My new car!

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:14

Yep, that's exactly what I'm saying haha. It's just that what Virtual Dyno says throws you off, because it says one thing but it's giving you your true power lol.

I'm not sure why they'd stop making it either. Kind of like the PFC. How big are the coils for that setup? I'll have to look at Rice Racing's setup, I don't remember seeing that before.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:14

Was bored last night so I decided to take care of some stuff on the FD.

First up was swapping out the wastegate springs for higher pressure so I can now run 15.5psi on spring, as my manual boost controller was struggling to run 16-17psi. I have also been unhappy with how my turbo coolant hoses are currently ran, as one is over the top of the CHRA on the turbo, which is obviously risky.

Here is a pic of how it sat before I started wrenching:

Here you can see how the turbo hose is ran over the turbo, yes it's braided SS hose with a heat wrap, but still not ideal:

The hose was also kinda pinched between the compressor cover and the frame:

So, I first tackled removing the wastegate. I have a TiAL MV-R 44mm v-band external gate in an easy enough to access location from underneath the car. So I jacked the FD up on front stands and pulled the gate out, easy out.

Now the fun part is compressing all the springs inside the top portion of the gate:

You have to compressor all of that with one arm (and for 15psi it's three springs and no walk in the park, I promise) while using the other arm to screw in some allen head bolts. A VERY fun process, NOT! Whoever invented that needs to be shot, seriously.

Anyways, once you have the springs in, you think it's just as easy to popping on a v-band clamp to secure the gate to the manifold and you're done, right? Well, I have some news for you; the fact people think v-band flanges are superior or quicker in some way than a traditional bolt-style flange is pure myth, v-bands straight up suck sometimes!

Especially with TiAL gates...they have a sealing ring that inserts between the wastegate valve and the cast body. This sticks out about a 1/16th of an inch below the bottom of the gate and must be compressed as you put on the clamp. It doesn't sound like much, but compressing that valve is nearly impossible, especially at the angle I had to do it at. Luckily Matt came over and we came up with an idea to compressor the valve in and wedge it open with a flat tool, worked like a charm.

Here's some random pic Matt snapped of me reinstalling the W/G:

Anyway, that was done, then this morning I tackled the turbo coolant hoses. Nothing too exciting to write about; undid the hoses, reversed the current configuration, and hooked them back up. I'm real happy with how they are now. Pictures:

Last thing I did was redo my location for my Hallman MBC and the hoses that run to it. In it's previous location, the reference hose off the compressor had to make an "S" bend to connect to the MBC and was often failing by cracking and splitting, as Matt and I discovered last night. I was tired of this happening to I decided to move the controller and run a -4AN braided SS hose to it.

Anyways, I moved it near the ABS unit and ran some 4AN SS hose. Pretty pleased with the results:

And done:

Also snapped a random shot of my interior with new seats:

Website · Postby **Shadowden** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:14

I like your center console. Is that suede or alacantara? Who did it?

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:14

The center console, shift boot and ebrake boot are all genuine Alacantara. I got the materials all premade from Redline Goods, I installed it all myself, really simple process.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 9:14

Oh I didn't realize Redline made the tranny tunnel cover. I thought you had that made.

I second you on the wastegate springs and vband clamps lol. I use my vise if I can to do the wastegate springs, and the vband I usually just curse a lot until it is on lol.

I need to have a convo with you about negative split timing lol.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:14

Oh trust me, even with the tool wedged in the wastegate to keep the valve compressed there was still a lot of cursing LOL.

I love negative split timing (in vacuum, of course). Call me if you have any questions.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:14

So I drove the fd first time since swapping to higher wastegate springs. Of course it was rather chilly today, my IAT sensor reading between 6-9*C and this in the intake manifold! Good thing the fd has a spectacular heater to keep my nice and toasty.

Well, first run, I got for it, turbo spools nicely, nothing unusual, boost builds from 0, 5, 10psi then Bam! 18-20psi before I could blink. Then it sounded as if my motor hit a 2 step ignition cut. What the...?

Well, it took some pondering, but I finally realized I still had the PFC set to do a boost induced fuel cut at 1.1bar. The PFC will add 0.25bar to your target so in my case it was set to cut fuel at 1.35bar, which is 20psi, so spot on. I raised it up to 1.4bar so it wouldn't cut fuel until 1.65bar and went for another run.

Although it basically played out the same on this run...as soon as I got over 18psi it sounded like a fuel or ignition cut. The tone was different this time. AFR and timing was spot on. So I'm pretty positive I'm blowing out spark. Just too much for the stock ignition to handle. I need to ramp up my timeline to getting those AEM coils!

I verified in my logs that at first it was indeed fuel cut, you can see the IDC go to 0 while I'm still at WOT. But in the other logs the IDC stays normal, and AFR wasn't overly rich so that's why I'm leaning towards to spark blowout. Same thing happened on my turbo RX8 before I upgraded to LS2 coils.

So the AEM coils are now on the very short list, hopefully I can pick them up soon and install them before its too cold. I may just put back in the old springs or a 13psi combo in the mean time though.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 9:14

chickenwafer wrote:Good thing the fd has a spectacular heater to keep my nice and toasty.

I loathe you. :mad:

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:14

LOL Eric, you didn't HAVE to take out your own heater! That's on you! LOL

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:14

Hey, it was an innocent accident, the heater core broke when I tried to change a hose lol. After feeling the heat coming out of Dan's vents tonight, I think I'll be doing a heater core swap this winter, and also possibly adding AC back in.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:14

Yeah, the heater on the FD is surprisingly good. I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise, though, since the rotary runs so hot LOL. It will toast you out of there!

I have a winter plan on putting A/C back in, but it's way down on the list. Priority is a new Coil-On-Plug (COP) inductive ignition system utilizing AEM Smart coils, an electronic boost controller, coilovers, and then hopefully wrapping up the interior by making the rear hatch plastic cover, getting rear hatch carpet from JasonS, non-Bose parcel shelf, and black seat belts.

So if I get to reinstalling the A/C, or not, no biggie. Although I think it would be mostly free to put it back in as I have everything I need, I would only need to make two or so new hardline hoses and then get it charged. I would also have to move my oil thermostat and catch can so it may involve making some new 10AN hoses, we'll see I guess.

Last night I removed the TiAL wastegate and swap back in some lower pressure springs, I put in the 11.6psi combo. I was happy because of the tricks I've learned doing it so many times I was able to get the wastegate out, take it apart, swap springs, and put it back together and in the car in roughly 30 minutes. I think the part that helped the most is compressing the w/g valve and wedging a tool to hold the valve open so the seat ring doesn't have to be compressed. Makes re-installation a snatch.

We got a light dusting of snow up here in Loveland so hopefully I can test it out tomorrow.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:14

So, it turns out my crappy stock ignition system actually more than likely saved my motor. Let me explain;

As I posted about earlier, I was having trouble adding more than 17psi with my Hallman MBC and 10psi springs in the w/g, so I swapped to 16psi springs and was having (what I believed to be) horrible boost creep to 18-20psi where I would blow-out spark. So I swapped in the 11.6psi spring combination and went for a drive today. Turbo shot right up to 18-20psi still and I was still blowing out spark!

Well, this couldn't right, I could deal with some boost creep but there's no way it's creeping this much! So I used my air compressor to test the system, and um, it turns out I hooked up the MBC backwards....yeah. So I swapped the hoses, went for a drive, 11.5psi on the dot all the way to redline. So not my proudest moment.

The good news here is I believe that having the weak ignition system actually saved my motor. If I had a good ignition that could have survived the higher boost pressure, boost would have continued to rise to 30+psi easily, and I'm pretty sure it would have blown something. Not guaranteed but possible. I did have the boost induced fuel cut in the PFC active, so I guess it would have cut out around 25-26psi, but still, uncharted territory for my setup.

Good news is I will hopefully have an ignition solution that should be arriving shortly I can test out and then start moving to 22psi.

Website · Postby **Shadowden** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:14

Good fortune!

It is amazing what you guys are doing with your cars. I like seeing you all solve the problems that come up. What is an educated guess for hp and torque numbers at 11.5 psi? What are you expecting at 22 psi?

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:14

Well, according to the Virtual Dyno software that analyzes the datalogs from my ECU, 12psi was around 300rwhp/270 ft-lbs of torque uncorrected, closer to 380rwhp/ 320 ft-lbs of torque corrected to sea level.

At 22psi I'm hoping to be around 520-550rwhp. The guy I bought this turbo off of (I got it used as a kit) was making 470rwhp at 19psi on pump gas and 522rwhp at 22psi on C16 race gas. I'm hoping I might make a little more power since I swapped the turbine housing from a 1.00A/R to a 1.15A/R v-band. The larger Area Ratio means the turbine will breath easier at higher rpm but loose some spool (a couple hundred RPM, pretty negligible).

I'm also hoping to pass 500rwhp on pump gas, thanks to my water/meth injection. I'm currently running a progressive MAP based injection system that starts injecting around 200cc/min at 8psi and ramps up to a max of 400cc/min at 15psi. I might need to step up to a larger nozzle to get to 500rwhp but I think I should be able to do it. I hope to dyno sometime next Spring.

On another note, I'm also committed to getting coilovers this winter with my tax return- it's already been cleared with the Wife so it's good to go! Problem is there are too many coilover options for the FD!!

Also, all coilovers for the FD essentially fall into two price brackets- inexpensive (less than $1500) or super expensive (Over $2500). There are very few coilovers in-between $1500-$2500, surprisingly. Not that it matters to me, anyways, because I'm cheap and I'm looking to spend less than $1500 bucks.

I want my coilovers to ride good, not make a lot of noise, be adjustable enough to get low (not looking to "Stance" the car but I do want it low...) but still behave properly on the track as I also want to commit to some track time next season. It's hard to make my priority list because ride quality and track performance are pretty equal, and in my price bracket it's just not going to happen, a sacrifice will have to made. If I was dropping $2500 or more on coilovers, it wouldn't be a problem LOL.

So I've narrowed it down to a few coilovers, Apexi EVX, Stance GR+ with custom 10k front/8k rear springs from Rishie at AutoRND, and Fortune Auto 500's.

jamiel · Postby **jamiel** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:14

Regarding coilovers, Mark Mauro at http://autohausboulder.com/ might have some opinions on options. He's built a couple of highly modified, nationally competitive autocross FDs. His cars are likely stiffer than you're looking for, but he should have some experience with what is and isn't a good value.

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