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Yeah. By running zero pressure it might just prolong your uptime a bit. Do a search for Evan's, there are a bunch of threads on how to convert (flush out any traces of water and new cap).
NICE !!!!!!!!
Copy That.
Thank you so much.
I think all I know is that it is used at the track because it is not slippery, if that is the case maybe I can get on the track at sevenstock.. lol
So researched all the EVAN's stuff and they have new formulas for the track which is cool.
My car does not overheat and I do not track it (yet) it just drips a bit when warmed up and the EVAN's low / zero pressure would solve this since my car does not leak when it's sitting, even with a full coolant system.
For my immediate issues I feel I should stick with the green stuff only because I still need to establish a baseline of how my set-up as a whole operates.
I located an IAC, putting the thermowax back in, have a vmount, twin 25 row oil coolers and I just bought FC Tweak to get it running.
I have a lot of issues I need to resolve so I think it is best for me to stay with the green stuff since it only drips 3 drips per minute while running before, after my attempted slowdown fix - I will find out soon.
With the Evans Prep and coolant I'm looking at 150 easy - and even if it does not leak I still can't drive the car on a 1k mile round trip.
Also - I have to do a rebuild no matter what - so I just need the car to move around and at most make a few round trips to the gas station... lol
So researched all the EVAN's stuff and the have new formulas for the track which is cool.
My car does not overheat and I do not track it (yet) it just drips a bit when warmed up and the EVAN's low / zero pressure would solve this since my car does not leak when it's sitting, even with a full coolant system.
For my immediate issues I feel I should stick with the green stuff only because I still need to establish a baseline of how my set-up as a whole operates.
I located an IAC, putting the thermowax back in, have a vmount, twin 25 row oil coolers and I just bought FC Tweak to get it running.
I have a lot of issues I need to resolve so I think it is best for me to stay with the green stuff since it only drips 3 drips per minute while running before, after my attempted slowdown fix - I will find out soon.
With the Evans Prep and coolant I'm looking at 150 easy - and even if it does not leak I still can't drive the car on a 1k mile round trip.
Also - I have to do a rebuild no matter what - so I just need the car to move around and at most make a few round trips to the gas station... lol
Alright all you rotary gurus - figure this one out.
1. initial problem with IRP harness - trialings fired, leading did not fire. IRP sent out replacement harness.
2. On stock ignition car ran fine.
3. I bought Driftjim's harness to have as a back up in case the IRP harness did not arrive. I installed it but the IRP harness arrived the next day. I wanted to verify said Driftjim harness so I routed a 4 gauge wire from the battery to the engine then from the engine to the chassis. I put the engine spade on the engine and ran the harness neg batt hook up to the batt in the rear bin. hooked up power. All coils plug in to the harness but not connected to the spark plugs. Turned the key to the ON position - and the harness fuse went pop. Did a bunch of trouble shooting and I get up to 2 coils plugged in a fuse goes pop.
4. I re-turned the car to the original configuration when I hooked up the IRP kit the first time. Disconnected all 4 gauge wire. Plugged everything in, coils and all, still not connected to the spark plugs. Turned the key to the ON position - fuse went pop! OoooKKkkkkkk, I replace the fuse and plug in the coils one at a time and by the 3rd coil the heat sinks are hot as fu$k. I unplugged them all and shed a tear.
5. Driftjim asked me to measure pins D and E to make sure they are open / not shorted which he said would be an indication of a bad coil. Pins D to E measure 1.0 ohm on all 4 coils. Shed some more tears.
Do have bad coils? I did not get instructions from IRP about any grounding issues on relocated batteries like I did with Driftjims. I want to verify my side of the car again to make sure I can still run my stock coils for now. I do not even try to start the car, fuse pops when key goes to ON position.
Why is this happening to me.. aaagggghhhhhhhhhhh.
Gonna get cleaned up and lay in bed with the dogs.
Attached RX8 image for reference.
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 10-02-21 at 11:05 PM.
I don't know what I did wrong, but my IGN-1A kit does not work. Maybe my car just needs to be sorted out electrically, maybe it's my dual battery set-up or maybe it's The Lawnmower Man all up in my car when I loaded my map from the cloud. I did not get to finish my car this weekend, but I did make some forward progress. Only after I made my relocated bracket set-up and searched for what to do for spark plug wires, I found a ton of stuff pre-IGN-1A life. I really wished I found out about the stock relocation coil set-up with the MSD6A, the modified MSD leading coil upgrade, and even the upgrade to a turbo 2 leading coil. Maybe my car with all its electrical modifications is too much for all the independent grounds required by the IGN-1A set-up, or maybe I hooked it up wrong. Long story short, everything needed some type of fabrication this weekend to get the car into a more predictable state.
Part 1 - IAT Extension Harness
Part 2 - Under The Car = Done
Part 3 - Installing The IAC
Part 4 - UIM, Sneaky Little Bastard Bolt
Part 5 - Stock Ignition Bracket
Part 6 - Igniter And IGN Bracket Cover
Part 7 - Organize IGN And Other Harnesses
Part 1 - IAT Extension Harness
Since I have the fast IAT and FC Tweak has the option to perform it’s magic with the IAT relocated to the elbow, I’m going to take advantage of it. I extended the pigtail side one wire at a time since both wires were black. Since I cut the wires offset for the splices, I guess I could have cut them both at the same time. I tucked the wires into the high temp wire loom and set it aside for later.
Part 2 - Under The Car = Done
It is difficult working on the engine bay when the car is up on the lift so I wanted to complete everything under the car so I could lower it. I added the last panel that covers the transmission so I could set the car down. I want to show how high this Bendpack floor lift can get. There are 3 heights: low, middle, and high. Low setting clears my roll around chair. Middle setting is higher then my chair fully extended, even when I lower the lift on the jacks for working under the car which puts the lift brace in between the low and middle setting it, it is still higher then my chair fully extended. With the lift fully extended the fender liner under the oil cooler sits just over 28 inches and the top of the arch in the front fender measures a whopping 46.5 inches – not bad for a floor lift. I set the car down to work on the top side and OMG – this thing is low !!!
Part 3 - Installing The IAC
I received my IAC with a gasket from Mo at Palm Tree Rotary. Cool, now I can install it – SIEK !!! My nipples are hitting the body (that’s what she said) of the IAC – Crap !!. Seriously, there is always something once you start modifying your car. My original nipples are 1/16 NPT, I found some shorter 1/8 NPT fittings and a plug. I tapped both holes to 1/8 NPT, installed the shorter fitting on the top and plugged the bottom hole. The top nipple clears the IAC body, now I need to drill a hole for the lower nipple. I wanted to make sure that I could tighten it one it is installed so I took my 10mm socket, put some paint on it and pressed it into some tape in the location where I was going to put the new nipple.To find the center I used a washer, placed it in the circle and then made a point in the center of the washer. I drilled the new hole at a slight angle, looked inside to see where the drill bit ended up, tapped the new hole, and installed the nipple. I put the vacuum lines on and installed the IAC. Everything cleared fine thankfully. Next, I hooked up all the vacuum line to the UIM and prepped it for install.
Part 4 - UIM, Sneaky Little Bastard Bolt
The Xcessive LIM causes all sort of fun issues. There is a bracket the bolts to the front of the UIM and all this time I would put the UIM on and let the front bolt rest in the U part of that bracket. It never occurred to me that it was possible for that bracket to prevent the UIM from fully seating against the LIM. I found this out by tightening the back bolts on the UIM and then when I went to tighten the front bolt there was resistance on it. I took out the front bolt and then back to check the UIM to LIM bolts and the long bolt that goes through the UIM was loose. I re-tightened all the UIM to LIM bolts and then went back with a grinding bit and massaged that bracket hole open. I ran a tap in and out to make sure the bracket cleared and to clean up the entry point of the threads since the grinder bit hit it…. Multiple times. I re-installed the bolt and this time it went in smoothly. I also replaced all the TB hose clamps with the nice fuel line clamps.
Part 5 - Stock Ignition Bracket
Believe it or not – I didn’t even know there was a stock ignition relocation kit for sale at one point. If I had of known I would have probably copied it for myself. I found out after I made my bracket when I was looking for spark plug wire options, which seems to be to grab an MSD kit and make your own. But I’m in a pinch, didn’t do any research and re-purposed the stock bracket to make a new one. I liked the fact the stock bracket has the studs already on it. I cut off the trailing 2 end plate and cut the rolled edges and screw holes off. I cut a notch for the new piece to mount the 3rd coil and I rotated the 2 back screws of the leading coil to give me a lip to weld to. I also bent the side of the bracket to give me my final angle as if it was sitting in the fender. A lot of smelly smoke came off the bracket from the protective coating and I probably lost a few months off my life from smelling it. Now I needed to make a bracket to hold the coil bracket, I found a base plate for a metal fence I was going to make and just by chance the holes lined up with the igniter and fender. I cut the plate in half and bolted it in the fender. I took a small L-bracket and placed it between the brackets, made the marks, and welded the L-bracket onto the base plate. I took the coil bracket and the base plate off the car and used a flat bar in between them to make sure they had the right angle and welded all three pieces together. It sits like the IGN-1A kit, I’m happy with how it came out considering I didn’t copy someone else’s “bracket design” for a relocation bracket. This is my hack job and I’m proud of it! lol
Part 6 - Igniter And IGN Bracket Cover
Annnndddd since I did not copy a coil relocation bracket, I had to figure out how to mount the Igniter. I routed my battery power and ground cables through the fender hole, and it looks like the heat sink of the igniter will be resting on those cables. The only open spot I had was on the back of the wheel well. Man, now I have to take the tire off to get the drill in there…. **** where is my wheel lock !!!! After forcing a 16mm socket onto the wheel lock I managed to get it off. Off to the store to buy more wheel locks. I scraped away the paint so my rivnut would have a good ground. I tried my best to hold the drill steady but drilling at an angle made the drill bit walk all over the place. I was using a small drill bit in the engine bay side that way I can use a larger drill bit to punch through the tire side. I got the rivnuts installed and bolted the igniter in place and measured continuity to make sure it was making a good connection. The rivnuts hold it up a bit so the heat sink will hopefully have more air flow under it. Last I wanted to make a cover to hide the coil bracket. I made the sample from construction paper and then traced it onto an aluminum sheet. I cut it out made then bends and bolted it in place. I will paint it appliance epoxy black to match the rest of the modified brackets. I also want to find a small 6mm bolt head. Maybe something with a black oxide coating like an allen head.
Part 7 - Organize IGN And Other Harnesses
I needed to organize the battery fuse box to engine harness a little bit better and I re-routed the 2 new grounds as well. I secured the negative battery to engine and the engine to chassis on the spark plug side of the center housing. I plugged in the coil harness to see how it will look and the pigtail goes to the front of the master brake cylinder. At fist it looked like I needed to extend the coil ignition harness by a Ron Jeremy but then after I researched for spark plug wires, I read that someone was able to pull the ignition harness connector wires back in the battery to engine harness to make it reach. This will be great because I would hate to modify the wires that carry such an important signal as the ignition pulses. Slowly but surely, it’s coming back together.
Just picked up a SplitFire Dspark Max Ignition Amplifier DSKMXMA003 (HKS Twin Power cousin) - hopefully i'll have it in a few weeks. - Thank you F1blueRX7 for the tip.
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 10-06-21 at 04:34 PM.
Just picked up an HKS Twin Power - I'll have this soon too.
I'm still replaying in my head the things I noticed while hooking up the IGN-1A harness.
I do remember with the harness hooked up, coils plugged in, bat pos connected, grounds connected to engine, the new 4awg wire ran to the bat but NOT connected and then I touched only the neg bat connection to the neg battery terminal and I heard the relay click, then I touched the 4awg ground with all the gnds to the neg bat terminal the relay clicked back.
I also remember with the ign-1a coils plugged in, at one point i disconnected everything off of the main battery neg terminal and then my VSR started clicking between the batteries.
Im wondering if my coils are really shot and at what point it happened.
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 10-07-21 at 10:46 PM.
When we make mistakes, we are supposed to learn from them.
I have a Dual Bat set-up in my car with a VSR. The main battery is supposed to power the car, you know all the factory stuff. The aux battery is supposed to power ALL of the aftermarket stuff like gauges, vertical doors, lighting, and active aero. Somehow, someway I managed to fry the coils. I had both bat gnds off the negative terminals as I was hooking up the IGN-1A kit. I think it occurred when I was messing with the wire that goes to the neg bat terminal, as I touched the negative terminal without the bat neg terminal grounded I heard the relay click. The other grounds were not grounded. I am not saying that this is the moment I fried the coils, but I feel for my particular Frankenstein battery set-up these coils may not be happy with it. So with 4 fried coils, a fancy bracket, an IRP IGN-1A harness, and a Driftjim harness I am abandoning this kit. I am going back to old reliable HKS Twin Power or the Splitfire Dspark Max. I heard about the splitfire from F1blueRX7 as he mentioned it was also similar to the HKS Twin Power. Luckily I found both on Ebay along with a set of like new factory coils that are supposed to have 12 hours of dyno time on them... yeah ok. Yes I did need the leading coil, mine is weak and probably caused part of the running lean rich issue I have. It's late, I'm tired, let's get on with the standard delivery of my update.
Part 1 - Ignition Update
Part 2 - Misc Rubbers And Nuts
Part 3 - IAT Bung
Part 4 - IAT Elbow
Part 5 - Spark Plug Wire Steps
Part 6 - Spark Plug Wire Review
Part 7 - Almost Done
Part 1 - Ignition Update
I have a newer factory ignition harness that has the ground wire removed from it. I also found out that my coil bracket does not need to be grounded for the coils to work. This made checking the stock ignition system to make sure it works easier before I tore everything apart. Low and behold, I have a weal Leading coil. Both T1 and T2 fire strong. I swapped the connector from the trailing to the leading and again weak spark. My harness is good, grounds are ok, my leading coil is bad and this probably explains why I am running a bit rich at 10.4 AFR at idle - aside from a loner base tune. This brings us back to what I have already mentioned before. I got lucky and found some good condition coils off of eBay so now I wait for them, the HKS Twin Power, and the Splitfire Dspark Max.
The factory ignition coil bracket has a hole under one coil and I have no idea why, but I found a holesaw close to the size and opened the existing hole more and made 2 more holes under the other coils. I also painted the coil bracket cover epoxy appliance black. Next was to dig out the battery to engine harness to pull back the connector to the ignition coil harness. Along the way I broke the wire going to the oil level meter plug which turned out to be an easy repair. I pulled the pin out and soldered the wire back on and pushed it back into place. I dug out the connector and routed the other wires back into place. I put some high temp loom on the new ignition leg and wrapped everything back up. It was definitely a pain putting the harness back in with the power steering and it's lines all up in my business. I was able to extend it enough with the factory wiring which is a huge relief. Now, where to put the CDI unit.....
Part 2 - Misc Rubbers And Nuts
While searching for my wheel locks I found the pop up light twisty **** covers. I cleaned them off with some WD-40 and installed them - good as new! I also found out a deep impact 16mm socket fit my wheel locks, I removed them and put some regular nuts on. I did miss the deep socket one time when trying to hit it on and I bent the side of the hole where the center cap is, I surprised the center cap did not crack. It actually looks like some of the aluminum has chipped away also - crazy!
Part 3 - IAT Bung
I found a spot on the Greddy elbow to install the IAT where it will not get in the way of any adjustments I may need to make on the throttle body while the car is running. I needed to make a bung so I had a flat surface for the IAT crush washer to sit against. I used a holesaw and with one cut I had what I needed. Next I had to find the thread pitch so I could tap the bung. It turns out to be a 10x1.25, I did have that tap size but for some reason the tap did not want to go into the nut that went easily onto the IAT threads. It was late and I added it to the list of things to get for the next day of work which was the 10x1.25 tap, glitter spray paint, and clear shrink tubing for the labels on my MSD wires. The next day I tapped the threads, cleaned up the edges, and smoothed the mating surface of the IAT bung.
Part 4 - IAT Elbow
I screwed the bung onto the Greddy elbow and checked the placement one more time before I welded it. I drew a circle around the bung of the area I needed to remove the paint from. I bolted the bung in place and cleaned my tungsten tip for welding. Everybody has their trick to sharpen the tip but I use a sanding belt and a drill, it cleans it and makes a uniform point. The tungsten and the aluminum rod were both a little small for this job so I have a bunch of little messy half moon welds, but the paint hides it. I will installed the elbow in a day of so when the paint fully dries.
Part 5 - Spark Plug Wire Steps
Since I have relocated my stock coils I needed to make my own sparkplug wires. I read we can use FC T2 wires but I read everyone just makes their own. I did not opt to get the best wires on the market, but I got something decent that was in stock at the local auto parts store. Seriously though, this is so cool. I know it's not supposed to be a big deal, but I actually made my own sparkplug wires and it was way easier than I thought it was going to be. I bought a V8 kit and the wires came in pairs of different lengths. The kit also came with some options of different ends to assemble. I thought I would have to make both ends but the sparkplug side is already done. I wanted to show a picture for some of the steps to make things easier to see.
1. Cut the wire to length.
2. If you're going to make labels, put your clear shrink tubing on now.
2. Put the boot on BEFORE you strip the wire.
3. Use the crimp tool and strip the insulation to get to the conductor.
3. Fold the crimp tips down 90 degrees so the it will bite the cable when it is crimped.
4. Use the block to hold the pin so you can bend the male probe 90 degree.
5. Inspect for a good crimp and then there is no cracked metal at the 90 degree bends.
6. Pull the boot into place.
Part 6 - Spark Plug Wire Review
Just another quick overview of my sparkplug wire kit. It's a Street Fire 8mm wire universal V8 kit with a wire for a distributer. There were some other sizes I did not use which looked like it was meant for other MSD products. I also made labels for my wires on both sides to make things clear. My wires ended up being the same length as the IGN-1A wires. For my new wires, the length is roughly 29 inches from the outside edge of the 90 degree boot to the end of the sparkplug side boot. The trailings are just 3/4 inch longer. I wanted to measure them to make sure they were all close together. When I made them I made sure to make both leadings the same length and the same for the trailings. All 4 wires measure about the same at 1.18k ohms +/- 25 ohms. Out of curiosity I wanted measure the IRP wires and the Racing Beat wires. IRP's wires checked in at 110 ohms +/- 3 ohms. Racing Beats wires were a straight shot for all four wires at 0.3 ohms !!!! I am slightly tempted to swap the coil end on the IRP wires for my stock coils now that I know how to do it. lol.
Part 7 - Almost Done
Thank goodness I labeled all the vacuum lines when I took everything apart. I forgot so much and had to go back to my archived pictures. I have the car reassembled minus the Greddy elbow side while I wait for the paint to dry and the new coils to arrive. I filled the cooling system with the green stuff, now I just wait for leaks. If I can verify it does not leak while sitting then next year I will take TwinChargedRX7's advise and run EVAN's cooling fluid. Right now I just want to make it to Sevenstock 23.
Thank you to everyone for following, your inputs and helping me out when I'm in need.
Enjoy the pics.
pics - Part 1 - Ignition Update
Last edited by rotaryextreme; 10-10-21 at 11:01 PM.
We take the good with the bad. It’s all about balance, right?
I got the car running again, but I’m still having some issues. However it will move under it’s own power so I can get it on a trailer and bring it to Sevenstock ….. I hope. It's hard to do an update knowing that I worked hard for 1.5 years every weekend to make this year’s Sevenstock, but it’s looking like a work-related offsite job might have me traveling somewhere else this same weekend – another delay due to Covid protocol messing things up.
Still, I am happy because I was able to drive the car to get some gas – at pump 7 !!!!!!
1. Newish Ignition Parts
2. Checking Stock Ignition
3. Route Splitfire Harness
4. Splitfire Box Power
5. IAT And Misc
6. Front Bumper On
7. RX7 Gets Some Gas
8. Fixing The Fog Lights
9. Evans, Here I Come
1. Newish Ignition Parts
I received the low milage ignition coils, the Splitfire and the HKS Twin Power. I believe the Splitfire only amplifies the leading coil whereas the HKS Twin Power amplifies both the leading and trailing coils. I decided to try out the Splitfire because of one simple feature, the on/off switch. I was thinking I could use it with spirited driving and then switch it off while cruising around hoping to preserve the coils from constant overdrive. The Splitfire FD3S engine harness (DSK-OPMA003), is 3 feet long and the power harness for the main unit is almost 4 feet long. This allows you to get the main unit in the cabin if you want to, and I did. The Splitfire comes with a cool mounting bracket and easy to read instructions in English and Japanese.
2. Checking Stock Ignition
I wanted to make sure everything worked before I started hooking up the Splitfire. I sanded down the coating on the ignition bracket so it had a good ground to reduce any EMI. I remembered getting shocked when I would grab the trailing spark plug wire during the checks. I checked all the coils and the newer leading coil does have a stronger spark. As I was doing the final routing of the ignition harness I noticed the insulation was cracked on a few wires so I coated it with some clear non-conductive RTV. Needles to say a new ignition harness is on its way. Once again, I moved the battery grounds to the bracket behind the A/C compressor since I believe that is where the stock negative cable bolts to. While I was under the car I checked to see if the J-B Weld slowed the leak down – AND IT DID !!!!!!!!!! It is no longer dripping while sitting, it’s just wet – that’s what she said.
3. Route Splitfire Harness
I looked at the firewall for the straightest shot possible into the cabin and it was near the clutch pedal bracket. I drilled a hole just large enough for the wire loom, de-pinned the connector and pushed the harness through and then put the connector back on. I followed the clutch sensor harness for routing the ignition harness. The Splitfire has a crimp on style fuse connection for the power to the main unit but I extended the harness to use the fuse box coming off the auxiliary battery.
4. Splitfire Box Power
I decided to place the Splitfire Box on the driver side kick panel. It sits right behind the roll cage so now I have my calf rubbing the roll cage and my ankle rubbing the Splitfire box when my foot is on the dead pedal. While using the clutch there is no interference with either. I lined up the box with the 2 holes for the buttons and drilled a hole for the stud on the X bracket that bolts to the Splitfire box. I used a big fender washer on the back side of the panel to apply a broader area of pressure to prevent any cracking. This also helped apply more pressure to the dots on the X bracket. It feels solid and does not rotate due to the locking feature on the X bracket biting into the plastic panel. I connected the harness and tucked it behind the panel, then I ran the power to the rear battery and made an extension for the distance I was short. I used the 20-amp fuse in the Splitfire kit and hooked up the power and ground to the fuse box coming off of the auxiliary battery. I verified the RED LED on the Splitfire box and verified the BLUE LED on the side when I turned the ignition amplifier on.
5. IAT And Misc
I installed the Fast IAT with the original aluminum crush washer, the thickness caused the thermo sensor to be parallel with the airflow. The white plastic air guide around the sensor was directly in front, I found a thinner copper crush washer and it allowed me to get the air guide a little more parallel. I will probably have to use a shim or something to get the air guide in the right orientation. I did try to adjust the base idle and then set the TPS to 0.39v per FC tweak to allow the IAC to do it’s job. I actually got it to work, I was at 750 ish rpm and when the fans kicked on it rose to 800 ish rpm. My thermowax is working but it is off and misaligned, the dash pot that the idle hits to slow down is also off. Since I am swapping over to EVANs coolant I will take off the TB before putting the final fluid in. Currently I have the car idling smooth at 900 ish rpm. I have to thank GOD, I know were not supposed to talk about religion or politics, but again I have to thank GOD that my rachet **** and screwdriver bit was the perfect fit for the TPS screws and I was able to break them free and adjust them without striping the Philips heads. My TB cable has some rust spots where the plastic coating came off, I hit it up with a black sharpie and it does not stand out anymore.
6. Front Bumper On
After starting the car, I verified no leaks. No more oil leaks – so so so happy about that. The coolant has also slowed down to where it is burned off by the exhaust and no longer drips while the engine is running. That is a major win for me since again it will help when swapping over to zero pressure EVAN’s. I put the front rebar on with the fog lights. I got the bumper on but for those of you who have not taken off your bumper before… remove all the top bolts, the 2 holding down your A/C dryer as well. Remove the front turn signals, put your lights up so you can get to the top corner fender nuts. Under the car unscrew all the bolts holding the undertray and oil cooler panels to the front of the bumper. Reach inside the front of the fenders to unscrew the last nuts and then unscrew the bumper to fender screw.
Putting on the bumper is just opposite order. I had moved my fog lights forward to clear the VM kit so I was 100% certain I was going to have to cut the inside of the bumper where it touches the fog light bezels, but amazingly it fit !!!!!!!! The LRB front top panel sits on Teflon bushings and I used zip ties to hold the bushings in place while installing the panel. Last to put on was the LRB undertray, I still think the vertical side panels were bent at the wrong location which I fixed by drilling new holes, but all the other holes on the undertray lined up perfectly. The LRB undertray comes with clear instructions and all new hardware which makes the install a breeze.
7. RX7 Gets Some Gas
Today was graduation day, it was time to go for a test drive and see what the next major thing to take care of would be. For this drive I had FC tweak tune the car for economy which set the fans to 90C and some weird *** configuration. I thought it would be OK but the fans did not come on when they were supposed too and the car almost over heated by the time I got back home from the gas station. So how did the drive go, using FC tweak to set all the fuel to 1.0 and let the software play with the timing (less computational load for the PFC per the FC Tweak instruction manual), it went smooth as hell. The boost controller was off and I did see max 7psi of boost, not in every gear, did not go past 5k rpm and I did not notice any hesitation. I also did not notice any transition or 2nd turbo kicking in. Maybe I did not give it enough gas or go high enough in the rpm with enough load. With all the solenoid mods and everything else going on with the car I was just playing it safe. I made it to the gas station and the PFC read 91C, the prosport water and oil temp gauges both read about 210F, but the dash water gauge was level. I filled up the car, at pump 7 of course, to about 15 gals and added 20 oz of premix. I got a few thumbs up, a challenger tried to race me, and my neighbor said, “so that’s what you’ve been hiding back there”. lol. So I made it back home and the fans still have not kicked on, PFC temp read 122C !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Prosport water and oil gauge read 230 – 240F but the dash temp still shows half way ??????. I get the car in the driveway and I can hear the coolant BOILING in the AST tank, I pull the pressure relief lever on the AST cap and freak out. I had my laptop with me so I uploaded Daniel Kuo’s base map into FC tweak and updated it for my IAT sensor location, IAC, and racing cat and let the software do it’s thing. This time I left DK’s fan setting alone and did NOT have the software set all the fuel to 1.0’s but I allowed it to tweak the Ignition maps. I loaded the new map onto the car and got the car started and the temps returned to below 90C on the PFC and the prosport water and oil gauges showed about 200 or so. The car had a real hard time starting at hot, I think normal because I’m still pig rich at 10.3 AFR at idle, but it started like normal when the car cooled down. I think I escaped total melt down – BEARLY. Looks like I will be running EVAN’s after all, more on that later.
8. Fixing The Fog Lights
That night I went to turn on the lights and only one fog light was working. I remember going through the whole fog light ordeal and thought I had my **** straight – apparently not. I have no idea how it happened, but the left fog light pwr wire burned up. Loose connection, pinched wire, I don’t know but the damage was scary. I pulled up the center console in the car and looked at the fog light switch, it looked like the insulation had a small impression from being pinched somewhere but that was not it. I took off the bumper and removed the fog light rebar assembly. I took off the fog light cover where the leg it at and the pwr wire was loose, I also noticed that where the wires exit the fog light had been pulled out as well. I think the pwr wire was arcing inside the fog light. The connectors were already broken from the previous accident but were still ok. I pulled the left side fog light connector apart and it was melted. I only had one good pair remaining, the right-side fog light female and male connector.
Time for surgery. The main fog light male connector under the fuse box is broken but it still locks the female connector in place. I cut off the last good remaining female connector and used it in the location with the broken male – the song “no scrubs” popped into my head as I put the good female with the broken male connector. Lol. I cut out the harness between the fog lights and found several spots where the insulation had been worn through. I guess I was lucky the first time around when it was all hooked up, but after moving the rebar all over the place I guess my luck ran out. I was also surprised to see some of the pins were recessed, maybe it got so hot the locking tab melted. I drilled holed through the rebar to feed the fog light wires through to prevent them from being pinched and added some spade terminals. I put heat shrink on the wires, made the terminal connections, pulled the heat shrink over the connections and heated it to make sure I would have NO more issues. I also put some mil-spec clear RTV where the wires exit the fog light housings to keep them in place. I plugged it in and tested them out, it seems a little brighter than before. I’m just glad they work and no further damage was done to the wiring in the car.
9. Evans, Here I Come
First, I want to share another dooohhhh x2 moment. Doohhh #1. It was late, dark and cold outside and I grabbed the white coolant Ford specialty green container to start the coolant flush. I started to drain the system and all was going well as the white container filled up, I then grabbed an empty yellow coolant container and another half-gallon came out. I looked back into the white container and saw a thick slimy, bubbly mixture. I felt sick to my stomach and thought damn, what happened now. ****, it looks like oil.. doohhh, that’s because it was oil. I grabbed the white GTX 20/50 container that had a quart left in it by mistake and filled it with coolant, what a relief. Doohhh #2. The second one was due to lack of experience with the engine until I searched for flushing the system and where the block drain was. There were many times I wanted to use that bolt to put the engine ground, but I choose other locations. That would have been a helluva surprise should I have tried to put the engine ground there. Lol. OK, so now I can get to the EVAN’s story. First – Thank you TwinChargedRX7 for introducing me to EVAN’s because it is my only option now. I realize now my system was boiling due to lack of proper pressure. What I learned was, I was unable to maintain pressure to keep the coolant in a liquid state due to my small leak. This allowed the water in the coolant to boil and result in my engine almost overheating. Amazingly the leak is now slow enough that it was burned off and not a drop hit the ground under pressure – perfect for EVAN’s now. Since I am not able to maintain pressure my only option is the zero pressure EVAN’s, I may run warmer but at least I will not overheat. I am currently doing the full concentrate Peak Sierra Propylene Glycol with the dog and cat on the front to reduce the amount of water in the system. I probably have enough for 3 flushes (7 gallons) and I have 4 gallons EVAN’s performance on the way. I could not find the NPG+ but the performance says it has the added benefits of NPG+. When I am on the 3rd flush of the Sierra I will work on the base idle tune and get the AFR where it is supposed to be instead of 10.3 ish. I will also work on the free rev just to be safe. Once I have performed the Idle/REV map tune and the 3 flushes with full concentrate sierra I will drain the system, take off the throttle body and set the base idle to work with the dashpot and set the TPS to 0.40V to work with the IAC. Then I will adjust the thermowax and cam screw to allow the base idle when warmed up. I will reinstall the throttle body and fill with the EVAN’s and fine tune it from there. Hopefully I will be able to verify that both turbos kick in at 7lbs. Will I see a dip when the second turbo kicks in? I also hope this will allow me to continue with all the other plans for the car without having to do a rebuild yet. I really want to see my rims and body kit on this car.
09-30-21, 07:54 AM
