Reciepe for Reliability?
04-12-05, 11:58 PM
#1
Reciepe for Reliability?
I'm putting YET another motor in the car shortly, what do I need to do to make it reliable? Like, dead nuts reliable. I want to go to the strip, track days, autocross, get 25MPG hwy/15mpg city (at least, better would be better!), run 91 octane and NOT HAVE TO WORRY about it stranding me or being shitty to drive, not starting when its hot or flooding, not overheating (never had a problem with this though, no matter how hard I ran it), etc. I also don't want it to be slower than it was before, mid-low 13's in the 1/4 at minimum are a requirement, or I'll get bored of it and find something else.
Cost is (as always) an issue, but I'd rather spend some money now than more money later
. If I can't get the car to be reliable cheaply I'm either not going to drive it till I can, or sell it and find something that I can.
What I've got:
1988 TII. ~80,000 miles. Awaiting motor, probably going jspec again. S5 turbocharger (with giant wastegate port, boost controller set at ??? psi, TMIC, 3" exhaust, FD fuel pump, S-AFC (hooked to pressure sensor this time), 720cc secondaries, no emmissions stuff, secondary throttle plates removed (but that's it as far as tb mods go). stock suspension for now, probably replacing the front struts with new OEM units and new bushings everywhere.
so, yeah... what should I do?
Cost is (as always) an issue, but I'd rather spend some money now than more money later
. If I can't get the car to be reliable cheaply I'm either not going to drive it till I can, or sell it and find something that I can. What I've got:
1988 TII. ~80,000 miles. Awaiting motor, probably going jspec again. S5 turbocharger (with giant wastegate port, boost controller set at ??? psi, TMIC, 3" exhaust, FD fuel pump, S-AFC (hooked to pressure sensor this time), 720cc secondaries, no emmissions stuff, secondary throttle plates removed (but that's it as far as tb mods go). stock suspension for now, probably replacing the front struts with new OEM units and new bushings everywhere.
so, yeah... what should I do?
04-13-05, 12:29 AM
#3
I suppose "Get rid of the turbo" probably isn't the answer you're looking for.
If you're not premixing already, you probably should be. Search, you'll be reading for weeks, but the general consensus is that it's better in pretty much every way.
Send your injectors in to be cleaned. A not-fully-flowing injector is a lean rotor when it matters most.
Remove/replace your pulsation damper. Engine fires have a way of taking a car out of service for a while. If you're lucky. And carry a fire extinguisher.
Install a fuel cutoff switch. Hopefully you won't need it much if at all, but I can say from experience it makes a '7 much more tolerable. Instead of having to screw around with the EGI fuse, you simply flip the switch off, crank till it starts, and turn it on again. Or, if you're making a short trip, cut the engine off when you get to your destination by turning off the switch and waiting for the engine to die. No flooding, no restart problems.
Have I mentioned turning down the boost? :-) Really. If you want reliability, lower power output is your friend.
If you don't know when they've been replaced, replace your coolant lines, ESPECIALLY that goofy little molded one going from the heater core to the engine under the oil filter. Coolant leaks suck.
Make sure your various idiot lights & sensors are working. More than one person on the forum (me included) has had an engine saved because the "LOW COOLANT" light & buzzer got their attention, and they shut down before it was anywhere close to low on coolant. Same goes for the low oil buzzer - if a oil cooler line blows, you'll want to know about it.
Carry spare parts in the car, and the tools to install them. A very small set of 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm sockets/wrenches (and probably some other sizes) will let you do pretty much anything under the hood. Carry a spare belt for the alternator/water pump loop - it's the only one that is *required* for the engine to run for extended periods of time. A spare fuel pump might not be a bad idea either, though they seem to be fairly reliable. You've got dual ignition systems, dual independent fuel injector banks (front & rear rotor), no timing belts or anything, and a lot of failures will leave the car still able to drive.
Change your tranny/differential fluid, and make sure you're not leaking any. A manual transmission with decent fluid in it is very difficult to break.
Make sure you warm the car up fully before beating on it. Beating on a cold engine is a great way to blow coolant seals and warp things.
I'm done.
-=Russ=-
If you're not premixing already, you probably should be. Search, you'll be reading for weeks, but the general consensus is that it's better in pretty much every way.
Send your injectors in to be cleaned. A not-fully-flowing injector is a lean rotor when it matters most.
Remove/replace your pulsation damper. Engine fires have a way of taking a car out of service for a while. If you're lucky. And carry a fire extinguisher.
Install a fuel cutoff switch. Hopefully you won't need it much if at all, but I can say from experience it makes a '7 much more tolerable. Instead of having to screw around with the EGI fuse, you simply flip the switch off, crank till it starts, and turn it on again. Or, if you're making a short trip, cut the engine off when you get to your destination by turning off the switch and waiting for the engine to die. No flooding, no restart problems.
Have I mentioned turning down the boost? :-) Really. If you want reliability, lower power output is your friend.
If you don't know when they've been replaced, replace your coolant lines, ESPECIALLY that goofy little molded one going from the heater core to the engine under the oil filter. Coolant leaks suck.
Make sure your various idiot lights & sensors are working. More than one person on the forum (me included) has had an engine saved because the "LOW COOLANT" light & buzzer got their attention, and they shut down before it was anywhere close to low on coolant. Same goes for the low oil buzzer - if a oil cooler line blows, you'll want to know about it.
Carry spare parts in the car, and the tools to install them. A very small set of 10mm, 12mm, and 14mm sockets/wrenches (and probably some other sizes) will let you do pretty much anything under the hood. Carry a spare belt for the alternator/water pump loop - it's the only one that is *required* for the engine to run for extended periods of time. A spare fuel pump might not be a bad idea either, though they seem to be fairly reliable. You've got dual ignition systems, dual independent fuel injector banks (front & rear rotor), no timing belts or anything, and a lot of failures will leave the car still able to drive.
Change your tranny/differential fluid, and make sure you're not leaking any. A manual transmission with decent fluid in it is very difficult to break.
Make sure you warm the car up fully before beating on it. Beating on a cold engine is a great way to blow coolant seals and warp things.
I'm done.
-=Russ=-
04-13-05, 07:23 AM
#6
Lives on the Forum
Rebuild your motor - J-specs are crap shoots.
See if you can watch the entire rebuild itself - if the rebuilder is good, they will allow you to watch them do the entire job.
Cooling, cooling, cooling!
Upgrade radiator and upgrade oil pressure regulator.
Get rid of the stock wiring - go stand-alone.
Stock wiring is bad and failing - get rid of the stock wiring and reliability goes up.
Too bad this costs a lot of money.
-Ted
See if you can watch the entire rebuild itself - if the rebuilder is good, they will allow you to watch them do the entire job.
Cooling, cooling, cooling!
Upgrade radiator and upgrade oil pressure regulator.
Get rid of the stock wiring - go stand-alone.
Stock wiring is bad and failing - get rid of the stock wiring and reliability goes up.
Too bad this costs a lot of money.
-Ted
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04-13-05, 01:08 PM
#8
Engine, Not Motor
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Originally Posted by RETed
Rebuild your motor - J-specs are crap shoots.
Definitly rebuild the engine. J-Specs are junkyard engines. A compression test tells you that the engine is good now, but doesn't tell you how well it will be in 2 weeks.
Set up the fuel system properly. Larger injectors and pump, S-AFC, wideband dyno tuning.
FIX THE WIRING PROBLEMS that I KNOW you have.
04-13-05, 02:37 PM
#10
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ted hit it on the head, cooling and standalone. Also, maybe a turbo upgrade so you dont have to run as high of boost to get the power you want. Vmount instead of front mount if you have the funds....
04-14-05, 06:56 AM
#11
Aaron, you haven't seen the car in a while eh? I fixed the wiring a LONG time ago hahaha.
my first engine failed due to too much boost/lack of fuel, totally MY fault on that one (well, a bum fuel pump helped too, but my foot was on the floor, not it's lol)
my second engine failed due to detonation, at like 1/2 throttle, where it had no right to detonate... that pissed me off! but it seemed like all summer long I was fighting minor problems, I know how to make it NOT blow up I guess... I am really thinking about aftermarket EMS.
and if reliability goes out the window with a turbo, how come my talon has 260k on it and I don't think the previous owners knew that the hood opened? the oil was like tar. I don't buy into that. turbo shouldn't affect reliability to that degree.
my first engine failed due to too much boost/lack of fuel, totally MY fault on that one (well, a bum fuel pump helped too, but my foot was on the floor, not it's lol)
my second engine failed due to detonation, at like 1/2 throttle, where it had no right to detonate... that pissed me off! but it seemed like all summer long I was fighting minor problems, I know how to make it NOT blow up I guess... I am really thinking about aftermarket EMS.
and if reliability goes out the window with a turbo, how come my talon has 260k on it and I don't think the previous owners knew that the hood opened? the oil was like tar. I don't buy into that. turbo shouldn't affect reliability to that degree.
04-14-05, 10:44 AM
#13
Terrh, I have never seen a member go through as many J-Specs as you have. The same happens all the time...you end up popping the Engine.
If I were you I'd rebuild the core J-Spec so It will actually last and can be treated as a reliable Engine. After doing this with Aaron I have full trust the Engine won't go due to mechanical failure.
If I were you I'd rebuild the core J-Spec so It will actually last and can be treated as a reliable Engine. After doing this with Aaron I have full trust the Engine won't go due to mechanical failure.
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