Renner

My car, DSM's, Supras, and Stealth's/VR4's use a MAF before the turbo, so it is a pull through design. I can't think of any factory forced induction cars off hand that used a blow through MAF. If budget allows, convert the car to speed-density, so you don't have to worry about a MAF at all, since it is an intake restriction. smile.gif You will have less problems with a BOV vented to atmosphere with a speed-density car as well.

Brake pad material is porous, so whatever is on your rotors the first time you drive your car after a while, will get imbedded in the pads, and it will stay in the pads for a little while. If you really don’t want any rust on your rotors, take them off first, and then coat them in WD-40. Just clean them off with brake clean very well before re-installing them. I would not spray them with oil while on the car and let the pads burn them off. Depending on what pads you have, the oil could cause them to break down faster then they normally would have. Not to mention the problem with having a layer of oil in-between your rotor and pad surface. A small amount of rust won’t hurt anything, it may just make your pads squeak for a little while when you start driving the car again, because the rust will now be imbedded in the top layer of the pads. But since it’s not going to penetrate deeper into the pad like the oil would, it will burn off shortly and won’t really hurt the life of the pad.

Mark's post pretty much seems to cover it to me. [ 01 November 2002, 12:09 PM: Message edited by: Renner ]

365.6 RWHP and 399.1 RW torque. Here is the sheet: Link Maybe one of these days when I have some time, I will figure out why my car bleeds off boost only while on the dyno. So then I will be able to get some true numbers and a clean a/f curve. Notice that my peak HP is at ~4600 rpm? Edit: Oh ya, weight is ~3500 pounds, still an all stock heavy pig. [ 29 October 2002, 04:25 PM: Message edited by: Renner ]

Pure aluminum melts at 660 degrees C. The melting point could be higher or lower, depending on what alloy you have. [ 17 October 2002, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Renner ]

Starter fluid is not a good thing to spray onto your engine while it is running or warm. It is way too flamable for that, it will very easily ignite on any hot piece of metal like a heat shield. It is supposed to be used for spraying into the intake to help with starting a hard to start car, hence it's name. The reason it helps is because it is actually more combustible then gasoline, which is exactly why you wouldn't want to coat the outside of your engine with it. Like Howard said, intake/carb cleaner works best for finding intake gasket leaks, it is way less volatile then starting fluid, but you do still need to be careful with where you spray it. If the car is at idle, you will hear the idle dip if you spray a spot that has a leak.

Disconnect the battery ground wire from the battery. Connect one side of a test light to the ground on the battery and the other side to the ground wire you just disconnected. If there is an amperage draw, which it sounds like there is, the test light will light up. The brighter the light, the higher the amperage. Try pulling fuses and or accesory electrical connections until the test light turns off, when it does, you have found your culprit. You can pick up a test light at pretty much any auto parts store, they are pretty cheap. It looks like a screw driver with a pointed end and with a clear handle and a wire coming out of the other end.

Hmmm, last time I checked, Ricky does work as a tech at a Honda dealer.....which would probably explain his first hand knowledge of some of the idiots that may or may not work there. Any monkey can get trained and certified, doesn't really mean he knows anything useful.

LOL. Back with the automotive ninja stuff again. I could probably help you out, but I am very busy with a few other projects right now, so it would probably be a few weeks until I could even get started. I would also have to see the kit and car to figure out about how much time it would take. But with something like that I usually just charge you hourly for what it takes to do the install. Sometimes "bolt-on" kits aren't always true bolt-ons, and require some extra work/trips to the parts store. I think that hourly works best for most projects like this because I get paid for the time I spend, and you only have to pay for time I spent actually working. And since you are just paying my labor rate, not a shops labor rate, you ususally end up getting a pretty good deal anyway. If you were looking to do it sooner then I can get to it, then that is fine, just send me a PM if you want to talk more. -Brett

Yes, it should be a 1:1 rising rate regulator. They do make other ratio's, but 1:1 are obviously the common ones.

BTW, here is a pic of the Paxton FPR that I had bought a while back for my old car, but never used: http://images.cardomain.com/installs/160000-160999/160293_113_full.jpg The only main differences between it and the Aeromotive you see in the other pic is the vacuum fitting being on the opposite side, and the color. I believe that I read somewhere that Aeromotive actually made the regulators for Paxton and SX. Which is why Jegs was no longer going to carry the Paxton units, since they were the same as the Aeromotive anyway. And what Tony said about the fittings is correct. The tapered end of the fitting does need to be cut off for it to work right. The port for the fuel to flow in the FPR is near the top of the hole, and the longer fitting will block it off. A hack saw and steady hand will do the trick as well. You will need O-rings for the fittings to seat properly on the FPR also. [ 21 September 2002, 03:01 AM: Message edited by: Renner ]

From what I have seen Paxton = Aeromotive = SX if you are going with one of the common types. The only difference I have found with the three are the colors. The Aeromotive is red, the Paxton is blue, and the SX is black and red. The Aeromotive is on the VR4 and has worked fine so far. Here is a pic: http://images.cardomain.com/installs/160000-160999/160293_112_full.jpg I like this style because you can mount a gauge directly to it and it is easy to adjust. Also you have two ports for inputs, and one port for a return. So I have a line coming from each fuel rail to opposite sides of the regulator, the return comes out the bottom, which wasn't hooked up yet in this pic. Some of the HKS ones I have seen are basically just a stock regulator modified with an adjustment screw sticking out of it somewhere. Whether that is good or not depends on what your needs are.

With a loud car, I don't know if you would be able to hear the injector above all the other noise even with the stethoscope, unless you had some pretty loud injectors. Probably a stupid question, but have you already tried the three main tests for an injector first? I usually try unplugging the injector in question to see if it makes a difference in how the car runs. Next I would test the resistance and make sure it is within spec. And last I would try hooking a noid light to the harness plug, to make sure that your signal to the injector is correct. If you have an injector firing sporadically, I would suspect the signal, not the injector itself, if the injector has the correct resistance value, you should be able to see this with the flashes of the noid light. I am sure you already know this stuff, but I just figured I would try and offer some help. I don't think listening to an injector to see if it clicks is going to uncover something that the other tests wouldn't. Just my 2 cents.

Bleed and adjust the clutch pedal first. It is easy and can be done with the help of a friend. It sounds like your clutch is not totally dis-engaging when you depress the pedal, this happens as clutches wear out, and it would cause all of the symptoms you described. If it isn't slipping, it most likely just needs to be bled and adjusted first. How far off the floor does it first engage? How much free play do you have at the top of the pedals motion? If it engages very close to the floor, and you have a ton of free play at the top of the throw, it definitely needs adjusted and/or bled. Even if the clutch is a little worn out, this should at least help you be able to drive it someplace to get worked on without destroying your synchros.

I have done that kind of work with steel pipe, pre-made mandrel bends. Here are a few pics for example of how it turns out(all the black painted pipe in the pics). http://images.cardomain.com/installs/160000-160999/160293_2_full.jpg The 3" black pipe on the left side in this one looks so funny because it actually goes into the fender well just before that rubber elbow up top, then down to the turbo, to keep from having to make any sharp bends. One nice thing about steel is that you can use an arc welder and still do a pretty nice job. You can also take steel plates of varying thickness to make flanges and stuff, just like the blowoff valve flange in the second pic. http://images.cardomain.com/installs/160000-160999/160293_4_full.jpg You can also see the Venturi style 4" to 3.5" step down right after the cone. That is also steel pipe, it had just been bead blasted and was getting test fit before it's final paint. Those were two seperate pieces of pipe, there is actually a weld right where 3.5" steps up, but you can barely see it. It is not real difficult, but it will not look as pretty as the polished aluminum tig welded ones. So if you get an intercooler with end tanks already welded on, cutting and welding up the pipeing to run to and from it wouldn't be too bad. Almost all of that pipe was purchased from Napa as pre-shaped mandrel bends.

Swain high temp coatings would be my first choice. Jet hot hight temp coatings would be my second. Both have different levels and prices for their different coatings, but I have seen parts from both, and the Swain seems to be higher quality, although slightly more expensive. In such a tight space, I wouldn't go with the exhaust wrap tape that you can buy. It is known for holding in moisture and causing the things they are wrapped around to deteriorate very quickly.

Yes, many are just repackaged, notice the BBK package in the background of the second pic? We picked those up at Jegs for pretty cheap actually, they are really the Walbro 255 HO's. I don't remember the actual BBK part # though, but I could probably dig it up in Jeff's garage... One good thing about twin pumps, if one dies, you still have another to make it home on. We actually had the car running on only 1 pump for a while on low boost, because it was creating too much fuel pressure at the rails with both pumps, until we could get the return line fixed. I think that Bosch is a little bit better pump, but so far the Walbro's have seemed great, the Bosch is more expensive though I believe, and I don't think that they are as small as the Walbro pumps, making it a bit more difficult to fit 2 in one tank. [ 02 August 2002, 09:43 AM: Message edited by: Renner ]

Agreed, Tial wastegates are the shit, like this one : http://images.cardomain.com/installs/160000-160999/160293_30_full.jpg They are not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

You could also run twin in tank walbro 255 HO pumps, like these: http://www.columbusracing.com/pics/jeff/VR4pics/fuelpump5.jpg http://www.columbusracing.com/pics/jeff/VR4pics/fuelpump2.jpg Two -6 lines Tee into one main -10 feed line to the rails, a -8 would be plenty large though. At the rails the -10 main feed Tee's off into two seperate -6 lines again to feed both rails in parallel, not series like stock setups. A -8 is used for the return with a -8 bulkhead fitting drilled into the top of the tank. You would not have any problem with moving enough fuel with these, I believe we moved 2 gallons every 51 seconds in an unloaded flow test. In tank pumps last longer in a street car since they stay cooler. You will have to do a bit of fab work to make a good mount for them, but it's not that bad, the 255 HO's use their own pickup also as you can see in the second pic, but you will need to use a separate bulkhead fitting for the return line since I am sure the stock return will be too small.

Sorry, that is not correct. Even if you granny shift it, you can still ruin a clutch with a full power roll on, I have seen it happen, see above post for the reason. Obviously, the less power the car is making, the less problems you will have though.

The mating surfaces, flywheel to clutch disk, and clutch disk to pressure plate, are not all perfectly flat surfaces when they are new. So the actual surface area of the mating surfaces is smaller on a clutch that has not been broken in. So you are requiring the clutch to provide max force, aka static friction, with a reduced surface area to produce that static friction. Less surface area in contact means less friction. So you have a greater risk of ripping the clutch disk free even when the pressure plate is fully engaged. This basically smokes a brand new clutch, because all that kinetic friction once the clutch is spinning is just dissipated as tons of heat, causing all the surfaces to glaze over as Nick stated. Once you have that glazing, chances are the clutch will never have that level of friction again. The flywheel can be resurfaced to get rid of the glazed upper layer, but the clutch disk is porous just like brake pads, so it is difficult to get out imbedded impurities, which what glazing the disk really does since the extreme heat causes it to change states. I don’t see too many people resurfacing clutch disks either. After whatever break in period, the disk has seated as you mentioned, so your surface area is larger, and your chances of smoking the clutch and glazing it over are smaller. I have also seen cars abused at the track only minutes after installing the new clutch setup, and most have been fine. But it has been proven that the clutch will last longer if you are nice to it at first. Talk to the manufacturer to see what they recommend. That way if you smoke your clutch within the first 50 miles, they cannot blame you for improper break-in. I know that I don’t want to replace a nice new $400 clutch twice because I got impatient, I just don’t have that much extra $$ to spare. BTW, new brake pads on the track cars around the shop need to be “seated” as well to work their best, for the same reasons as a clutch, the mating surfaces aren’t perfectly aligned yet.

Sounds like it may be for the 1.8, I don't remember if they did have a smaller clutch or not, but I would imagine they did. Regardless, the flywheel mating surface is smaller then the mating surface for the clutch disk? That is definitely not correct, I would find a different flywheel. Edit: BTW, as I am sure you already knew, in 92 it can be a GS and still have either the 1.8L or 2.0L engine in it. Maybe the person you got it from assumed that all the GS's had the same engine and didn't pay close enough attention to the part numbers. [ 25 July 2002, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: Renner ]

Hey Brian, I just read your post. I think that everything we talked about over the phone pretty much covers it. Let me know about that other sensor info you get, and I am sure we can rig up something to dump fuel. One other option would be extra injectors, but that is more expensive of course, and since you said that your current injectors aren't at max duty cycle yet, we will have to see what we can get out of them first.

Burning coolant will eventually foul your plugs as well or cause a rough idle. You should inspect all the plugs after you inspect the oil to see if they have any signs of burning coolant. Check the coolant lines for the turbo, they leak more when the car is actually running from the extra pressure. It is possible that one is leaking pretty severely while the car is driving, and since they are close to a low point of the engine, it would do a good job of draining the whole system. A cooling system pressure tester is the best way to find leaks. You can rent them from Auto Zone for about $75 I think, refunded when you return it, just make sure that the kit comes with the proper adapters to allow it to be sized down for the neck size on your radiator. Check the cap first, the spring could be dead and letting the coolant flow out as soon as things get warm and pressurized, the tester kit should include an adapter to fit the cap as well. Just screw on the cap and see if it holds the pressure written on it. It is probably right around 1 bar (14.69 psi), but I don’t remember exactly what those caps are, could be .8 or 1.2 bar. The default size of the end on the tester is for domestic cars, and the DSM radiator neck like most imports is about half that size. You can pump up the system to about 15 pounds and watch the gauge to see how quickly it is dropping, and then look for where the leak is, fill the system up full with water first. But be sure that you do not over pressurize the system, the radiator cap is the pressure relief valve for you cooling system, and you just got rid of it when you screwed on the pressure tester. It is possible for the water pump to leak only when the car is running, and not just when the system is pressurized, if the bearings have taken a shit. So it would be leaking out of the actual shaft area, not just the seal around the pump. If the bearings were gone the water pump pulley should have some extra free play, and you would probably hear it making some noise. But you can't see the entire pump anyway since it is under your timing belt cover. But if it is just the water pump to block seal leaking, it will leak when pressurized, whether the car is running or not. You should be able to smell burning or at least hot coolant some as well, no matter when in the engine bay it is leaking from. So I would say pressure test it after you check the oil and plugs, if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, any normal repair shop should be able to do if for you.

Get a much longer breaker bar if you can get an angle on it, if you don't have enough room then you are stuck with the impact gun. You will be able to generate way more force with a 5 foot long jack handle then with the impact gun. If you can't get it to loosen with a 5-foot long jack handle slipped over a breaker bar, then I don't know what will get it off.