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Got it idling, a bit high around 1600-2000rpm, but hey it idles. Next step Shawn is wanting me to do is get the idle lower, around 800 rpm, as I think its a stock ported motor, but never cracked it open to check. Did some adjustments on the top screw, which didn't seem to change idle characteristic. Went on the forums and found out there is a screw I need to adjust beforehand, the air-adjustment screw (AAS). Went back in the garage after dinner and did the recommended tightening it in all the way and backing it out 1/4-1/2 turn. It rotated in at least 2 turns, so hopefully this will set everything back to normal. Its too late to try starting the car again, got some jokes from the neighbors across the street about starting it up last night, and generally want to keep them amenable. Now off to go fix a microwave that the door opens 15% of the time.
BTW, if anyone wants to see video of it idling, what would be the best form, just add it to youtube and share? I also have a sound clip I took off my nest doorbell that has the sound of starting it up last night, will share that as well if people are interested.
Looks like I can't get the RPM lower than 1500, if I play with both AAS and the top screw by the throttle bod cable, eventually the car just dies. Shawn had me run some tests and it looks like a vacuum leak somewhere. Did a boost leak check, but realistically with that high RPM it looks like additional air is getting in post map sensor. Will take the UIM off, and will redo all the block off plates with new RTV to ensure they are sealed, and I will look at all the silicone lines to ensure everything is connected correctly. Anything else I should check? I placed a new metal LIM gasket, so hoping its not that as there is a lot to pull off if needed. All the small things are adding up to an annoying headache.
I had a high idle issue similar to yours and searched everywhere for it. Found it by making a smoke tester. Turns out I had a vacuum leak from the fuel injector gromme .
You should be able to make a smoker test pretty easily and cheaply. I would search YouTube for examples.
Thanks Johnny for the advice. Will try that if I didn't find it today.
5/3/2020 Update
-Took off UIM, found some oddities
Took off the UIM, and had some scuffing from when I had to take off UIM a couple times trying to get everything back together. Had a spare new in bag UIM gasket that I used after cleaning both gasket surfaces. Also noticed that the triumph/GM AIT I had looked to be letting extra air through as I didn't put thread sealant on, so also sealed that up. Checked vacuum lines directly connected to both LIM and UIM, and noticed that the check valve to charcoal canister was already busted. Was a viton check valve I think I got from the azeknight's kit. I remember checking them all by blowing, so must have been a defective unit that failed once it got actual vacuum. Put everything back on and tightened everything up, re-ran the boost leak test and was getting a lot higher pressure, so hopefully that was the issue. Will check tomorrow.
Looks like I had a break in the front body harness, between X-06 and X-12 connector. Instead of trying to take apart the car trying to fix one wire in the front body harness, I have strung a new wire and jumpered those two together near the end of the connectors, so that the coolant sensor feeds into the gauge cluster like how Mazda intended. Since I never plan on removing that terrible harness again, I think it should be fine.
-Idle woes are still idle woes
So installed an ISC, did smoke test, propane test, and doesn't seem like a vacuum leak, but I want to be certain and I will take off my injectors and make sure they are properly seated, as well as make sure the plugs i used for the OMP injectors have thread sealant on them. Right now my symptoms are it won't idle under 1500 rpm, its always running rich, so trying to trim down the fuel will cut off the engine, as well as trying to go under 1500 rpm. Shawn said he wants to also check timing to make sure everything is right with that, as well as check to make sure all the injectors and plugs are firing as they should. This is singlehandedly the most annoying thing I have had to troubleshoot to date...
If you have a high idle, air is getting into the engine somewhere. If the engine had no way to get air it wouldn't run at all. First step is to figure out how that air is getting in.
If you have a high idle, air is getting into the engine somewhere. If the engine had no way to get air it wouldn't run at all. First step is to figure out how that air is getting in.
Do you have the thermowax on the TB? Do you still have coolant going to the TB to operate the thermowax?
Dale
Hey Dale,
Thanks for your help.
Throttle plates have been checked and are closed, ISC was recently added, prior there was a blockoff plate. Bought from Tomsn16 off a decently clean car, and insides looked pretty good. Checked the thermowax, and put it so that it was out of the way by putting the screw all the way in. I think there might be a vac leak at the fuel injectors, as I may have used the bolts that hold the fuel rails to tighten down the injectors, and want to verify i put thread sealant on the block off plugs for the omp oil injectors. Going to try to knock that out this week.
Best method I've found for checking for vacuum leaks is to slowly spray starting fluid around where you think you may have a leak. The engine will smooth out/rev up when it gets sucked in.
Pulled the fuel rails and checked the sealing of the injectors. Freaked out for a second, as I thought I bought an FFE rail set, but I bought CJM due to having an integrated FPD. If anyone wants to know, CJM rails work with the stock 14mm ID o-rings, while FFE you will need to modify your fuel injectors to accept 2 x 8mm o-rings. Ordered new o-rings from rally sport, just to ensure its not the fuel injectors.
-Reseated OMP injector plugs with High Temp thread sealant
Pulled these out to make sure there was enough thread sealant. I think I only put a bit of red thread locker prior. Just trying to make sure I cover all my bases in terms of possibly vac leaks
-Checked on ACV check valve
I had removed the old ACV check valve (wagon wheel) when I got the LIM hot jet coated, and threw it away since it was caked in carbon, and the block off plate looks pretty worn where the wagon wheel was with carbon as well. I have ordered a replacement check valve and new blockoff plate from banzai. This was a suggestion on a different post from Dale, so again just trying to eliminate all possible vac spots.
06/16/2020 Update Pt. 2
-Think I finally found my vacuum leak issue
So decided to check valves and solenoids, and all the hoses that would attach to the intake... found the purge control solenoid to have failed and just open, so I think the intake was pulling in extra air through the emissions line to the gas tank, as that line is connected after the MAP... Ordered a new one, and hopefully that fixes the issue. If it does, that would explain why the smoke test and propane test didn't tell me anything. Going to still do the above maintenance as I ordered the parts, but hopefully this should solve everything.
8/7/2020 Update
-Took some time off to cool my head
Was trying to rush to put stuff back, and in the process stripped some threads on the ACV and the LIM where the middle bolt goes to attach the UIM to the LIM. With a backlog of work, and myself rather frustrated, I decided to take some time away from the car and not touch it, as I was becoming sloppy and making too many mistakes on a car like this, in a rush to try to get the car all buttoned up. I came back to it with a much more level head, and was able to get the ACV blockoff plate tightened to spec by buying 16mm bolts, instead of the standard 10mm length bolts that come in the banzai racing kit.
-Vacuum Leaks Finally Fixed (hopefully)
Tracked down another vacuum leak due to switching the hoses on the new purge control valve, so that in vacuum the valve was opening slightly. Tested mine and a new one a dealership had ordered, and both performed the same when vacuum was applied to port a and port b. Accidentally placed the UIM line to port a, when it should have been in port b, which is why I still had a vacuum leak, although it was better after I tested it in late June. Ran through all the hoses that interacted with the UIM/LIM, and made sure they were not letting in unintentional air in. Hopefully this finally fixes it, and if not I am calling up Defined Autoworks to try to fix the high idle.
-Fixed LIM hole threads with a helicoil
The picture was of me tapping the hole, so that the helicoil could be put in. Made sure to run the tap twice, and vacuum all the metal shards from drilling and tapping. Helicoil worked very well in this instance.
-Replaced Hood Release Cable
Realized my hood release was broken when browsing one of the other threads about theirs being broken and unable to release the hood. Bought new, and as there isn't much stuff anymore on that side, was super easy to install. Also cleaned up the old grease on the latch and put new grease in.
-Unknown fastener Needed
So I need the top fastener for the dead pedal, that is then held on with a nut. I have just an open hole circled in red. I am wondering if it is a fastener similar to the one circled in blue, but not sure. Any help in locating/identifying this missing fastener would be greatly appreciated.
I'm pretty sure its just a 10mm nut that holds the plastic dead pedal on the stud that you have marked in red
Hey man,
you are correct in saying that its a 10mm nut that holds the plastic dead pedal, the issue is that I don't have the stud. If you look closer it goes straight through to the wheel well. Picking one up from Jim.
Started prepping the fenders for assembly onto the frame, but had two broken bolts i needed to remove. Got one pretty easy with an easy out, pic for proof below, and had to drill out and retap the second one.
Both fenders attached. Had an issue with a missing vent spring clip, so waiting for one from a forum member.
Installed the steering wheel, tried horn and it didn't work. Checked the relay, and was rusted. Replaced with a spare and sounded the horn. With two new horns, sounds a bit weird, but oh well, it works haha.
Installed tires, what this doesn't show is me installing them, lowering the car down, realizing the fronts were super slammed (if i had the fender liners installed they would have been rubbing against those), having to grab the spare jack to raise the car enough to get my main jack from underneath the bumper support, jack up the car, and then unbolt some stuff so I could lengthen the coilovers, then put the car back down and tighten everything down. Was a good thing this happened, as I somehow didn't tighten one lower shock bolt.
-Car running under its own power
for the first time in 5 years, this car has left the garage on its own power, the sad part is it went right onto a trailer to take to defined auto, to try to troubleshoot the high idle I can't seem to solve. When I talked with Logan, he said the engine sounds fine and doesn't seem like it needs a rebuild, but will do a compression test and run diagnostics. Lets hope its something minor so that I can enjoy whats left of the summer.
Yeah when you've been wrenching on something all day and things start going wrong and you get frustrated, the smartest thing to do is walk away. I've done many mistakes in the past by just trying to shove something in or hack something to make it work - you typically just make more work for yourself.
I'm interested to hear what Addicted figures out on the high idle. It's typically something simple but FINDING that something simple is the hard part!
While the car is out, trying to tidy up the 3rd spot, so I can park all of the cars in the garage finally. Probably about 60% done, looked a lot worse before i started haha.
-Update from Logan at Defined
Compression tested, 90psi on all faces front and rear. Ill start saving to rebuild, and bought a compression tester so I can test it regularly.
Getting the car suspension neutrally set up
Found the poor idle issue
From Logan, "I disconnected the idle air control and adjusted the idle set screw and the idle came down to normal. The tune is not ready for it so it stalls quickly. Basically the settings in the computer will need to tell the idle air to lower the signal pulse. And then i'll have to do some tuning on it. But basically things shouldn't take long and have it ready. Will be putting it on my scales and setting corner balance for suspension setup".
Looks like i got everything right mechanically, just when I added the ISC it wasn't setup properly, probably allowing too much air. Such a simple thing, like Dale Clark pointed out, but finding that thing is what you pay for haha. Should get it back with enough time to drive it for a bit.
-Up Next: Fixing the inner door cards and plastics, attaching front bumper
10/4/2020 Update
-Logan has narrowed it down
So it looks like the car runs fine at any RPM above 1500, and timing is spot on, but anything under 1500 and the timing on the car goes wonky, and the car seems to fire randomly. This also has been causing misfires during startup, and explains why I couldn't set idle on the car. Logan has changed the mag sensor and tested the resistances in wires, etc. and couldn't find anything. He has narrowed it down to two possible issues, EMF issues with the wiring, or the issue having an issue. Since its an old adaptronic that I got used (before modular), I think it may be the ECU. May consider upgrading to a Haltech elite, but will need to talk to LMS-EFI about possible solutions for that. Didn't expect to drop money for a newer ECU until after i blew my engine and switched out to a single turbo, but it is what it is. Anyone use a Haltech with the twin turbos in the stock sequential configuration?
10/5/2020 Update
-Logan and Shawn have determined its ECU issue
Well, Logan and Shawn have gone back and forth to check things out, and pretty much have narrowed it down to an ECU error. Since its a select, I can't even have it sent back for repairs. Time to upgrade to a Haltech, talked with Chris Ludwig prior, and think I will go the haltech 1500 route. Logan will balance the suspension, then I'll take it back home to finish up. That means I need to get the garage cleaned out.
11/17/2020 Update
-Got the car back, managed to fit everything in the garage, so I no longer have to freeze warming up the daily in the middle of winter. Here is the rex tucked in
-After a month of waiting, got everything from Chris Ludwig at LMS-EFI. Best service and support. Pictured here is the first harness, without AC. He made a replacement that has AC, and should be getting it tomorrow.
-Haltech and all aux components installed onto the IRP mount bracket. This should be a lot cleaner than my solution for the adaptronic, which was sitting everything in the passenger footwell area.
-Worked on the passenger footwell today. This is the before
-This is the after. The PLX gauge and EWP controller will store into the glove box, and I added the supplied connectors from Chris to the EGT sensors. Makes connecting everything easy.
Man I feel your pain! I had issues with my Adaptronic ECU's also. First the Select's Daughter board went out so I had no trailing spark and no Tach output. I was able to upgrade to the Modular and that one had issues initially as well, to the tune of costing me a motor. I got it all taken care of and all is well now but It was frustrating indeed. I'm glad you got yours figured out before it did any damage.
Car looks beautiful man!...and I'm jealous of your garage!
Thanks man, its been a grind. Also it's only looked this composed recently, its been a parts bin garage for a few years haha. I was just annoyed at the issues with the select, and would rather put in a bit more money and have everything be plug and play (as much as possible with a full standalone), as I had considered the modular as well.
05-01-20, 07:30 PM
