Build thread

[speedjunkie]

If you see a 30psi drop at high loads then it will show on the AFR. IF it drops 30psi the engine will lean out as simple as that. If is not leaning out then the sensor might be bad or picking up noise.

Well I'm thinking it's more of a fluctuation and maybe not sustained long enough to affect AFR, but you are correct. I don't think it's the sensor though because all three sensors are seeing it in three different places.

[lOOkatme]

If you see a 30psi drop at high loads then it will show on the AFR. IF it drops 30psi the engine will lean out as simple as that. If is not leaning out then the sensor might be bad or picking up noise.

totally agree.

[speedjunkie]

Chris told me tonight that he just got the parts and he's going to test everything.

Now, to switch gears a bit. I've been talking to Alvin again about the wheel design. He sent me this pic and said he thought of cutting out the middle of the spokes altogether, but he's not sure if a machinist can cut that and he's not sure how much strength would be lost. The strength would be my main concern, but it reminded me that I wanted to look into making this wheel a little more custom. Otherwise it's just a 3pc TM02. Anyway, I'm thinking of how Mazda took technology from the Japanese Zeros of WWII, cutting holes in it to lighten it, but it also gained strength. I'm wondering if I can do something like that with the wheels.


This is the first wheel he designed, for Sergey, the guy that put me in touch with him. Pretty awesome. I love how original it is and how much detail there is. I'd like to go for something like this as far as detail and originality, but I also want to keep weight down and strength up as much as possible, and something not far off from the double six design.

[FDEEZ]

If you see a 30psi drop at high loads then it will show on the AFR. IF it drops 30psi the engine will lean out as simple as that. If is not leaning out then the sensor might be bad or picking up noise.

totally agree.

I disagree....I don't think the word "simple" can be used when describing Eric's car. In fact, I think you get banned from this thread if you use that word more than once

[speedjunkie]

If you see a 30psi drop at high loads then it will show on the AFR. IF it drops 30psi the engine will lean out as simple as that. If is not leaning out then the sensor might be bad or picking up noise.

totally agree.

I disagree....I don't think the word "simple" can be used when describing Eric's car. In fact, I think you get banned from this thread if you use that word more than once

LOL

You know what really isn't simple? Trying to handle cell phone issues. WTF?!?!?!?!

[speedjunkie]

Well I got the phone issue sorted I believe, at least for now. I'll tell more about that later.

Chris emailed me tonight...

I'm optimistic that the issue is solved. I'll know for sure tomorrow when I can test it properly. I removed the Y and ran separate lines to each rail. I also added a Radium damper off of the Y in the secondary rail. Pressure at idle had been fluctuating about 3 psi on the gauge in the dash. It's now down to a few tenths at idle. I just got it all done and won't get a chance to test it under boost until the morning. I'll let you know the results asap.

It will be fine to drive home regardless of what it does under boost tomorrow. It's always driven well and safe at cruising loads. It's just the high load fluctuations I'm not happy about.

[speedjunkie]

Fluctuation is now no more than 10 psi under full load. Think we have it licked.

I didn't even try the check valves. I was convinced it was just injector pulsation and it looks like that's what is happening.

Fantastic! So what do you think I should do to get no pulsation?

I don't know if none at all is even possible. Huge fuel rail maybe. I think what you have now is within reason and I wouldn't worry about it.

So, maybe it's time to run a third pump, and the second and third pumps through a 10AN line all the way to a massive secondary rail lol.

[speedjunkie]

These last few days have been kind of a blur. Chris picked me up from the airport Sunday and for about the first hour after we got to his place he showed me the car, where things were wired, etc, but mostly the software and the app. I have to do a lot more learning with the software because its definitely not user friendly, but I'm hoping I won't need anything tuning-related anytime soon. There are still a few little issues, both ones that he could point out and a couple over the last couple days, but so far nothing too serious I don't believe.

1. He says the app has some bugs. I can adjust boost control and traction control, but the gauge output is intermittent. I'd say it doesn't work at all, but tonight it was giving me information, even though there is a lot of work I need to do within the app to make it match up with the ECU. And when he was showing me the app, at one point the gauges were showing info for him too.

2. I still have to swap ECUs at some point, and he said they sent off my OMP and he'll send it to me when he gets it. No biggie on those things.

3. When he swapped the hoses over to run each fuel rail on each pump, he just used regular rubber line. I just need to get some more teflon line and remake those. He did add a fuel pulsation damper from Radium though. Once I get those lines remade I'll look into running E85, and that's all after I get back.

4. He did say that the ignition cut issue at 24psi on E85 could have been due to the fuel pulsation issues, and that I should try it again, so I'll be doing that when I get back to CO.

5. He wired up the exhaust heat light on the tranny tunnel cover to be somewhat of a check engine light. When I have a fault, the light flashes. He said when the oil temp is below 75 degrees (I'm not sure if that's C or F), the ECU won't let me boost too much for about 5 minutes until the oil is warmed up...so in the mornings I'll be seeing that light a lot. However, I went to a local meet tonight and took a couple guys for a ride and noticed that light flashing constantly. Also, I noticed that my fans didn't kick on when they were supposed to and my coolant temps got up to 230F. I turned my AC on (except now the blower motor under the dash doesn't come on, but the radiator fans still kick on), and it cooled it back down. So I'm going to mention that to him.

6. I had a dead battery yesterday morning. I hadn't even started the car the day prior, so I have a draw on the system again. He did ask me if I'd had problems with the driver's headlight motor and said it heated up on him at one point. He said the light was stuck in the down position, so he disconnected it. It's possible that was the issue, but I haven't seen it heat up yet. I disconnected both headlight motors and I still had a draw on the system.

7. Apparently he fixed the stock alarm system, because I set it off about five times in the first two days of having the car back lol.

8. He told me he had adjusted the preload on the coilovers, and I thought he had told me he adjusted the height too. I spent several hours yesterday afternoon and evening trying to fix it and ran around in circles. Then I discovered he only preloaded the suspension because he didn't know that height adjustment was completely independent. Also, I realized that doing one side of the car at a time will have you running around in circles due to the sway bar. And tonight I discovered that the front is STILL not high enough because I was rubbing the fenders almost the entire night. So I'll be fixing that tomorrow morning.

I think that's it as far as problems. I've already fixed a couple little things here and there that I had on my list. All in all, it's running SUPERB. Cold starting is kinda tricky. It has a quirk just like it did before, but this time it's different, so I still have to figure it out. Once it's warm though, it practically fires right up. When I let off the gas it returns to idle around 900 immediately, no hunting for idle like it used to.

Right after I left his place I went to my buddy's house in Ohio. It was a good visit. He was showing me how to read the compressor map and comparing it to the map for my current turbo, he told me I needed to step up to the next size haha. He cringed when I told him I was running 24psi on my old engine, and said I should keep it around 15psi for a happy engine. He also gave me a dowel pin puller he got from Racing Beat back in 2002, and explained his personal porting technique. A while back he told me he'd give me his templates but I don't think he knows where they are lol. We stopped by Defined Autoworks on Monday since it's just down the road from him. They had pulled their four rotor out of the race car to weigh it. It weighed only 400lbs with the transmission! And the car only weighs around 2300lbs, and I think the engine puts out around 600hp. Crazy.













Driving back from Ohio to Illinois, and actually driving in general, just reminds me that I NEED AC lol. I think I've lost about 10lbs in sweat alone. AC and a quieter exhaust and this will be my dream street/track car lol.

[speedjunkie]

The car is still driving great and I've learned a bit more about starting it easier, but I still have a ways to go.

I looked into the issue with the fans not working and I believe it's the relays again already, I'll replace those and make them more robust (and possibly look at another relocation) when I get back to CO.

The headlights stopped working Tuesday night and I looked into that around Thursday and with some help on 7club discovered it was the relay that is usually mounted next to the diagnostic box. I never knew what that relay was for lol. The parking lights would work, flash to pass worked, and the headlights would pop up if I hit the button on the dash. The headlights would not come on nor would they pop up if I just turned them on normally using the stalk. Eventually I plan to replace that relay and the fan relays with the same sealed Hella relays I used on this version of the fuel pump rewire, although I'll need some help figuring out how to wire them up lol. I haven't figured out yet why the horn doesn't work, but I'll look into that as well after I return.

And I KNOW I need to replace my rear tires soon because the middles are already pretty much bald and I've burned out a couple times, makes me cringe every time it happens lol so I try not to slip them.

I talked to Alvin on the phone for the first time last night about ideas on the wheels. I told him about how Mazda used technology from the A6M Zero to make the car lighter and make the structure stronger (using holes in the chassis) and thought about using this idea on the spokes, and we're looking into engineering used on bridges for ideas lol. But I'm probably most excited about how we're going to shape the mounting flange and how the bolts will go through it to hold the wheel pieces together. Should be pretty sweet. I'd love to learn how to use CAD so I can do this stuff myself.

I decided to stay in MO an extra day so I'm heading back to CO tomorrow like I originally planned.

[speedjunkie]

I got back last night and made a discovery, and it wasn't a good one.

Chris had loaded the box of all my extra parts and put it in the hatch. My OMP reservoir was in there. I had turned the box on it's side and put it behind the passenger seat on the bins so I could put my large bag in the hatch, and I did this twice when I was home and never had an issue. Well, I guess I hit a hard enough bump on the way back that turned the reservoir (that I assumed had been drained) enough to where all the oil drained out through the vent hole in the lid. Oil in both bins, on the lids, down the fronts a bit. Ugh. I just cleaned that up tonight, including removing the battery. I also reinstalled my hatch mats and swapped in the non-Bose cargo cover.

I drove the car to work today and it died on me twice, so I'm not sure if the tune is off a little or what. One of the times it was a real PITA to start again, and of course that time I was sitting in traffic, so...

I have a long list of things that I need to do, things to fix, etc. I'm taking it kinda slow, but I REALLY want to knock out a bunch of stuff in short order. I also bought a Racing Beat dual tip exhaust from a buddy in Denver, I plan to pick that up probably this weekend and try it out. Although once I put that on I really need to plumb the wastegate dump tubes back into the exhaust.

Oh yeah, this morning I made another discovery, also not a good one. I have a fairly nasty dent above and behind the passenger door on the top of the car, about an inch from the hatch. I took a pic but it's late and I don't feel like uploading it right now lol. I was pretty ticked until I realized what I think it is...when I removed the oily box from the car last night it slipped out of my hands and it landed against the car, and I believe that dent is from the OMP reservoir. It's a fairly sharp dent but I'm hoping PDR can take it out. It chipped the paint completely away though, bare metal is showing. So, I guess it's time to get the car painted again lol.

I also came across a lot of really bad drivers yesterday. No shortage of idiots on the road lol. One of which I guess wasn't paying attention and took out several cones and had a couple jammed up under her car and would spit one out every now and then lol.

[speedjunkie]

I went to Toyota off Woodmen after work today so my buddy Kevin Yu could tint the windows. I got 15% on the hatch and side windows. He does really good work if anyone is interested in getting them done. He also does clear bra, vinyl wraps, and I'm not sure what else, but most of that is out of his actual business, which now I'm drawing a blank on the name lol.

Aaaaand that's all I have to report tonight lol. I didn't get home from that until about 8pm. I kinda feel like I'm in limbo on this car project. I want to work on it but I don't want to put it down until winter time, but I'm DYING to do some of the work. And some of it really NEEDS to be done, like fixing the fans. But I have other obligations I need to attend to as well and just don't have enough time in the day. Oh well.

[speedjunkie]

I just picked up this thing...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAPACITIVE-7-An ... 2ee32f005e

It's a bit small for the opening in the FDs, but we'll see how it fits.

[FDEEZ]

Sorry to hear you're still having issues with the drive-ability of your car. If your fans are intermittent, I highly, highly, recommend you park your car until it's fixed. When my fans went out...I didn't take any chances and towed the car home. It's just not worth it, imho. If you have safety precautions built into your tune...your PCM may be shutting the car off when it senses high engine temps. This could be the reason why your car shut off in stop/go traffic & was difficult to restart.

With your aftermarket PCM, can you remotely turn on your fans (via your computer)? If so, that should make troubleshooting a little easier.

Additionally, if your tune is spot on right now...you may need to have it retuned if you decide to switch to the Racing Beat exhaust and dump your wastegate(s) back into the exhaust. Usually, quiet equals restrictive. You may run pig rich once you do those two mods.

[speedjunkie]

Sorry to hear you're still having issues with the drive-ability of your car. If your fans are intermittent, I highly, highly, recommend you park your car until it's fixed. When my fans went out...I didn't take any chances and towed the car home. It's just not worth it, imho. If you have safety precautions built into your tune...your PCM may be shutting the car off when it senses high engine temps. This could be the reason why your car shut off in stop/go traffic & was difficult to restart.

With your aftermarket PCM, can you remotely turn on your fans (via your computer)? If so, that should make troubleshooting a little easier.

Additionally, if your tune is spot on right now...you may need to have it retuned if you decide to switch to the Racing Beat exhaust and dump your wastegate(s) back into the exhaust. Usually, quiet equals restrictive. You may run pig rich once you do those two mods.

The fans aren't intermittent, they don't come on by themselves at all LOL. But I usually leave the AC on which keeps the fans on, so it's no big deal. I also have a warning light on my water temp gauge, and I would imagine that Chris put a failsafe in place so it doesn't overheat, but I'm not positive on that one. I plan to swap the relays for the fans this next week probably. It's not shutting down due to the fans or overheating because I'm not letting it overheat. I'm pretty sure it's just the tune. Chris said he thinks it's running lean, but I'm thinking it's too rich. I could be wrong though. I haven't seen what the AFR is so I don't know. I should be able to see it tomorrow though, I went through the app today and got everything squared away I believe so I should be able to see everything I want tomorrow. Although I still need to figure out how to get everything to show in Imperial units.

The ECU is trying to turn the fans on, but they won't come on because of the relays.

I'll look into the tune again when I put the exhaust on. I really want to swap the exhaust now, I doubt that will be anytime soon, mainly because I want to quiet the dump tubes at the same time. The guy I bought the exhaust from, Brad, came down today to bring it down and see the car (and he said he knew a guy that quieted his dump tubes with motorcycle exhausts, so I might try that lol). I have to say though, I REALLY like his car. It's Chaste white and has about the cleanest/simplified engine bay I've ever seen I believe. It gave me some ideas of things I want to do now, just simple stuff to clean up the engine bay. When he first popped the hood I fell in love lol. So nicely done. The fan on the IC is a nice touch and very well done. He did all the welding in the engine bay himself. He said the clamps on the piping are knockoff but they work just as well as Wiggins clamps. And really, why spend so much money on the name brand when these do the trick?


He cut the center out of the UIM, I think it looks pretty good.


My favorite, he routed the throttle cable to where it would be somewhat hidden. I'm definitely doing this.


It's kinda hard to see in the first pic, but a little better in the second pic...he removed the brake booster pipe and used a hose to run it to the front of the UIM. I've deleted that nipple but I should be able to find a nipple to thread into the hole I tapped and plugged. I like how clean the back wall of the engine bay is, but if I can't do this one, no big deal I guess.



And in this pic you can see where he drilled, tapped, and plugged the old brake booster port with a set screw. Super clean. I've used this method on a few things myself.


He cut off the part that the air pump bolts to. I love the look of this, but I don't know if I have the balls to cut that off, I'm not sure why lol. I doubt I'll use it for anything anymore, but you never know.


When he deleted his ABS, he used the stock bracket that held the proportioning valve and just flipped it around, cut off the excess, and re-bent the stock lines. He also tucked the brake line under the rail at the back of the engine bay, the same way I did, but his came out cleaner. I don't think I have any pics of that.


Of course we had to go to Bird Dog to get food and have a spur-of-the-moment mini meet lol.



Also, Alvin told me that the 40 hole lips and barrels won't work with my wheels the way he's designing them, which makes sense because 40 is not divisible by 6, but 36 is, so I'll probably have to buy some blank lips and barrels and have them drilled with 36 holes.

[FDEEZ]

The fans aren't intermittent, they don't come on by themselves at all LOL. But I usually leave the AC on which keeps the fans on, so it's no big deal. I also have a warning light on my water temp gauge, and I would imagine that Chris put a failsafe in place so it doesn't overheat, but I'm not positive on that one.

.....The ECU is trying to turn the fans on, but they won't come on because of the relays.

I recommend you treat this one as a big deal. From my understanding, the fans are activated via grounding the relay(s) vice sending a 12v trigger to them. Your AC switch is only grounding relay #1 (of your four relays). In other words, of your 4 relays, I believe 3 of them are for "low speed" operation. Those are relays #1, #2, and #4. Since you're only engaging relay #1, your gambling with overheating your car each time you drive (since your fans are not at full speed). If you are prioritizing which of your relays to fix first, you need to figure out why relay #3 (your "high speed" operation) isn't activating. Since you have a prototype ECU, your ECU could possibly be sending a 12v signal versus a ground signal to your low and high speed relays. If that's the case, your relays wouldn't activate at all (which sounds like what is happening right now). Check with your tuner to confirm that your ECU was in fact programmed to ground your relays. Probably would be a good idea to also confirm that your temp sensor (the one going to the ECU) is working as well. Good luck!