aidandj

iTrader: (5)

I also have an older efr. 2015 build date or something.

I'm going to try a turbosmart oil pressure regulator next.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

i lol'd

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

You may have a point Sav, haven't seen any other symptoms that would explain this behavior though. I need to pull the manifold off to do studs yet. I've been busy with work but I'll be tearing into it tonight a bit. I'm going to check the pcv and the usual suspects (valve stems for oil, coolant leaks, compression, plugs). Hopefully I have some answers tonight.

psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

I'm using a treadstone flanged drain though to the 5/8" silicone hose to what I think is a 1/2" NPT. My old steel core 6258, soviets warranty replaced turbo that he never ran, did have oil in the intake track during use and I attributed this to the K&N Filter I was using. My aluminum core 6758 is bone dry on the intercooler side; still using the same drain scheme and a k&n.

Both setups have used BE pumps with 1 shim. Both setups puff a bit of blue smoke from a long stop which I think might be the supertech valve seals.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

Man what a week, I'll be receiving the drain fittings and I have a drill+tap on hand so I should have the oil return switched over this weekend after I get the studs replaced which I am hoping is sometime Saturday. Looks like weather should be pretty agreeable, my only concern now is if I'll be able to get the drill/bit into the bay to hog out the hole. :-/

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

WAT.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

Time to figure out this plumes of smoke issue.

Pulled the plugs and did a compression check, all four came up consistently 110-115psi which while low (blame the cams) is CONSISTENT which for a motor with (around) 30k on it is pretty impressive. One of the main reasons I stick by this car. Next I looked at the plugs, no oil there and nothing out of the ordinary either. Looked in all four exhaust runners and the valve stems were bone dry though the runners had a little carbon on each. After that I reviewed the turbo's hotside and everything looked good there. Looking more and more like a drain issue.

While I had the turbo out I used some sockets to massage my heater core bungs round again. I really need to sleeve those spots..

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

Fittings came in the mail Friday, as well as my 59/64 drill and 3/4-14 tap. I proceeded to gauge things with the caliper and found both the Treadstone fitting for the turbo and the 12-10an adapter were the smallest parts (besides the hose ID) while the pan AN/NPT fitting was oversized but since I am JB Welding it, I went bigger as a precaution.

I proceeded to drill out the Treadstone fitting with a 1/2" bit, but found the sizing was still smaller than the turbo outlet so I stepped up to a 9/16" bit and matched the diameter to the turbo outlet. This left some meat on the lower section to maintain the O-Ring seating but it did press some material higher than the gasket surface as well as up on the end of the flair, so I filed that out and cleaned things up.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

Found a suitable drill and put a piece of hose over the bit. Greased things up and started drilling. Once I confirmed there were no issues with sizing and spacing with the pickup I finished drilling out the hole, greasing the bit and cleaning it many times. This caught nearly all of the shavings. Once punched through, I tapped the hole also greasing the fitting and re-tapped until i was satisfied with where the fitting ended up once torqued into place. I did nick the pickup with the end of the threads but noticed as soon as the tap made contact so there's only cosmetic damage.

I then poured half a gallon of mineral spirits into the hole via a 5/8" hose/funnel, drained the oil, ran the rest of the can through and gave it some time to drain. I then used 80grit to scuff the pan around the hole and on the fitting on the smooth section below the bolt flats. I mixed up some JB Weld and put it on the last 1/2 of the threads on the fitting and a thin film on the pan threads, threaded it on and torqued to a reasonable pressure, then added some more JB Weld to the rest of the fitting and some on the pan and left it like that overnight.

I then hit my exhaust manifold with a grinder wheel to flatten out the nut contact surfaces- the ceramic coating in combination with tight tolerances made several nuts not torque flush, leading to what I think caused the previous stud failure. I massaged the clearances on all of the affected spots, mounted the turbo but found the second stud back on top was slightly too long, so I trimmed it back a quarter inch. Re-mounted the turbo and torqued it down, installed the oil / water lines, added coolant. I then ran dino oil through the motor for about half an hour, drained it and added T6 back changing the filter along the way.

One complication though was that the drain hose interfered with the nuts to hold down the fitting. I was able to tighten down the hose leaving it juuuuust loose enough to get the bolts on and torqued and leaving enough room to turn the hose fitting just enough to get a seal. I'll be watching this one, but I don't think it will really be an issue since the line is not pressurized (normally). This is Treadstone's fault for not (apparently) taking into acocunt the fitting to accommodate the attachment hardware.

Today she's been running well, no oil burnoff, no leaks whatsoever so far either.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

So far after two days, there have been no leaks, no burning, no riff-raff whatsoever. I will check torque on the head studs tonight after it's had a few heat cycles. Gotta say, those studs and the copper plated nuts really do dress up at spot nicely and contrast well with the ceramic coating.

I am bummed though that the coating is flaking off so much in the most visible of spots though :(

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

In other news, I'm trying to decide between another set of the 245 Maxxis VR-1 or switching to the RS4 for my 15x9s..

psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

Do you have spares?

I think I may make a switch as soon as my VR-1's wear down, which is in quite a while. But they are just tough to beat for the cost on street duty. I was on the fence of picking up an additional set of wheels for non slick stickier tires for track days.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

I don't, my current set of VR-1s are close to wear bars on the back and the fronts are past the wear bars after rotating. They definitely lasted and that's with a trip to/return from FM to MN.

miataki

245 RS4s. I like them plus you can just drive over to TR and pick them up in town.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

^ I honestly had no idea there was a TR warehouse in town, I might actually just go through with this. I'm planning on putting on my new brakes before I mount any new tires though so I can bed in my new pads first. Trying to figure out how to best hook up the sport booster/MC first though.

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

Did it stop smoking?

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

I haven't had any smoking since I got things together, I haven't really pushed the car hard though because it's been raining here but so far things are smoke-free. If weather allows I'll hoon around this weekend and try to reproduce the issue. I suspect a few big pulls should work well.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

In between moving furniture and clothes from our apartment I went about upgrading my brakes over the weekend, got a great deal on a used TSE BBK and pads+ prop. Breakdown (lol) is such;

Sport MC and Booster
Wilwood Prop valve
11.75" rotors and Wilwood Dynalite calipers
10.9" sport rear rotors and calipers - Rotors turned to remove surface rust, 9.1mm remaining thickness.

Old front pads were due for a change, that's for sure. Since the front rotors were already bedded with Hawk HP+ compound pads, I picked up a set for the rears for the remainder of the season and will replace the rear rotors next season and resurface the fronts and switch the car over to Carbotech pads. The resurface job was done as minimally as possible to save thickness, I took some sandpaper and cleaned up and roughed out the small surface rust that remained.

A few things to note;

-The 3" heat shields contacted the rotor face around the tie rod end, these are 93LE ends which have a SLIGHT taper variance. After some persuasion with a pair of body hammers and some assorted tools, I rounded it around the end and ground down the material to get some clearance. Here's hoping things clear OK when heatsoaked...
-The braided SS lines I had worked with the sport calipers. Yay!
-The heat shield for the rotors in the back didn't clear the rotors either. After some heavy tweaking I made it clear.
-My HP+ rear pads didn't come with pad shims. The NA 1.8 pad shims were also too small, and Rock Auto doesn't carry rear shims- only fronts.
-Bending and flaring brake lines was relatively painless, I kept the old lines in the event of an emergency revert or if I don't care for the sport MC/booster. Gives me hope for putting in ABS for traction control

We get to bleed brakes tonight and finish buttoning things up. Can't wait to test this setup out.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

Started bleeding the lines last night with a vac bleeder to get things moving then moved on to manual bleeding and once we had pressure I found it had several weeping fittings around the MC and the IN side of the prop valve which took several adjustments before it all stopped leaking. The prop valve fitting had me worried but after a heat cycle it sealed nicely. After we got all the weeping fixed I cleaned up things and set the prop valve to 5-turns from full open and bled the brakes. The Wilwoods were interesting and I had to read up on the bleeding procedure and because of the angle of the driveway I had to open both sides of the upper bleeders to get a good bleed. The pedal feels great in the car now and just requires a little adjustment of the rod to move the engagement up the swing some as the pedal moves a good 1" or so before the brakes even start to engage.

I took the car out last night and broke in the pads, there was no squealing of the brakes whatsoever which is surprising from what I read up on the HP+ pads. The rear pads didn't come with shims either (RA doesn't sell them, either) but it looks like with the supplied grease there will be no issues. This morning there was no squealing either, just quiet cruising in to the office. Brakes engage much firmer now but also have more modulation too, I was worried the sport MC would not have enough force behind it but so far things are feeling good. The E-Brake adjustment allen was tightened down to contact/immobile wheel, then backed out 1/3. The Ebrake handle actually locked up the rears last night, something I was never able to do with my HPS pads on the stock NA rear calipers.

Overall, I like everything so far. I definitely need new tires soon though, especially with new brakes now. I'll have to play with the prop valve some this weekend and play with the CC actuator cable routing at some point.

Der_Idiot

iTrader: (2)

I ordered a pair of 3/8" check valves to put inline with my PCV catch can setup for a little added insurance. Should be here in a few days.