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Hi my names Josh I'm Active duty stationed in Korea and I've just imported a 94' FD3S Type R to the states and it gets to my house tomorrow And I want to know what are the first things I should check or modify that are known for going bad so that I can protect my engine. It only has 55k miles or around 86km on it. What are the biggest known faults from the factory? I know I'll want to update the cooling system (Rad and intercooler) and that the fuel pump can have voltage drop problem but what else? Is there anything I can do to simplify the vaccume lines and cut out potential problems? Thanks for your help here's a picture of the car
GET A COPY, OR DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL.
Biggest known faults are related to engine cooling. The end tanks of the stock radiator and the Air Separation Tank (AST) are plastic. With heat cycles, age and pressure they can fail and cause over-heating. Replacing them with aluminum versions, along with all hoses(including turbo coolant lines) and a bi-annual change of coolant are recommended by most long time owners. Fluidyne and Koyo are popular brands for the radiator but get versions made specifically for the FD. Various choices for AST. New caps for the filler neck and that AST aren't expensive either, but nothing higher than 0.9 bar.
Get a decent aftermarket temperature gauge. The stock gauge isn't linear and worse than worthless. It tells you very little right before you overheat. Get a boost gauge to monitor your turbos. And if that's a turbo-timer on your steering column it can probably be thrown away. The turbos are water cooled and leaving the car idle is counter-productive.
Change ALL fluids. Regardless of what you may have been told, you know nothing about the maintenance history of the car. In addition to changing coolant, there's brake fluid, transmission and differential gear oil as well.
Intercooler has little if anything to do with engine cooling. While eventually you'll probably want to improve on the stock intercooler, IMO it's not a priority item for a new owner. I recommend leaving the car relatively stock for the first year or so. Get that FSM and read it. Get a good maintenance base with the above fluid changes, those new plugs, wires and brake components. Fix any niggling things. Go to the 3rd Gen FAQ at the top of this section and spend evenings learning about the car. Search in the 3rd Gen Tech section for info any other questions. You start throwing performance modifications at the car, especially on the stock ECU, without support modifications first, you're asking for trouble. And understand that some differences exist between NADM and JDM cars. You will amaze yourself on how much you will learn about the car after that first year. And similarly amazed on how much money you saved yourself.
BTW, looks like the color of the car has been changed too.
GET A COPY, OR DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL.
Biggest known faults are related to engine cooling. The end tanks of the stock radiator and the Air Separation Tank (AST) are plastic. With heat cycles, age and pressure they can fail and cause over-heating. Replacing them with aluminum versions, along with all hoses(including turbo coolant lines) and a bi-annual change of coolant are recommended by most long time owners. Fluidyne and Koyo are popular brands for the radiator but get versions made specifically for the FD. Various choices for AST. New caps for the filler neck and that AST aren't expensive either, but nothing higher than 0.9 bar.
Get a decent aftermarket temperature gauge. The stock gauge isn't linear and worse than worthless. It tells you very little right before you overheat. Get a boost gauge to monitor your turbos. And if that's a turbo-timer on your steering column it can probably be thrown away. The turbos are water cooled and leaving the car idle is counter-productive.
Change ALL fluids. Regardless of what you may have been told, you know nothing about the maintenance history of the car. In addition to changing coolant, there's brake fluid, transmission and differential gear oil as well.
Intercooler has little if anything to do with engine cooling. While eventually you'll probably want to improve on the stock intercooler, IMO it's not a priority item for a new owner. I recommend leaving the car relatively stock for the first year or so. Get that FSM and read it. Get a good maintenance base with the above fluid changes, those new plugs, wires and brake components. Fix any niggling things. Go to the 3rd Gen FAQ at the top of this section and spend evenings learning about the car. Search in the 3rd Gen Tech section for info any other questions. You start throwing performance modifications at the car, especially on the stock ECU, without support modifications first, you're asking for trouble. And understand that some differences exist between NADM and JDM cars. You will amaze yourself on how much you will learn about the car after that first year. And similarly amazed on how much money you saved yourself.
BTW, looks like the color of the car has been changed too.
What i would do first:
- New AST (Stock or alu)
- New Radiator (Koyo is thick and bolt on)
- New coolant hoses all around (OEM) (replace any cheap aftermarket hose clamps with constant tension ones)
- Stock airbox with "cheap bastard mod" (getting air from the side of the radiator) (the current solution is very bad with an allready limited size intercooler)
- New vacuum hoses (use quality silicone or viton) (be aware that one of the turbo actuator hoses have a restrictor pill in it)
- New fluids (trans/diff/engine/coolant)
I think we’re pretty much on the same page Zepticon, except a new owner doing a vacuum hose job can be asking a lot...IMO. And his car is apparently low-mileage/kilometer. If his boost pattern is normal and he’s not having issues related to them then I’d leave them alone.
But your mention of hoses did make me think of that stock rubber ‘Y’ pipe to cross-over coupler. I’d change that out for a silicone version or source an efini Y pipe. Living right over the turbos those seem to be the first to cause a boost leak.
What i would do first:
- New AST (Stock or alu)
- New Radiator (Koyo is thick and bolt on)
- New coolant hoses all around (OEM) (replace any cheap aftermarket hose clamps with constant tension ones)
- Stock airbox with "cheap bastard mod" (getting air from the side of the radiator) (the current solution is very bad with an allready limited size intercooler)
- New vacuum hoses (use quality silicone or viton) (be aware that one of the turbo actuator hoses have a restrictor pill in it)
- New fluids (trans/diff/engine/coolant)
I'm getting so much good info thank yall I didnt know posting a thread on this page would get such an immediate response. I do have another question though. Instead of running dirty oil through the pump into the engine. Or running pre mix is it possible to set up a second metal canister of clean oil for the pump to use and just refill it every month? Or is that a bad idea?
There are kits available to do what you mentioned but in addition to cost, packaging for a reservoir and installation with the engine in the car is not a walk in the park. Additionally, modification of the OMP in any way while running the stock ECU will put the car into Limp Mode.
Just use shorter change intervals for oil for now...IMO.
There are kits available to do what you mentioned but in addition to cost, packaging for a reservoir and installation with the engine in the car is not a walk in the park. Additionally, modification of the OMP in any way while running the stock ECU will put the car into Limp Mode.
Just use shorter change intervals for oil for now...IMO.
Ok I didnt think about possible sensors I figure the line running to the oil pan could just be rerouted to a canister full of fresh oil and could be blocked off but that makes sense. Good copy!
NEVER remove more than one hose at the time. That was my method and it worked great. But yeah, i agree its a daunting task for a new owner
That was going to be my plan because I've heard of a line splitting causing the rear turbo to lose boost some how and ruining an apex seal. Not sure of the interworkings there but it made me weary of the vaccume line system. So I was just going to replace them one by one I didnt know if there was anyway to simplify it or not though
The rear rotor typically runs a little hotter and a little more prone to detonating first if run lean. But off-hand I’m not connecting the dots from that to a vacuum hose job,
If left alone, the OEM rubber doesn’t automatically cause problems. In my experience it’s only when you start messing with them...like moving them to get to the injectors, R & R’ing the intake manifold for something etc. If your intent on doing it, copious pics and doing it as Zepticon said is definitely the way. Use quality hose, and change the check valves and bench test solenoids along the way. Know that it’s going to be at least a weekend job at best. Probably longer because the rubber is going to be as stiff as a wedding dick and breaking solenoid nipples is almost a given...requiring replacements. It’s called a “rat’s nest” for a reason. When your in that deep some guys do peripheral things as well...new soft fuel line, new or delete fuel pulsation dampener.
This is a very simplified rats nest, about half of what you’ll see since emissions had been removed and some solenoids relocated. You cannot do that on the stock ECU either. Oh, and it was done with the engine out of the car on a stand....
The rear rotor typically runs a little hotter and a little more prone to detonating first if run lean. But off-hand I’m not connecting the dots from that to a vacuum hose job,
If left alone, the OEM rubber doesn’t automatically cause problems. In my experience it’s only when you start messing with them...like moving them to get to the injectors, R & R’ing the intake manifold for something etc. If your intent on doing it, copious pics and doing it as Zepticon said is definitely the way. Use quality hose, and change the check valves and bench test solenoids along the way. Know that it’s going to be at least a weekend job at best. Probably longer because the rubber is going to be as stiff as a wedding dick and breaking solenoid nipples is almost a given...requiring replacements. It’s called a “rat’s nest” for a reason. When your in that deep some guys do peripheral things as well...new soft fuel line, new or delete fuel pulsation dampener.
This is a very simplified rats nest, about half of what you’ll see since emissions had been removed and some solenoids relocated. You cannot do that on the stock ECU either. Oh, and it was done with the engine out of the car on a stand....
Just realized my oil pressure gauge isnt giving a reading when I start it up what should I do ????
