If you've ever done something to your FC that surprised you when it worked, let us know about it.





I'll start. I installed cruise control on my vert. I swapped in a TII engine and built and installed a megasquirt ECU. Once getting it running properly, I wanted to start getting all the original features working again, and started with the cruise control. The TII cruise unit won't even function (though the plugs are the same), but the NA unit won't match up to the throttle body. Problem solved... remove cable from TII unit, install on NA unit. There's a catch though. The cable's too long. I chopped the cable down and used an electrical butt connector with the plastic removed as ferrule (I didn't have any real ferrules lying around). I didn't expect that to work, didn't know if cruise went through the ECU or not, but it was worth a shot. Go for a drive today and wouldn't you know it, the damn thing works. Now on to the AC.



I tried explaining to my wife how happy I was. She thinks I'm an idiot.

 

My clutch Master cyl wasn't working on my 10th AE (had been sitting a long while) I couldnt get it to prime or build any pressure.. So in a final attempt to get it working prior to buying a new one I decided to blow the lines out.. So I used compressed air and blew the lines out.. Nothing.. Still didnt work.. So I took the hard line off at the Master getting ready to remove it, when I had the idea to blow air right back through the connection at the hard line into the master.. I heard a loud clunk, decided to try bleeding the cyl one more time..

BINGO fixed... Wondering how many stuck cyls I have replaced unneccesarily..??

 

I tuned it myself (haltech). The damn thing RUNS WELL. It starts really really well too.

I also built the engine before that. I followed the FSM and I know I built it right, but still...

 

when i was swapping my current engine in, the PD on the primary fuel rail wouldn't let the car stay running. it was cutting fuel off or some weird thing. i did the bango bolt mod and i have had no problems since. i mean i have, but as far as getting fuel, no. =)

 

I have posted a few times that I got my car out of a guys lawn after sitting 5+ years. It had a blown rear rotor. I changed the oil, checked everything over and got it running on the front rotor within 5 minutes. I then preceded to drive it some 15 miles home (so I didn't have to pay for a tow truck) It had very little power, I couldn't go over ~40 mph and would slow down to a crawl on the hills (back roads)

Though the thing I really cant believe worked is the engine I swapped into it. It had been sitting outside with the car for the same 5+ years with the exhaust ports open and nothing covering the injector openings. The previous owner had put some oil in the housings and rotated it, but I could still see surface rust on the rotors through the intake ports. Being stupid, impatient, and poor, I swapped it in anyway (after a long treatment of Sea Foam)

Low and behold, not only did I not make a major screw up with the swap but the engine has been running extremely well for a little over 5k miles now! Three years later, "I still cant believe that worked"

I am a firm believer that all successful threads need pictures...

This is how I found the car


This is a link to a video of the engine I swapped into the car, it had a stuck seal so I had put some sea foam in it and was turning it over. You can hear one of the pulses is weaker than the others.

 

That reminds me of more now...

The first engine I ever built was a rotary, and it worked quite well too. I didn't just install my standalone ECU, I freakin' built it from a baggie of parts. And it works great! I also tuned it myself, and DAMN it runs good. Better mileage than when it was NA

Also swapped in an unknown condition TII engine, and had zero issues with it. Paid $400 for the complete engine and transmission. Got a driveshaft, but no ECU, wiring harness, or diff/axles. Not bad for $400. Here it is now :




Also can't believe half the stuff I've done to my hybrid S5 turbo worked, but I don't think I want to go down that path and disclose it quite yet. I might get yelled at for some....

 

ziptie alternator belts.. emergency situations. Dont last very long so gotta take it slow

 

Jeez man, zipties? I'd have at least used something like linked-together rubber bands or something with some grip at least. That's a good one

 

ziptie belts actually sound like a pretty good idea for a emergency situation, cant believe that would actually work!

 

Put s13 front coilovers on my FC. Just swapped the camber plates. Bolted right up. Kinda surprised.

 

shoe strings

 

i know its not 7 related, but i had a ford ranger that the clutch stopped working. checked the fluid and there was none in the resevoir, like it had a leak at the slave. Well the slave is located inside the transmission, so i decided to just keep filling it up, hoping it was a slow leak. i refilled it once. that was 5 years ago, still works hasnt leaked since ??? you cant explain that! lol

 

ziptied rad and headlights, lasted till the truck died

 

i tried being a complete douche bag to get a girl. got laid the next day. I don't know why I was ever nice to bitches. girls like the abuse. and no means yes!

 

life lessons learned at the "****** house" im guessing...

 

treat them mean, keep them keen

 

Today I received this muffler. I got it from Ebay for $30. I cut and welded it to make it into a resonator, and damn it works good. Sounds good too!


I'm cheap

 

I tried the a/c stop-leak junk and its still blowing cold air 2 weeks later.

 

used zipties as hose clamps and spark plugs as plugs to plug up the heater hoses

 

i dont know why i bought a overheating fc about 2 years ago thinking that it was fixable and drove it home while the engine coughed up white smoke from the engine bay. knowing nothing about fcs or cars in general i was in complete belief that this was the worst decision of my life. i spent 2.8gs on a overheating fc with nothing but xxrs and zeals, which was kind of the main reason why i bought it.

next day i changed the gaskets on the exhaust and lim. i also bypassed the coolant away from the tb so it goes straight to the bac then wallahhh! no more overheating issues. i did, however, sell the car after a year cause the coolant started to leak into the motor. It made it very hard to start in the morning.

the fc also had a a 5 inch straight pipe which made me want to switch over to a racing beat exhaust. being young and dumb, saving up money from my part time job, i bought a racing beat exhaust. i still wanted more power out of this n/a! well anyways right before i sold the fc i bought a oem exhaust and switched it out. IT WORKED the car felt way faster in the low end and was far more nimble and more fun to drive with the oem exhaust imo.

OEM>RB.. i cant believe that worked haha
imo tho

 

Friend of mine Had a S5 n/a he did a JDM turbo engine swap and kept the N/a ECU and uses a turbo MAF and injectors, boosted to 8 PSI and has put over 10k miles on it now and it stills runs like a champ

I told him he was an idiot if he didnt swap the ECU but he made it work some how... made me look like a fool

 

Your friend may have used a "rising rate" FPR, which will work, but is definitely not the preferred method. It relies on the principle of forcing more fuel through the injectors at a higher pressure than they're meant to flow.

 

Ill add, Last summer. No motor mounts= Ratchet straps= drag strip...not in a rx but still blew my mind after i did it.

 

When I bought the newest FC I have (well, traded a Maxima for it...) it was hitting a 3800 RPM wall if you were giving it more than 10% throttle. I checked things for weeks trying to diagnose the problem, eventually figuring out it was the rear secondary injector clip (one of the female connectors had fallen back into the plug and wasn't making contact). Before I went and hacked on the harness I shoved a very small piece of wire into that part of the plug and the car ran perfect. It has a new plug on it now, but figuring that problem out made my day...