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Dan's 2.9L Turbo Build

20K views 42 replies 13 participants last post by  t-bone 
#1 ·
Here is my build. I'm already done technically, but when is any build actually done?

I'll start with the interior swap. I went from a manual door locks, manual windows and that ugly pewter dash color to black powered. I followed fuzzkill's "how to: Adding FACTORY power windows/locks/mirrors"

I had to run wires from one door to the other and the wiring diagrams provided from the how to made it much easier. When it was all said and done it took me about 2 day to finish everything up. The only thing I was not able to wire up was the BCM for the wireless door fob.

It was awesome just using the switch and the passenger window came down.

Plus it looks 10x better
 

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#2 ·
Since I can't leave well enough and I went and added sound deadening from RAAMaudio. I had a few upgrades done to the sound system so I wanted to go the extra length. Plus with the turbo going in I was going to be adding some more engine and road noise.

RAAMaudio has great how to instructions. I added the RAAMmat to the outside door shell to add mass. Then the Ensolite on top of the mat. Once the outer shell was done I cut some sheet metal to stiffen up and seal the inner door shell. I added a full layer of matt then the Ensolite on top of that.

I pulled the carpet out washed it and added the RAAMmat to the floor and focused on the passenger side where the exhaust is run.

Then I focused on the back wall. This was by far the most time consuming part of the project and the most rewarding. If your going to do any sound deadening the back wall is the place to start. The first layer of mat was hard to get pressed into each nook and cranny. Then the second layer of Ensolite was much easier since it flexes and is more pliable.

When I put it back together, the bass and midrange were greatly improved. The ambient road noise was reduced too. The whole project was about $250 since I bought enough material to do 2 trucks.

I don't have all the picture right now but here are the fully sealed doors.
 

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#3 ·
I agree adding sound insulator to the back wall is huge.
I used a product called Lizardskin. 2 coatings 1 ceramic heat, the other a noise insulator. when I do a power door upgrade I will spray the inside of the doors as well.
But I hadn't thought of the inner door panel. that's a great idea.

Love the project.
 

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#5 ·
I did the firewall, floor, and back wall with Lizard skin. my commute went from 84db peak and 81 mean. To 84 peak (same loud pedal) to a mean of 74. basically I can now hear my radio on its lower settings. and the heat into the cab is gone. (kinda miss it now that it is winter). I will do the roof next time the headliner is out. (cage or overhead console project) and doors when I upgrade to power. outer firewall next time the engine bay is empty. and maybe even under the cab next time it is off. the stuff is so easy to spray and super light.
 
#9 ·
oh 1 more thing how hard was the dashpad to pull in the truck I always yanked the whole thing out as a unit. I can do that in about 45 minutes now (done it 4 or 5 times I think) BTW I love the black dash. you got me thinking about that now too.
 
#11 ·
The dashpad wasn't too bad. Since it was the first time I ever pulled a dash it probably took me longer than it should have. It total I think it was held on by 10 or 12 bolts.

Just find yourself a part out truck, the dashs are all the same.

Is that an OE black dash, or did you paint it?
I got an OE dash from a part out truck along with the door trim and power accessories.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Now that is how an interior should be done!
Is that an OE black dash, or did you paint it?

I agree also about the rear wall. Just the fact that it's one big expanse of flat sheet-metal tells you so.
The roof is really important for the same reason.
Also, a lot of wind-noise comes through the roof panel at highway speed.

On my '05 crew I used a mat of ordinary pink fiberglass wrapped in a sheet of plastic drop-cloth placed between the headliner and the roof.
Even if I were applying LizardSkin I'd probably want fiberglass in there also.

I know that LizardSkin, Deadbeat, and Dynamat are made for automotive use, but I think fiberglass insulation is probably better at both sound insulation and heat insulation in summer.

Ford did a lot of focused research about 20 years ago into noise/vibration/harshness and they concluded that nothing beats ordinary fiberglass insulation.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Alright I'm going to post a few photos at a time and work through the whole build slowly bc I'm having trouble losing my write up half way through.

With out further ado. Here is my 2.9L build

So my old engine would burn through about a quart of oil every month. After pulling the valve cover and realizing how much a pain it would be to replace the valve seals, I went out and found a newer engine that had 8,000 miles on it. At least that's what they guy who sold it to me said. I picked it up for about $750 and brought it home. As you can see a little dust had accumulated on it.

Once I cleaned it up I started tearing it down to port and polish the head. I pulled the oil pan and front cover to get to the timing chain. It was much easier to do while on the engine stand. When I got into it there was very little wear which means I got a killer deal on this engine!

Now it was time to start porting and polishing!

*NO CFM numbers. I only did common sense changes and there were a lot of them.*

If you want to see the whole build check out my (Daniel Sudol) facebook album Colorado 2.9. There are a lot more pictures than Ill post on here and I have almost all of them up there.
 

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#15 · (Edited)
Porting and polishing time!

I followed Jafromobile YouTube video on how to port and polish. I think I watched the whole thing like 10 times.
https://youtu.be/iejDWSQEsqI

I bought the Summit Racing® 3-Piece Non-Ferrous Deburr Kit to take out the majority of the material that I thought needed to be removed.

To hold the bits so they didn't jump around I made a glove. It made my time grinding much easier.

In total I spent the majority of my time on the exhaust ports. There was a lump of aluminum right behind the valve seat. That was the first thing to get rid of and smooth out. I also knifed where the ports come together and gasket matched the ports. As you can see there was a lot of material to remove.

On the intake side I just knifed the bridge and smoothed out the transition from port to bowl and valve seat.

The rest of the work I did with sanding rolls and polishing compound. I used 80,120,220 grit sanding rolls to smooth out the rough finish. Then I moved to some scotch bright wheels that had grits of 80, 120, 220, 320 grit. Once I had smoothed out the ports to near perfection I went an extra step and polished them to a near mirror finish with black emery.

Once I finished the ports I repeated the process on the combustion chamber. I knocked down the sharp edges and tried to get as much of the surface porosity out that I could. Then I polished the combustion chamber to a mirror finish.

Once all of that was completed I sent the head off to the local machine shop to get decked and a three angle valve job.

Best looking piece of aluminum I've ever seen if I do say so myself.
 

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#19 ·
Wow is a understatement. very impressive. wonder if there is room for bigger valves? and who can custom cut a set of cams?

I love this little 4 popper, weight, size, etc.
But I don't love how hard speed parts are to find.

my 04-3 build has a 5.7 aluminum ls1 sitting in the background but I may put it in the Jetfire instead. and seeing the flexability in the head as far as porting goes im really thinking about keeping the 2.8.

I like the narrow width of the I motors. this width may allow me to push the engine into the interior and significantly rear bias the weight of the truck. that LS will not fit in the cab with me.

I already have plans to put the corvette transaxle set up in the truck. (Jetfire has to be running first)

I hate that I don't have enough me to work on the Mistresses.

Excellent work on that head.
How much boost are you thinking of pushing?
Any idea how thin the port walls are now?
 
#21 ·
Wow is a understatement. very impressive. wonder if there is room for bigger valves? and who can custom cut a set of cams?

I love this little 4 popper, weight, size, etc.
But I don't love how hard speed parts are to find.

Excellent work on that head.
How much boost are you thinking of pushing?
Any idea how thin the port walls are now?
I know at some point a shop in Cali was making +1mm over sized intake and exhaust valves. When I called them they were out of business or change numbers.

I've also read on here that someone had a small batch of blank cams made up. They weren't cheap. I'm not sure they are even available anymore.

Ill post my numbers in a little while :naughty:

No idea on how thin the port walls are exactly. When I was in there it looked like I could go bigger if I really wanted to. There are a few posts about the bottom side of the exhaust runners sagging when a lot of power is thrown at it. People were drilling and taping the area with bolts to stiffen it up.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Here we go folks

So a while back I bought a turbo set up from vallejo8288 that was originally created by LLV.MA5. In all honesty it was a spur of the moment buy because I knew turbo kits are hard to find for this truck and I needed a place to start.

Since I had a engine in the garage I went about improving the set up I already had. I bolted the turbo, manifold and down pipe to the engine I had on the stand to see if I could add support for the turbo. You can see in one of the pictures behind the engine mount there is a steel plate. I welded up a support to the turbo flange from that location and it worked out perfect. (Ill have to get a better picture of it later)

Since I wanted a daily driver and had the manifold and down pipe in my hands I decided to add heat wrap. I soaked the heat wrap in water and applied it to the pipes. The down pipe was a piece of cake but the manifold took some patience. Once I had the wrap in place I secured it with metal zip ties and cooked it in the oven so that I could spray the silicone sealer on it sooner.

Installing the engine was trickier than I expected. I had to remove an engine mount to allow it to sit in properly. I also installed the transmission along with the engine which made everything a little tighter.

Plumbing the turbo was another big hurtle. LLV.MA5 had installed the intercooler behind the grill where the center bracket for the core support was. This made the grill and core support too flexible for my liking so I relocated it a little lower. With my SS bumper it looks like it belongs there.

Once the engine and turbo was in it was time for a test drive! As you would expect the truck didn't run quite right. As soon as it got into boost the truck would go into limp mode. It also ran so fat that I was shooting raw fuel out of the tail pipe lol (bigger injectors).

All that was left was to get it tuned.
 

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#25 · (Edited)
It's good to see one of Jake's turbo kits getting use. An easy way to mount the core support is backwards and behind its bottom mount, and then you can mount the intercooler in front of it and it fits nicely. Then all you need is a longer bolt for the top. That's what I did at least.
 
#27 ·
That's exactly what I ended up doing. Much better that way.

It's looking really good I like how u put the intercooler in the bumper I want 2 do the same thing once I start working on mine
I would suggest a wider intercooler that the one I got because there is a lot of room and wind to be had down there. I plan on upgrading mine eventually
 
#32 ·
Yeah eventually. The truck has a long way to before it's ready for the track. I was thinking about trying autocross too.

t-bone said:
@Sudol94 r u using ur stock fuel jump

I have a pic of it on my Instagram fuenteztom
Yeah the stock fuel pump is holding up just fine. I did replaced my original one because of rust. The fuel tank is a bad design because it holds any rain water on the pump it self.
 
#33 · (Edited)
Alright this I my third time trying to post this.

My hope for this truck as a daily driver was to hit 300hp and still have decent gas mileage (20+mpg)

I took my truck to The Performance Factory here in Concord NC. They put it on the dyno and did three pulls with the truck after working on the base tune. As the pictures show the torque comes in early and flat lines across the rpm range.

I boosted to 6.5psi and it came in about 2800 rpm.

Its best run hit 293 ft-lb and 294 Hp.

The day I got it tuned it was 90 degrees and high humidity. So on a cold day I could easily hit my desired #s.

The first tank of gas I got about 18 mpg because you can get a new toy with out playing with it :D
When I was commuting I would get about 24mpg
 

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