well, my success has turned into a failure...

I've recently installed a hybrid turbo, bigger injectors and fuel pump and a fuel controller. Yesterday I modified the WG actuator arm for more tension and installed an EBC. For the first time (last night) I was able to get the full effect of my hybrid turbo running 13psi of boost. Until this afternoon...

I don't know WTF happened. I started the day by re-organizing the vac. lines above the turbo because the BOV wasn't working with a new vac. source I was testing. I had kind of a scare though, because when I was pulling/testing/splicing the vac lines my car straight died...

Obviously when I'd pull a vac. hose the idle would drop and get a little unstable, but this was different. So I restarted the car and it just died again. I got out and to be safe, put everything back to stock. Started the car and revved it up, it immediately died.

Well, the problem was that I had unknowingly ran my car out of gas while under the hood... Oops, lol.

So I had to fill the car with some gas my dad has for the lawn-mower (I used a couple ounces of pre-mix too) then I drove down to a local gas station and filled it up with 13.5 gallons of premium. Everything seemed to be ok after this, so I drove the car home and gave it a thorough car wash. After washing, I started it and let it warm up. I might've been imagining things, but the car's idle didn't seem as perfect as it had been yesterday.

I drove it up a hill by my house and took it to redline several times in 1st and once in 2nd. I turned off the road and redlined it again, but before I could even stop my car died... I restarted it and the car was having a hard time staying alive. So instead of continuing on to get something to eat, I made a loop back to my house. All the while, when I'd come to a rest the car would want to die, it was pulling like '6' vac. on the boost gauge when at idle.

This is really weird and probably has nothing to do with anything, but I saw what looked like smoke coming from my wiper switch...? Seriously.

I got home and popped the hood looking for the obvious vac. line the blew off or an intercooler hose. Nothing. I looked behind the UIM and saw nothing unusual either. The idle was so bad I just shut it off.

I let the car cool down so I could work on it easier. While I was waiting, I used my Dad's car to drive to a local auto-parts store and bought some new hose clamps for the stock TMIC and turbo ducting. When I got home I replaced all the old clamps and re-did all the vac. lines back to stock, with the BOV and twin-scroll disconnected. I went to start it and it fixed nothing! The car idled terribly!

I decided that I had to take off the UIM to just make sure that everything looked good under it and (more clearly) behind it. I removed it, gave it several thorough inspections and found nothing out of the ordinary... I re-installed everything and started the car and the same terrible idle persisted! I said screw this and turned up the fuel% for 1000k RPM's on the S-AFC so that I could get the idle so that it at least wasn't going to die. I got out and hooked up the boost gauge so that I could see what the vac. was, and it was -10psi at 1500 RPM's... I revved the car and it was actually able to rev (before it would just cut out and die if I gave it gas), so I drove it around. It felt normal (I ididn't boost), but it could barely hold an idle...

What could possibly be wrong? I checked the compression and it was *fine*... 90-90 front and rear (yes, it's been a bad day) I also checked the engine fuses and cabin fuses (don't know if this could do anything) and they were fine...

Could my ECU or TPS or something else have been destroyed?

I'm pretty bummed out because I've invested so much of my *rare* free time into working on my car and now I've pretty much came to disappointing wall...

 

nm, i got ahead of myself again, lol.

did you solder the SAFC connections or ?

i had a similar problem where my SAFC connections were **** poor so i soldered them, disconnected the battery and hooked it back up, center the variable resistor and initialize and re set up the SAFC settings to 0 and start tuning over again. this cured the problem.

and be sure your grounds are nice, clean and tight. most people forget the battery, the most important ground there is!(clean both terminals and be sure they are tight)

 

Also, I've heard of TPSes causing something like this. Its defiantly possible that you bumped the wires lose on it, or didn't get it tight when you put the uIM back on.. I'd pull out the adjustments for that, and run through it.

 

may as well double check the timing too, the CAS bolt may not have been tight enough and the CAS spun when under the load.

 

thats very true karack and thats something you should check.. but i have had this happen to a couple of times and it always came back to a vacuum problem.. you checked your intake gaskets right? also check your tid maybe there is a failure some where i have had a million vacuum incidents with my car and other and always found them (except for my buddy Woo whos car whistles and i dont know why) i was so happy to be reading your successful post even if you did get a gay baby blue ebc muhahaha, im just teasing i wish i had one. last week i started my car without the afc plugged back in ewwwwwwww. it was bad... i promptly plugged it back in doh (after i turned off the car) but yes check those too things. you did check out the boost controller do didnt you?

 

thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, my S-ARC connections aren't perfect and my grounds have been neglected.

I'm so pessimistic right now... I'm honestly thinking about re-re-rebuilding before I go any further... You all have to admit, 90-90 compression on a 6k mile rebuild is pathetic... lol. My original TII motor had 95-85 at 146k miles when I first tested it. I'm pretty sure I'm getting blow-by similar to Dustin. I just re-used my (N/A's) old side-seals (60k mi.) without checking their spec's... Everything else was new.

I've got all week to decide what my next steps are going to be, seeing that I'll be away again for work. The only positive thing about my car situation is the fact that I'm making enough money to be able to afford some mishaps (and some mods, lol)

My visions of 300whp grandeur are slowly fading... sigh.

(lol)

 

i'm sure it is something simple.


don't make me come over there and bitch slap you!

 

i second karack-crack-alack ill smack you if you rebuild. its something simple.

 

Another person not checking clearances on the side seal to corner seal? *sigh*

Live and learn at least

Spend a day, open it up, fix the problem. Keep all the apex seals in the same slots so you don't have to go back through break-in.

 

TPS!

is my vote.

check the connections on your TPS and re set it, check your pressure sensor as well, then pull the battery and reset the ECU, and try again.

 

Spark plugs fouled?

Always check the easy-to-get-to and easily-replaced stuff...


-Ted

 

check your TID and your BOV pipe for leaks or a crack on the tid...but as far as votes go the TPS seems very likely..my old TII coupe did the same thing...ran fine but had a shitty idle like a seal was gone...then I replace the TPS and she was good to go..mazda is always good for a code checker..at least you will know whats up..disconnect the batterie and step on the break pedal a few times and start her up to see if the idle is better...that will temp clear the faults in the ECU..g'luck

 

Go to your SAFC and look at the SNR CHECK voltages and see if they are NORMAL.

Your having to add fuel to get it to idle suggests a air leak OR you have gotten one of the vacuum hose you were messing with going where it should not go.

 

Thanks for the responses guys, you've definitely given me some ideas on what to check. My experience is stilll pretty limited, so it's cool that after I've hit a wall, you guys are able to pick me up and give me some direction.

I still want to rebuild...

(lol)

 

Don't wish to hard

 

oh, if you messed with the fuel pump, check that too, especially check for leaks in the line post-pump but still in tank, maybe bad fuel pressure. This probably isn't the problem though if you didn't change the pump.

 

throws a wrecnh at you for wanting to take your engine down again... thats last resort of the last kind.. by the way if you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a dodgeball

 

I dunno, I've seen some pretty fat mechanics...

 

my car wouldnt stay started for more than 3 or 4 seconds before i soldered up my safc connections ..

since you tap into the afm wire, that may have something to do with it ... double check those connections and solder them in ...

 

Did you look down inside your fuel tank to see how much crap was in the bottom of it when you put your fuel pump in? Its not good for your fuel filters when you run your car out of gas. Maybe your sock or your inline fuel filter is clogged. Second guess would be spark plugs...

 

after rethinking this i am near positive you have a leak in one of your intake pipes. remove the TID and inspect it for cracks in the rubber. do the same with all the other hoses... could even be a gasket that is the problem, try to isolate the problem with some carburetor cleaner, spray around the intake manifold, if the idle smooths out then you found the source of the problem. be sure to have a fire extinguisher close by though..

 

Well, my TID has a crack in it, but I filled it in with two seperate layers of high-temp RTV.

It just doesn't make sense that my car would be so healthy one moment and just want to die the next... Like, something happened in an instant that caused my problems... I'd think if it were spark-plugs it would've been a progressive thing?

I like the "over-spun" CAS idea... (simply because that'd be easy to fix)

Karack, can you go a little more in depth on the carb-cleaner 'method'?

 

The carb spray idea is simple. Spray where you think it might be leaking, Idle change youve found your leak. No change? Move on. Just dont over do it and it wouldnt hurt to keep a fire extinguisher close by as Karack has mentioned. I keep one in all my cars.

 

perfect...

You truly are the "elf king".

lol