My new car!

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:14

Thanks guys.

Well my Matt was in town so he swung by and we searched for the potential leak. It's the center of the rear manifold flange on the exhaust port. We were able to torque the bolts a little more but nothing major- maybe a 1/2 turn each if even- and it is aluminum, after all, so we were being extra careful. It did tighten up the leak a little bit but you can can still hear it. Good news is with the hood shut you really can't hear the leak, it's pretty minimal.

I am mad it's a pre turbo leak, though, because it will hurt spool a little. I honestly think my flange is warped and I've had a leak back there this whole time, just couldn't tell because the downpipe has always been leaking much more. I've heard these eBay manifolds get their flanges warped all the time, even though mine has been modified, re welded up and braced, it can still happen.

Pulling the downpipe out in a few to re heat wrap it and throw it back in. I need to figure out a better solution for my wastegate hose because I have a 3/8" hose barb on my compressor housing and it's just too large for the vacuum hose so the hoses keep ripping or coming off, which is very bad. I need a smaller hose barb so hopefully ACE has one I can pick up.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:14

So I got the heat wrapped downpipe all in, and removed the 3/8" hose barb for a 1/4" hose barb from ACE, works great with the vacuum line so that's all square now. Put the turbine heatsheild on, threw the bumper back on, secured the lip and dropper her on the floor for this time in a while.

She fired right up and I backed her in the driveway for a quick wash. It was kind of funny while I was washing her, I had at least 4 people drive by and ask me what kind of car it was.

So I heard something on 7club about hot start issues and it helps to hold the RPM at 3500 and turn it off, so I tried it, waited a few seconds, and tried to restart. What do you know, she fired right back up!!!! Schweeeeeet! So I'm not sure what this indicates- a leaky injector or what, but it's good news for me.

I grabbed the tuning laptop and went for a spin. She drove fantastically! Boosting a solid 10psi (for now) , no issues to report. The larger A/R v band turbine housing i got (went to a 1.15 from my previous 1.0) didn't seem to even really effect spool, still getting boost quickly.

I even got on a long country road and put on the cruise control and she cruised at 65mph in 5th gear at 15.5:1 AFR just humming along, not what I would describe as loud, especially with the windows up. I was happy.

Didn't get to play with any other cars, but I did pull up next to a red 96 Dodge Viper GTS with white stripes...looked badass! I looked at him and was going to give him rev but I thought it might be childish...plus he ended up taking the next right hand turn.

Tucked away in the garage, no leaks or a anything to report. Finally!!!

VRx8 · Postby **VRx8** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:14

You better slap that BOV on there! http://www.rx7club.com/single-turbo-rx-7s-23/8-months-counting-no-blowoff-valve-884695/page9/#post11166262

LOL

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:14

Lol I've thought about putting a blow off valve on. I mean, it honestly doesn't hurt to have one, the only detracting factor is cost and potential boost leaks. I'm not after every ounce of performance so it's not a big deal. I check shaft play on the turbo on a regular basis and it seems great still. Granted I've only put it through a couple hundred miles, if even.

alpha · Postby **alpha** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 9:14

You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother... Shut your mouth!

Can ya dig it?

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 9:14

Damn I'm a smooth pimp...

More picture to come courtesy of Tnerb

VRx8 · Postby **VRx8** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 9:14

^^^ Lol

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 9:14

alpha wrote:You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother... Shut your mouth!

Can ya dig it?

LOL! My mom has that record. I found it while I was in HS and listened to it a few times lol. Fits the pic perfectly...although Dave is a little pale to pull it off. lol

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:14

I got back from vacation late last night and took the FD for a quick cruise this morning. She started up great after sitting for a week or so, drove great too. Weather was really nice and the car was driving great so I decided to head west towards Carter Lake.

I had my GoPro but I forgot the SD card, doh! But I headed up the hill to Carter Lake, lots of fun tight hairpins and switchbacks. Mostly 2nd and 3rd gear, and I drove a little gingerly but man it was fun to throw the car in some tight corners.

I think the v band clamp on the downpipe loosened a little as I heard a very small leak, so I need to tighten that up.

All that being said, I'm not sure the FD fits in my current financial plans own a house real soon. My wife and I are also trying to expand our family. So the FD will be listed for sale soon. I know it will be a tough sell, it may never sell and I'll be happy to keep it, but selling it would allow me to pay off some debt and accelerate my time table for purchasing a house.

If and when it does sell, I will return to the rotary game for sure. I can't stay away for long lol. It sucks, but buying a house, and paying off some debt will pay off dividends in the future where I will be in a much better position to have fun toys later on.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:14

So still kicking around the idea of selling the FD...nothing is final yet however. She is making it difficult to sell her that's for sure.

The hot starting issue has gotten better. I pulled some fuel from the cranking map and pulled a bunch of timing. Seems to be much better now. Drove around today and parked, went to restart where it would normally crank for a while, and crank crank fire! I was happy.

Although I feel like a true FD owner after today, I broke down in the middle of the road for the first time haha. I drove to Matt's to show him the car and hang out, I went to go leave and she wouldn't start...didn't even sound like it wanted to fire up. Fuel pressure gauge on the AEM FPR is reading 0...so I check the fuel pump fuse, all good. Jump the fuel pump to ground in the diagnostic port, nothing. Hmmm

So we removed the fuel pump access cover to check the wiring and relay. Holy shit it's basically melted!!!! Wtf? I wiggle the connector and push it back on, seems to work for now. So I fire her up and get on the road for home, I figured it would hold since its only a 15 minute drive.

Nope! On 287 I'm cruising 60mph and I feel it cut out. No power. Luckily I was going 60 and very little traffic so I could coast for a while, made it to a side road and pulled off into the shoulder. I pulled the fuel pump access cover and this time the relay and it's connector is too hot to even touch and just a melted molten plastic mess. Luckily I had my roadside tool bag with me with some spare wire. So I ran it from the battery breaker directly into the electrical bulkhead pass thru in the fuel pump hanger. Pumps would always be on but it was a temporary solution to get me home and it worked haha.

So before the Rist Canyon cruise in 2 weeks I'll have to re wire this and replace the relay. I'm doing it super overkill this time, at least 8g or 4g cables from the battery straight to the fuel pumps and relay, no dinky wire.

What's crazy is the wire obviously got hot enough to completely melt the relay and it's connector, but the wire looked fine, and the 30 amp fuse didn't blow either. Odd. Oh well, the next irritation of the fuel pump re wire will be massively over engineered.

I'll get some pictures of the melted carnage later up.

VRx8 · Postby **VRx8** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 9:14

0 gauge wire will do just fine lol.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:14

I almost thought about it, Eduardo, haha! I'm planning on some 8awg wire for the fuel pumps.

Removed the overwhelmed relay and wiring today. It's not supposed to look like this, right?

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:14

Well...my idea of 8g for the fuel pumps won't work (at least easily) because I can't for the life of me find any 8awg female disconnects to use to wire up the relay. So I settled for 10awg wire and heat shrink terminals. Ordered a fancy new ratcheting crimper too. Got two 50 amp relays so I think I'll be set this time.

I just ordered it all (yay eBay!) so hopefully it will be here by this weekend so I can re-wire it, test it out, and be ready for the cruise in two weeks.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:14

What gauge wire did you use the first time? I think I used either 10 or 8, I don't remember which. I do remember it being fairly stout though.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:14

It was probably 18 to 14g at best. I think the larger problem is I used a single 30/40 amp relay to power both pumps. A single pump can pull that much load so that's where I went wrong. The new system will use twin 50/60 amp relays for each pump and dedicated 10g wiring to each individual pump.

My new car!

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