Build thread

[speedjunkie]

I just got to PCS and the hood is up and Travis is on the phone, so I'm not sure what to think lol.

[Shadowden]

So, how is the tuning going?

One of the phrases bicycle shops get tired of hearing is "I was just riding along and...(insert bike breakage scenario)" when they know full well that the cyclist was probably doing some epic air ala Napolean Dynamite and broke the thing.

Anyway, I could see a corresponding thing from a tuner. "I was just adjusting the tune a little bit and the car stopped working".

[speedjunkie]

After he got off the phone he told me he got the stumbling/lean spot of the map sorted out, but the ignition cut at high boost/RPM is still there. We talked about the boost control solenoid being new and he mentioned that maybe the values in the ECU hadn't been changed and said he'd look into it.

[speedjunkie]

I left the shop around 1145 today and didn't go back, and I didn't get a call from Travis either. I called the shop a few times before they closed and never got in touch with anyone. Hopefully he's about finished with it.

Anyway, I could see a corresponding thing from a tuner. "I was just adjusting the tune a little bit and the car stopped working".

This was actually one of my fears about taking to a person that doesn't tune rotaries lol. But the ECU seems to be really good with it's failsafes and so far I think it's been OK.

[speedjunkie]

I stopped by the shop this morning and this afternoon and when I went by in the afternoon Travis told me he was going to work on it tonight. I got a call about 7pm and he said he sorted out the ignition cut issue and hit 360hp at 8psi. YOWZERS! He asked where I wanted him to stop because he didn't know the capabilities/limitations of this engine. I told him to stop at 550hp or 18psi, whichever came first. He called back about an hour later and said he stopped at 18psi and it made 430hp. He said it's still running fairly rich under boost (11s) and he didn't get aggressive with the timing because he's not comfortable with rotaries since he hasn't messed with them, and that's completely fine by me. I told him I'd rather it be reliable than make crazy power. It's not as high as I thought it would be considering what he first told me, but I'm more than happy with it. I figure that's still pretty good considering it's on a Superflow (which I hear reads lower than some others), at 6000ft altitude, running more rich and not aggressive timing, 91 octane pump gas, and no water/meth injection. I'm not chasing HP numbers anymore anyway, I'd much rather have faster response, and 430hp is high enough for me. I'm picking it up tomorrow morning and I'm eager to see how it drives. He said he thinks I'll be pretty happy with it. They don't have their new credit card machine yet so he's going to get ahold of me when he gets back into town in a couple days and get payment and send me the dyno sheet.

I got the refrigerant today, so hopefully I'll have AC by tomorrow night too. But knowing my luck something in the AC system will be wrong lol.

[Shadowden]

That is exciting!

Did you get the car yet?

[speedjunkie]

Yep, I picked it up around 10. But since it's a nice cool day I'm going to be working in the back yard the rest of the day. So far it drives pretty well.

As for the AC, I might be pressurizing the system with an air compressor to check for leaks (which I've never done), instead of putting a vacuum on it, since the equipment is so expensive.

[speedjunkie]

I drove the car Friday and a little tonight. It pulls really hard, even at only 10psi. I did notice that there's still some hesitation at 80mph on the highway, but it's good everywhere else. I have to pay for it still so I'll just talk to him about it then.

We've been cleaning out the sheds in the back yard and I found something that could be really helpful with my AC prep. I found a case with two sets of R134 gauges and hoses haha. I had no idea I had them.

[Shadowden]

Your shed sounds magical. Seems like when you need something it always appears!

Glad the car is running well.

[speedjunkie]

Well, I need a lot of money to replace the two sheds with a shipping container, but so far I haven't found that lol.

Thanks! I took it out again last night for an hour or two with Andy and Zico. We just went up 24 to the road to Pikes Peak and turned around. I love that section of 24. Andy rode with me to see how it compared to his car.

[speedjunkie]

I got the last two keychains yesterday, modified them last night, and shipped them off this morning. I was able to change the color on one of them to what I feel is kinda close to Mazda blue. It's a flourescent blue model paint and it's darker until light shines on it. It turned out pretty well.



And I keep forgetting to post this pic of the dyno run from last week. I like the power delivery.


I was finally able to pull a vacuum on the AC system today. Last night I hooked up the hoses and air started coming out at the connections for the dryer, so I got two fatter o-rings today. I hooked up the gauges today and didn't hear any leaking, so I started pulling a vacuum. The high side pegged out on vacuum, but the low side only got to about 20hg (30 is max), and it dropped a little from there. I let it go for about 3 hours and it was around 16hg when I closed the valves and turned off the pump. I left the remaining vacuum on the system and over the last few hours it's dropped slowly to about 14hg. I fully expect it to level off overnight. So I'm wondering if it really shouldn't be dropping at all or if there is an allowable amount, but I'm leaning towards the first one, if only because that's my luck lol. I'm afraid to charge the system if it's just going to leak.

[speedjunkie]

I spoke with someone at Enviro-safe and asked about how much refrigerant and oil I need to charge the system (I had to order a couple more cans of oil) and asked him about pulling a vacuum on the system. He implied I probably had a slight leak, so I tightened the only connection I could get to on the low side of the AC system and tightened the schrader valves in the R134 adapters, then tried to pull a vacuum again. The high side gauge doesn't budge, it's still stuck on full vacuum, and the low side didn't budge either, not pulling a vacuum at all. I'm getting really sick of this shit.

[Shadowden]

Would you mind explaining the ac system diagnosis a little more? I haven't looked at a system closely, and not sure what tne gauges are supposed to do or how the pressure is applied. Is it possible the readings you saw are correct? I know you saw pressure/vacuum in both gauges whenuou had a leak, but maybe it was due to a leak? Iknow you know air is a fluid and willequilize pressure between two vessel if a way to do so is available. Do the pressures change if you mess witn ac on/off?

[speedjunkie]

Well when you pull a vacuum both gauges are supposed to read as low as possible if there is no leak. They should peg out in vacuum. I would think the pressure would equalize between the two gauges since it's one system all the way through between high and low, but for some reason it doesn't, and I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to (for whatever reason). But I'm wondering about these gauges because when you open the hoses the gauges should return to 0...no vacuum and no pressure, but the high side doesn't. It stays pegged out on vacuum. So I'm wondering if maybe there is an issue with both of them since the low side gauge doesn't budge either.

This is the video I watched just so I remembered how to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUdCa3feGvg

[speedjunkie]

I was supposed to get the last of the refrigerant oil today, but now UPS pushed it back a day. It said end of business Monday until this evening sometime, and I just checked and now it says tomorrow.

I went to Pit Rally yesterday with Zico and some others, it was awesome. But I did have a couple issues. For starters, it had the clicking problem again a couple times. Once when we were staging for the cruise up the road, and a couple other times that weren't as bad. The other problem is now my clutch is slipping at high RPM and higher power. It's fine with normal driving, but if I stomp the pedal it just slips. Sometimes it even slips if I ease into the power more, but not as much. Unfortunately I don't know exactly which clutch it is. ORC makes a couple different models that are twin plate, so I'm not sure which one it is. Here are some pics from yesterday.











The knobs are finished and waiting for payment to be shipped back. I have to find a new buyer for one of them because the original buyer has an S4 and they have a different thread pitch. I had thought about it momentarily before, but I forgot to ask everyone what their thread pitch was and just got them all done in the FD size. Oh well.