Build thread

[speedjunkie]

Well that's what I read in one of the groups on facebook. Someone else had the same issues and that was the suggestion. And I'm only pulling about 10 in/hg vacuum, so that leads me to believe that too. I did a compression test on Friday. I tested cold first, then hot. The cold test was in the 80s and 90s, the hot test was only in the 50s and 60s, which makes no sense because if compression was really that low I wouldn't even be able to start the car when it's hot and I have no issues hot or cold starting.

I put some ATF into both chambers and turned them over and let them sit for a couple hours. I would have let it sit longer but I was still working and trying to get things done. I started the car and vacuum was still around 10, so I let the engine suck in some seafoam on both chambers and it didn't change the vacuum aside from dropping it to 8 temporarily haha. I changed the oil back to 20w50 with Lucas additive and drove the car to Golden and back on Saturday and there was just a few drops in the oil catch can, although I do think it was still fuel. I need to drive it for several hours and check again.

Chris suggested using a mechanical boost gauge so I found my old one and hooked it up and it read 10 as well. He also suggested doing a smoke test and I did that but didn't see any smoke leaking anywhere. I'm thinking about trying a compression test again with my other rotary tester this time and seeing what it reads.

I was concerned about being able to inject seafoam into each housing since I had pulled the nipples out of the UIM, and usually I use a vacuum line on the nipples and let the engine suck out the fluid. Since I don't have the nipples anymore I thought that would be a problem but I barely got the nipple up to the hole and the engine sucked the fluid out in a stream haha. No issues there.

I swapped to Wagner street brake pads on Friday, per Andy's suggestion as a fix for my brakes locking up on the track. That swap was much easier than I anticipated haha.

Thursday night when we got back from Illinois I put the JP3 short shifter in, and it was super notchy at first. It did wear in over the next couple days and I love it. I also changed my brake booster hose a bit. I tried installing the Garage Alpha strut bar but it was hitting the fuel pressure regulator. I tried pulling the struts forward as far as possible and also bent the FPR up a little, but it was still hitting. I ordered a new style FPR mount from CJ Motorsports and got it yesterday but I discovered today that one wouldn't work either. It would actually make things worse. Here are the old mount and new mount.
2019-06-04_08-43-14 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I then realized I could use just the mount that came with the FPR. That allowed enough space, and one of the fuel lines almost touches the flanges of the UIM and LIM, but it clears enough to work.
2019-06-04_08-48-36 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
2019-06-04_08-43-51 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
2019-06-04_08-42-50 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
2019-06-04_08-44-21 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

Honestly, I'm a little concerned about the quality of this strut bar. The walls on the tubing is very thin, and it just seems flimsy. And it's about half the weight of my aluminum strut bar, which already wasn't very heavy.

I finally found my old leather shifter and ebrake boots the other day so I installed those today too. The frame for the ebrake boot has always been cracked and I tried to JB Weld it years ago but it didn't end up holding. This time I used a plastic welder and added some metal mesh to it, I think it'll hold.
2019-06-04_08-46-14 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
2019-06-04_08-45-59 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
2019-06-04_08-45-29 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I guess the next mods or fixes will be wiring in extra inverters on the gauge cluster so I can get the gauges a bit brighter, possibly adding a resistor to the tach wire (the needle stays at the same reading after the car turns off, but other needles do that too so I'm not sure if I need the resistor since it works well otherwise). And maybe I'll get the AC compressor rebuilt or swap it since it's getting warmer out haha. Ugh, I really don't feel like tackling that job though.

[speedjunkie]

I skipped right to the last thing and swapped the AC compressor tonight. I had gotten a newer one from a JDM engine that Dave bought and it uses R134, but I realized just before installing it that it uses different size fittings. Luckily I had three more R12 compressors to choose from so I swapped in the best one after cleaning it up. Of course I had to get a new belt and more o-rings, but it's working again! WOOHOO!! I think I'm going to get it leak tested to make sure it's actually holding.

I was trying to figure out the bushing situation to hold the hood up off the UIM and TB, and so far I had been trying rubber bushings from ACE Hardware and putting them into the holes on the new strut bar, but I hadn't found the right one yet. I was digging in my parts bins today and found the hood bump stops I had removed to install the hood pins, and they work perfectly. They snap right into the outer holes on the bar.

[Dwduc]

I also only pull about 30cm/hg at idle. Maybe altitude? I also idle at 750rpm where I see so many idling at 1000+. I might try bumping my idle and see what it pulls. Also were those results from the same tester that Kevin used and said his motor was borked?

Your hood touches your TB and UIM? Even with your shorter LIM?! Little bumpers will look good once you rub some armor-all on them!

[speedjunkie]

I had to do a conversion to verify that 30cm/hg is the same as 10-12in/hg haha. But yeah, I was wondering if it was due to the altitude also. Andy said altitude will have some to do with it but our readings are still low. Although when I press on the throttle it does raise quite a bit, so I'm wondering if you're right. I did adjust the bleed screw at the bottom of the throttle body to allow more air in and it didn't change the vacuum, but I didn't adjust the screw on the front, so I think I might try that and see what happens. Yeah, the compression test results were from the same tester. I'm not 100% sure that there wasn't spark on the lower plugs at the time, and I'm not sure if that would cause incorrect readings or not, but the tester does say to make sure the coils are disconnected as well. I removed both the green and yellow relays, but I wasn't sure if that would kill the spark too. I might go back and just unplug the coils to be sure. They're just somewhat difficult to disconnect with where they are. Anyway, I did wonder if maybe something happened to the tester or it's not reading right for some reason and maybe Kevin's engine is actually good. I need to contact him ASAP.

Yeah. I'm using the Bacon Racing oil pan which has a thick flange, and I'm using IRP engine mounts and they're just a little shorter than the Noltec mounts but they're supposed to be stock height, so it is sitting a bit higher than stock. I'm also using the Banzai trans brace which needs to have the engine around stock height in order to work, which is why I switched back from my really short Delrin mounts to the Noltec, which turned out to be too tall once I put the new oil pan in haha. It's been one crazy balancing act. I didn't know the GZ LIM was shorter. I guess I never looked at it. I never thought about rubbing armor all on the bumpers haha. I'm more concerned with the shortened life of the one over the turbo haha.

[speedjunkie]

I just tried adjusting the bleed screw again and the screw on the front of the TB, and neither changed anything. Back to square one.

I also tried pressing the throttle and it didn't change things like I thought it did.

[speedjunkie]

On the thread on 7club for the Garage Alpha titanium strut bar, I noticed their test fit car belonged to JP3 Motorsports (or one of the Poco brothers, rather), and they have insulation between the LIM and the heat shield. I asked them and they said it's insulation for stoves and fireplaces, things like that. I picked some up at Western Fireplace Supply for about $10 and used a portion of it. They told me it works great, and I can't believe I not only didn't think about doing something like this, but that I had the heat shield practically touching the LIM. That wasn't doing much good.
20190618_181244 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I've never been completely satisfied with the amount of light my gauges put out at night, so I pulled them out to wire in extra inverters with adjustment knobs because I was recommended to do that by someone else with these gauges and they have red lighting. It didn't work though. I even hooked them straight up to a battery just to be sure it wasn't my wiring. It had a little more output, but really not much, and no more than it already has with my current inverter.
20190618_190103 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

While I have the gauges out I plan to use an extension cable for the GPS so I don't have to leave it wired up. The way it current is, I have to disassemble the gauge cluster to plug and unplug the GPS cable into the back of the gauge. With the extension cable, I won't have to do that. I had already bought some, but as you can see from the pic below, they're the wrong ones. I bought SMA cables and I needed MCX. I ordered a couple different ones right then and there, and hopefully they show up before the track day this Sunday.
20190618_183723 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I've been meaning to make a solid mount for the radar detector. I tried a store bought mount for the rear view mirror, but it hung too low and blocked vision. I cut one from a thin piece of sheetmetal, although I'm afraid it won't be sturdy enough so I used some double sided body moulding tape to stick it to the windshield and it's actually mounted to the mount for the visor holder. I'm afraid that won't hold either though, so I imagine I'll need to make it out of a thicker piece of steel.
20190618_231454 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190618_231611 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190618_231639 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I also had an issue with the Pathfinder. I'd been having idling issues recently and they got really bad last Monday. It died on me coming back from getting food so my neighbor towed me back to the house. Apparently there is a typical issue of the idle air control valve failing and then sending too much voltage to the ECU and frying a MOSFET. I tested the IACV and it's bad, and I opened the ECU and it's definitely fried. I sent it off to a company that is coincidentally a few miles from my home town in Illinois. I got the new IACV today and installed it. Feels good to fix daily drivers too lol. It's just unfortunate that I didn't replace it before it fried the ECU, and costing me an extra $95. The IACV was about $95 shipped also.
20190618_172958 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

[speedjunkie]

I was testing some spare IACs I have so I can sell one and now the car won't run more than 5 seconds before shutting down lol. That happened on the very first one I tried, so I figured maybe it was just a bad one. So I swapped in another, no luck. I had loaded a new map on the ECU because Chris had made some adjustments to the water injection part, so I swapped an older map on there, no luck. I went back to my original IAC and an old map, no luck. I told Chris and asked him if this could be due to having the gauges removed and he said he didn't see why. That's the only other thing changed on the car at the moment.

He got back to me this morning to say that there is a 5 second trip on oil pressure, so if it's not seeing oil pressure in 5 seconds it'll shut down the car. The only thing I can think is that since the gauges aren't hooked up, for some reason the computer isn't seeing pressure.

Ugh, it's always something. So I'm gonna hook up the gauges and see if that fixes it.

[speedjunkie]

Looks like the issue was just with the gauges not being hooked up. Since the oil pressure gauge wasn't hooked up it wasn't powering the sensor and therefore the ECU wasn't seeing pressure so it shut the car down. At least I know that works lol.

[speedjunkie]

I took the car to PPIR on Sunday and had a pretty good day until the end, when I noticed the belt for the alternator and water pump was missing a rib or two. On the way home I heard a lot more noise from the belts and didn't think much of it until a bit later when I noticed I had no power steering. I thought maybe the alt belt pushed it off or something. Nah, the AC compressor froze up again and ate through the brand new belt. Both brand new belts, gone. WTF.

I noticed a while back (but I keep forgetting) that the alternator pulley is a little off when it's spinning. I thought it was just the pulley since it had been machined down and rewelded, so I put on a stock pulley. And that was was off too. I guess the shaft on the alternator is bent or something. I'm wondering if that's why I the alt belt keeps losing ribs. I did have success with the last belt for quite some time, but a few others have gone kaput.

I got the ECU back for the Pathfinder tonight and put it in. Still no start. Did some googling and saw that someone with the same problems mentioned a 10a fuse blown in the engine bay. Sure enough, that was it. I was about to lose it lol.

[speedjunkie]

I thought I posted about this already but I guess not.

I took three alternators to a shop to have them checked out; the IRP high output alt, a stock one and a remanufactured one I picked up years ago, and I also took three pulleys too; the Pettit rotor one, one that's a little smaller that I thought was stock, and an actual stock one that is the smallest. He tested the high output and reman alternators and said the high output one is putting out about 130a and the reman is putting out like 122a, and he said the high output alt shaft is a little messed up and contributing to the pulley wobbling, but using the stock pulley on it is ok (the rotor pulley is a little messed up too so it wobbles worst with that one). So I installed the reman alt and the stock pulley.

I took the compressors to my buddy Travis at Craig Auto and we picked out a good one. There's one good R12 compressor left out of the 4 I have haha, and the R134 compressor is good. We determined that the problems could be due to not flushing out the system after everything had been sitting for years, and/or having the system overcharged. I flushed out the whole system with brake cleaner and got a new dryer and condenser. Then I found a condenser that would fit a little better and be a cleaner install, but it's almost three times the price. I ordered it anyway, but it won't be here until Monday and 7s day is on Sunday. So I'm contemplating just waiting until I get the new condenser and HOPE that it works the way I want, and also remake a couple of the lines then too so it's a nice clean install.

I picked up a couple fan blades off an RX-8 at UPAP the other day, and I ordered the new motors for them from Ray Crowe but it'll be a couple months until they get here. The RX-8 fan blades and motor fit in the FD fan frame and I've heard they are more efficient, quieter, and use less amps. Also, the motors are about $63 each as opposed to the FD motors which are about $120 something each.

[speedjunkie]

I got the larger condenser and mounted it, but Chris convinced me to use an RX-8 condenser instead. I had picked one up from the salvage yard a couple weeks ago, along with the lines, but the mounting tabs are a bit too far out from the radiator so I'd have to make some crazy mounts for it. However, I'm thinking of cutting those off and making different mounts for it, at the corners, as Chris suggested. I'd like to make new mounts for the radiator anyway, and I think I'll combine the upper mounts for the radiator and condenser. The RX-8 condenser has the drier built in so that's one less thing I need to get, and it also simplifies the lines. Also, the low pressure line will go from the compressor to condenser along the driver's side, like usual, but the high pressure line comes out the passenger side of the condenser so it'll run down that side instead of having to come out the driver's side and cross over. This project is taking a good bit longer than I had planned. I still haven't decided for sure if I want to stick with the Industrial R134 replacement from Enviro-Safe or go with HC12 or ES12 or what. If anyone has any input, I'm all ears.

I started ripping the kitchen apart the other day, so the car is on hold for now.

[speedjunkie]

I got the new condenser a few days ago and got it mounted today. It was a bit more of a pain than I thought it would be, which kinda sucks but I made the mounts so that the dryer mounted on the condenser could be serviced without having to remove it. I might make the mounts more manageable later, not sure. I still have to make the lines and I had ordered reduced barrier hoses and fittings and aluminum lines in 5/16" and 1/2" and I'll have to get pieces welded or brazed when I get all the pieces. I'm just waiting on the 5/16" line now, should get here tomorrow supposedly.

I need to fix my passenger side door handle again, it finally gave up the ghost for good now. I'm not sure if I can weld it for strength or if I have to get a new piece, or if I can even get that piece separate.

[speedjunkie]

Over the last couple weeks I've installed the condenser and I made the lines the other night but I still need to get them brazed or welded together. I made some L brackets for the corners of the condenser. I'm not 100% happy with them, but they'll do for now. I'd rather have used allen head bolts on them too, but I couldn't find any at ACE that were short enough. They really need to be about 10mm if using rubber bushings, and even shorter if not. I tapped M8x1.25 nuts in behind the holes on the corners, they were tight enough to fit and make it so I didn't have to hold the nut while screwing in the bolt. I cut the stock mounts off because they were in the way of the IC when I install that, besides not needing them anymore.
20190723_104028 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190723_103808 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190723_113802 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190724_230042 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I bought some tubing in 5/16" for the smaller line (#6 size) and 1/2" for the larger line (#8 size) and I cut the fittings off the stock lines and was going to bend the new line and just weld the fittings on the end, but when I cut the fittings off and drilled out the centers, I realized they were somewhat one piece all the way through the part that bolts down. I wasn't sure how to weld the fitting onto the new line and then install it and make sure it didn't leak. So I decided to use the fittings with at least a few inches of the original line with it so I knew for sure it wouldn't leak. The smaller line was easy, and I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. I used the original fitting and a few inches of the line, and I had cut the pressure sensor block and one of the fittings off the original RX-7 line and I put the sensor block next, then used some of the aftermarket line and bent it to where I needed and then put the original 7 fitting on the end. The fitting that connects to the condenser is a little close to the front tow hook, but it's not close enough to touch even if it moves a little.
20190726_154658 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190724_230020 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190724_230102 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

The larger line though, I ended up not being able to use the original fitting and line because it was already bent so wonky that I couldn't re-bend it the way I wanted. Then I realized many other cars probably used these type of fittings so I could just find one from the salvage yard. I went to UPAP and pulled a line off several different cars to try. I think the winning one will end up being from a 2003 Toyota Avalon, and pretty much the same line is on early 2000s Toyota Camrys as well. But that's assuming the fitting actually works, because it's a little different than the stock RX-8 fitting. I don't see why it wouldn't work though. I didn't have to bend the larger line a whole lot, I made just small corrections. I'm taking the lines to Maxair in Denver to get welded and brazed, and I bought a crimp kit and reduced barrier hose and fittings so I can finish a couple of the lines myself.
20190727_175900 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190727_181222 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190727_181233 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

Here's the difference between the fittings. The RX-8 one is squared off and the Avalon one is champfered, but they're the same diameter and the o-ring is the same, so I don't see why it won't work.
20190727_154404 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190727_173954 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

I have to get these fittings welded on so I can crimp the new hoses in.
20190727_181432 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

[speedjunkie]

I took the lines to Maxair in Denver on Tuesday and picked them up Wednesday, for $200. YIKES. I feel that's a bit steep for welding on four crimp fittings and three points on a hard line, but at least they're done. I finished building the lines Wednesday night using the Mastercool crimp tool I bought and installed everything last night after I got some Ester oil with UV dye. I had to bend a couple lines a little bit more, but no big deal, and it's all installed perfectly I believe. I've decided to use R152a from keyboard cleaner cans. I did a good bit of research and it seems to be the best choice. I still need to put the system on a vacuum and charge it. I also had to build an extension harness for the pressure switch to mount it on the passenger side, and luckily I still had some connectors from Corsa Technic laying around.
20190731_231050 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190802_001749 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr
20190802_001806 by Eric Jausel, on Flickr

[speedjunkie]

I bought a set of gauges from HF and rented the pump from Autozone and put a vacuum on it the other night. I can only get it to pull 20" of vacuum and then it wasn't holding pressure when I shut off the pump, and that was so defeating lol. I even used my homemade smoke tester to see if the smoke would suck in where the leak was. However, I realized I was supposed to be closing both valves on the gauges and I was only closing one. After closing both, it holds vacuum for about 30 minutes at least, it's still only pulling 20" though and that's letting it pull for about an hour. My buddy said he only pulls 22-24" on cars at this altitude, so I'm close I guess. I tightened all the fittings on the gauges with channel locks just to be sure, and I tightened all the lines on the car too. I'm waiting for the oil injector to get here today to actually charge it, so hopefully I'll have good results by tonight.

I got the motors for the RX-8 fans yesterday. Now the search for the connectors so I can make some extension/adapter harnesses. I already contacted Corsa Technic and they don't sell that one but they're looking into it for me.