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I would have to see logs. The Idle speed solenoid duty could be clipped at max or the spark advance could be clipped.
These old cars idle control systems are complicated. The adjustment of the throttle plate screws, the air bypass screws, the friction of the engine, etc. If you ever get a chance to tune idle on a car with electronic throttle you will realize how awful cable throttles are for idling.
Suffice it to say, put the PFC back to where it was if you were happy with the idle and just leave it.
Glad to see the Service manual had the A/C info you needed! For what it's worth, my FD was one of the rare ones with factory 1995 R134 A/C . Let me tell you, it's not very good by modern standards. We are spoiled by the refinement of modern cars, even econoboxes. So you need to lower your expectations.
Yeah the ISC can't bring the idle up that high. It's just designed for around 500-1000 RPM or so, it just can't flow enough air to set the idle that high. For something like that you can either have someone hold the throttle or maybe just tension the throttle cable to bring the idle up without messing with the throttle stop screws.
Remember, the RX-7 was originally designed with R12 in mind. I don't think I've ever seen a 94 with 134a (my 94 had/has R12) but 95's do have it. I have heard anecdotal evidence that 134a on a stock new 95 was underwhelming.
Really it sounds like your AC is as good as it will get. Now you know a LOT more about it and can troubleshoot things yourself.
Also, AC pressures depend on outside air temps and humidity to dial in the exact pressure. It's a temperature/pressure chart. I've yet to really crack the magic of using those charts, though, it gets pretty voodoo. But, again, if it's cooling you down, let it be.
Yep. Now that I know my compressor/charge /setup is verified good, I’m done messing with it. It’s actually pretty darn cold for a 90’s car. It was over a 100 with the heat index and I had to eventually turn it down it was getting so cold. Not sure if the RX8 condenser made a difference, but I’m not unhappy with it other than the fan speed thing.
Good to know about the ISC. That’s another thing I can remove from the list!
A few weeks back I noticed my AC was a bit warm. After some sleuthing with UV Dye and a leak detector tool, I found a leak in my Evaporator near the expansion valve and my compressor. I went back to O'Reily's Auto for a warranty swap on my compressor. The one they ordered for me showed up broken. The next one they ordered me had a faulty temperature sensor. I finally got one that works, got it installed, and charged. I'm a pro now as removing and installing AC compressors...but whoever designed the location and the bolts either has tiny hands or has a toddler robot. I also replaced the expansion valve. AC was working again...but the car still would stall in neutral. Ugh
Adjusting my idle on the PFC didn't seem to help so I pulled the ISC, tested, and cleaned it. No issues. Not sure why it never occurred to me before, but I put my multimeter up to the connector for the ISV and found ZERO volts. Visually looking at the harness in the engine bay and the at the PFC connector, nothing looked cut or broken (but I also didn't untape the harness to check every inch). I checked continuity on pin 4Q and got nothing. I guess I've been running on a non-functioning ISC for the last two years!?
I tapped new power from the un-used turbo pre-control connector since it was still hot and ran a fresh wire to pin 4Q. I fired up the car and my idle jumped almost 1000rpm and would never come down. On top of that when I put the PFC in learn mode, it never hunted for an idle. I posted in the 3rg Gen Section here and thanks to @DaleClark , I realized my throttle plates were cracked open which is probably how Bryan at @rotorsportracing got my idle to 1000rpm before I knew my ISC wasn't working (car idled great....until I put AC in). I closed my plates fully, adjusted to the TPS voltage because of the adjustment, fired her back up and relearned the the idle. The engine hunted a bit as the PFC did it's thing but she was idling perfect at ~980 RPM where the PFC was set with or without AC!!!! Much, much, better...but not quite 100% there yet...because...
My issue now appears to be my fans. If you recall from earlier in this build post, I replaced the aftermarket fans the previous owner has installed with OEM ones but the wiring harness was all cut up so rather than attempt to rewire them for stock control, I connected them to an external fan controller. It's a pretty simply controller you can get at any auto store. It's basically a probe you insert into the radiator with a screw you turn to set the temp to turn the fans on. It also has an override wire you connect to the AC compressor so when the AC is on, the fans turn on. The OEM fans had multiple speeds but the fan controller isn't that advanced so I wired the the fans so that when they turned on, they were at max speed.
Driving around yesterday, my car idled great without the AC on. My fans are now set to engage around 88c degrees and it keep the water temp a pretty nice 84c-86 degrees. It was I the 70's yesterday but humid so I ran the AC. When the AC is on, the fans run full speed. This cooled my water temps down to about 80c. This sounds great, but when I got to a traffic light, my idle would jump to 1500-1600rpm and the car would hunt for 10-15 seconds and then most of the time it would level out. What I suspect is happening is that with a water temp of 80c, the PFC thinks the car isn't fully warmed up so it's upping the RPM thinking the engine is still cold. If I cut the AC off and the car reaches 85c+, the car idles great in neutral at a solid 980rpm per the PFC settings. I guess my options now are just to live with it or try to rewire the fans to work with the ECU control. I was hesitant to do this before even though @Molotovman kept telling me to do it earlier this year. I'm much more comfortable now re-wiring and better at reading the wiring diagrams in the FSM so I might take that on as my next project.
The only other issue I have now is that after a warm up and drive, when the AC is on, I get a terrible whine from my serpentine belt (it's only 2 months old). I've tried tightening it up and without the proper tool to check tension/deflection, I'm just tightening to "feel". I was always told a good way to feel it is that you should be able to twist the belt just under 90 degrees under the appropriate tension. I guess I'll try a tad tighter? Someone suggested belt dressing but I read online that EPDM based belts (like the Bando one I have) should not be treated with belt dressing. I also noticed the my compressor pulley has one less rib/groove than the power steering pulley and the main pulley on the engine. The belt fits perfect on the compressor pulley but I've got an "extra" groove on the other two pulleys. I know this probably isn't the ideal way to connect up a belt, but after looking at the procedure for swapping out the pulley on the compressor (I still have OE compressor with the right size pulley), it's not a project I want to attempt to DIY.
The discovery of the ISC issue was huge and I'm sure had I checked this years ago, I could have saved myself hours of frustration at various points in this project. Once I get belt issues and fan issue figured out, I'll be good...and then wait for the next shoe to drop...
The AC compressor pulley is STUPID easy to change, actually. 10mm bolt in the middle and then a snap ring. There's a small spacer washer in there that you have to account for as well. You do NOT have to discharge the system or anything. You can probably do that in the car with the battery/cross member removed for a little room.
On the fans, I think with running the fans full blast you're immediately over-cooling the car. I think getting the car to work more like OEM or getting the OEM wires up and going would be the way to go.
What is cut or removed for the factory fan control? There should be the 4 relay connectors on the passenger side of the engine bay by the overflow tank, and 2 4-pin fan connectors near the front relay box.
@DaleClark that's good news about the pulley. When I look at the FSM, it looks like you need an SST to remove the pressure plate. Thought about trying it first with my OE one but then I thought I'd have to remove the whole dam thing and recharge (AGAIN). Here are some pics. I got the Bando belt using their parts matching tool but I didn't realize until recently that number of grooves/ribs is different on the pulleys. If I put the OE one, would I keep this belt or go with one that fits all the grooves/ribs?
As for the fans, the relays are there but the connectors are gone/cut off. Knowing what I know now, I can repin/rewire them with fresh connectors for the fans and the harness. If the OE wire is good shape, I can butt connect them and heat shrink vs running all new wiring to the relays. I think.
Power Steering Puley Engine Pulley AC Compressor Pulley
You may want to see how the compressor pulley comes of with the one on your bench first. It's not hard at all, first time I did it I was suprised, thought it would be a lot more involved. Also made it easy to clean/repaint the pulley to freshen it up.
10mm and a snap-ring pliers and it will come off for you.
On the fan relays, let me look, I have a hacked up JDM front harness that I've used for parts, it may have the fan connectors on the harness still that I could cut off for you.
You may want to see how the compressor pulley comes of with the one on your bench first. It's not hard at all, first time I did it I was suprised, thought it would be a lot more involved. Also made it easy to clean/repaint the pulley to freshen it up.
10mm and a snap-ring pliers and it will come off for you.
On the fan relays, let me look, I have a hacked up JDM front harness that I've used for parts, it may have the fan connectors on the harness still that I could cut off for you.
Dale
Would you use the same belt or do I need get another belt? The Bando site says this is the right band, but clearly it's short a rib/groove.
Yes as I think you now know there is a compressor with a 5-rib pulley that parts stores love to sell us as "compatible". It is generally a couple hundred cheaper than the 6 rib pulley compressor. And unless you have run into it before, its really easy to completely miss the difference until you notice the belt noise like you did (ask me how I know)
They'll both bolt up to the OEM mount, but you'll have to swap your old 6 rib pulley to the new compressor. Make sure to use the old compressors clutch as well, at least for me the 5 rib clutch was not compatible with the 6 rib pulley despite the fact you can technically bolt them up together. It's stupid easy to do the pulley swap, just remove the battery and you should have all the space you need.
Not sure about your compressor, but my 5 rib compressor also did not come with the right electrical connector, so I had to cut it off my old one and splice it to the new one.
That being said, I just ended up finally buying a new compressor that came with the right pulley (and electrical connector). I don't think it had anything to do with the different pulley but that compressor that came with the 5 rib just never worked great for me, was always noisy, etc.
They'll both bolt up to the OEM mount, but you'll have to swap your old 6 rib pulley to the new compressor. Make sure to use the old compressors clutch as well, at least for me the 5 rib clutch was not compatible with the 6 rib pulley despite the fact you can technically bolt them up together. It's stupid easy to do the pulley swap, just remove the battery and you should have all the space you need.
Not sure about your compressor, but my 5 rib compressor also did not come with the right electrical connector, so I had to cut it off my old one and splice it to the new one.
That being said, I just ended up finally buying a new compressor that came with the right pulley (and electrical connector). I don't think it had anything to do with the different pulley but that compressor that came with the 5 rib just never worked great for me, was always noisy, etc.
A few questions:
1. You can buy a new compressor?? Where? How much?
2. What do you mean the 5 rib clutch and 6 rib pulley aren't compatible? It doesn't work? Fit? I was planning to try and swap them pulley this week so this would be good to know before I take it all apart. My battery is relocated but my Greddy kit radiatior is mounted such that I may not be able to do the swap without removing the compressor and discharging the system but I'm gonna try that first
3. The electrical connector was easy for me. I just cut and spliced the wire with heat shrink butt connectors.
On swapping the pullies I'd pull your old pulley off the old compressor first so you can get an idea of the job then you can decide how to tackle it on the car. May be able to do it in place or maybe unbolting the compressor to move it around a bit but not removing the lines or discharging the system.
The 10mm bolt is super easy, the snap ring is the only part that's slightly tricky.
A few questions:
1. You can buy a new compressor?? Where? How much?
2. What do you mean the 5 rib clutch and 6 rib pulley aren't compatible? It doesn't work? Fit? I was planning to try and swap them pulley this week so this would be good to know before I take it all apart. My battery is relocated but my Greddy kit radiatior is mounted such that I may not be able to do the swap without removing the compressor and discharging the system but I'm gonna try that first
3. The electrical connector was easy for me. I just cut and spliced the wire with heat shrink butt connectors.
1. "New", all the parts stores sell them as new, but whether or not they are new or rebuilt is...questionable. I got mine here, since they were very local to me and could basically overnight it for free through USPS due to that: https://www.coolairparts.com/Mazda-R...0130-FD0561450
but that compressor is available on ebay and from many other AC part retailers.
2. The first thing I tried was old 6 rib pulley -> new clutch from 5 rib compressor -> new compressor and it would never work right. The clutch couldn't bite into the pulley enough and it would slip and get very hot, and the AC wouldn't work right. I tried adjusting the spacer washers, but it would just go from slipping to never disengaging.
When I put the old clutch with the old 6 rib pulley it worked perfectly the first try.
When I took them apart they both used the same number of spacer washers, so I couldn't say exactly what the issue is. Might just be my own stupidity but the old clutch + old pulley worked out of the gate so idk.
3. Yep, that's exactly what I did.
To Dale's point, I did mine on the car and it was super easy with just the battery removed. Didn't have to vent the system. Trickiest part is putting the snap ring *back on*. Just make sure you have snap ring pliers, or some really fine point 90 degree needle nose pliers. I didn't have the right snap ring tools so it was a little tricky to get it back on, but even without the tools I was able to do it.
Since you have the old compressor and you need to take the pulley off it anyways, definitely do that first just so you understand the assembly. Make sure you don't lose/forget any of the spacer washers.
I have snap ring pliers from my brake caliper rebuild project and I got the snap ring off the old one easy and the pulley off but there were no spacers when it can to removing the pulley. Are those part of the clutch removal process? As for my compressor..it's "New" from a store but it's remanufactured as I dont think the make new ones anymore. I just checked the link above and if it really is brand new, I wish I found that out before I got what I got. Did it even come with the right oil already in it...so true plug and play?
They say it is brand new. It doesn't have any of the stickers the OEM one has though, so unknown if its really brand new or not.
Be careful about the washers. They can get stuck in the pulley so they may not fall out when you remove everything. I'd be really surprised if there are truly none being used.
Compressors generally come with shipping oil. In my experience the install instructions for compressors always specify to drain the shipping oil and fill with the appropriate type and amount of oil as called for by the OEM. The compressor I linked was fully plug and play, even down to the electrical plug.
They say it is brand new. It doesn't have any of the stickers the OEM one has though, so unknown if its really brand new or not.
Be careful about the washers. They can get stuck in the pulley so they may not fall out when you remove everything. I'd be really surprised if there are truly none being used.
Compressors generally come with shipping oil. In my experience the install instructions for compressors always specify to drain the shipping oil and fill with the appropriate type and amount of oil as called for by the OEM. The compressor I linked was fully plug and play, even down to the electrical plug.
Gotcha. Ill check to see if the washers are just stuck to the pulley, pressure plate, or the bolt. As for oil, mine came shipped with 3oz of oil so I just added 2.5oz more. I didn't drain it first. It shipped with PAG100 which is what the FSM says it needs so I just added more...
I pulled the pulley and clutch off my OE compressor, transplanted to new compressor, and everything seems to work good now with my AC. We'll see how long that lasts but so far, so good.
My next issues I've spent the last week troubleshooting is with my fans and weird electrical issue. I decided to go back to OEM fan relay control. My harness was cut up on the fan connection side so I made all new connectors for the fan and the harness side and butt connected them with heat shrink back to the cut wires on the harness. Now my only issue is that when my coolant temp in the PFC hits the target temp, the PFC does not turn on the fans. I have a whole thread about it here if anyone wants to jump in to help: https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...ssues-1146929/
But, the rest of the system works so here are my options if I can't figure out why my PFC won't turn on the fans and I'm curious what the braintrust thinks:
1. Replace my OE Thermoswitch an FC one. This would cause my thermoswitch to open at 97c vs 107c (OE). This would mean my fans come on low speed at the target temp
2. Replace my OE Thermoswitch an FC one AND wire the switch to the Relay 2/3 that the PFC isn't activating. This would mean my fans would come on at medium at the target temp.
3. Don't even bother. I run my AC year round (even in winter). It was 90 out today and with my AC running and the Greddy VMount kit, my water temp never passed 81-84 degrees. This would mean my fans will run at low all the time unless I somehow hit the Thermoswitch temp, but I doubt I will as the VMount kit really does keep coolant temp low
4. Wire the aftermarket fan controller (basically a relay and temp probe) I have so that instead of triggering the fans at a set temp (what I was doing before I tried to go back to OE control), it would pass ground to relay 2/4 in the OE fan setup. This would allow me to set the temp to whatever I want. If I went this way, the only difference between before and with OE control is that my fans will run either Low (no AC) or medium (with AC), or high (with AC + Thermoswitch temp) vs being on HIGH all the time
The other thing I've noticed is that my fans don't kick up a speed based on Electric Load (ELD). I see the ELD light up in the PFC sensor section when the fan speed is 3 or 4 or the headlights are on, but the fans dont kick up a speed. If I ground all my relays, the fans behave right so I know my relays and wiring are good. Right now, it's the mystery of the PFC and I don't have another one to swap and try. One person on Facebook said he had a PFC where this function didn't work either and getting a different one worked. Not sure I wanna go through the trouble. Again, based on the effectiveness of the VMount setup, I haven't cracked above 84 with the AC on and the fans running on low.
The other issue I had is I was driving the other night and my stereo and O2 sensor kept restarting randomly. The power in the car didn't cut out, but clearly those two things were "restarting" or losing power. A few min later, the power completely went out. Zero power. I managed to find safe area to turn off the road I was on (going about 55mph) and coast into a parking lot. I reached back at my battery in the bin and saw the breaker tripped. I flipped the main breaker back on and made it home. Today I pulled every ground I could find, wire brushed the ground points, added dielectric grease, and put it all back together. I went for a drive during the day with all the headlights on and it didn't do any random power things so maybe I'm good? Definitely not a fun feeling to be be driving at night and lose all power.
On the bright side, I got my alignment done to Howard Coleman Specs and also had them put my FD on corner scales. With my weight, she came in at 2887 lbs. That's with 3/4 tank of gas. For reference, a 2020 Miata has a gross weight of 2789lb. Hard to believe my FD is lighter than Miata when you take my weight out of the picture. I didn't bother to corner balance because the shop I went to told me it's really not worth the cost unless I legit was racing for money. They specialize in alignments and suspension setups and are pretty well known in the area for auto-crossers, races, and track junkies. Even crazier is I bet there is probably 50-100lbs of dynmat in my car that previous owner had installed that I did not want to try to remove.
I know I've said this before, but I am really close to having a fully functioning car...but I'm sure something will break soon enough.
my new connectors for fan splices to where wiring harness was cut
Finally got around to making some non-essential fixes after making a few minor needed ones.
First the needed fixes: a new thermostat, thermoswitch, and AC (again). I kept thinking my Greddy V-Mount kit was super efficient and causing my car to never warm up because my idle was always so high. It occurred to me that the radiator has no effect until the thermostat opens so why was I never even getting to mid 80's(c)? I decided to replace my thermostat with a new OEM one. The one in there was non OEM and either it opens earlier or it was stuck. Now my car warms up quick and I no longer have the ridiculous high idle issues that I thought were PFC related for the last few months.
Since I was at it, I also decided to replace the thermoswitch to lower the fan operating temp by about 10 degrees (c). I never could figure out why my PFC wasn't pulling ground to activate my fans at the set temp of 86 but since my AC runs during the summer all the time (which triggers the fan), I figured having the FC thermoswitch (which opens at 97 instead of 107) would be a good way to still have fan contro as a backup for non AC daysl. I ordered a non OEM one from RockAuto. It opens around 92c instead of 97c, which frankly is a bit better. Now my car finally has "near" OEM fan control again!
I still have some some occasional idle bouncing when coming to a stop in neutral, but it's not that big of an issue. It hunts for 5-15 seconds from ~1100-1600rpm and then settles to ~1500rpm before gracefully coming down to ~900-980rpm. I also only seems to hunt when the AC is off. When AC is running, it idles fine at a stop.
Lastly, my AC sprung a leak in my custom hoses at one of the fittings. I pulled it off, took it back to the shop, they tightened it as best they could. I also swapped the clutch from my OE compressor to my reman compressor. Between that, replacing the desiccant (love the RX8 condenser for this), and adding another shim, everything is working with my AC. Just in time for the fall...so much for having working AC in the summer. Lesson learned: start AC projects in winter/spring. My guess is since this compressor is also OE fit for Toyota Tercel, I ended up with one that was probably shimmed and clutched for the Tercel. One things is for sure, I've earned my FD AC badge.
So now for the fun stuff. I ripped and replaced all my speakers and head unit. I re-used the Alpine PDX 5-channel amp that was in the car but everything else is new:
Kenwood Excelon DMX706s - I originally bought the DMX4707 but was getting this awful buzzing/hiss. I troubleshot the entire system and determined it was the head unit. It was their least expensive unit and from what I found on Reddit, the cheaper units are not Kenwood designed. Just OEM'd to some cheap manufacturer with Kenwood operating system. The 706s is part of the Excelon series so it has 2 year warranty and much better parts. I have full Apple CarPlay (and Android Auto). The mic that comes with it is very good. Even with my exhaust, my wife said she could hear me fine on the phone and Siri responds well. It's been 20 years since I was into car audio and the amount of audio processing control they put in these things is crazy compared to my high school days in the late 90s.
Front - Alpine Type R 6.5" Component Speakers - These things sound great! I bought these adapters to mount 6.5" speakers where the factory Bose enclosures were and they went on great! They guys at my local audio shop where I bought the speakers said there isn't a better speaker in this price range and my ears agreed (and I have very picky ears...that being said, I capped myself on the spending because I'd go nuts otherwise for what is still not a daily driver).
Rear - Alpine Type R 6x8 2 way Speakers - Like the 6.5" Components, these things sound great. Nice mid range without being overly bright on the high end (same for the fronts). @Molotovman sold me some hard to find rear speaker grills so now it looks OE in the back compared to the 6x9 that were there before. I was able to find some replica speaker brackets on Facebook for the rears.
Sub - JL Audio 12" Sub + Box - This thing rocks! Since the amp I had was 5 channel, I didn't look at any powered subs because I didn't want to wire another amp when I had one that could drive my speakers and sub. I originally bought the 10" ported version of this box because it played louder and deeper in the store but once I got into the confines of the FD, it was too loud and being ported, not near as tight or clean. This 12" sealed sounds great and because it came as a single unit with the box designed by JL for this sub, it was a fairly small box (18"W x 13-3/4"H x 6-5/8"D).
I forgot how much I enjoyed aftermarket car audio until I had my entire interior apart to rewire everything. The local store I got everything from was super helpful and while they wanted to do the install, when I explained to the owner that my car sat in a field for 5 years and that I was worried that trim might break, he was happy to let me do my own install and offered to help over the phone as needed. He said he appreciated the honesty because neither of us wanted to fight the other over broken trim. I also knew because of the battery relo to the passenger bin, it would not be a standard job for the them to do. He suggested rather than having a USB cord dangling from behind the dash, I should flush mount a USB port (which he sold). He suggested the empty switch near the rear defrost. He even gave me piece of black ABS plastic to DIY. All in all, it came out well and I'm super happy to have some modern creature comforts with hands free calling and Apple CarPlay. Finding a radio with a **** these days is almost impossible but I definitely suggest getting one that has physical buttons vs all touch screen. The first Kenwood I got was touchscreen and the one I replaced it with has buttons. You want buttons!
Knock on wood, but this car is FINALLY in a good, drivable state. I've driven in the last few days and its been issue free. I got (mostly) smooth idle, controlled boost, A/C, music, and a nicely dialed in suspension. While I'm tempted to upgrade to Haltech, I'm now starting to debate on paint or just spending the next few months driving a still somewhat ugly car and save the paint for a winter project.
Took my car yesterday to our big local Car and Coffee meet. Of the 1300+ cars that showed up, only TWO FDs! Mine and @Copeland 's car. His was a thing of beauty with his 700+HP two rotor E85 setup and OE paint. I was the ugly duckling. I think that's what's motivating me to paint next. I don't wanna be the ugly car people look at every month!
Lighting makes the screen look washed out but it's not. Moved the defrost button over because the USB cable was where my arm would be when shifting in the original blank spot Previous owner dynamatted the crap out of this car. It's under the carpet too. I bet I could drop another 50-100lbs of weight if I ripped it out....but its a bitch to pull out and not worth it.
I finally got to see all the hard work (and money) I've put into this project come to life this past weekend during a 2 day HPDE track event at VIR. The FD handled itself very well. We were supposed to run the full course setup but due to rain and flooding earlier in the week, we had to run the South course which was much more technical (and shorter).
On the front straightaway, I was able to push to about 125 mph before my brain said slow down. My instructor said I could have pushed more if I was comfortable. 125mph was about 7.5krpm on 13-14psi. On Michelin Pilot 4s street tires, the car handled amazingly well (my instructor said it was his favorite street tire out there). I ran Howard Colemans alignment settings (but with 26" ride height instead of 25) and my Ohlins DFV's did a solid job as well. I left them in the recommended settings from Ohlins but in retrospect, I should have tried other settings to see what difference it would have made. In the corners I was pretty fast carrying speed (for street tires) but my only gripe was coming out of corners and having to wait for the turbo to spool. I ran most of the track in 3rd and occasionally 4th (although 4th got me into trouble once). I probably need to come out of corners in 2nd to get the initial out of corner speed going even though there would be a very quick shift to 3rd.
The track day was via Track Club USA and the SVT Mustang Club. Lots of Mustangs out there including some Ford Performance Development shops with some ridiculous cars. On more than on occasion, I came on the straight with people on my tail that I'm sure were cursing me to go faster. Once my turbo spooled and I took off, no one except maybe the mid engine C8 Vette could close ground on me (at least in the beginner class -- advanced had some borderline NASCARs). They all braked later so they eventually caught up but at WOT, the power to weight on the FD came through! The first time we got on the straight and I hit boost, my instructor giggled like a school girl and said "WOW. This thing moves". My buddy in the stands said people were like "WTF is that sound and car?"
The only real issue I had and still have is my car occasionally will stall in neutral. I've checked TPS, adjusted the dashpot, adjusted the Idle Air Control screw, confirmed my ISC solenoid works, adjusted throttle plate closing position...doesnt matter. Sometimes when I go to neutral the car catches the RPM and idles and sometimes, usually after the car is warm, it stalls. Coming down the straight, I missed my 4th to 3rd shift and the car die so I coasted into a corner with no power steering while trying to find 3rd and start the car and stay on line. Looking back, I should have just dropped the clutch but I also didn't wanna upset the chassis mid corner with abrupt clutch grab.
Oh...I also need a vented oil catch can. In the same 2 turns, I was throwing just a little bit of white smoke out of my vented hood on the turbo side. I pulled my charge pipes and I could see a light film of oil.
All in all, I had 3 hours of track time over two days. The Greddy VMount Setup was perfect. It was about 60-70 degrees outside so not super hot but running the car in 6-8k RPM range for most of the course, I NEVER went above 86c for my water temp.
I knew I'd get the track bug (again -- used to be a big motorcycle track guy) so my trajectory for this build is changing a bit. I'm going to forgo an 8-10k paint job and just have the body fixed and wrap or dip the car since this will be a street car that is going to see the track a few times a year. I also probably need a big wing on the back.
Next step: I'm going to move from PFC to Haltech. I need a car that doesnt randomly cut off and this 25 year old harness needs replacing so if I'm gonna do a new harness, I might as well move to modern ECU. I'm hoping that makes the car more reliable all around.
The only real issue I had and still have is my car occasionally will stall in neutral. I've checked TPS, adjusted the dashpot, adjusted the Idle Air Control screw, confirmed my ISC solenoid works, adjusted throttle plate closing position...doesnt matter. Sometimes when I go to neutral the car catches the RPM and idles and sometimes, usually after the car is warm, it stalls. Coming down the straight, I missed my 4th to 3rd shift and the car die so I coasted into a corner with no power steering while trying to find 3rd and start the car and stay on line. Looking back, I should have just dropped the clutch but I also didn't wanna upset the chassis mid corner with abrupt clutch grab.
If it's only happening in neutral you may wanna checkout your clutch switches and the neutral switch and make sure they are working, not damaged, and have a good electrical connection. From what I remember the stock ECU does use those to adjust the idle when in neutral, so I imagine the PFC does as well.
If it's only happening in neutral you may wanna checkout your clutch switches and the neutral switch and make sure they are working, not damaged, and have a good electrical connection. From what I remember the stock ECU does use those to adjust the idle when in neutral, so I imagine the PFC does as well.
I'll check the connection. I know in my PFC my sensor shows when the clutch is in so I assumed they were working. As for neutral safety switch, not sure about this one. The previous owner had the car wired that that the clutch doesnt need to be in to start. I guess I need to figure out what he did to make that happen. Maybe that's my issue?
I'll check the connection. I know in my PFC my sensor shows when the clutch is in so I assumed they were working. As for neutral safety switch, not sure about this one. The previous owner had the car wired that that the clutch doesnt need to be in to start. I guess I need to figure out what he did to make that happen. Maybe that's my issue?
Maybe. I think the sensor you see on the PFC is the important one. Someone put JDM harnesses on certain portions of my 7 and I will say that my clutch start sensor is also disabled. It connects on the inside of the car, but I think there is not a wire on the JDM engine bay harness for it so yeah.
I might be making this up, but I think there is also a neutral switch from the transmission that you should be able to see trigger on the PFC when the shift **** is in neutral.
This is awesome to see. The car has come a long way in the past two years.
VIR is one of my favorite tracks. I did my first HPDE event there with the Porsche Club on the full course a number of years ago and was scared you know what. While my skills pretty much sucked back then, I will not forget catching up to and passing a number of the beginner Porsche GT3 guys. Afterward, they came over to check out the FD. Told them the car was pretty much stock as they don't know a 2 from a 3 rotor.
I've come a long way since then and you will too as you learn the car and its capabilities. Continue to go out and have a blast!
07-20-20, 11:21 AM
While my skills pretty much sucked back then, I will not forget catching up to and passing a number of the beginner Porsche GT3 guys. Afterward, they came over to check out the FD. Told them the car was pretty much stock as they don't know a 2 from a 3 rotor.