Build thread

[speedjunkie]

For the past couple years, it seemed like I was having issues with low fuel pressure while driving, and at idle, it looks like my fuel pressure is hovering around 35psi. I realized last night that I have everything I need to verify this, so I used a 6AN male to 6AN male with a 1/8NPT port and an old pressure gauge from the FPR and hooked it directly to the side of the FPR. With fuel pressure applied, it was reading about 42-43psi, which is what it's supposed to be, and it read the same with the car running and FPR vacuum disconnected. But with the car idling, it's closer to 37psi. At least it matches up with what the laptop and OBDII are saying. It does drop to about 34psi while I'm cruising though, and I don't remember that being the case years ago. So I might still have an issue somewhere.

I've decided I'm going to cut off the excess material from the water pump housing, the parts that the air pump bolts to. I will likely never reinstall the air pump, so there isn't much sense in keeping it. And while I have it out, I'm going to smooth down the excess aluminum that was welded on around the coolant port bungs for the turbo, and swap in 45 degree fittings in place of the straight fittings in preparation for making the stainless coolant hard lines. And since I'll need to get it re coated, I'm going to powder coat in a more natural color, or possibly just clear coat it. And I'll do all the other black stuff in the engine bay. I thought black would be easier to keep clean, it is not. I'm also going to get any unused ports on the filler neck and water pump housing welded shut.

I've also decided to swap to a different IC, probably next winter, and change the way it's angled. I'll go to a thicker, shorter IC that flows 859CFM as opposed to my current 660CFM core, and I'll stand it up straight and use ducting to create a low pressure zone right in front of it. I've been mocking up cardboard to create the ducting for the VMIC. I will push it further back, partially so that the piping will be a bit shorter, but mostly so the ducting will be easier to run fully to the core. And I was thinking of running ducting from the back of the IC to the vents on the hood, but after doing some light reading about FEED venting, it looks like only the front duct pushes air out, while the rear duct draws air in due to the high pressure zone on the windshield. I was thinking about doing a duct from the hole I cut into the UIM up to the rear vent in the hood, but I guess that's out as well.

I noticed that the other side of the radiator is bulging as well. So I'm wondering if it is somehow pinched between the two sets of mounts. I don't see how, but I guess it's possible.

I drove the car to work today and the Torque app kept crashing as I got to work, but that only happened after I started listening to the radio as well, so maybe it's due to having another app open, I'm not sure.

When I started the car this morning it was running pretty rough, as it has the last few times I started it over the last few days. Then I realized the vacuum hose for the MAP sensor was still disconnected. It has started very easily though the last few days.

[speedjunkie]

Friday and that night the car started pretty easily, but Sunday it was having trouble again. But it would start after some convincing.

Last week it seemed like I was having boost issues. I drove it on Sunday to test boost and it seemed like it was operating normally. I was hitting 10psi in 1st, 15psi in 2nd, and about 19psi in 3rd and 4th. However, after sitting in a parking lot messing with my head unit, I tested 3rd and 4th again and only hit about 17psi. Also, sometimes it seemed like it was kinda slow rolling into 4th, but that might have been just starting boost from lower RPM instead of staying in boost from 3rd to 4th.

Torque is still crashing. It seems like it takes a while before it starts crashing, although it was doing it fairly early tonight when I was working on it. But that could have been because I didn't have the key all the way on, and that might be the trick. Maybe it's disconnecting instead of crashing, which could lead me to the cause.

-I verified that the Torque app is up to date.

-I tried to download the firmware update for the Joying head unit, and supposedly it downloaded, but the zip file won't extract for some reason so I can install it. I guess it doesn't matter too much since it seems the only change is unrelated to this issue. But you never know.

-I wondered if it could be due to using the Car Launcher app. I opened Torque in the original launcher that came installed on the HU but it worked on there too (it was working without issue on Car Launcher at this point). The only way to really test it is to take the car out I guess.

-It could be due to having the app autostart, because Car Launcher autostarts also. I disabled the autostart feature for Torque, but I enabled it again because I made some other changes within the Torque app and I'm going to see if those work first.

-It could be due to the OBD cable I'm using. There are other options I can try. This one is made specifically for ForScan, used on Ford vehicles, but it works fairly well while it's connected. It does say that it's 24v on Amazon, but I searched the reviews and they say it works for 12v also.

-I didn't notice any issues with the bluetooth dongle and my phone, but I did have issues with the bluetooth dongle and the head unit. And those issues were similar; it would disconnect, but it would rarely reconnect. And now it disconnects and crashes, but it usually reconnects. So that makes me wonder if the problem isn't with the head unit itself since I'm always having issues with it.

[speedjunkie]

I drove the car tonight to test the changes I made last night. None of them worked haha. I also changed the launcher back to the original Joying launcher from the Car Launcher app, and ran the Torque app through that. No changes. I switched back to Car Launcher and removed the autostart feature from the Torque app. It didn't keep it from disconnecting, and it would not reconnect until I moved out of the app. But once I reapplied the autostart feature, I didn't have any more issues with it on the way home. I still don't think it's fixed though, I'm not sure why it would be. I think it's due to the head unit itself. I might try another OBDII cable just in case.

I tried using AC tonight because I saw some indicators that it was leaking and it didn't work. So at least I don't have to get it reclaimed before I do work on it again. Although I had thought about fixing it and getting it charged again for this summer.

I found a PID for ambient air temp yesterday and added it to Torque, but it didn't look like it was working last night and I forgot to check tonight.

[speedjunkie]

Last night it was tough to cold start but hot started just fine. Today it started just fine cold and hot. I'm getting really tired of this issue haha.

I also changed a GPS setting on the Torque app, using an external GPS instead of the internal GPS, and I thought it might work but it didn't. Same issues. But it did work for a while last night. But I drove the car for a while this afternoon and nothing helped. So I'm still searching for the solution. And I'm getting really tired of this issue as well haha. If it only crashed every now and then I wouldn't care as much, but at times it does it continuously and is really annoying. I emailed Joying last week and they told me I should use the bluetooth adapter, even though I told them I had issues with that already. There is a native Torque app installed on the head unit but it's an older version, and the version installed currently is the same as on my phone, so it rules that out. Also, some of the gauges update very often, almost with no delay at all. Some update not quite as often but still quickly, and the temp gauges only update about every two seconds, if going by the blinking green dot on the gauge face.

[speedjunkie]

I did some logging last night to send to Joe, trying to fix what feels like a lean spot between 4-5k and mostly in 3rd gear. I also did some full boost logging. And I tried my phone connected via bluetooth to the OBDII dongle to see if it would disconnect like the stereo does. It did disconnect once out in Falcon and reconnected, but that was it. Although maybe I wasn't driving it long enough to happen more than once. Even by disconnecting once, it gives me hope that it's due to the app and not the head unit. The temp gauges updated about once per second instead of every two seconds like through the head unit, but supposedly that's due to having more gauges showing on the head unit. They say the more you have, the slower they update. But it's still only the temp gauges for some reason. I've tried a couple different custom ambient air temp PIDs and they haven't worked.

I'm going to start looking into the issue with front suspension squeaking over bumps, steering clunking, etc. And I might as well build the radiator ducting now since the refrigerant has leaked out, but I need to do it before it starts getting hot again so I can recharge the system for summer. Jason Kaiser gave me some input on ducting to make it the most efficient within my limitations.

I was looking at my old radiator and the sides of it are bowed out also, so I'm not sure what the cause is.

[speedjunkie]

I discovered my issue with the dash cam last night. I realized the 12v constant wire wasn't getting that power, so I traced it and realized I had the wire connected to the 12v coming after the circuit breaker that I always disconnect. I couldn't figure out why I did that, but then after I had the battery disconnected and I slid the seat all the way back, I remembered why lol. The camera is so sensitive that closing the door, sliding the seat all the way back or forward, etc will turn on the camera and lock the file because it thinks you were in an accident, and that's the lowest setting. So I had moved that wire to the switched fuse block, but I didn't realize or wasn't concerned with the camera not keeping correct time and date.

I drove it to work today to test the OBD apps again. I was using OBDLink and the app disconnected a couple times and eventually stopped reconnecting. I tried to switch back to Torque and it never connected after the initial time when I first started the car and disconnected so I could use OBDLink. I realized I might be able to connect directly to the ECU from the head unit, and if I can get the Haltech software to open on my head unit, I can just build a set of gauges on the software. On OBDLink, my oil pressure gauge didn't work so I guess I messed up something setting that up, the AFR was showing actual AFR I believe and it seems that Torque just shows commanded AFR, the boost and vacuum gauges are separate on OBDLink, and the temp gauges still read about the same speed as on Torque so I guess that must be an issue with something between the sensors to the ECU or OBD cable. Haltech is releasing an app, but it's only for the newer Nexus ECUs since they have wireless.

[speedjunkie]

I forgot to mention I was trying to track down all the different wires from the fuse blocks I installed next to the battery because I never kept track, mistakenly thinking I'd remember lol. I rediscovered that the relay by the gas pedal is for the dash backlighting. I just wanted to make note of that for when I forget later and I can search for it here haha.

I changed some settings on the head unit last night and the OBDLink app worked well on the way to work, but wouldn't even connect at lunch. I did get the oil pressure gauge working with help from the support at OBDLink. I made more changes tonight on the head unit and OBDLink app and now it won't even connect lol. I'm trying to make sure the adapter is updated but there is a bit of a learning curve.

The car has been starting really well lately, but I'm sure now it won't since I mentioned it lol.

[speedjunkie]

Well I'm an idiot haha. I fixed the disconnecting/crashing issue with the apps. There are three USB ports on the back of the Joying head unit. One is a cable with the port at the end, and the other two are directly on the back. Apparently Joying doesn't want you to use the one on the cable. I switched to another port and drove around for three hours today and neither of the apps disconnected or crashed. No issues whatsoever.

While I was driving I also was testing to see if water injection is still working. I'm still undecided after the last few days. It seems like the level is dropping sometimes, but not enough so it's hard to tell. I'm also not happy with just injecting while in boost, I want the cleaning effects more often and I'm not in boost enough. I already added more injection to the map in areas outside of boost, but I'm not sure I'm hitting them. So I added it to start at 4k RPM while in vacuum so I won't be using it on the freeway at steady speed and thus running out quickly, but if I'm at higher RPM off and on, it should be injecting then.

It was also harder to start again today, I'm guessing because the temps are colder. I'm so confused with all that.

I think I discovered the issue with my stock fuel system not working. I wired the power from the ECU relay to both the fuel pump relay and the fuel pump speed relay, when apparently it should only be going to the fuel pump speed relay. I don't really feel like going back to fix it, but I'm going to at some point, because the whole point of rewiring the relay box was for switching back so I can go back to the pump getting 9v at idle and 12v when it needs it. I'll still leave the newer fuel wiring too so I have a backup plan.