Build thread

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speedjunkie
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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Fri Jun 12, 2020 9:14

Good news! I drove the car tonight without the water injection pump relay and I didn't have the rattling noise. So good to finally know what it was. Now I just hope the problem was the relay itself and not something with the ECU not feeding it enough power.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Tue Jun 16, 2020 9:14

I got the relays in the mail today but haven't tried one yet, due to being busy with the AC system.

I reinstalled the AC system and have been pulling a vacuum on it for the last few hours. I'm letting it hold vacuum for a bit right now to see how it does. I'll pull another vacuum tomorrow night and charge it if it's good. Hopefully I can have working AC again by tomorrow night.

Sunday night I went on a last minute drive with some of the guys and on Garden of the Gods road I hit a dip so bad that the front of the car slammed into the ground and the driver's front wheel hit the frame. We heard a rattling sound right after that but it was only while the radiator fans were on. I discovered today that one of the tabs that hold the fan frame at the bottom of the radiator had bent back, compressing the frame and contacting the fan blades. It wasn't making that much contact, but enough to make a noise. I removed the fans and bent that back, and thought that was the extent of the damage. Well, the oil pan bottomed out too, because one of the drain plugs is ground off too. I just replaced those damn oil plugs not long ago, I'm getting tired of this shit. And those tabs on the radiator have scraped several times, I just bent them back last week actually. I guess I'm gonna have to raise the front of the radiator, but I don't know what I'm going to do about the oil pan.
Image20200616_122943 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
Image20200616_122949 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
Image20200616_123356 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
Image20200616_143516 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

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speedjunkie
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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Wed Jun 17, 2020 9:14

I pulled another vacuum on the AC for a couple hours tonight, and after I shut it off and closed the valves, it held for about an hour. I started charging and realized I forgot to see if I still had the issue with it coming on right away. I disconnected the connector to the pressure switch and the clutch didn't engage, HOORAY!

Well, that excitement may have been premature. I got pretty much the whole first can in and turned on the car and the AC. The clutch didn't engage. Weeellllll shit. I hooked up the laptop and loaded an older map and it didn't change anything. I still need to run power straight to the clutch to see if that works. I'm going to contact the company and see if they tested it before shipping it out.

I also tested the water injection and it the pump did work, but the relay was clicking really fast again too, so until I drive it again I'm still not sure if it's fixed.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Thu Jun 18, 2020 9:14

I asked the company if they tested the compressor before shipping it out and they said they did. I jumped 12v straight to the harness that goes to the compressor and it didn't work. I removed the harness and did a continuity check and it was good. That left one thing, aside from maybe the clutch.
Image20200618_185518 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I pulled it off and pulled the one off my old compressor and they were a little different, so I figured that might be the cause. You might be able to see in the pic that the one on the right (that's the one that came on the rebuilt one) isn't touching the post like the one on the left that I removed off the old compressor.
Image20200618_194040 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I also pulled the switch off another compressor I had in the garage and it was like my old one. I think I installed my old switch on the compressor, because I wanted to see if I have the same problem I was having before with the compressor just coming on when the car turns on, but I haven't tested it yet. I charged the system with another can of refrigerant, but it didn't get near as cold as it did before, and my gauges weren't reading right again. I'm not sure what's going on. The air blows cold, but not even close to as cold as it has in the past. Although that's with the car sitting still with a lot of heat in the garage, so maybe it'll blow cold when I'm driving. I'm going to take it out tomorrow night to test the AC and water injection. If they're both working I might still make the trip to Albuquerque Saturday.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:14

Water injection still isn't working, the relay is still clicking like crazy. I've installed a new relay, no luck. I've checked all the wiring except for the one from the relay to the pump, but it's working part of the time and spraying water so I don't think it would be due to that. I can't imagine settings in the ECU changed, but I can't think of what else it could be.

On the way to Albuquerque I had some issues with the blower for HVAC. Speed 1 seemed like it didn't work at all, and sometimes none of the fan speeds worked. The AC worked pretty good as long as I was on the interstate. As soon as I was cruising through town or stopped at a light, the temps coming out went up to about 70F. It was weird though, on the way down there I turned the AC on for a couple minutes, then turned it off and the air blew as cold or sometimes colder for the next hour, even with the AC off. It was still fairly cool outside, but still. Asking guys in one of the RX-7 facebook groups, I thought it might be due to the new fans, that they didn't pull enough air. But they said I overcharged and the compressor isn't compressing the refrigerant and sending it to the condenser.

The meet in Albuquerque was awesome. We had a really good turnout. There were six FDs (one was RHD brought back from Japan by the owner and one was there for work), six FCs (one Collyn brought down from Berthoud, CO), four FBs, three REPUs, a Cosmo that the owner brought back from Okinawa, and an RX-2. And some other cars that showed up too, a Mk3 Supra, a Lexus SC400(?), an S14, a couple Civics, and a Subaru Legacy.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:14

I've been messing with the AC the last couple days but now it's not cooling at all. I asked another buddy and he said because I didn't flush the compressor before using it, the oil that was in there didn't mix well with the ester oil and caused the compressor to fail again. I did drain the oil out, but I didn't flush it. However, I'm not sure what kind of oil it was. It's an R12 compressor so I was assuming it was whatever oil R12 uses, but it could have been just some oil to keep the inside lubed until use. Ester oil is good with PAG and mineral oil, so if it was one of those it shouldn't be an issue. The failed pump could also be due to overcharging I guess. I doubted it was failed, but I just tried spinning it and it spins WAY too freely. I'm still going to disconnect the lines and see if it chugs as I turn it. If that one has failed already, I might just give up on AC. I'm so sick of dealing with this shit. I really want AC but it's being a real nightmare this time around.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Tue Jun 30, 2020 9:14

I drove the car for a couple hours Saturday to see if I could get it to make the knocking noise again, and it took a couple hours but it did start doing it. I was out at Helen Hunt Falls at the time so I just reached up and felt the fuel lines and it felt like they would vibrate along with the noise, but I'm still not sure how exactly it's causing it. Of course by the time I got back home it wasn't making the noise anymore, and even after letting the car run for another 30 minutes it still didn't. I put it up and looked underneath and found a couple more things, but I'm still doubtful either were the cause.

This one was free to move, wrapped it in F4 tape and secured it.
Image2020-06-30_09-31-04 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

And this fuel line was contacting the diff mount, but I pushed it back.
Image2020-06-30_09-31-32 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I still don't think it was either of these though because it sounds more like something hanging off the driveshaft and hitting something as it's spinning, but that's not possible because it happens when it's sitting still.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y42mjYzrePM

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Sun Jul 05, 2020 9:14

I was troubleshooting the water injection issue throughout the weekend and then Chris told me I had to change something in the map, so I changed that and it's still not working, but at least the relay isn't clicking anymore. I put the injector through one of the vents in the hood and angled it to spray right onto the windshield and I got nothing. I bought a new injector from Holley, hopefully that works. At this point I can't think of what else it could be. I jumped the injector a couple days ago and it just clicked once instead of constantly, so I'm wondering if that's it.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:14

I installed the new injector tonight and I'm still getting nothing, and now not even the pump is working. I'm not even getting water supplied to the injector. I'm getting really sick of this shit.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:14

I did some more troubleshooting just now, to see why it wasn't even turning the pump on. I tried to start the car and had no fuel pressure. I looked at my map and all the gauges that read at the bottom of the map were blinking red. I had that issue last night after I changed some settings in the map and loaded it to the car, shutting the car down. It normally shuts down when a new map is loaded so I didn't think anything of that, but I had never noticed the gauges flashing red before. I tried installing the same map and had the same issue, but I installed another map and it was working again.

After starting the car, the relay for the pump was clicking constantly, even with the output drive type on low side, and even though the pump was on a cell that read zero and shouldn't have been on. I tried to play with the settings a bit and nothing changed it, so I pulled the relay out and it was really hot. I left it out to cool down and I put it back in a few minutes later and it wasn't clicking anymore. I changed the cell to 100 (turning on the pump) and it started clicking and supplying water, and I changed it back to zero and back to 100 again, but that time water wasn't being supplied to the injector. I changed it back to zero and left it. I'm confused haha. At no point recently have I had the injector supplying water though.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Fri Jul 10, 2020 9:14

Chris remoted in and tinkered around with the map today to see if he could get water injection working. Had to change the power wire for the injector to A15 from A14, and I took the ground for the wi pump relay and tapped it into the power from the battery and he changed settings to verify it would work and it did. YAY! Took it for a test drive tonight and it didn't work again. Not to mention that the damn relay was clicking like crazy again, but only while it wasn't injecting. I'm getting really sick of this shit.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:14

I realized yesterday that the car felt somewhat sluggish. I set the boost controller to 10psi and I hit 12psi. So I set it at 18psi and I hit 12psi again. Alright, looks like it's just going off spring pressure, that's what I'm guessing anyway. Ugh. I'm really starting to wonder if all these issues are due to an issue with the ECU.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:14

I did some troubleshooting last night and tonight. I put power to the Mac 4 port solenoid last night and it didn't click, so I ordered another one and a connector, should be here before the end of next week. Tonight I used compressed air and tested the wastegate actuator and it works. Well, when pressure is applied to the top, it opens the wastegate, which is good. But when I apply air pressure to the bottom side, it feels like the air comes out somewhere through the turbo, which is really strange. I'm not sure how that's even possible. Now I'm wondering if something is wrong with the actuator.

And I still have the clunking noise. Ugh. And no working water injection UGH.

EDIT: Yep, the seal on the wastegate actuator rod guide is leaking. WTF

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:14

I talked to Turbosmart and they're sending me a new brass bushing for the wastegate actuator. They said it wore prematurely due to the rod being stressed to one side the whole time, but they didn't seem like it was a common issue.
Image20200802_223911 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
Image20200803_004148 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I reached out to Elliot White and Shawn Christenson (I didn't realize Shawn didn't work at Turblown anymore) and they both said it's a common issue with my setup, and suggested getting the next generation actuator because it has a ball joint in the rod to allow for an offset, and it has better sealing at the back. I started looking into modifying the rod with a ball joint and I ordered one from McMaster Carr, but I realized it would be much easier to just get a new one lol. The 4 port valve should be getting here any day now too. I ordered a new connector for the new valve and I got it today, only to realize it didn't come with terminals lol. So I guess I'll just get another type of connector and bypass the adapter harness altogether.

I also realized that when I set the boost controller to 10psi, it hasn't actually been at 10psi, it's been at 12 or 14psi. The new actuator comes with all the different springs, so I might drop down to a 7psi spring so I can get the boost low enough for the car to be manageable on the autox lol.

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Re: Build thread

Postby speedjunkie » Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:14

I got the new 4 port valve today and tested it, it does click. I disassembled the old one but I can't see anything physically wrong with it. I should be getting the new actuator and connector on Friday, so hopefully I can hit some good boost again by this weekend. The actuator comes with all the different springs and everything needed to customize it to your setup. And the connector, I paid $3 for the connector and $14 to ship it. WOW. I love Corsa Technic but that's a bit crazy.


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