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speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 9:14

I inch ever closer to having the car done, but always hit walls.

Last night I put the seats back in, made some brackets for mounting the condenser (and then decided to try something different), looked at what I need to do with the intake pipe to make it work with the AC lines, dropped off the back part of the gauge cluster and the ribbon to Al so he could solder them together.

Today Al soldered the stuff, so I picked it up from him after work. I also put the gauges back together and started putting them back in the car and I'm having a really tough time getting everything to fit behind the gauges, with the speedo board and all the extra wires back there. I also noticed that my idiot lights are a little messed up so I have to pull them back apart anyway. Ugh. I also picked up a 3" 90 degree pipe, a reducer coupler and clamp from Frozen Boost to replace the intake pipe, along with different mounts for the condenser. I was going to mess with mounting the condenser tonight but I ran out of time.

Tomorrow night I plan to fix the issues with the gauges and get them back in and complete the interior, then I'm going to skip putting the condenser in for now and just put the engine bay back together so I can drive the car. After this weekend I'll pull the engine bay apart again to put the condenser in and see if I can get AC lines made.

EDIT: I forgot to mention last night when I typed this out, I'm concerned that going to a smaller intake pipe (3" as opposed to 3.5" like what I have now) will choke the turbo since it's inlet is 3.5". I don't figure .5" is that big of a deal but who knows. I'd rather stick with 3.5" pipe but it hits the IC and the AC lines. I'm pretty sure the 3" pipe would be able to clear all that.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 9:14

OK the car is all back together now.

I got the dimmer switch from Speedhut that they failed to send me with the gauges. They didn't input my current mileage into the odometer either. They're slacking these days. Oh well. I can live with the mileage thing. Anyway, I hooked up the dimmer switch to see if I could get the gauges any brighter with the lights on, they're pretty dim. No luck. Al said we could make a step-up transformer so the gauges can be brighter, but we'll see about that lol. Sounds like A LOT of work lol.

I put the gauges all back together and in the car. I had a hard time getting the cluster in all the way last night, and I think it might have had something to do with the speedo circuit board taking up extra space, but I resolved that tonight by shoving it between the cluster and gauge hood. Worked like a champ. I still had the cluster in and out of the car several times tonight. The last of which because I had the SPA gauges hooked up backwards, with the oil/oil wires hooked up to the fuel/water gauge and vice versa. Other than that, I had issues with the airbag light going off, and the beeper for it going off. I ended up disconnecting the harnesses to the airbag computer and just jumped the wire for the horn. Actually I forgot to check the horn, I'll do that in a minute haha.

I put the IC back into the engine bay and figured out a way to use the current intake pipe, so it should work just fine without doing a new one. I didn't reinstall the ducting because in a couple weeks I plan to install the condenser and take the car to Craig Auto for them to make a couple AC lines for me.

I've only had a few hours of sleep over the last few nights so I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, and I need to go to bed. So if I remember more I'll finish this tomorrow.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 9:14

I tested the cruise control on the way back from the Super Cruise last night and it didn't work. I think maybe I have to ground the speedo board or something. Also, it doesn't look like my tach is getting a signal because it doesn't move at all. I have to choose the right setting for pulses per revolution, but I figure even if that's wrong it should still show SOME movement. And I have to set my fuel gauge still. I tried the closest ohm setting for the stock float but it wasn't accurate, so I'm setting full and empty manually, but the gauge is reading really funny. Like after driving a long ways it will sometimes show less than full but then go back to full, then down a little, and back to full, etc. Weird.

After payday I think I'll mount the condenser and take it in to Craig Auto to get the lines made. I'm also going to have Kevin put the window tint on for me, and check on some kind of film that goes on the windshield and keeps the temps about 20% cooler. I was roasting in the car this weekend and on Friday.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Mon Sep 09, 2013 9:14

so on the way back you were averaging about 5 under the speed limit.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Mon Sep 09, 2013 9:14

Yeah I know. I wanted to do the speed limit but it seemed like whoever was right behind me was trying to go slower and I didn't want to leave everyone, so I just stayed around that speed. Today I checked my speed against one of the radars they have on the side of the road and it's spot on. I figured it was, it's controlled by GPS lol. But if you're suggesting that's due to cruise control, it didn't even take over so I didn't use it.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 9:14

not suggesting that cc was the cause, lol. just was wondering why you were going so slow haha.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Tue Sep 10, 2013 9:14

Oh OK lol. Yeah that's why. I wanted to go faster, especially since I had my radar detector and COULD go faster, but I didn't want to lose anyone either, just in case one of us broke down or something. Every time I sped up it seemed like the person right behind me (possibly Andy, I'm not sure) didn't speed up with me, so I just stayed around 70.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 9:14

I came home for lunch today and worked on the tach issue. I grounded a wire on the cluster harness and it worked. What's weird is it's already a ground, so I'm not sure how it worked, but it did. I also tried a fix for the cruise control too, grounding the speedo circuit board, but that didn't work. I'm giving up on cruise control for now.

And here is how the gauges came out.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 9:14

I decided to tackle the fuel gauge issue tonight. More specifically, setting the Full and Empty on the fuel gauge. I've already tried choosing one of the ohms options but the closest one wasn't close enough, so I decided to manually do it. That doesn't seem to be working very well either, but I'm gonna have to burn some fuel out of the car to see for sure. Or drain some again.

This afternoon I put a hose on the feed line out of the in-tank pump and used the pump to empty the tank, then added about five gallons back in and set the empty on the gauge, although I did it a few more times. Then I drove it to the gas station and set the empty again just to be sure, left the key on (I have no reason to think this would make a difference but I figured I'd give it a shot), filled the car up and set the full, and now the full drops a little from where it actually says full, so I'm not sure if it's working yet or not.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:14

Fuel gauge still doesn't read correctly, and after some searching I've seen this is a common problem with their fuel gauges. So I'm going to call them and see if they can help me.

Also, the car practically won't even start now when it's hot, and it's having problems starting even when it's cold, so I'll be troubleshooting that and hopefully get it figured out before SevenStock in Nov.

JTurton7 · Postby **JTurton7** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:14

are you running the adaptronic now?

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:14

Not yet. I'm gonna put it in tomorrow I think though.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:14

I did a cold and hot compression test tonight, but I don't think my tester is any good. I got around 40-50psi on both the cold and hot compression tests, but the car started and I don't think it would even run if it was that low on compression.

When I took the plugs out, THAT is when I noticed a problem. And I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it before. I don't remember when I put these plugs in but they were toast! Here are the pics...
Front Trailing...

Front Leading...

Rear Trailing...

Rear Leading...

As you can probably tell, the front leading was the worst one. All of them were worn down to a point but that one was worn down about half way. After I swapped the new plugs in, I didn't have as much of a problem starting it, albeit it wasn't as easy as it should have been.

I started it again after it was warm, after warming it up for the hot compression test, and as when it was cold, it started, but still not a normal startup. So after that I swapped in a different leading coil, but there wasn't any noticeable change.

That's all I did for the night. I will continue to check and try other things. And I'll probably put the Adaptronic in some night this week, since I haven't yet.

Brigdh · Postby **Brigdh** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:14

Did you compensate for cranking RPM and altitude when you did the compression test? What kind of tester are you using?

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:14

I'm getting around 260rpm while cranking but what is the altitude compensation? I'm using a Harbor Freight piston tester lol. I've never had good luck with them.

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