Edelbrock E-force Owner's thread and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by 86fun

I just did some logging and testing and found out that when the disconnect problem is happening (disconnect after a certain load point is reached on the engine for a certain amount of time) in ECUTek, I can plug in my OBDLink LX and it stays connected and real time indefinitely. I did this several times plugging them in back and forth and the ECUTek would always disconnect after applying a certain amount of engine load for a while, like seconds, not minutes. At least this tells me it's not the whole computer screwing up. This is 100% reproducible, I just press the throttle a bit, sometimes it takes more than other times, and I'm disconnected, even in neutral sometimes. Not sure what that says, but another data point.

Check your OBD2 connector. I've seen connectors on cars that are funky/sketchy.

[86fun]

Originally Posted by CSG Mike

Check your OBD2 connector. I've seen connectors on cars that are funky/sketchy.

Yea, I can believe it, the connector is really funky! But I am able to get ECUTek to disconnect just sitting there and pressing the throttle, no movement of the connector or cable at all. When the issue is not happening I can amazingly mess with the connector and plug a lot and it will stay connected. I do hate that connector though, feels really flimsy!

[j123ic]

Originally Posted by 86fun

.
I'm not a shop, I just use home made tools. Making smoke is not rocket science. I'm not using a lot of pressure, didn't want to pop anything, but I could hook up some compressed air to it, that's a thought..


.


The thing is, if it's only leaking sometimes, then I'd have to test it under those conditions, which would be a bit difficult to accomplish.
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I guess I'm just going to pull the kit, and if I don't find anything it must be defective. Seems logical.

Making smoke in your situation may be a little more complex than you think. Diagnosing leaks of this nature requires a special type of smoke that can be seen with ultra violet light. Smoke machines such as the OTC leak tamer can be expensive.

I will assume this is out of reach for you, so I would strongly suggest just removing the supercharger and inspecting the factory "orange" o-ring seals. It is very common for these to become damaged even on stock manifolds especially if you re-used the old ones.

If you want, you could even vacuum check the supercharger when it's out of the car. Block off all ports (runners, throttle body, nosedrive fittings) and hook up a simple handheld vacuum pump to see if it will hold vacuum.

Lastly, the most probable reason why your seeing this randomly is because of the dynamic loads being placed on the leak. If it was the intake gasket, the edge of the gasket can be folding over during accel or decal etc. and your not having any luck finding the leak because your testing is with the engine off. If I were you I would just get it over with and remove the supercharger and inspect the gaskets. At the very worse you'll waste 2 hours if you have help. Good luck

[86fun]

Originally Posted by j123ic

Making smoke in your situation may be a little more complex than you think. Diagnosing leaks of this nature requires a special type of smoke that can be seen with ultra violet light. Smoke machines such as the OTC leak tamer can be expensive.

I will assume this is out of reach for you, so I would strongly suggest just removing the supercharger and inspecting the factory "orange" o-ring seals. It is very common for these to become damaged even on stock manifolds especially if you re-used the old ones.

If you want, you could even vacuum check the supercharger when it's out of the car. Block off all ports (runners, throttle body, nosedrive fittings) and hook up a simple handheld vacuum pump to see if it will hold vacuum.

Lastly, the most probable reason why your seeing this randomly is because of the dynamic loads being placed on the leak. If it was the intake gasket, the edge of the gasket can be folding over during accel or decal etc. and your not having any luck finding the leak because your testing is with the engine off. If I were you I would just get it over with and remove the supercharger and inspect the gaskets. At the very worse you'll waste 2 hours if you have help. Good luck

Yep, I think this is the reality of the situation. Tomorrow I'll go pickup some more coolant to do the job. Thanks for all the input guys, it's been a rough ride trying to figure this one out.

[j123ic]

Please also check the square injector o-rings. These also have a tendency to leak with higher vacuum or pressure yet hold at atmosphere. I would also suggest temporarily using distilled water if you plan on re-installing the blower. This will make things less messy and you can eaily flush it out with coolant later by removing the lower hose on the surge tank.

Also double check your evap hose to the supercharger. This is directional with the solenoid with flow indicated on its body with an arrow. This is also a common error when hooked up backwards and may cause fueling issues during purge activation.

[86fun]

Looks like I may have found what the problem is, but I will believe it when I have fixed it and it's running right. The gasket still had some thickness to it and would have sealed pretty tight still, but I do really hope this is what the problem was.


On step 102 they have you "position the supercharger forward", this is so you can better access the coolant hoses to the intercooler at the rear of the manifold. Later on step 112 they have you "realign the supercharger to the cylinder heads". Then you bolt it down.


The edges of the cylinder heads are razor sharp, very literally. If during the install of the intercooler coolant hoses, the manifold happens to slide, even just 1-2mm, it will slice the gasket as you see in my pics. Those hoses are in such a tight spot it's very likely you're going to move the manifold in the process. Another possibility is if you don't completely lift the manifold off the cylinder heads when you move it around the same thing will happen.


My lesson here is to avoid having the manifold in contact with the cylinder heads until it gets bolted down, or install the gaskets after you're ready to both it down, then the gasket won't get damaged. You don't even need to move the supercharger forward to put the coolant hoses on, I both installed and removed them fine with the manifold bolted down.


I'm assuming the damage was done during install because I could not find the gasket pieces which were missing, and the valves were closed.


I will get this fixed this week and let you know if that was indeed the problem. Fingers crossed, I don't want to take this thing apart again.


I'm not surprised the smoke test did not find this, because the gasket still has 2-3mm of sealing surface, and would have been quite tight.


If this was the problem I could have gotten to the source a lot faster if someone would have recognized that the fuel trims were good indicators of a leak, another good lesson learned!


Another way to put all this is it looks like I might have F--ED UP! At that point I will bend over and take the public humiliation like a man

[j123ic]

Thanks for the update. I hope that you share this information with the Edelbrock calibration engineer assisting you so that they can document this problem. I'm sure they will make an effort to revise the instructions to stress the importance of not damaging the gaskets.

What you have shown in the image is clearly more than enough to cause fuel trim issues. As a matter of fact, I've seen smaller tears cause issues. Next time the blower goes in. Zip tie all the harness on top of the engine away as much as possible and use micro fiber rags all around the flanges to prevent tears.(unclip the harness at the rear passenger bracket next to the big main engine harness connector). I say this because the tear you've shown is closest to that connector and I bet the convolute or zip tie shredded that gasket. Also liberally apply some silicone lube to the gaskets if you have some. Although moving the supercharger forward to install the rear clamps is recommended, it's not necessary. If you have a good set of tools and mechanical skill, you can get in there without causing damage to the parts on the firewall. Good luck and keep us posted when your back up and running!

[86fun]

Yep, good advice. I remain skeptical because of the ECUTek software disconnecting issue, which I can't imagine is related to the gasket problem in anyway, but we will see.

[CSG Mike]

I've never seen the gasket get damaged like that from just "sliding the manifold forward". CSG wiggles the manifold around during the install to verify a full contact of the gasket, and hasn't had issues like this. I also know they have extra gaskets around in case they need to be replaced, or the customer wants it replaced anyways.

Regardless, the damage is obvious; hopefully this solves your issue.

[djdnz]

@86fun

Thanks for the update. We definitely had the most trouble with that step of the install, so it's quite possible I did the same thing to my gasket. I'll pull the S/C off next weekend and check mine. How long did the disassembly take?

Part number for the gasket looks to be 14035.

[86fun]

Originally Posted by djdnz

@86fun

Thanks for the update. We definitely had the most trouble with that step of the install, so it's quite possible I did the same thing to my gasket. I'll pull the S/C off next weekend and check mine. How long did the disassembly take?

Part number for the gasket looks to be 14035.

Not long to remove, 1.5-2hrs at most, I should have just done it at the beginning. The thing was before I bolted it down I checked both with my finger and a purposely made inspection mirror and it all looked and felt great all around. I was worried about the gasket falling out so I was particularly careful with this step.


I think it was the very last alignment to the bolt holes that swiped the gasket over the razor sharp intake port edge and cut a part of the gasket off. That's how I missed it. You can see in my pics the horizontal cut marks clearly. Extremely easy to do, and the instructions almost lead you, inadvertently, to do it. My suggestion is to just lay the manifold down directly over the holes and don't let it slide around at all, then just bolt it down. There is no need to move it to connect the intercooler coolant hoses, you can get them on with a couple very long extended needle nose pliers from both sides.

[SarcastaBall]

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread for people who have long-term Edelbrock installs.

I'm attracted to the powertrain, but also to their warranty. There's a lot caveats in the small print (can't use less than 91 octane, miss service changes, use sticky tires, get a custom tune, or track it) that void their warranty. But as I'd be daily driving the SCed FR-S, I hope it would all hold up well.

Hopefully they've done some R&D to determine how sturdy the stock drivetrain is, and it won't explode.

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by SarcastaBall

I'm going to keep an eye on this thread for people who have long-term Edelbrock installs.

I'm attracted to the powertrain, but also to their warranty. There's a lot caveats in the small print (can't use less than 91 octane, miss service changes, use sticky tires, get a custom tune, or track it) that void their warranty. But as I'd be daily driving the SCed FR-S, I hope it would all hold up well.

Hopefully they've done some R&D to determine how sturdy the stock drivetrain is, and it won't explode.

What would you like to know?

Outside of @Edelbrock LLC themselves, I'd venture CSG has the most experience with the kit, and a large pool of customers that are constantly updating us about their experience (with both us and the kit).

[86fun]

Originally Posted by 86fun

Looks like I may have found what the problem is, but I will believe it when I have fixed it and it's running right. The gasket still had some thickness to it and would have sealed pretty tight still, but I do really hope this is what the problem was.


On step 102 they have you "position the supercharger forward", this is so you can better access the coolant hoses to the intercooler at the rear of the manifold. Later on step 112 they have you "realign the supercharger to the cylinder heads". Then you bolt it down.


The edges of the cylinder heads are razor sharp, very literally. If during the install of the intercooler coolant hoses, the manifold happens to slide, even just 1-2mm, it will slice the gasket as you see in my pics. Those hoses are in such a tight spot it's very likely you're going to move the manifold in the process. Another possibility is if you don't completely lift the manifold off the cylinder heads when you move it around the same thing will happen.


My lesson here is to avoid having the manifold in contact with the cylinder heads until it gets bolted down, or install the gaskets after you're ready to both it down, then the gasket won't get damaged. You don't even need to move the supercharger forward to put the coolant hoses on, I both installed and removed them fine with the manifold bolted down.


I'm assuming the damage was done during install because I could not find the gasket pieces which were missing, and the valves were closed.


I will get this fixed this week and let you know if that was indeed the problem. Fingers crossed, I don't want to take this thing apart again.


I'm not surprised the smoke test did not find this, because the gasket still has 2-3mm of sealing surface, and would have been quite tight.


If this was the problem I could have gotten to the source a lot faster if someone would have recognized that the fuel trims were good indicators of a leak, another good lesson learned!


Another way to put all this is it looks like I might have F--ED UP! At that point I will bend over and take the public humiliation like a man

Finished reinstalling the SC with two new gaskets. This time I put the SC in place first and then installed the gaskets afterward and I only set the SC down in perfect alignment with the corresponding bolt holes in the head after the gaskets were in, no chance of damage.


It was all pretty quick, just bleeding the IC coolant takes some time.


I reflashed the ECU back to the original CARB tune provided, cleared DTCs/etc.


Took a drive.... and..... still has the problem, so far it seems just as prominent as before the gasket was fixed. I kind of figured this might not help because the damaged gasket still had quite a bit of height to it, despite what the pics look like, it would have been clamped down really well. I guess my suspicion was correct... so much for that hope.


I guess I won't be bending over for that beating after all....


I'll go out in a bit and do some more logging. Maybe the problem is related to the ECUTek disconnects, who knows... I'm really tired of this whole thing right now.