My new car!

yoojeankim · Postby **yoojeankim** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:14

sexy! grats man all that hard work

.. now get down here so you can retune my car lol

alpha · Postby **alpha** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:14

VRx8 wrote:Yesssssss! Dude WTF is that rattling noise lol.

Wow! It was a little loud at the front of the car, but I can't believe how much the camera mic picked it up! It even drowns out the fan which was setting less then a foot away! lol!

At the time I was pretty sure it was either the alt, water pump, or CAS ring. I knew it wasn't majorly critical, but it needed some attention. That's why I kept wanting to "kill it"! Haha

Motor runs nice Dave... WELL DONE!

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

Thanks for all the comments, guys!

Eric, I made some adjustments to the map for the porting change and Id say it worked. It idles just a tad high around 1000rpm so I'll bring that down as well.

I'm going to get the bumper bolted on today and take the car for a quick spin around the block, with no hood on haha.

speedjunkie · Postby **speedjunkie** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

Oh that explains it. I was wondering if you made some changes to the map pre-emptively.

Don't feel bad. When I got back from the desert in 09 and got my car out of the shop, I ran around with no hood or front bumper for a bit lol. I think I had the front fenders on there but I don't remember for sure haha.

SecondGenPAt · Postby **SecondGenPAt** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

Congratulations Dave! I know the feeling of a successful startup after you've put that kind of work into a car. Well done.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

Thanks Pat!

Soooo, got home from work today in full anticipation of dropping the FD off the jack stands and driving it around the neighborhood. Apparently, the FD had other plans...as usual...

There was AT LEAST a quart of oil under the car, all on the driver side of the engine and towards the back of the engine. I crawled under and looked around- oil was on the oil pan-engine seam and 2 studs. I wiped it off and it doesn't appear to seeping from the oil pan gasket. I then saw some oil on the front rotor housing and the center iron..shit, this better not be a cracked iron!

I wiped the oil off and looked again...didn't see any visible cracks or oil seeping from between the housings and irons. I DID find some oil from between the engine and transmission...this better not be a rear main seal! It's brand new and I know it was installed right.

So I decided to start it up and see if I could find it when the system is pressurized. She fired up right away and within 60 seconds I had 1-2 tablespoons oil in the same spot as before, so it was a pressure leak and leaking quick. I finally spotted some oil from the turbo oil feed fitting, and a good amount.

I shut it off and pulled off the turbo oil feed hose and removed the fitting, put new Teflon tape sealant on the metric side of the fitting and screwed it back in the block good and tight. Re-connected the turbo oil feed hose and fired her up (started right away, again) and I let her idle for a solid 8 minutes and I saw no oil! Pretty sure I had fixed it at this point.

I put the FD on the ground for the first time in a while...wow this car is low haha!! I pulled it into the driveway...it ran under it's own POWWWWWAAAA!!! I let her idle in the driveway for a few minutes and checked for leaks...looked dry.

I pulled out of the driveway and on to the road, gas it a little gas and I heard a VERY loud and strange noise. It's really difficult to describe...it sounded like a very high frequency/pitched tuning fork almost, and it got exponentially worse as I tried to drive the car. The noise started at around 3-5mph, hardly moving. Great...put it in reverse and back in my driveway and I let her idle some more. I revved up to 4500rpm or so and I'm pretty positive the noise isn't engine related.

Parked her in the garage and noticed a large leak spot on the driveway where it was idling...ahhhh!! This time it is coolant though, on the drive side of the car again. I've been looking around but I'm not sure where it is, I think it's the heater hose on that side but I'm not sure. The FD sat in the garage for an hour and I checked the floor again- no coolant but now 2 quarter sized drops of oil under the car, again, from between the engine and trans...agggghh!

So for now, the FD is sitting in the garage while I try to contemplate this. The leaks are one thing (as long as it isn't the rear main seal or a crack), but the high pitched noise while driving is driving me crazy. I thought it could be brakes, but I doubt it. I checked the rotors and they look good. I wonder if the driveshaft could be contacting the exhaust system? I didn't do anything at the rear end other than the fuel filter bypass. The transmission was rebuilt 8,000 miles ago or so. This really has me puzzled...

Sorry for the long post haha

SecondGenPAt · Postby **SecondGenPAt** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

chickenwafer wrote:There was AT LEAST a quart of oil under the car, all on the driver side of the engine and towards the back of the engine. I crawled under and looked around- oil was on the oil pan-engine seam and 2 studs. I wiped it off and it doesn't appear to seeping from the oil pan gasket. I then saw some oil on the front rotor housing and the center iron..shit, this better not be a cracked iron!

I wiped the oil off and looked again...didn't see any visible cracks or oil seeping from between the housings and irons. I DID find some oil from between the engine and transmission...this better not be a rear main seal! It's brand new and I know it was installed right.

Make sure it is not the oil pan. I know you said it's not, but I fought this for 3 damn days and 4 remove/installs to finally fix it.

chickenwafer wrote:I shut it off and pulled off the turbo oil feed hose and removed the fitting, put new Teflon tape sealant on the metric side of the fitting and screwed it back in the block good and tight. Re-connected the turbo oil feed hose and fired her up (started right away, again) and I let her idle for a solid 8 minutes and I saw no oil! Pretty sure I had fixed it at this point.

Please do yourself a favor and remove the teflon tape. Use flange sealant, hylomar, locktite, rtv, or whatever. Teflon tape has this fantastic ability to rip apart and get stuck between oil clearances.

chickenwafer wrote:I pulled out of the driveway and on to the road, gas it a little gas and I heard a VERY loud and strange noise. It's really difficult to describe...it sounded like a very high frequency/pitched tuning fork almost, and it got exponentially worse as I tried to drive the car. The noise started at around 3-5mph, hardly moving. Great...put it in reverse and back in my driveway and I let her idle some more. I revved up to 4500rpm or so and I'm pretty positive the noise isn't engine related.

sounds like a rusty rotor or a backing plate rubbing a rotor

Let me know what you find
-Pat

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

SecondGenPAt wrote:Make sure it is not the oil pan. I know you said it's not, but I fought this for 3 damn days and 4 remove/installs to finally fix it.

I'm also positive it's not. I used the Right Stuff sealant and a Banzai brace and stud kit. Plus, it was a lot of oil, I would guess it would be a large leak.

SecondGenPAt wrote: Please do yourself a favor and remove the teflon tape. Use flange sealant, hylomar, locktite, rtv, or whatever. Teflon tape has this fantastic ability to rip apart and get stuck between oil clearances.

I originally used APR thread sealant and it leaked horribly. I might try something else, do you have a better recommendation?

SecondGenPAt wrote: sounds like a rusty rotor or a backing plate rubbing a rotor

Let me know what you find
-Pat

Thats what I originally thought too. All the rotors look clean, though. I can spin the wheels freely by hand. It's VERY VERY high pitched, I've never heard anything like this before from a car.

Thanks for the help! This is really frustrating

SecondGenPAt · Postby **SecondGenPAt** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:14

flange sealant for the oil line. (it is a thick anerobic sealant)

the squeal still sounds like a brake component. but if I remember correctly, there is that stamped steel output seal protector on the trans that may be rubbing the driveshaft. If possible, try to locare the general area of the noise. That would really narrow it down

VRx8 · Postby **VRx8** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:14

any updates?

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:14

Not yet. I worked later and when I got home I mostly focused on cleaning out the garage. I fixed the coolant leak which I believe was coming from the heater hose on the driver side, which resulted in a large coolant spill on my garage floor haha.

So today I cleaned that up with some kitty litter and then figured I might was well clean out the rest of the garage. Hauled out a bunch of trash and swept up the dirt and stuff. I've been trying to imagine what the high pitched noise is, for now, I'm drawing a blank.

eliminster · Postby **eliminster** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:14

Sorry to hear about your complications near the end of your build hope you get it all figured out and its a good thing you cleaned your garage makes it easier to work then.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:14

Got home and put the FD up in the air on all fours. Spun each wheel and heard nothing unusual. So I put the trans in neutral and spun one of the rear drive wheels so the driveshaft would spin...yup, the driveshaft is rubbing on the rear of the mid pipe resonator. This stupid downpipe fits like shit so the rest of the system suffers. Now I need to look at getting either this POS downpipe to fit correctly, or just get a whole new downpipe made.

On a positive side, I'm pretty sure all my leaks are sorted. I saw only a small drop of coolant on the garage floor today and when the FD was in the air I wiped down the subframe directly above the leak spot, and sure enough it was wet with some coolant. I looked around again and didn't spot any leak points.

Finally, my parting picture. This is what happens when you have a super stiff FD chassis, only 3 jack stands haha:

eliminster · Postby **eliminster** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:14

nice work on fixing the leaks, and figuring out your problem with the exhaust and drive shaft. I think you should just get a new downpipe but that is because you can't skimp on an fd that is that nice. Also fc's do the same thing on 3 jack stands.

chickenwafer · Postby **chickenwafer** » Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:14

Thanks, yeah, I think I'm just going to make a whole new downpipe. Trying to hack this one up to fit properly will probably end up being more trouble than it's worth so it would be nice to start fresh.

I really want to do a 3.5" or even a 4" downpipe, but the cost differential between those and just a standard 3" downpipe is kind of stupid. It's nearly double the cost...but I know it would be better.

My new car!

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