions and/or comments, please make an entry here – I’ll try to answer back!  Keyword here is:  dialogue!  🙂

Question of Weight

The proverbial question of weight.  The less weight one has to carry around, the faster and nimbler one will be.  Take a look at professional cyclists – small dudes (on really lightweight carbon bikes).  Take a look at Formula 1 cars – they are piloted by small dudes (on really lightweight carbon cars).  See a pattern here?

Back in the 50’s a fellow by the name of Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman founded an automotive house that specialized in extremely lightweight cars powered by (of all things) twincam inline four cylinder engines of small displacement.  No, they did not have carbon back then – they had aluminium.  Lotus Cars became a major force in the automotive world, producing very quick and nimble cars.  Basically he proved that very lightweight cars could be extremely competitive…  The holy grail: the lighter a car is, the quicker it will not only accelerate but it will stop.

TR4 on scales

Well, the ECOTEC TR4 was built based on this premise.  If you look close enough at the photo above you will see things that are not in your average TR4:  for one, the hard top; then the bonnet is missing the ‘bulge’ and believe it or not, the boot lid is not ‘original’.  All of these three components have been hand crafted from aluminium.  To save even more weight, the glass in the hardtop shown above is not exactly glass…  It is plex.

Close inspection of the pic above also shows the ECOTEC TR4 sitting on scales.  The silver case in the middle holds a Longacre automotive scale.  This is where things get interesting.  I’m sure you know where I’m going here.  So what is the total weight of this car?

Let’s start at the front, shall we?

Front weight

That is it:  984 lbs, 47.2% of the total weight is on the front wheels.

Not let’s take a look at the rear:

Rear weight

That is 1099 lbs, 52.7% of total weight is on the rear wheels.

And finally, the total:

Total weight

Total weight:  2083 lbs.  Now keep in mind a few things:  the frame is brand new, made from scratch.  The ECOTEC is all aluminium and the car was put on  scales with an oversize fuel tank, 90% full.  Not bad huh?

Comments?  Questions?  Let me know…

 

Running ‘codes’ on an ECOTEC

The ECOTEC in the TR4 is performing like a champ.  However, we had our first ‘oh shait’ moment.  The thing started missing under acceleration and given that is is a four banger, having 25% of all power missing intermittently makes a big deal.  Time to scratch the noggin’…

Well, this is where the thing really gets interesting.  We’ve had plenty of experience with all sorts of fuel injected GM engines – from the humble”throttle body” to the L98 TunedPort to the legendary LT1/LT4 and let’s not forget the awesome LSx family and last but not least the L32 in bowtie6.  Some of these can be fiddled with by changing ‘chips’ (L98 and TunedPort) while others like the LTx and LSx family can be modified with laptops and software.  And the oddball, the L32 – well he is pretty much hosed.  That poor critter is so old school that no software exists to fiddle with him.  Bugger.  🙁

Scanning some of the OBD I engines was simple enough:  jump the appropriate ALDL connector terminals and watch the MIL blink.  Count how many times it flashes and look it up.  Voila!  On L98’s, LTx’s, LSx’s, L32’s…  We’ve used several code readers – the last one we bought was pretty slick but it did not allow for tuning the ECM’s.

Ah, but for the ECOTEC…  Now we are talking!  HPTuners offers one very awesome software package and that is one more advantage about using this particular engine.  And, it can be used on the LTx’s and LS’x too.  So back to my original post…

We hooked up our  trusted laptop running HPTuners and we were able to scan for codes.  Sure enough, the thing showed we had an engine misfire.  But this is where it gets pretty cool:  not only did it confirm the misfire, it was smart enough to tell us which coil was causing the misfire – the coil on number 1 cylinder was the culprit.  We promptly changed it, cleared existing “DTC’s” and off we went.  Problem solved.

The point I’m  trying to make here is that with the proper tools, diagnosing FI is not rocket science.  Folks make this to be a great mystery.  I’ve heard from so many folks through the years that if has a “computer” it is not worth messing with.  Adding insult to injury, I’ve read of folks stripping the FI system off L32’s and replacing that with a “Holley”.  Oh dear…

What is an ECOTEC Powered TR4 Like?

In my post the other day about the ECOTEC TR4, I mentioned a video.  Got one to share – it is short and wobbly, but you’ll get the idea.  Now, before we get started keep in mind a few things:

  • Note how quiet the TR4 is.  Video was made with the windows up and the aluminium hardtop in place.
  • The engine has a redline of about 6500 revs.  You can hear the engine spool up and the powerband is indeed very sweet!
  • Some sorting out of the rear springs has to be made.  The car is a little bouncy.  The front is dead on, but a new set of rear springs has been ordered that will certainly make things even nicer
  • The ECOTEC has a handmade header.  It dumps into a 2.5″ pipe attached to a single baffled muffler and at the end a special made adapter with Supertrapp discs.  The Supertrapps really are nice and enable fine tuning of how much exhaust noise you want.  I think this one is spot on.

Well take a look…

I made this video with my iPhone4; it is not exactly great but you get the idea.  Hopefully I’ll post a better video in the next few days.

Hope you found this interesting.  The ECOTEC is indeed a very viable and excellent performing engine.  You have comments?  Questions?  Sure would like to hear from you, just fill in the “Comment” box below.