Fuel Tank

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It’s been a while, but work on our Project Unfair is underway again. After my last project, I vowed not to ever use drag-racing parts for fuel delivery again. I was able to get that system to work most of the time, but eventually heat would cause cavitation, vapor-lock, and failure.

Instead, I worked with Carl Casanova at Vaporworx on our fuel tank. Unfair requires a wider range of fuel delivery than most cars since we’re expecting decent mileage while cruising, and 1200+ horsepower when running full-boogie for a quarter-mile pass or running the standing mile. As Carl calculated that means fuel needs range from 4 gallons per hour to 130 gallons per hour!

VaporWorx provides late-model GM fuel pump solutions to hot-rodders. These fuel modules, as GM refers to them, solve many problems. They are controllable by PWM (pulse-width modulation) and so can be slowed and sped up as the engine need changes. They also provide reservoirs to reduce cavitation, and can be hooked up to Walbro venturi pumps to literally be able to pump fuel to the last cupful in the tank.

Most of VaporWorx setups use a 5th gen Camaro pump, but that’s not quite up to the task, so we stepped up to a CTS-V pump. And that wasn’t enough, so we’re running two! VaporWorx has made some tweaks to their programming to support dual modules, along with setting a ramp-up method to support our crazy need to run 18 pounds of boost on race gas. Boost works against the fuel injectors: as the pressure increases, the injectors have to overcome it, so higher fuel rail pressure is needed. The VaporWorx controller takes all this into account. It’s an awesome solution to a difficult problem.

I built a fully-custom aluminum tank with dual pump module rings, fuel level sending unit boss, fill port to use a 67-68 style gas cap, vent, and drain ports. I’ll also be using our unique fuel tank vent/baffle along with a non-vented cap to control fuel slosh and gas fume emanation.

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Z06 Stereo install, part 2

In last week’s blog, I promised more about the stereo installation that William Fonseca and 1Off Rides did in my Z06. William and his crew did a fabulous job meeting my requirements, but he also worked very hard to make the whole install look like a factory installation. So there aren’t big bunches of wire connection barrels, or wire nuts. Instead, all the connections are done in-line with soldered connections and automotive grade OEM style wrapping. corvette pics 162.jpg

All the wiring is tidy: easy for maintenance and any enhancements.

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Here’s one view of the wiring behind the head unit. The nylon mesh along with shrink wrap tubing is a quality of keeping wire harnesses together.

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Here’s another view. You can see the original and the additional wiring.

Corvette Z06 Stereo install

Late last year, after buying a new-to-me 2007 C6 Z06, I took the car over to William Fonseca at 1Off Rides. William has done several installs for me, and wanted to show off his new brand of gear: Hertz. He took detailed photos of his whole install process, so I’ll show off some of his work across a few blog entries over the next couple of weeks.

I gave William two requirements:

  1. The system couldn’t cut any wires to install. I wanted to be able to return it completely to stock for resale.
  2. The sub and amp had to be removable for track use.

William did that, and added one of his own: when the sub and amp are removed, the system still plays! He put audiophile relays in all the speakers and connected both to the big Hertz amp and to the head unit: a Pioneer AVIC Z110BT. The sub and amp are removable with two mil-spec connectors and two nuts. They float in the back of the car: that is to say: they don’t touch the carpet. So when you remove them, there’s no matted down carpet.

All in all, William and his shop did a fantastic job with the install. Here’s a few pics for now:

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The Hertz speaker is mounted to an aluminum adapter.

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Here it is mounted to the door.

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The GM LAN interface module and main power relay, along with the splice harness.

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The mil-spec connector for the amp. It’s a simple pull to disconnect.

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Just a few of the relays needed to allow the dual mode system to work seamlessly.

Unfair “Stack”s the odds for a dash display

Project Unfair won’t be using standard gauges. Instead, we are going to use the integrated dash display from Stack Systems. The Stack display has several advantages over traditional gauges:

  • It allows the dash to be completely visible through the steering wheel. No more disco head-bob to see the gauges hidden behind the wheel.
  • It’s programmable so that limits for each supported sensor can have alarms defined. Things like low oil pressure and too hot water temperature can turn on a light and then show the value of the sensor. When you’re on the track, you don’t have time to scan all your gauges to look for problems.
  • It allows fine-tuning of your fuel tank sensor, so you’ll know within the gallon of how much fuel is left in the tank.
  • It integrates with a data recorder so that data can be played back and analyzed later, along with data directly recorded such as sensor data for ride height, steering angle, and brake line pressure.
  • The data recorder will be integrated with the Holley Dominator ECU allowing analysis of nearly all the available sensors in the car at the same time using the amazing DataPro Analysis system. No more coming in after a few hot laps with some sort of vague driver “It felt a little weird” or “the car was turning in slowly”. With DataPro, we’ll be able to tell exactly how the car responds to changes in tuning, be it suspension, braking, or engine.
  • The wiring is dead simple. A single 19 circuit mil-spec connector provides all the connection needed.

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Check out all the available real estate on the dash when it’s all integrated into a single display. The gauges on the lower right are boost and lambda gauges. We’ll integrate their sensors into the data recorder as well, though the dash display doesn’t have direct support for them. We’ll put A/C vents in the space to the left and right of the display, and the traditional headlight and wiper switches on the lower left.

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Here’s a closer look at the display, gauges, and recorder. The single harness is all that is needed for all the traditional dash gauges: oil pressure, water temp, tach, speedometer, odometer, fuel level, oil temp, fuel pressure, and voltage level. It also supports display of lap times (we will be installing a lap time sensor).