Last night I took off my greddy elbow in order to wire up my race coil a bit better and to relocate it, making sure it was secured more firmly in place.

Friday night I was in a bit of a hurry to get to the track and was running out of daylight, so the I didn't finish the job 100%. I had mounted the coil too high, and it was too close to the underside of the elbow. I had to tighten the two nuts on the underside with a wrench instead of a socket.

Well, last night I was astounded to find that one of the 10mm nuts (the bottom right one) was.....gone. Just not there. I must not have torqued it enough and it spun off. I was not getting all of the air from my turbos into the motor. I was irritated with myself for making a dumb mistake, but also curious if the car would run better. I moved the race coil lower, rewired it, and made sure to torque down all four nuts with a socket. Then I changed the oil and started her up.

Car holds a better idle. Vaccum doesn't fluctuate as much. I took her out, and HELL YEAH! Throttle response is improved, I get boost quicker, and she pulls harder top end. On a straight by my neighborhood, I'm shifting into third sooner at the same point along the road--car is accelerating faster. I'm just laughing and shaking my head. Big improvement.

Well, I'll let you guys know how I do next friday....looking to trap a bit higher now

 

You mean you had a boost leak at the track and didn't know why your mph was so low?? Was it audible??
John

 

Nope, I couldn't hear any air escaping. When I went down the track fri night, I didn't look at my boost gauge or pfc commander at all---I was concentrating on driving. On my run I had shown a peak of 0.97 kg/cm^2, which is almost 14 psi. This is why I said I was running 13--I usually spike about 1 psi. I'm wondering if I was actually spiking the same, but holding less boost. Last night I was holding about 0.91 to 0.96 depending on gear.

Rich

 

 

Same thing happened to me at an autocross a couple months ago, but luckily i saw it backed halfway off the stud before it came all the way off. Tightened it up and was fine for the rest of the day.

Ever since then i make sure to crank those things down.

 

Funny it shouldn't effect the vacuum reading or idle one bit. You can actually take everything off between the turbos and throttle body and the car will idle fine, actually you can move it around too. The only problem is you run the chance of having dirt/debris go into the intake and if you really drive the car you'll overspin the turbos. Moving the car in the driveway is not a problem. The vacuum is developed after the throttle plates.

Otherwise I'm sure it was a boost leak, good find.

Later,
Jeff

 

Hey Jeff,

Hmm. What you say makes sense, but I'm 100% positive of the idle/vacuum issue. I used to fluctuate +/- 5 to 10 mmHg, now it fluctauates maybe +/- 1 or 2. The car actually sounds better at idle--not as irregular, and more healthy.

 

maybe your coil or wiring was not on perfectly and that was causing your power loss and poor idle.

 

i love that feeling in a car, when it just makes you so happy you can't express it other than just put some goofy smile on your face sounds like the first time i rode in an rx7

 

I was thinking the same thing. I bet you're right, Wade.

Note to self: do not start pulling apart FD one hour before the sun sets .