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All is well, I still have some things I need to do but am just focusing on more maintenance stuff at the moment. It's cold out, car is in winter mode and now I have a squeaky bearing somewhere either idler pulley or water pump.
Picked up a spare head, may have it built up a bit more than current and will likely do some probing as to engine health before fully embracing flex fuel.
All is well, I still have some things I need to do but am just focusing on more maintenance stuff at the moment. It's cold out, car is in winter mode and now I have a squeaky bearing somewhere either idler pulley or water pump.
Picked up a spare head, may have it built up a bit more than current and will likely do some probing as to engine health before fully embracing flex fuel.
Right on. Sounds fun. I forget sometimes that the rest of the country gets actually cold. The weather in California today is low 50's and a bit of showers here and there lol.
So it's been a while since I've pampered Smurfette. I need to change the water pump because the bearing is making a screeching noise. Just planned to do a timing belt job out of it. Dammit. If weather permits, I may try to tackle some fuel related activities. I need to get new O-rings for injectors and clean up some wiring over all. Also I really need to try to get my knock sensor working. I also bought a sewing machine. Take that as you will. I'm trying to finish some upholstry projects particularly the package tray since the new roll bar has left gaping holes where old carpet used to be. Still have that quilted material on hand.
Action Items:
Water pump/Timing Belt
Re-mount fan to the passenger side
Oil Cooler
Under tray + Ducting
Clean up spark/fuel wiring
FM Fuel Rail
Flex Sensor
New Throttle Body
Tighten things down that may have rattled loose
New parcel shelf cover
Coolant Re-re-re-route. This meziere housing for the M-Tuned kit pisses me off. TheBandit's stuff is going on my spare head.
Anyone know if there's any benefit or reason to do the disputed "Big Three" upgrade or should I just refresh existing grounds?
So a couple weeks ago, I tried to replace my waterpump and timing belt only to be held up by the crank bolt. I couldn't hold it tight enough to loosen it without it slipping teeth on the timing belt. Took to a local tuner shop who had it done for $500 including a diff fluid change. Now with 100% more 36-2 trigger wheel!
This past Saturday had been so nice, I took the opportunity to rewire the knock sensor, spark and injector C/D and found one of the vvt solenoid wires got chewed through rubbing against the intake manifold. Im happy now the SADFab wires will be run in the proper order. Success!
At this point I had the upper plenum off the car to correct the issue and decided last minute to throw the FM fuel rail on. Unfortunately the bolts where too short and I may have fucked some stuff along the way because some major compression of the injector cushions was required before the rail would seat on the spacers. I wish I knew this before and got some longer bolts with flow force injector spacers. Despite the rail being tweaked a bit, it's not leaking.
Finally got to install the fuel pressure regulator using a Bandit made mount. I removed the catch can to mount all the flex fuel and fuel filter bit, now I have to find some real estate to rerun the catch can as it's just VTA.
Lastly buttoned up the upper plenum with a Powdercoated one I had on standby that I ported for a skunk2 throttle body.
Tonight I'll tie in the flex sensor wiring on the ms3x harness (thanks Brain and Aiden for answering some questions).
Action Items: Water pump/Timing Belt
Clean up spark/fuel wiring
FM Fuel Rail Flex Sensor
New Throttle Body
Re-mount fan to the passenger side
Oil Cooler
Under tray + Ducting
Tighten things down that may have rattled loose
New parcel shelf cover
Fix Coolant Leak after thermostat housing
Find a new home for the Oil Catch Can
Install new Oil Press/Temp, EGT, Wideband/Flex gauges
Flex sensor wiring + e85 tune!
Build spare head and check engine health via leakdown.
Last edited by psyber_0ptix; 03-27-2017 at 10:19 AM.
There is an unused plug that goes to a purge valve, white/red which is jumped back to the ecu for switched power, then yellow/red that is vacant on the ms3/ecu harness. If I can just use the common ground on the block, I'd barely have to extend any wires for power and signal.
So just so to record panic, I had a scare today. Car wouldn't start and the composite log plotted no triggers. Turned out to be a loose plug of sorts. Whew.
Because I took the day off, and the day was half done, I changed my knock sensor to try to get it working in time for a re-tune in three weeks. This was strange because I really didn't want to pull the tee off the oil port. I'm stubborn but I don't feel good popping npt fittings on and off so many times. I removed the oil warmer and had to wrench it with a 24mm in infinitesimally small increments. It's in, but I worry not tight enough. It's as tight as space will allow. Inspecting the old one, the insulation had been eroded and it was all sorts of frayed. I can't wait. This is the first time my car has had a "working" knock sensor. Time to log and see if it's too good to be true.
I still need to check somehow if the flex sensor is functioning. I tested continuity from the ECUplug/MS adapter and it checks at least across that interface. I found the ethanol content gauge in Tuner Studio and flipped the flex sensor on, but it only read 1%. Perhaps this is true since pumps advertise it ~may~ have up to 10%? Any other way to ensure the flex dingle is working? ****, maybe I should try for fuel temp.
Spare head has been sent off for rebuild. Changed the oil. I guess nothing else new.
Action Items: Water pump/Timing Belt
Clean up spark/fuel wiring
FM Fuel Rail Flex Sensor
New Throttle Body Flex sensor wiring
Install new Oil Press/Temp, EGT, Wideband/Flex gauges
Oil Cooler
Under tray + Ducting
New parcel shelf cover
Fix Coolant Leak after thermostat housing
Find a new home for the Oil Catch Can
DYNO TIME + E85
So that question had a quick solution. The Innovate ECF-1 gauge does not power on no matter what. I even tried running on a separate relay direct to the battery. Nope. It's being sent back to Innovate for warranty. I will not be using an analog input for the percentage, but maybe for fuel pressure if it ever works.
So that gauge package came with a 13577429 flex sensor (still installed) but I had one dedicated for megasquirt which is the 13577379. I harvested the wires that where left over from the purge valve, one white/red which is tied to the ECU for 12V, and then the yellow/red for signal. This was why I asked you about whether or not shielding was required. I grounded to the same ground on the head as the ECU. The purge valve wire has been populated to the flex input as it was unused on the ms3x harness.
Used the same feed through as Sav, because they are awesome. Wired up a relay using 12 gauge wire, but I opted to use the DW300. Everything worked out well.
Had a pin hole coolant leak so I replaced a section of hose. Tried to tidy up the fuel lines and allow space for the catch can to be remounted.
The aeroquip socketless AQP hoses on the turbo showed signs of cracking, the oil line was actually pushing off the barb a bit. Replaced them with some stainless lines and bled the system. I'm tired, but today was ultra productive.
So today I go to answer your question Aidan, and after priming (~44psi) the needle just drops to 0. When running, the needle is at around 42psi. Car drives but I don't dare push it as I don't have a pressure sensor on the line to know if it's starving up top if it's even doing anything referencing pressure. Did I break my regulator?
Last edited by psyber_0ptix; 04-10-2017 at 02:52 PM.
02-06-2017, 07:17 AM
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