SHGWAG

So, Friday afternoon I discovered that not only did I have a PS fluid leak, but the block was also loosing water - UH OH. After fearing the worst, I let the car idle up to temp, them had a look through the engine bay, found water at the front of the block, but no sign of leakage. Step back 4 years to when the block was built, I took delivery of the block sans water pump & housing as I already had these. For some un known reason I skimped on buying a $7 gasket for the point where the WP housing bolts onto the block. This had now come back to bite me in the backside. After returning from Matamata near on 11pm, Rob & I pulled the front end apart, low & behold, the gasket goo used had failed. We cleaned the surfaces and all was set for the morning. Saturday morning after a stop in at the the local Mazda, new gaskets were in hand and the car was back together by 11am. Started her up and no leaks. Left the car in the garage and VTEC'd up to Meremere to watch some drifting. (Forum member Furai? was getting some sweet angle going in his MX5) Got back and took the car out only to find that when we disconnected the battery on Friday night, it had cleared all of the settings in the boost controller. DRAT. It was too wet to set it up again, with wheel spin occurring in every gear as soon as boost came on I decided to park it up for the day in lieu of putting it into a stationary object. I've re entered the boost settings and will test this, this afternoon if time & weather permit.

Is my plane OS?

Fuck, Stef and I will fly into welly and then V8 up with you of that's OK KK??

Paddock skids for kids. Will probably VTEC down for this then leave the car behind and car hop if that's ok with you guys?

So, I upped the boost to 15PSI today, and changed the duty cycle of the boost control solenoid. However, checking if this is working properly requires a 4th gear pull so I can keep traction and keep the engine under full load - not an easy feat on public roads. I'll test this on the weekend, this will confirm if it's indeed a boost issue, and if so, will up the boost cut to see if that cures things. I've just set it up as limited at roughly 15psi across the board atm, once back on the dyno, I can fine tune the controller to give me definitive boost control.

Ah, did this in my Brother's FD one Christmas day, speed cut down Victoria street (Pre speed bumps). Fuck we were idiots.

Yeah, he was hating on all things non rotary, which is funny, coz he owns a rice S15 faced S13 'drift car'....... Anyways, didn't touch the thing this week, but I've set aside Saturday morning to find the fluid leak (suspect power steering) and give the engine bay a degrease. I'll also get the boost issue sorted. I may then do a skid (on a 'closed road' of course).

I like this car, simply for its purpose and the massive effort you're putting into it. And even though it's ugly as sin, it's growing on me.

Both taken off vacuum ports on the intake manifold, 1 above the other. 1 port goes to ECU, the other port goes back to the dyno. Boost controller taken off port slightly further down the manifold, but was getting the same pressure read out as dyno. Reading the pressure off dyno printout & Boost Controller's built in gauge.

I'm in. Will bring the VTEC just for Evan.

Sweet, will look in to it this weekend.

Nope, but that had crossed my mind. How does one go about testing the MAP Sensor?

Yea, It's most definitely a boost issue, on the road I can drive it quite happily past where it was cutting on the dyno with low to mid throttle. Only when you hit 16psi does it cut, so I'm wondering what could be causing the issue. ECU's boost cut was set for 18psi so I'm a bit miffed as to what could be causing the cut. Rev cut on this engine is 8500rpm.

Nah, Demon put this block together. Balanced rotating assembly, but not dowelled (No need for the power I wanted). Yeah, the turbo is an old design though, if I forked out for a decent ball bearing turbo it would spool up faster. If I put a smaller exhaust wheel on it it would spool faster as well. Not sure what effect the porting has on the spool either.

Series 8 block, bridgeported. Masterpower GT37 Turbo with a .96 rear housing, makes 13 psi by 5 then creeps up to 16. Once I re set the control solenoid (it's set at a way low duty cycle) I'll up the boost to 15psi Which I should see by 5200rpm. A ball bearing turbo would spool faster, or a smaller exhaust housing, but with the way this thing revs, I didn't want it running out of puff as it comes 'on port'.

Today I got up semi early, fueled up the pig and headed for Auckland, to RX7 Heaven. Upon arriving we did a quick check of the car, and after tightening up the throttle cable and strapping it on the dyno, we were good to go. Immediately, even before starting the car, Tony picked up on a few things that were wrong with the set up of the ECU. Once these were fixed, he did a run, and netted 272wkw, but noticed there was an issue with it around the 6400rpm / 16psi Mark. So we swapped out the factory Mazda plugs, and swapped in some HKS racing plugs (Pricey at $80 a pop). However, on the next run the car netted over 290kw, but the issue was still there. So he fettled with it a little more, but no matter what, we couldn't get it to rev any higher.... With that I decided to call it a day. Here's a video of the last run, Managed to Net 301.7WKW at 16PSI at 6300ish RPM. So with that I headed home... Funny thing is, in the lower gears it'll rev fine past 6400rpm, making me think it's a boost issue. I can't recall what Map sensor is in this thing, or if the Boost Cut on the ECU was cutting in 2 PSI Early. Once I got home, I reviewed the dyno plots, and it seems like it's definitely a 16psi issue. Also, I found that I'd set the Boost controller for 13PSI and it was creeping to 16. So I'll up the boost solenoid duty cycle and see if it will hold a constant 15PSI. If so I'll take it back and finish the tune on the lower boost level and hopefully make moar power. To Review: Original tune: 2100rpm idle, 18psi? - 251kw, rich as, stuttered coming on to boost. 1 day to tune. 7 Heaven Tune: 1800rpm idle, 16psi 301kw, nice AFRs, smooth power right across the rev range. 2 hours to tune. The car is completely different to drive now, almost as smooth as factory if you over look the low RPM issues caused by the bridge port. If I can sort out the boost issue (whatever it is) and run 16 right the way through, 330wkw on 16psi should be achievable. (If it doesn't pop on the dyno) Hopefully I can upload dyno plot tomorrow.

Getting pinged for noise is my only concern on the drive up & back. However, this thing is loudest at idle (Due to the porting) When under load it quietens down quite a bit / Induction noise overcomes exhaust noise on boost. This thing actually gets quieter with revs. So If I do get pulled up the key is to turn it off while decellerating and just roll to a stop. (It worked last time I got pulled up with this exhaust on) I'll then wait for the cop to go on his merry way before firing it back up and leaving. Also, I've found that not wearing a flatpeak increases cop's respect for you 10000%

Nah, been wanting one for a long time. I should really buy Cam's Crown, but he's never given me a price, nor can I remember if it needs any work...

Stef's keen, thoroughly enjoyed last year. Just need an OS whip now......

Hmmm, FD diff should be ok, I've never had any issues with mine and it's in a much heavier car.

So on Saturday I changed the oil in this thing and swapped exhausts in preparation for the Tune on Thursday. Here is a comparison of my nice (albeit loud) 3 inch system compared to the cheap and nasty 2.5 inch system I used to pass a Cert: As you can see, the 3 inch has a lot better flow. Here's a current engine bay pic: It's not the tidiest, but it works. IC Piping needs a paint. I also washed the thing (although you can't really see it sparkle here): *Note the WOF sticker in the top corner of the windshield - it's current. Also, here's a picture of me Repping OS:

Yup, 100% Guy was like a computer nerd douche IIRC, toyspade fanboy or something? Can't remember but that's how much he sai he'd spent on it when I use to deliver the news paper to him in my early teens. His mate and an AE8* as well, with a silvertop in it, they used to wank on about how fast it was etc. Then my brother picked me up in his stock GTST and they creamed. (Circa 2001, when they were still expensive)

I remember when the old owner had this thing, said he'd spent $22k on it. Used to do sick burnouts when leaving his drive way. He also had an AE101 wagon lowered on 17s.

I remember when I first got the FD, when you popped the boot it would open the hacth by itself. Those days are now over

In that RX4 that you're gifting to me?