my LeMons car
#101
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The 24 Hours of Lemons can be a somewhat rough-n-tumble endurance race. You remember the final scene in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome?
I'm guessing they're putting it there to keep it out of harm's way, as a busted radiator due to a front-end collision would pretty much end your day.
I'm guessing they're putting it there to keep it out of harm's way, as a busted radiator due to a front-end collision would pretty much end your day.
On a side note....should I be embarrassed that I've never seen Mad Max?
#103
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Fired her up for the first time today. No turbo at first, onaccounta I got the wrong thread pitch for our turbo oil line fitting.
Click on the fireball for a video and at least a little sound...
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/eyesoreracing/Lemon/th_P1020320.jpg)
I think the little white sparky things in the fireball are dead spiders. The exhaust spent the last 4 years in the back yard...
-D
Click on the fireball for a video and at least a little sound...
![](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/eyesoreracing/Lemon/th_P1020320.jpg)
I think the little white sparky things in the fireball are dead spiders. The exhaust spent the last 4 years in the back yard...
-D
#105
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One thing we noticed while running the engine for the first time--during warm idle, the idle would intermittently drag down every few minutes, and then recover, like some big load just switched on.
Electrical accessories are minimal on our car. No HVAC, just the gauge cluster. Its not the radiator fans cycling on and off because we installed a switch override and were running them constantly. Stock 1.6 ECU, injectors, etc. Harness is from an auto trans 1.6; we now have a 5spd manual.
Any ideas on what to check?
Electrical accessories are minimal on our car. No HVAC, just the gauge cluster. Its not the radiator fans cycling on and off because we installed a switch override and were running them constantly. Stock 1.6 ECU, injectors, etc. Harness is from an auto trans 1.6; we now have a 5spd manual.
Any ideas on what to check?
#106
Tour de Franzia
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One thing we noticed while running the engine for the first time--during warm idle, the idle would intermittently drag down every few minutes, and then recover, like some big load just switched on.
Electrical accessories are minimal on our car. No HVAC, just the gauge cluster. Its not the radiator fans cycling on and off because we installed a switch override and were running them constantly. Stock 1.6 ECU, injectors, etc. Harness is from an auto trans 1.6; we now have a 5spd manual.
Any ideas on what to check?
Electrical accessories are minimal on our car. No HVAC, just the gauge cluster. Its not the radiator fans cycling on and off because we installed a switch override and were running them constantly. Stock 1.6 ECU, injectors, etc. Harness is from an auto trans 1.6; we now have a 5spd manual.
Any ideas on what to check?
#114
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And now the problems...
1: pinhole leak in the brazing where we attached a -4 AN fitting to the stock Mexican Dodge oil line. Observe wet frame rail and active mopping operation...
![Name: P1020360.jpg
Views: 239
Size: 70.3 KB](https://www.miataturbo.net/attachments/build-threads-57/210132d1501260462-my-lemons-car-p1020360.jpg)
2: Wacky fuel pressure.
In naturally-aspirated form, the fuel pressure was running a near constant 47 psi. it should go down with manifold vacuum, but it didn't. It waggled around a little on transients, but didn't really behave correctly. A/F on the dyno was still a happy 13:1.
We noticed the periodic idle stumble a couple of times, but not while we had the fuel pressure gauge hooked up. We're starting to think there's a relationship...
At one point (still before the fuel pressure gauge) the car died, and there was this strange thump-thump-thump-thump sound coming from under the car. Just before I turned the key off, Sarah spotted the fuel line pulsating in time with the noise.
Periodically there's a strange low buzzing noise that sounds like its coming from under the dash (only audible from the driver's seat) that corresponds with weak fuel pressure and a familiar idle stumble. I can best describe the sound as similar to bubbles rushing through a small, orifice. Yea, I know, no hydraulics or fuel lines under the dash, I'm just sayin that's what it sounds like...
And, with the turbo in place, (and a bipes box installed and possibly wired correctly), fuel pressure drops to nearly nothing (10-20 psi) and the car dies as soon as it sees any load (like trying to pull off the lift and drive over to the dyno)
Now that I'm fed and watered and sitting comfortably on my ***, this all clearly points to the fuel pressure regulator. Probably operator error. Anyone know which way the fuel flows in these things? I assumed it flowed out of the stock regulator, into the center of the vortech, out the side of the vortech, and back to the tank. Did I do it backward? Seems like that might explain a lot of what's going wrong.
-Dave
1: pinhole leak in the brazing where we attached a -4 AN fitting to the stock Mexican Dodge oil line. Observe wet frame rail and active mopping operation...
![Name: P1020360.jpg
Views: 239
Size: 70.3 KB](https://www.miataturbo.net/attachments/build-threads-57/210132d1501260462-my-lemons-car-p1020360.jpg)
2: Wacky fuel pressure.
In naturally-aspirated form, the fuel pressure was running a near constant 47 psi. it should go down with manifold vacuum, but it didn't. It waggled around a little on transients, but didn't really behave correctly. A/F on the dyno was still a happy 13:1.
We noticed the periodic idle stumble a couple of times, but not while we had the fuel pressure gauge hooked up. We're starting to think there's a relationship...
At one point (still before the fuel pressure gauge) the car died, and there was this strange thump-thump-thump-thump sound coming from under the car. Just before I turned the key off, Sarah spotted the fuel line pulsating in time with the noise.
Periodically there's a strange low buzzing noise that sounds like its coming from under the dash (only audible from the driver's seat) that corresponds with weak fuel pressure and a familiar idle stumble. I can best describe the sound as similar to bubbles rushing through a small, orifice. Yea, I know, no hydraulics or fuel lines under the dash, I'm just sayin that's what it sounds like...
And, with the turbo in place, (and a bipes box installed and possibly wired correctly), fuel pressure drops to nearly nothing (10-20 psi) and the car dies as soon as it sees any load (like trying to pull off the lift and drive over to the dyno)
Now that I'm fed and watered and sitting comfortably on my ***, this all clearly points to the fuel pressure regulator. Probably operator error. Anyone know which way the fuel flows in these things? I assumed it flowed out of the stock regulator, into the center of the vortech, out the side of the vortech, and back to the tank. Did I do it backward? Seems like that might explain a lot of what's going wrong.
-Dave
#117
Cpt. Slow
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sigh...when I sold you that vortech, I was hoping it would go to good use, not be installed incorrectly.
kudo's on the intercooler though, keep us posted on fixing that leak, I'm thinking goobs of jb weld
kudo's on the intercooler though, keep us posted on fixing that leak, I'm thinking goobs of jb weld