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Got the car running proper the other night. I think I mentioned this but for the past 3 or so weeks we've been chasing our tails trying to figure out why the car was running like garbage. It would start but was literally dumping in fuel. Any changes to scaling resulted is no change to the car. We decided to try a fresh ROM and and low and behold car fired right up and the issue was gone; Turco now finally had control of the car. We don't know what the issue was so we've come to the conclusion that the old ROM somehow became corrupted?
Its been a extremely frustrating past few weeks as I've been very anxious to take her out for a spin and not knowing if there was a mechanical issue vs something tuning related. And it wasnt even really a tune issue bc we used the same scaling and latencies that were previously running like crap. But alas its fixed!
I drove the car to work again today and so far so good. Ive got about 30 miles on her now and everything seems happy for the time being. I cant wait to start WOT tuning but Ive got to break in the drivetrain first. Also, my manifold has an exhaust leak at one of the welds so I need to pull the car back apart and get that fixed prior. For now Im just happy to be putting some miles on her!
Did a little bit of driving over the weekend, up to about 170 miles now. Seems solid still no real issues to report. Still need to pull turbo back out to have manifold fixed but now my car is parked until I can get a new inspection sticker bc its the first of the month. This Tomei exhaust is so loud, Im not sure driving around with an expired sticker is the best decision. So yeah need to figure out how to pass inspection this week which is always fun here in Massachusetts.
Ahh dealing with inspection stuff sucks Im sure. Do they do a visual or just plug in OBD? Here they may check sound if aftermarket exhaust and do a visual for the cat, but its just an OBD plug in test other than that.
Visual as well as plug in however MA has a 15 year emmisions policy so I believe this will be my last year needing to plug it in. Back in the day I used the force pass and then one year they smartened up and I was sent to a special MAC(Motorvehicle Assistance Center) station where they put the car up on a lift and go through it. That sucked big time so I can't let it get to that point this year. The past few years Ive been using a inspection ROM which is my 05 ROM ID and minimal tuning changes aside from basic injector scaling to get it to run. I've done a good job making friends with the station so they will look the other way on the visual side of things but it still needs to plug in.
The way I see if I have 2 options. 1 is experiment with force pass on my stock ROM ID which I think could work but Im not sure its worth risking it. The other option is space out the rear o2, plug in EGR and EVAP solenoid and hope they flip. Im still not sure how those tests determine how the systems are working but Im told that plugging them in may be all that I need? I've always actually put back in EGR but this would be even easier. And now EVAP is gone too so yeah even more fun.
Not much excitement here to report. Threw the car up in the air on Sunday to check for leaks and get her ready for a sticker and found this mess:
Spend a few hours cleaning that up bc grease got flung everywhere. Good thing I cleaned my engine bay prior bc she already looks gross again. Picked up a new boot on Monday, had the day off and installed the new boot and put her back in. Having never pulled apart an axle prior it was very easy.
Now, Im back to playing my favorite game Eric vs State of MA. Will I get a sticker? Nobody knows...
Haven't updated this is a few weeks so here we go. Lets see here...for starters I got a sticker, wahoo! That was fun, as always but I won.
Then I pulled my manifold off to have it rewelded. Got that fixed and threw it back together and put more miles on the car. Im up to about 700 right now and shes a champion. We started giving her boost this past weekend but its taking some time to get the boost curve dialed in then we can deal with fuel and timing. But so far the new motor is epic. Shes going to be very fast as in I need to relearn the car as Im rusty taking the season off and its no joke already. Were only at like 26# and shes already roasting the tires in 1st. Its going to be a lot of fun. Also revved it out to 9 grand so far. This new motor loves to rev. And the high comp feels really good around town off boost. New clutch and trans also feel really nice, its great to be able to shift again.
Trying to think of what else I've done since then. Oh swapped back in my S/S pads and other rotors bc OMG St43s on the street are the worst. Super obnoxious, thought I could deal with it but between loud exhaust rattling interior and brakes that sound like a freight train stopping especially considering I have old rotors and pads that work fine and can save me from wearing out my more expensive stuff and takes like 15 minutes to swap decided to rip em out for now. Thats all Ive got hopfully doing more tuning tonight as the weather this weekend is looking terrible. Im honestly out of time and car will soon be put into storage as the winter months approach us but it was great to finally give her some boost.
Also interesting fact and this dawned on me the other day. 10/21/2017 was the date I blew her up and 10/21/2018 was the first day we gave her boost. Its crazy it took me that long but also kinda funny how that worked out.
Also interesting fact and this dawned on me the other day. 10/21/2017 was the date I blew her up and 10/21/2018 was the first day we gave her boost. Its crazy it took me that long but also kinda funny how that worked out.
Congratulations man, enjoy it. Time goes by quickly when you're busy trying to fix your car. Time to kick some A$$.
Finally!!!! it done lol, I need to take a ride in it when I get back to MA
You know it man let me know!
Originally Posted by Pal215
Congratulations man, enjoy it. Time goes by quickly when you're busy trying to fix your car. Time to kick some A$$.
Thanks, yeah its been quite the year but happy that Im finally able to enjoy the car!
Originally Posted by letsgetthisdone
The best part is it would have never gotten done without my tech support and input
Tis true you were an asset to the team!
Originally Posted by Construct
Congrats on the progress.
I also thought I could tolerate ST43s on the street. That lasted about one day. Now I swap pads and rotors before and after track days.
9K is a lot of revs. Do you plan to rev that high regularly?
Lol yeah they were OK for dinkin around town but I've been trying to put miles on her so between that and all this tuning recently my ears needed a break.
9 grand sounds amazing though the tone of the motor starts changing at like 8500 and its pretty epic haha! It'll be interesting to see what the VDR charts look like bc the power seems to not fall off too drastically up top. But to answer your question the intent is to not rev it out but rather have that available to help stay off the limiter in 2nd during autox. It nets me like an extra 12mph so its a significant change for the better!
Originally Posted by Dallas J
Hah, ST43 + street = a terrible idea.
Lol yep. Its not a little squeal; those CSX freight trains aint got nothing on me!
I think the best part is that mine works but that might be a sore subject still.
In all fairness to Sean and well honestly a lot of folks in this community this build would be nowhere without all of your help and assistance so thank you all! I just happened to message him like everyday with dumb questions so he gets an extra special thanks. What was really satisfying were the few times I asked a specific question and his answer saved me hours of battling, like those damn motor mounts that wouldn't line up. I had a couple buddies over to help line things up and we were close but couldnt get them all in so they bailed on me. I pinged Sean and I kid you not what took me 2 hours of wtf this is super annoying 5 minutes later I was done.
Anyway back on topic here. What would people like to see to make this thread interesting? Id like to post some VDR charts when I have them but I tried to take a couple last night and honestly the results were all over the map as in non repeatable info aka useless. I need a nice flat smooth road with no traffic. I could possibly get some videos up on yt but short of me racing im not sure how exciting those will be and I try to not drive like an idiot on the streets so there is that too.
However, we have been road tuning and she is coming along fantastic! I was hoping to see 30# by 4200 and were actually seeing 30# by 4 grand so that to me is amazing. Car is fast but I dont think its stupid fast. I certainly have my work cut out for me next year.
Sep 27, 2018, 08:39 AM
Tis true you were an asset to the team!
