Dave's Evo X Build/The Life of Dave blog

[Murlo26]

Well got the car back yesterday. Here is a list of all they fixed/replaced.

Cosworth Headgasket (90mm bore, 1.3mm thick)
New ARP Headstuds (625+ ones)
New revision "beefy" timing chain from Mitsu so no chain stretch
Change Tcase fluid
Change rear diff fluid
Valve cover gasket
Water pump gaskets
Oil Cooler crush washers
Thermostat housing
Oil drain o ring
Front main seal

So lots of fixes for gaskets/seals, should be nice and sealed up now hopefully

Last night I drove it to Wisconsin to drop off Knoxville's G8 for his cam, ported head and torque converter install out in the boonies of WI. So after 200miles the car seems to be running pretty good. (Trying to get knoxville to start a build thread here just for fun, they got his motor out so damn fast, I want an LS motor, seems so easy).

I don't know how to get over it but i feel like I always hear sounds and I am not sure if I do or not. I think I need someone else to drive it for a while to see if it sounds normal lol.

Regardless, I did some gopro testing tonight on the car and tried to scale my injectors down for real E85 more. Well the gopro still has dumb loud wind noise, I tried some fabric to cut down noise (aka cut up sock ) that didn't work. Also I had to let off the throttle at 7500rpms as it is around 13.0 at WOT. No more WOT for me...need retune I thinks.

However, my cruise LTFT is +5% and idle LTFT is +1% so my changes seem to be working I am going to be stopping at MAP next week to double check all the leaks are gone.

More to come over the next week or two..I have a lot of work to get it ready for MAP's event, still not sure if I will make it honestly. I am not going unless I am 100% confident the car will run correctly, even if its on a low power tune, I don't need full power to have fun, just working right.

[turbotalon1g]

someone add a tag?

Nice man, you might be at the point where you will never feel confident driving the car I know with one of my old cars I was that way and was glad it was gone even though a year later it was someone's DD and was problem free.

I'll drive it! I'm local and usually home (but doing homework) but I'll take a nice break. Also you should try to have someone else drive the car while you tune if you can it might make it a lot easier on you to spot any little things that could be effecting the tune.

Good luck man 200 mile drive is good progress.

[Halon]

Nice, but as for thinking you hear a noise, yeah I don't think you'll ever get over that. That's how we all are. Wasn't there a video someone posted, specifically aimed towards evo owners about that ("do you smell that? did you hear that?")?

[turbotalon1g]

Originally Posted by Halon

Nice, but as for thinking you hear a noise, yeah I don't think you'll ever get over that. That's how we all are. Wasn't there a video someone posted, specifically aimed towards evo owners about that ("do you smell that? did you hear that?")?

You get over it.

[Halon]

Originally Posted by turbotalon1g

You get over it.

Not me, I'm still the same way.

[turbotalon1g]

Originally Posted by Halon

Not me, I'm still the same way.

I will help.

I think its the build, when I had my old 1g, 2.4 50trim thing I hated that car way too much money I didn't know how to do as much as I know now, but I was scared to do the work to it and would prefer people that knew do the work.

Now everything that I've put together on my last few cars (with help from friends of course), I can drive and enjoy and if I do hear a noise I either:
1) have no clue what it is and pull the fuck over or
2) Know its normal or it's something I have knowledge of and its fine for it make the sound in its current state.

Watching your thread Murlo, I'd say this from my experience if a couple more months go by and you still tighten up your butthole just driving the car around or freak out at every bump and squeak get rid of it. Even if its run perfect the whole time or needed more work.

It get's to a point where its a life lesson and you need to jump ship before you go down with it. A lot of us have been there.

If that's not the case, then fucking fall will be here and the temps and tracks will be in good shape to run some damn good times (if that's what you want to do).

If all else fails remember, what what in the butt.

[scheides]

Sweet! Is the cossie gasket extra thick or something--why it over OEM? Just curious.

Lots of good fixes there, hopefully your leaks are all gone! good wok sir, you now have me worried about my stupid timing chain....something to think about down the road I guess.

[Murlo26]

Originally Posted by scheides

Sweet! Is the cossie gasket extra thick or something--why it over OEM? Just curious.

Lots of good fixes there, hopefully your leaks are all gone! good wok sir, you now have me worried about my stupid timing chain....something to think about down the road I guess.

I can't use OEM even if I wanted to, 90mm bore vs. 86mm If I was still a 2.0L I would use the OEM, no reason not to, I had one in my gasket kit anyway. The thicker gasket (1.3mm vs. say a 1.1mm) was simply for extra material for a better seal and to lower compression a tiny bit to offset my head being decked so if anything its lower than 10:1. I don't regret high compression yet, but it just makes me nervous now more than anything to run high boost even though most guys run a ton with the high compression. I'd love to try my car on 32psi and see what it can do and might with real e85.

I didn't do this to fix the timing chain honestly, mine seemed fine, never had issues with that. But since everything was coming off, mind as well fix the shit.

Forgot to mention, MAP suggested part of the problem my car was leaking was excessive crank case pressure. I do have a small catch can, but they said its no where big enough. So I am prolly going to get them to put a bulkhead on the valve cover or an AN fitting of sorts and get a big JMfab catch can to relieve the pressure. They said what I have now is insufficient. That way shit won't leak, so I will prolly do that soon.

They offered to do a custom setup to make it fit nice but they said it would get spendy and I care more about function then form so as long as it works I don't care.

[93gtpeater]

A vette sounds pretty good right now. I really hope you can drive this all summer with no more shop time. Iam so glad I sold my dsm but I do miss the turbo fun. Sooner tor later you will have to sell this thing. I know modding cars make them less reliable but dam fresh motor build and its leaking oil. Hope you get all the bugs and crap figured out soon so you can drive it and not worry about noises and sgit

[Murlo26]

Originally Posted by 93gtpeater

A vette sounds pretty good right now. I really hope you can drive this all summer with no more shop time. Iam so glad I sold my dsm but I do miss the turbo fun. Sooner tor later you will have to sell this thing. I know modding cars make them less reliable but dam fresh motor build and its leaking oil. Hope you get all the bugs and crap figured out soon so you can drive it and not worry about noises and sgit

Vette is super tempting, I think its fits what I would use the car for...but this weekend made me realize I want one even more, I have "v8 envy" as Shawn put it lol.

This weekend, we pulled out my buddies 09 G8 GT motor and swapped on ported/polished heads with bigger valves, cleaned up everything like piston tops, installed big ass cam, 3200 stall torque converter and put everything back together.

We pulled the motor to do this...it took two solid days for everything basically, not really hustling or knowing exactly the easiest ways to do shit. It's settled, I need an LS motor, so awesome and easy to work on. It was so easy to get the motor in and out, z06 time I think

[Murlo26]

Swapped in the stock injectors tonight (thanks yet again Shawn!!), got the tank pretty low on E85...then I got bored waiting for the car to drain further so I filled up with about 5.5gallons of 93 octane then another 6.5 gallons of 93 after that at the station. SO 12ish, so I am guessing 2 gallons or so of E85 still left in the tank when I did this.

This is officially the first time in almost 3 years my car has seen anything but E85, it feels weird lol.

I got these two codes while driving...
p0133


p0071


Doubt you can read from the pics, but one is basically system too lean and the other is slow circuit response from the o2 sensor.

So I am guessing both are because the car was running pretty lean? The car struggled to idle until trims got almost maxed and same with cruising, 17ish afr's and the car was struggling, once my trims were maxed at 12.5 the car was running fine and 14-15 afrs.

I am guessing part of this is from the left over e85 leaning everything out a bit. But I am also guessing this is where MAF scaling fun come into play. Thoughts? Codes from swapping fuel?

[scheides]

So you put the stock scaling and latency values back in right? Both maps?

[Murlo26]

I've only ever had one map for this car, never did an alt MAP.

However looking at the MAP I have the car still has 886 scaling in for the alt injector which is close to my injector scaling on the dw1300's for e70.

But if it was on an alt scaling I would imagine it wouldn't run what so ever with that high of scaling, unless the two scalings interpolating or something crazy lol.

I am guessing the left over e85 (2 gallons) was prolly the big problem and then my MAF scaling could use some work too so it adds some fuel. I am going to get that nuts on for the big dumb MAF then go back to dw1300's then do pump gas tune.

Going to send the dw1300's to dw for test, clean and new orings today as well...just to make sure. I don't trust DW's fully anymore so you can never be too careful. They are out for now so mind as well.

[Murlo26]

So today the car was riddled with more codes...





Basically more "system too lean" codes. Lower gears 1-3 tend to be around 17 afrs sometimes dipping to 18ish but once up to speed they get to 14-15 where they should be.

Talking with Clipse my MAF scaling should be on the "rich" side already to compensate for leftover e85. I filled up another 2 gallons today and burned another 1/4 tank today so I can't imagine there is too much for e85 left in there still.

My biggest question is this...now I have had like 4 system too lean codes in the past day which makes sense as I am in fact running leaner, but I have also had two o2 sensor codes...is that from just running lean at cruise?

I am starting to worry I have another fuel issue. How do I check the JEG's fuel filter for the blaqops kit, does it just come apart with a flathead or something? Should I pull my fuel pump assembly too? My double pumper still works as before i switched to 93 oct i went partial boost and my afrs dipped to 10's when the pump kicked on so that has to work.

Not sure what to do right now...but seeing this makes me think something else is amiss as regardless of injector scaling before on e85 and my dw1300's the car still wanted to add fuel at cruise. which is still happening on the stock injectors/93 oct. I know these stock injectors are good so I am looking elsewhere.

I did ship my injectors to DW for a checkup today but like I said I can't imagine problems with two different fuels and different injectors...gotta be something else right?

[scheides]

What other fuel system mods do you have? Do you have a fuel pressure gauge? If so what's it reading at idle? If not get one (I have a setup you could borrow/have but you'd need a gauge still). Maybe there's something going on with the blaq-ops kit where it is allowing fuel pressure from pump 1 to bleed off via the wye-that feeds from pump 2 when it is off.....this is one of the reasons I've been so adamant about sticking with a single pump.

[simulatedwood]

The way the fuel trims, and o2 readings are wandering, Id check the engine grounds to make sure they were installed according to the Factory Service Manual. This issues sound awfully familiar to the issues seen with bad grounds on other vehicles. I know it is a long shot, but it probable given the motor has been in and out of the car several times now.

Shawn

[Murlo26]

Originally Posted by scheides

What other fuel system mods do you have? Do you have a fuel pressure gauge? If so what's it reading at idle? If not get one (I have a setup you could borrow/have but you'd need a gauge still). Maybe there's something going on with the blaq-ops kit where it is allowing fuel pressure from pump 1 to bleed off via the wye-that feeds from pump 2 when it is off.....this is one of the reasons I've been so adamant about sticking with a single pump.

Blaqops double pumper, 2nd pump turned on by progressive boost controller
DW1300s (normally, stock injectors temporarily).
MAP AFPR kit, with fuel gauge on the rail
stock fuel rail

At idle the fuel pressure is spot on, like 43ish psi. Shane has mentioned that about the wye fitting possibly bleeding fuel off the first pump. I assumed that is why I have always had issues with high rpm stomping on the car as the 2nd pump needed time to overcome fuel coming into it from the 1st pump. When I rolled into the throttle from a low rpm I never had an issue. Shane lowered my 2nd pump turn on boost level I believe last time on the dyno which seemed to almost get rid of all this.

The thing is even with that problem, I wouldn't think I would have an issue like this where the car is always adding fuel at cruise. It almost seems like there is a flow issue somewhere or maybe a bad o2 sensor?

I think I am going to open up the jegs fuel filter and clean it out. Then prolly pull my double pumper and see what everything looks like.

Originally Posted by simulatedwood

The way the fuel trims, and o2 readings are wandering, Id check the engine grounds to make sure they were installed according to the Factory Service Manual. This issues sound awfully familiar to the issues seen with bad grounds on other vehicles. I know it is a long shot, but it probable given the motor has been in and out of the car several times now.

Shawn

Its not wandering though, its only trying to add fuel and its a lot worse cruising vs. idle. Idle is 5% and cruise is maxed out at 12.5% and still not adding enough. So it gets worse as the car is cruising.

[simulatedwood]

I guess my point was that, you have something in the system saying it is running lean, but it is not running lean, then you have an feedback issue to sort out. If you know the injectors are fine, and your running consistent fuel pressure numbers (has this been verified?), then I don't see how this isn't a sensor issue of some sort.

When the car I was troubleshooting had ground issues the sensor readings were all over the map (o2, MAP, and TPS), this caused a ton of CEL's, but the car ran, OK. At time the idle would die, sometimes surge, sometimes engine ran lean, etc. Spent money on a MAP and o2 sensor that didn't need to replacement, but all the signs said they were failing. As it turns out, just needed to replace the ground wires going to and from the chassis to the engine and all was right with the world, sensor readings made sense and the car ran awesome.

[Murlo26]

Originally Posted by simulatedwood

I guess my point was that, you have something in the system saying it is running lean, but it is not running lean, then you have an feedback issue to sort out. If you know the injectors are fine, and your running consistent fuel pressure numbers (has this been verified?), then I don't see how this isn't a sensor issue of some sort.

When the car I was troubleshooting had ground issues the sensor readings were all over the map (o2, MAP, and TPS), this caused a ton of CEL's, but the car ran, OK. At time the idle would die, sometimes surge, sometimes engine ran lean, etc. Spent money on a MAP and o2 sensor that didn't need to replacement, but all the signs said they were failing. As it turns out, just needed to replace the ground wires going to and from the chassis to the engine and all was right with the world, sensor readings made sense and the car ran awesome.

I actually am running lean right now...1-3 gears are like 17 afrs at cruise then when I get going a bit more the AFR's get to where they should be, 14-15.5 area. But the car is struggling to run a bit when its running lean lean. I am not boosting what so ever, this is just running around honda civic style too. It's hard to say whats going on.

The idle fuel pressure has been verified, once the car is in gear not sure as the fuel pressure gauge is in the engine bay. I'd need to get the car on the dyno to know.

[asshanson]

Probably not an O2 sensor if both are reading lean. Your fuel trims are maxed out on the positive side right, it can't add any more?

I would guess this is an air metering problem if your fuel pressure at the rail is good. Maybe an air leak pre-turbo but after the air sensor? Have you gone into boost? If it goes super rich under boost you may have a massive air leak somewhere, letting in extra air under vacuum and letting out air under boost.