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LH2.2 Tuning For Non-Volvo Installation / X1/9 Dallara + K24 Swap

I noticed the intake didn't look standard.

Based on your specs, the 220 mark sounds like 220 at the wheels, which even in a 3000 lb box can be a lot of fun. Good choice.

I like the addition of air conditioning as well, btw.
 
I noticed the intake didn't look standard.

Based on your specs, the 220 mark sounds like 220 at the wheels, which even in a 3000 lb box can be a lot of fun. Good choice.

I like the addition of air conditioning as well, btw.


I used a (modded) 850 ancillary mount plate to make that work - the compressor I bought years ago to go in my V70 wagon before I killed it

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I'm going to have to custom build the AC lines off the compressor, there is so little space

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I'm adding an accumulator / orifice tube system - the (740 style) accumulator will go in the cavity on the right where I cut out a sheet metal filler panel.
 
Frame mods

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850/x70 fuel filter

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V70 Fuel pressure pod & lines (eurospecsport adjustable FPR)

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making a V70 clutch master work

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740/GM accumulator mod

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Forgot - I also did this to my C30 over the summer

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Drivetrain back in

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Modified brake lines to run outside the engine bay, used the CEIKA flex hoses from my old V70AWD

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Suspension all back in, my custom Coilovers (Bicknell sleeves, VW Tubes, Bilstein inserts) Acura integra swaybar, Volvo C30 end links

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Car back on the ground, moved it into the garage for the rest of the work, too cold to work outside now

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Hooked up the heater & tank hoses, TB & intake hose ( from 760 B280)

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Using a Volvo/VDO 5bar oil pressure sender to feed a fuel pressure guage in the dash

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Had to rework the header I made to clear the rear crossmember, next I have to weld the collector & build the rest of the exhaust

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Finsihed up the AC compressor lines

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Ran new 0 gauge battery cable back to the starter feed - holesaw new opening for larger cable

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smaller gauge to feed the stock fusebox/relay panel

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Modified throttle lever & custom cable setup

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soldering barrel back on after determing correct length

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cleaning up the tunnel now the throttle cable & battery cables are run

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more AC work to do

remove expansion valve

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add orifice tube, remove receiver/drier

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Building the exhaust. Took the resonator off an S40 AWD exhaust, and the hangers.

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Finished up the water passage outlet, V70 t/stat neck

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Finshed the adaptor housing and Volvo C30 t/stat housing install

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Stainless Works (2.5" 4"x8"x14" body chambered "Turbo") muffler arrived this morning.

Got it welded to the I/O pipes I had made for the Magnaflow muffler, with a little adaption due to the difference in muffler dimensions.

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Seem to have good clearances all around. I'll see what happens when it's operating on the road.

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Have to cut the tailpipe & add the RedTail SS tip. Not going to do that until the car is down & level so I can be sure the extension/offset is right.

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the fact that it's not level is somewhat of a bother - however, not enough to compel me to rework it.

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With that out of the way , I started in on all the wiring that needs to happen. Took care of all the rear deck wiring

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Next I'll do the relay wiring in here for the starter & bay fan, then move to the trunk for the ECU /EMS management wiring. Not really looking forward to that. Problem is I don't have a concrete plan on how best to lay it out.
 
Finally had a breakthough in terms of having a direction for the ECU, bus bars & relay box layout. Slow day at work, so I did some sketching to figure it out. Was thinking along these lines (in the left cavity, vertical strip on the right being the left frame rail):

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played around with some cardboard, and then made the aluminum version (used the neighborhood watch sign). Recessed to keep the ECU as far in the fender well as possible. Bolted to inner wheel arch and taillamp support.

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Then I figured out the support for the relay box, and the bus bars

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template:

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cut & folded, rivnuts to secure the relay box & bus bar. Pos bar will go to the right

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anchor at the base - using the bolt that also secures the exhaust hanger plate

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Now I can get on with the actual wiring, once I get back from visiting my daughter & grandchildren in Orlando.

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That "old school" trouble light brings back memories...... I know I've got burn scar tissue from the years of usage of a similar that Dad bought me for Christmas!

Nice fab work on those control system mounts......
 
That "old school" trouble light brings back memories...... I know I've got burn scar tissue from the years of usage of a similar that Dad bought me for Christmas!
Nice fab work on those control system mounts......

Thank you. Yeah, have to be careful with the metal cover on the lead light - I've singed myself before also :D

Made a throttle pedal return spring using a 240 pedal spring. With the cut down pedal lever arm, the TB spring is not strong enough by itself to give positive return of the pedal

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Re-installed the repaired carpet from the '82 parts car. Still more wiring to do in the cabin before the seats, etc., go back in.

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Put eyelets on the Pos/neg cables that will feed the bus bars. Routed like this, the whole assembly can be installed/removed as needed with the cable attached.

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Painted the relay box/bus bar support, and started on the wiring to the relays. All the switching triggers (pin3, 'ground' leg) need to go to the EMS/ECU harness. Since I want to be able to unplug and remove both this and the EMS harness independently, I'm going to add a connector for all the trigger wires rather than pin them directly to the relay box.

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I got the relays wired today, and the two connectors to allow it to be unplugged & removed as a unit

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6 pin TS 090 for the signal wires & 6 pin JPT for the power/ground feeds

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Have to figure out where some of the wires need to go that aren't part of the ECU "E" & EMS C201 connectors. Tomorrow I'll get the other relay box that lives in the spare well that feeds the starter & the Bay fan circuits wired.
 
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Added another relay to the trunk relay box for AC clutch engagement. Not sure I can use the ECU AC Clutch relay & fan relay signals. Looks like the setup uses CANbus signals from the HVAC control head to switch those two signals to ground for relay engagement. Just going to wire it using the original AC clutch feed as switched power to the relay, in case I can figure out a way to use the EMS grounding later on.

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ECU fan idea

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plastic-welding the duct support - outside - the vapors really smells bad

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I have about 3" depth at the bottom corner in the well

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primed and painted the bracket

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EPDM hose I bought from McMasterCarr years ago

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Hose will go through the inner fender gap to the gas tank side opening & will attach up top. 240 vacuum cannister is for my (740) heater valve

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gap (parts car) that the hose has to push through

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Fan

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PWM controller

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finished duct plate - lips on the left & bottom to clip it in place. Duct is cut from S40 floor vent

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top of plate tucks under vacuum cannister support bracket

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Still plugging away at the electrical wiring - laying out the EMS harness now that I have the various connections figured out. I made an bridge harness (using the pigtail that came with the motor) between the ECU E, C201, relay box and EMS, so that everything can be unplugged if/when the drivetrain requires removal.

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Now it's mostly just a question of connecting all the dots. AMP JPT connectors for much of this, simply because I have them from old Volvo harnesses & they can carry reasonable load. Using Yazaki 1.5 & 2.8 for sensors, signal wires, etc. that don't have the same load requirements.

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Also putting a couple layers latex on the backside of the remaining Bertone floor mat to help hold it together & create a rubberized layer. Adheres nicely into the mesh grid on the back. Now I wish I had kept the DS mat - I might have been able to save it with this method. Just need it to last another year or so until I'm ready to install the new carpeting & mats.

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Got some more of the EMS harness connected - these are all the signal/trigger wires that pass from theater-engine EMS harness through to the cabin via two connectors at that end. I bought these crimpers from Cycle Terminal back when I was doing the C30 AWD swap - to take care of the wiring needs for that.

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There are issues - I found that I had incorrectly connected a wire on the cabin side of this harness - the one I need for the bay fan thermoswitch I mistakenly connected to the wire intended for the ACfan trigger - which runs all the way to the fusebox instead of terminating in the spare well. I'll have to switch some wires around in the cabin-side connector to address that. Thankfully it's just the that pair.

This stuff takes me forever. I've been spending days on making the wiring charts listing the different connectors and all the wiring on each side of every connector. I have to do it multiple ways so I can cross-check each wire as I actually connect it to the appropriate housing. Very time consuming for me. I tend to get dyslexic with this stuff & switch pin numbers/locations in my head or look at the housings from the wrong side when counting pin numbers. The convention seems to be pins are numbered starting top row left, viewed from the wire side of the housing. Some of the sketches I made, I had labelled them viewed from the terminal side or from the male housing, which throws everything off. Fortunately I figured most of that out on paper rather than after doing the wiring itself.

I've also been mulling over whether or not to include the ELD (Electronic Load Detection) circuit Honda builds into the EMS. The ECU controls Alt output based on a load signal from that. If I didn't include it, I would still have to figure out a way to 'fool' it otherwise. I chopped up the Acura fusebox & removed the section that houses the input battery/starter/alt cable attachment, with the ELD module. I considered mounting it in the spare well, which would have been easier, however the unit needs to monitor load before any consumers, or it won't operate correctly, based on what I've read about it.

I bent the left tab flat & cut off some extra material to leave two flats I could drill for studs

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ELD module I/O to be addressed. For the trigger, I'm going to use the wire I had intended for the acfanrelay, since I've already run that from the trunk through to the Fiat fuse panel, so an easy extension out to the frunk from there. Other two are just switched power & ground.

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it will go between the battery cable & my inline fuse

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looks like it will be OK. Will need some sort off insulation/isolation on the underside of the left left for safety.

I shoved the duct hose into the inner fender, and found that the most I can get is about 14" forward - there is an reinforcing member below the targa sail that intersects with the inner fender & blocks further passage. Should be OK, still will be drawing air coming from either the gas tank well side opening or from the targa sail vent, I reckon

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The latex seems to be working for fixing the mat backing.

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It's holding the frayed edging nicely.

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Found I hadn't discarded the driver's mat, so I'm going to try the same for that. I'll add reinforcing webbing to the damaged sections of the backing, and laminate that into the backing.

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Test fitting the CEIKA brakes.

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problem is the calipers won't clear either wheel style without 24mm spacing. I need them to redo the brackets and the hubrings to push the calipers back 12mm. I can deal with 12mm spacers, that won't mess with the wheel arch /fender clearance.

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Worked on the EMS wiring after that. Finished the final connections to the harness. The I/O for the reverse lights & brake input were the last

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putting it all in place

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bracket, canister & ECU fan & duct secured

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ECU in

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Relay box in

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Much wiring stuffed into this corner

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Soon I'll get to this mess. That & the ELD circuit and I should be done with wiring, thank goodness.

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Worked on figuring out exactly what needs to be altered with the BBK. 14mm pushback on the rotor hub, with the bracket moved to the backside of the spindle mount - with that I can get away with 12mm spacer for the wheel, which works for both style wheels.

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bracket needs caliper mount holes moved 4mm outward, with bracket mounted inboard. I cut 4mm off the inboard side to achieve that with the existing mount

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rotor still clears the balljoint & steering arms on the spindle

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Caliper clears the wheels

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After that I installed the ELD unit and worked on the spare well relay box & wiring

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added the ground circuit junction

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Finished the 8 pole spade bridge connector

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only the OBDII port left now.

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ELD circuit wired to this point. Just need to figure out a feed that is not live in crank

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reconnected the battery - nothing caught fire or turned itself on, so it's looking good - so much wiring I wasn't sure I wouldn't have an issue

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reverse lights are fed from the ECU, they work

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Only thing I see is that I have the trigger for the ECU fan connected to (30) feed instead of (15) - it's not supposed to be live with key off.

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Have to get some gasoline, check the fluids, and then crank it over & see what's what :)
 
Engine wouldn't start - no ECU activation. Though it might be an immobilizer issue, but it turned out I missed wired the ECU base feed from the main relay instead of the fuel pump relay switched circuit.

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replaced the 6-pole with a new 10-pole housing to make room for the extra wire

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with the extra wire from the F/Pump relay feed fuse to E9 circuit it's all good! Ran it for just long enough to set the fuel pressure to 50psi and that was about it.

https://youtu.be/uY6dsARp0lg

Only ran it for some seconds - the garage had to be wide open at both ends as the hose would stay on the exhaust. Have two minor cooling leaks (water housng gasket I didn't bother changing, and pin hole in heater hose off T/stat exension housing) to address. No oil or other fluid leaks that I could see :D

Tach works, etc. Have to set some parameters in K-Tuner, as the idle surged after start idle mode. I read that the TPS has to be calibrated in the software, so need to look into that.

ODBII port is wired

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Used a S40 wheel arch liner to make a cover for the EMS wiring

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secured with one plastic rivet

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I'll cover it with carpet

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made a couple extra heat sheilds from some extra material from the S40

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Have to add one more sheild for the rear body panel

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reworked the heater hose feed elbow, it was sticking out too far & causing the heater hose to hit the shift linkage

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all good now

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Got all the drivers properly installed - had to reinstall the app with the ECU connected & powered for it to work

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changed the injector sizing, but didn't realize the dead times had to be manually set - this is the stock 310cc times

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After taking care of the cooling system I started & ran the motor for maybe a minute, and saw that the WBO2 was reading 10 (!) so I shut it down.

These are the dead times I should have switched to before running it

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I'll reload the tune tomorrow, hopefully it'll be all good now.
 
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Bleed the clutch

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& dropped the car, drove it out the garage under it's own steam

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Runs too rich, and won't idle below 1800rpm. I set the base throttle position 1/4 off the stop as I would with a Volvo. Maybe that's not required with Hondas - I dunno. I'm going to switch the injector settings back to stock & see if the AFR's settle

https://youtu.be/oa7HWYaPYfA

Worse thing is that the heater core is now leaking out the AC drain, that's a royal PITA

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Drip Drip Drip

https://youtu.be/HoFG0HmLxhg
 
Back & forth with the tune mapping. Haven't run the motor for more than a minute or so at a time, due to idle surging & AFR sweeps. The base map I've been using is the '05 Accord, since that's the ECU I have. Problem is, my motor is the JDM K24A3, which is like the US K24A2, not the Accord eco-version K24A4. So, I switched to a different base map

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runs much better with this map, just won't idle at normal levels.

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Found the IACV is staying wide open

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I spent more time looking at the intake plumbing today, to see if the remaining high idle is related to intake leaks.

Temps in the high 30's today, so I pushed the car outside to run it. I modded the RSX tune using the TSX VTEC settings & rpm limits & uploaded to the ECU.

After that I ran the motor briefly. Sounds good & AFR's are good. Only obvious problem is high idle now. First up I pulled the IACV & found the crappy seal was cracked, and leaking. With the two ports plugged in the TB, the idle was closer to normal.

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after that, I ran the motor to normal operating temp - 180 something for the K24, fan cycled.

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then I sprayed around the TB & intake plenum to check for possible air leaks. I did order a smoke machine - been meaning to get one for some time - but it won't be here for close to a week.

I got an idle change when spraying the right side edge of the plenum

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unbolted the compressor, undid the plenum

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have to remove the support backet also, all easy to get to with the larger opening :)

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Just have to ease the gasket out & new one in

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I don't see any wear/uneven compression on the one I removed though

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Put it back together, and it sounded worse! So, I took the plenum off entirely, that wasn't to bad either, just have to drop the alternator to allow removal

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I found that there is a hole in the welds on the inside of the crotch between 1 & 2. I have to take the plenum back to the machine shop, that was one of the tricky areas I had him finish for me. I've also ordered one of the thermal intermediate gaskets (3mm), as I'm not confident that the skinny metal gasket is ever going to seal properly.
 
Need to build a dual brake master setup. Not confident the old crap tandem MC will be up to the task, esp. with the 6pot CEIKA's & 12" discs :D

This is the basis for my development, another X1/9 in Sweden:

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Cut up the pedal box to play around with repositioning the brake pedal, allowing for two masters side -by-side.

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Will require remaking the pedal shaft & bushing setup also. Not finding anything in the US for "Bias Boxes", only complete pedal assemblies, which won't work for me. CompBrake in the UK seems one of the main suppliers/developers.

Sketches of my though process

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Thinking that running the bias bar off the pedal pivot makes much more sense, and will save $$$

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I've aready modded the pedal assy. to accept a Volvo V70 Clutch Master:

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