Acquired an FD, just Intro and some Q's!
11-08-07, 01:00 AM
#1
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Acquired an FD, just Intro and some Q's!
Hey guys,
Just introducing myself to the forum, I acquired my FD about three - four weeks ago. I actually traded my 1993 Skyline GTS-4 for it. The FD came to me in very very poor shape.
Things wrong with it:
No Door handles, previous owner used the hood prop to pull on the door handle from opening the rear hatch.
Gas door is broken, when I pulled the lever, the door flopped out onto the lawn
Windshield glass was cracked horribly.
Intake setup was falling off
Hood did not latch
Front bumper was damaged
Door pillars had horrible bondo jobs on it
front tires were 225/45/16(which one has cord showing) now the rear ones had 205/40/16 on them! it looked like it was on donuts
The rear paint was so sun cancered, it had deep pits in it
Whole interior was damaged and cracked
Ebay exhaust that he had just welded to the stock downpipe, has an hole in it also. argh!
so the good that came with it:
Apexi PFC
48,000 miles
um, greddy shift ****?
and of course it's a FD!
greddy elbow
and hot and cold pipe
Pictures of it before:
So the progress I have made so far:
MazdaSpeed front bumper
Windshield replaced
Door handles shaved
Bigger tires all around.
Apexi Noir Exhaust/catback
3 inch Downpipe
This midpipe I bought from this forum and was pretty disappointed, looks like a stock cat welded in, blah, whatever I need it to pass inspection
New Intakes
Realigned everything in the front
New hood installed
Door poppers/security system
battery relocated to behind driver's seat
PLX wideband
Oil Filter relocation kit
My First attempt at a real paint job(everything went great till the clear... my math has caught up to me, and I made a ratio of 3:1 instead of 4:1... so orange horribly
So here is a sneak peek of how it's coming
of course the genius me, after the recent lousy paintjob I rendered myself and need to redo, I decided to go drifting for a little, and of course I bite a curb with the bumper and this is what happens, with the bumper coming flying off.
Ok, now that introductions are over, I have a couple questions for the experts you are here:
1)On the Apexi PFC commander, I have it monitoring knock, and it shows a bar and it rises and lowers while I rev and drive, does that mean I have knock in the motor? scares the crap out of me. what does that mean and should I be worried?
2)Airpump, Necessary to pass a Visual Emissions inspection? They look and see if you have everything you need for emissions. They don't test it.
3)This is the first time I am owning a vehicle with sequential turbos, so it's a little confusing for me, the first turbo spools up to like 1800 rpm right? and then the second one kicks in? Personally, sometimes when I step on it, I don't see boost,and then sometimes I see that it boosts, like it comes and goes, and I have a feeling you guys are going to say vacuum leak, but sprayed everything down with brake cleaner, nothing. I am thinking maybe boost leak, the plastic BOV's are still on the car, should I upgrade or is that a source of boost leak?
Thanks! and I'm saving this FD from it's poor ownership from before, it is really beat up and hopefully I can bring it out to shine again!
Just introducing myself to the forum, I acquired my FD about three - four weeks ago. I actually traded my 1993 Skyline GTS-4 for it. The FD came to me in very very poor shape.
Things wrong with it:
No Door handles, previous owner used the hood prop to pull on the door handle from opening the rear hatch.
Gas door is broken, when I pulled the lever, the door flopped out onto the lawn
Windshield glass was cracked horribly.
Intake setup was falling off
Hood did not latch
Front bumper was damaged
Door pillars had horrible bondo jobs on it
front tires were 225/45/16(which one has cord showing) now the rear ones had 205/40/16 on them! it looked like it was on donuts
The rear paint was so sun cancered, it had deep pits in it
Whole interior was damaged and cracked
Ebay exhaust that he had just welded to the stock downpipe, has an hole in it also. argh!
so the good that came with it:
Apexi PFC
48,000 miles
um, greddy shift ****?
and of course it's a FD!
greddy elbow
and hot and cold pipe
Pictures of it before:
So the progress I have made so far:
MazdaSpeed front bumper
Windshield replaced
Door handles shaved
Bigger tires all around.
Apexi Noir Exhaust/catback
3 inch Downpipe
This midpipe I bought from this forum and was pretty disappointed, looks like a stock cat welded in, blah, whatever I need it to pass inspection
New Intakes
Realigned everything in the front
New hood installed
Door poppers/security system
battery relocated to behind driver's seat
PLX wideband
Oil Filter relocation kit
My First attempt at a real paint job(everything went great till the clear... my math has caught up to me, and I made a ratio of 3:1 instead of 4:1... so orange horribly
So here is a sneak peek of how it's coming
of course the genius me, after the recent lousy paintjob I rendered myself and need to redo, I decided to go drifting for a little, and of course I bite a curb with the bumper and this is what happens, with the bumper coming flying off.
Ok, now that introductions are over, I have a couple questions for the experts you are here:
1)On the Apexi PFC commander, I have it monitoring knock, and it shows a bar and it rises and lowers while I rev and drive, does that mean I have knock in the motor? scares the crap out of me. what does that mean and should I be worried?
2)Airpump, Necessary to pass a Visual Emissions inspection? They look and see if you have everything you need for emissions. They don't test it.
3)This is the first time I am owning a vehicle with sequential turbos, so it's a little confusing for me, the first turbo spools up to like 1800 rpm right? and then the second one kicks in? Personally, sometimes when I step on it, I don't see boost,and then sometimes I see that it boosts, like it comes and goes, and I have a feeling you guys are going to say vacuum leak, but sprayed everything down with brake cleaner, nothing. I am thinking maybe boost leak, the plastic BOV's are still on the car, should I upgrade or is that a source of boost leak?
Thanks! and I'm saving this FD from it's poor ownership from before, it is really beat up and hopefully I can bring it out to shine again!
11-08-07, 02:22 AM
#3
94 Single Turbo FD
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u should only monitor knock under load/boost.
doin so at an idle will tell u virtually nothing.
search the powerfc forum for more info on knock.
emissions testing is seperate from region to region
the stock bov are fine. they are not known to fail. if u have a boost leak u will have it all the time and should have no trouble hearing it.
the sequential turbo set up is quite complex and several things could be wrong if u are experiencing intermittent boosting patterns.
read the stickied threads at the top of the 3rd gen forum and do alot of searching...and everything will come together.. good luck
doin so at an idle will tell u virtually nothing.
search the powerfc forum for more info on knock.
emissions testing is seperate from region to region
the stock bov are fine. they are not known to fail. if u have a boost leak u will have it all the time and should have no trouble hearing it.
the sequential turbo set up is quite complex and several things could be wrong if u are experiencing intermittent boosting patterns.
read the stickied threads at the top of the 3rd gen forum and do alot of searching...and everything will come together.. good luck
11-08-07, 07:19 AM
#5
looks like it's turning out nice.Your turbo problem could be a sticking solenoid rather than an actual vacuum leak.
The primary turbo should see full boost by 2800RPMs, the secondary turbo kick in at 4500. When the secondary kicks in, your boost will drop from 10PSI to 8PSI, then go back up to 10PSI to help ease the transition.
11-08-07, 08:36 AM
#7
First off, nice job so far. Looks like one heck of a project.
1. The knock reading is vehicle dependent. The PFC doesn't do anything with it but display it. Also, the reading is only as good as the sensor. The sensor itself is surrounded with a "goo" to help insulate the receiver from too much noise. As the sensor gets old, the goo runs out and the receive becomes more sensitive so it can appear your car is knocking more when in reality it might not. I wouldn't worry too much about the knock reading just yet.
2. Check the NE regional section about area specific emission requirements.
3. Take a look at this overview of the stock turbo system:
http://www.autosportracetech.com/RX-...erOverview.htm
To determine how your system is working, you need a boost gauge and you need to perform the following test:
http://www.fd3s.net/boost_test.html
1. The knock reading is vehicle dependent. The PFC doesn't do anything with it but display it. Also, the reading is only as good as the sensor. The sensor itself is surrounded with a "goo" to help insulate the receiver from too much noise. As the sensor gets old, the goo runs out and the receive becomes more sensitive so it can appear your car is knocking more when in reality it might not. I wouldn't worry too much about the knock reading just yet.
2. Check the NE regional section about area specific emission requirements.
3. Take a look at this overview of the stock turbo system:
http://www.autosportracetech.com/RX-...erOverview.htm
To determine how your system is working, you need a boost gauge and you need to perform the following test:
http://www.fd3s.net/boost_test.html
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11-08-07, 09:39 AM
#9
RIP IceMark
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hey, thanks guys, that has really helped alot.
I'm definitely going to brush up on the PFC forum, I didn't know there was one dedicated just to that.
I tried to read up on the Sequential Turbo System, Holy moly, the vacuum lines is a nightmare. I'll slowly sort that out.
The PFC has been tuned and the car runs up to 13 PSI.
So I'm going to start changing the selenoids.
Yeah, the guys before me definitely did not take care of the car. It's now in good hands, and I'll get it fixed up!
I'm definitely going to brush up on the PFC forum, I didn't know there was one dedicated just to that.
I tried to read up on the Sequential Turbo System, Holy moly, the vacuum lines is a nightmare. I'll slowly sort that out.
The PFC has been tuned and the car runs up to 13 PSI.
So I'm going to start changing the selenoids.
Yeah, the guys before me definitely did not take care of the car. It's now in good hands, and I'll get it fixed up!
11-08-07, 02:13 PM
#12
On thing to consider is that if the previous owner messed up the car that badly, and judging from the under-hood shot you posted he got his hands dirty under there in a major way, the turbos might have been converted, properly or otherwise, to non-sequential. If you haven't already, get a boost gauge and check the boost pattern.
11-08-07, 06:20 PM
#14
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Well I can fix it and I don't keep it looking that way. I was just a little over excited about having a driftable car again. Driving the fwd talon TSI is driving me insane, when you belong in a drift club, I was just a little gas happy, and the slick conditions wasn't favorable in my stupidity.
Thanks for the help everyone though.
What's a good decent size wheel to put on the car?
Offset, and wheel width? I'm going 18 all around. these are just test fitment from my buddy's mustang, to see how well 18's would sit on the car. Chrome is definitely not my style.
Thanks for the help everyone though.
What's a good decent size wheel to put on the car?
Offset, and wheel width? I'm going 18 all around. these are just test fitment from my buddy's mustang, to see how well 18's would sit on the car. Chrome is definitely not my style.
11-08-07, 09:13 PM
#16
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well the car isn't lowered yet, so it looks awfully high.
So that has to be remedied.
I have a bunch of track wheels. I have a bunch of 17x7.5's and the original Mazda wheels on the car is going to be track wheels also.
need some show wheels, and then the rest are going to be drift wheels.
So that has to be remedied.
I have a bunch of track wheels. I have a bunch of 17x7.5's and the original Mazda wheels on the car is going to be track wheels also.
need some show wheels, and then the rest are going to be drift wheels.
11-08-07, 09:26 PM
#17
7.5 is way too thin. That's like an inch thinner than stock.
Nice show rims are OEM BBS rims, whicha re 17x8 in the front and 17x8.5 in the rear. They are the best looking rims for the car, IMO.
Even lowered FDs tend to look pretty bad with 18s. Here's a picture of an FD that was lowered 1.5" with 18s that I was looking at a couple years ago. The car was beautiful, it's just that that big rims don't usually go well with small sports cars.
Nice show rims are OEM BBS rims, whicha re 17x8 in the front and 17x8.5 in the rear. They are the best looking rims for the car, IMO.
Even lowered FDs tend to look pretty bad with 18s. Here's a picture of an FD that was lowered 1.5" with 18s that I was looking at a couple years ago. The car was beautiful, it's just that that big rims don't usually go well with small sports cars.
11-09-07, 04:10 AM
#18
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wow, i love what you have done, it looks great. Any more pics of the finished product from the front?
You guys have just convinced me to get 17s for my FD.
You guys have just convinced me to get 17s for my FD.
11-09-07, 05:02 AM
#20
7.5 is way too thin. That's like an inch thinner than stock.
Nice show rims are OEM BBS rims, whicha re 17x8 in the front and 17x8.5 in the rear. They are the best looking rims for the car, IMO.
Even lowered FDs tend to look pretty bad with 18s. Here's a picture of an FD that was lowered 1.5" with 18s that I was looking at a couple years ago. The car was beautiful, it's just that that big rims don't usually go well with small sports cars.
Nice show rims are OEM BBS rims, whicha re 17x8 in the front and 17x8.5 in the rear. They are the best looking rims for the car, IMO.
Even lowered FDs tend to look pretty bad with 18s. Here's a picture of an FD that was lowered 1.5" with 18s that I was looking at a couple years ago. The car was beautiful, it's just that that big rims don't usually go well with small sports cars.
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