dirty, old and rusty: a tale of a $600 meatball

[esmth]

Rebuilt alt going in


Added a 2 gauge ground. I ended up moving it to one of the motor mount bolts as I was concerned about the wire getting too hot by the studless exhaust port.


I fired it up, but the car didn't charge. I assumed it was the new brushes needing to be worn in so I just let it run. I soon noticed an odd smell and realized the alternator was getting rediculously hot. Shut the car off and pulled the alt back out. I pulled all the newly installed parts back off, tested each diode and they all checked out. I put it back together, freshly sanding each electrical connection point to fresh metal. When I was installing it back, the terminal crimp thing for the B+ terminal just fell off the cable into my hand. Whoops. That loose connection was probably the problem all along


Slapped it back together, running a new B+ wire straight to the battery with 4 gauge, and it charges perfectly and stays cool.




Only 0.03~0.04 vac ripple


I pulled the old B+ cable through the harness and removed the other side from the starter. The other end was not in much better shape.


Super low tide sunset for your pleasure

[esmth]

I forgot to update this thread so here is the gist over the last 2.5 months

There is/was a break in the harness that I'd occasionally have to jiggle to get the car to run that bugged me enough to try to figure out why. It turned out to be the rpm signal from ezk to lh boxes was intermittent and was causing the lh box to not want to hold the fuel relay on. I've recieved another harness from Cwazywazy the other day and that will be going in.



I moved the wasted spark loot from the strut tower to the firewall. I want to switch to coil rear plug so this will be revised again soon.


The power steering pump has been making annoying noises so i got another from the junkyard and rebuilt it. I have yet to install this one.


The distributor wasn't doing anything and I wanted an additional crank case breather location so I pulled it. It was stuck in there good and did not want to come out. I ended up removing the intake piping and airbox and got a hammer under the lip to pop it out.


I installed a mann pro vent 100 in that new additional breather spot. It works really well. I temporarily plugged the other breather spot to see how well just the pro vent works without the stock breather box doing anything. It works crazy well.



I installed a mini battery. Odyssey PC680. It works well, cranks the car over fine every morning in 10F degree weather. Haven't had to test reserve capacity yet though!


The panhard bar mount to the axle had a failure, the stud itself snapped off the axle! I was able to limp it to work and had my friend come by after hours and weld on a new stud. Not sure how the original one failed, there was not significant corrosion in the area or anything, plus that stud should see no side loading.


Cleaning the wideband sensor. My controller died and I left the sensor in the exhaust stream unpowered for months. It seemed slower to respond than before and maybe this helped? not sure. Cleaned it off physically though


Bought some e codes, have yet to install.


My shifter is just a 14mm rod so i spruced it up with some mcmaster collars and bushings lol


Permanently installed an antenna mount in the roof. Feeding the coax through the headliner without removing it was terrible, but the install is so clean now.


Got some ipd strut brace goodies. I wanted the kaplhenke full strut brace but after waiting for 1.5 years now I gave up. I'll still buy one though if they're made again

[redblockpowered]

The panhard rod failed while driving? Scary, and weird. Maybe it had been overtorqued and compromised at some point?

[esmth]

Originally Posted by redblockpowered

The panhard rod failed while driving? Scary, and weird. Maybe it had been overtorqued and compromised at some point?

yeah, suddenly the back end just went wobbly as I goosed it from a stop sign into a turn. Either it was over-torqued and compromised as you mentioned or possibly the nut itself loosened and the panhard bar migrated to the threaded part and the hard turn snapped the rest of it off. not sure. I've since re-torqued all the rest of the suspension component fasteners just in case, haha!

[esmth]

no wonder my parking brake didn't work


Installed the e codes finally. I should have gotten before pix. the difference is unreal. I can actually see ahead!




I saved some of the catch can stuff in a jar to see exactly what it was. I still don't know. This is about 500 miles worth of highway driving.


I got a cheap compression tester. I think it reads high but the small range between cylinders seems great.
183-179-179-182





I plowed though a massive puddle and water went into the maf which dumped fuel and fouled the plugs. It would misfire a ton on cold start. New plugs fixed it. Here are the old ones:
4321


wasnt me

[redblockpowered]

What bulbs did you put in the e-codes?

[esmth]

Originally Posted by redblockpowered

What bulbs did you put in the e-codes?

whatever came in the box
If I recall it was a barebones osram H4 bulb 55/65 watt

[fatcatbestcat]

Evidence of donuts?



Approved.

[esmth]

regapped the plugs from 0.030 to 0.045 for experimentation reasons. First impressions, i think the car lopes less when started cold and maybe very low loads are smoother? probably placebo. I want to see if running it a little lean for cruising is helped. Plugs definitely looked a little lean but that is expected, ~750 miles on them. Bosch W7DSR silver. 1234:

[fatcatbestcat]

Originally Posted by esmth

regapped the plugs from 0.030 to 0.045 for experimentation reasons. First impressions, i think the car lopes less when started cold and maybe very low loads are smoother? probably placebo. I want to see if running it a little lean for cruising is helped. Plugs definitely looked a little lean but that is expected, ~750 miles on them. Bosch W7DSR silver. 1234:

We urgently await the results.

[esmth]

trying to squeeze a w917 underneath the header and behind the alternator was a chore so I found a 10mm shorter filter that should do the job. 10x easier to get in/out



my ostrich ribbon spontaneously combusted

[esmth]

been playing around with the timing map for the first time in a little bit. A couple weeks of tweaking and this is where i'm at. The left table is the idle/stabilization map and the right is the main map. I keep getting some stubborn det around max load 2800-2400 rpm column that is difficult to map out. I think I need more of a plateau in that area.

I am also not sure if I should have more or less timing down in the low rpm section, or have a steeper ramp like ms people seem to be doing on these. It is difficult to hear det down there as my exhaust is stupid loud, which hopefully should be fixed sooner rather than later.

[shoestring]

Which cam have you got, and how much compression?

[esmth]

Whoops, should have included that. It's a B cam straight up and as far as i know an uncut head and stock gasket, for now at least. until it warms up 180psi cranking compression

[shoestring]

And it detonates as it passes through that RPM range, or if you're there and then jump on it there's tip-in detonation? Also, are you tracing it and know for sure it's using the highest load cell?

[LC4CARL]

Chicks dig B-cam 244's.

[esmth]

Originally Posted by shoestring

And it detonates as it passes through that RPM range, or if you're there and then jump on it there's tip-in detonation? Also, are you tracing it and know for sure it's using the highest load cell?

It usually happens at wot or very high load (tracing the bottom two rows of the map) as it passes though that area. Aggressive tip in always induces light ping where the ezk pulls 7 magic timing units (-2.625 degree) pretty much every time time no matter what, even on the factory bins ime.

We noticed last night all the factory 8v na (and even the turbo?) ezk programs have a pretty substantial dip right in that area so I guess it's just detonation prone or some weird redblock resonance. Last night I pulled the whole wot area back 4-5 degress and it was still happening. (audible ping or resonance and the ezk pulls a bit of timing, right in that 2700rpm area.)

Originally Posted by LC4CARL

Chicks dig B-cam 244's.

yas you know it!

[shoestring]

Hmm. Mine doesn't do it, with 0.040" off the head and a V cam. The only time it did was when we combined the car's EGR EZK (I don't remember the number, ask Cam) with a -951 LH, but that was years ago, and only for about 20 min.

[esmth]

I gave up on it for a short time and just left the wot section conservative. Until last night I went back to a similar map posted above and it was not happening... going to double check tonight.
The only things I have changed since last week are a new intake pipe with a better breather port and a ricer (but still paper) air filter, and cleaned the maf with some maf cleaner spray. And new 93o gas of course.

also happy 350k

[esmth]

Rebuilt this POS for hopefully the last time. Chinese regulators suck. Idiot lights work now! Sanded down the commutator to stop it from eating brushes. I thought I was going to need to replace it but it cleaned up nice.




minty fresh plug. I bought some ngk bpr7es plugs to replace these.


assume suspension clunk service position


I bought an under drive crank pulley and thought it'd be 1/2 inch smaller diameter at most. It actually fits inside the old crank pulley. Having second thoughts but i'll still install it and hopefully the alternator stays happy at idle.


what a pos



Had local exhaust shop that has helped me about a dozen times now weld in a new O2 bung in the collector of the header pipe, and weld a flange to my race car catalyst. All I need now is to figure out how to connect the cat outlet to the rest of my exhaust. I am also thinking about painting this with the same paint as the manifold below.


I sent this manifold to the machine shop for a blast and a kissy kiss. I painted por 15 header paint with 2 coats so far, might go for a third tonight but it looks great right now. Hopefully it holds up.