meerkat8701

i went to help my other buddy robban today who lives about 50km away. of course i took the seven. everything seems fine considering this is the longest journey i have dared to take her on so far.. fuel pressure and temp seem to go up to where they should and stay there. i took the chance to roughly adjust the ride height on the seven while i was there too. ill have to do some fine adjustments later.
now i have 800km left until she should be broken in.
she also got to meet her evil sister..



i took the chance to bug him about engine management systems. basicly he is not a fan of piggyback systems and said that i should go standalone. he has quite a few contacts he said i could draw on to make it cheaper. ill have to look more into this later and decide which route im going to take. before any of that im just going to try to get her to run as well as she can with what she has.

she runs rich. eye wateringly, chokingly rich. im going to try changing the AFM to the original to see if that makes a difference. this means ill have to have a proper root around to see if i can find all of it it in the cellar. that'll be fun in a kind of cartoony open the door to the cellar and i get crushed by the sheer weight of the crap we have crammed in there kind of way.

exhaust is still managing to make its way into the coupe. the extra pipe on the RB header is definitely sealed so i dont know where its coming from. maybe one of the joints further along the system. ill have to investigate this the next time i can get under her. i honestly dont know whats worse, breathing all that carbon monoxide or driving on the motorway with both windows rolled down.

robban is truckin along nicely and i got another pic from him today. fronts and rears spot welded!



tomorrow ill be going over to his workshop so that the seven can try on her new shoes! hope they fit

meerkat8701

today i went up to see robban. he had a jack so up she went and the steelies went on! ill let the pictures do the talking..









everything measured up and no touchy-feely on the insides of the wheels! what will happen when they have tyres on them is another story but for now the main focus will be getting them completed.

i also did a to-do list for the seven and it was long. she's far from finished but definately starting to come along. i geuss that i shall have to prioritise the things i can do outdoors while the weather is favorable and save all the stuff i can do indoors for the winter months. unless of course i find a garage in which case i shall continue on in my usual tortoise-like pace.

archaphil

iTrader: (1)

Are you doing over fenders? I may have missed where you said you were... but that last picture is the money shot~!

meerkat8701

Cheers archaphil! We had 3cm from the wheelhouse to the outer rim so i reckon with a bit of stretch (not much) and some fender rolling and pulling itll all sit nicely. If that doesnt work ill go with the overfenders theyre actually growing on me a little!

The weathers good today so im just entertaining baby till the missus gets up (she works nights) then im gonna go out and do some tinkering =)

meerkat8701

it rained a bit but i had a couple of hours to fiddle with her so i put on a jacket and got out. first went down to the cellar, waded through a ton of useless junk and finally found my original airflow meter. i never did find the bit that joins the flat tube that sits on the fan shroud to the airbox so i swapped the bits from the K&N filter onto it.

i was going to go for a test drive but when i was going to back out the buzzer went. turns out that i forgot that all these 'test drives' have amounted to alot of driving and sillybollocks here had neglected to check the oil. saying that, there was at least 3 litres gone and she doesnt seem to be leaking which can only mean that she is consuming much more than she should. this and the running rich should point to something?

so, off to the auto store in the micra that sounds like a rally car right now (i still havent fixed my exhaust) and got some oil, filled her up and was ready for another test drive. i drove her about 5km and then stopped and tied to have a fiddle with the CAS. first thing i noticed was the yellow mark was nowhere to be seen. i had a fiddle and revved her up a few times and found a position where she seemed to run a little smoother with a slight improvement in power. the AFM swap didnt seem to make any difference so i geuss i can rule that out in my search for the cause of her running rich ...

next time i get a chance to get out there im going to zero the timing again and restab the cas. ill also have a go at calibrating the tps.

during my drive i drove very close to a high barrier and im pretty sure the exhaust is leaking from a joint further along the system. she sounded very farty. i dont have a jack or jackstands so ill need to fix that at a later date when i can get the seven over to robban to borrow his. i really want/need a garage

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Not any.
If you're not running 255's minimum on the front, you're dead to me.

You're putting Robban through all this work and us through the anticipation only to put the tires from your Micra on the new wheels?

meerkat8701

come to the dark side luke...

i have actually been looking at overfenders for her for a long time but i just cant seem to find any i like.. this is what made me come to the onclusion to roll/pull the fenders and smooth oof the poke with some stretch so that it doesnt look out of place. the worst thing is that i have not found even one company that sells bodykits for the fc3s. this would mean importing them. (i shudder at the thought of what they will look like when they get here). might be able to find something in england ill have a looky..

this week has mainly consisted of catching a cold and a 2 and a half day drive down through denmark to germany with my mates to get some cars registered. of course we got lost in the country side in some proper walking dead area. i was just waiting for the zombies to start wandering out of the bushes. sleeping sitting up and no shower/toothbrush made it all the more uncomfortable but we made it in the end and im back in the kingdom of svea.
while i was at robbans i lifted her up and checked for exhaust leaks and found none. mysterious.. we were on our way to put in a wideband o2 sensor but there was a pice missing so we couldnt do that either.

got relatives visiting over the weekend so i dont 'spect ill be getting much done.. plus while i was in germany i got my grubby mitts on a couple of cases of exceedingly good "dunkel" bier so that i can have a belated birthday party with my twin brother! partay..

clokker

iTrader: (2)

You're not my real Dad!

rx7inLt

Shine Auto FC Body kits
FC3s --- EP Racing

clokker

iTrader: (2)

He'd have to import the Shine stuff.

Kat, I'd suggest you mold the desired fender shapes out of blubber, then cover in caribou hide.
Let cure for a month or so.

The "furry" look will become very popular, your car will be the ur Scandanavian Primitive avatar and, as a practical bonus, when it breaks down you could survive (for a few hours, at least) by eating the bodywork.
Power + pragmatism, the very heart of Swedish car culture.

meerkat8701

thanks tomat! i checked the link but they didnt seem to have any overfenders. i had a bit of a search but couldnt seem to find much in the way of overfenders myself..

though your suggestion would seem like the easier choice, there would be several factors to consider.
id have to make sure that the blubber and hide would come from animals that had died of natural causes such as heart failure, pneumonia or volvo 740's.
plus considering the insulation properties of the blubber and hide combined with the fact that i only mean to drive the seven in the summer AND have already removed the A/C would only serve to make driving an extremely sweaty experience. they are really into saunas over here though. it could increase the value if i should ever choose to sell her

i really have obsessed over the 'final look' of the seven throughout the entire project and have toyed with the idea of overfenders/fender flares for the most part of it, spending ridiculous amounts of time trawling the wonderful sea of inspiration that is google pictures. thing is, i really cant find anything that really works for me. if we first take your classic fender flares that for ae86's, golf mk1's and fairlady z's are a superb match, im just not completely sold on the look when applied to the fc3s.

a lot of factors come into play of course. fitment, colour matching, and having the rivets visible or not.



i think this fella really pulled it off. im not sure exactly which car these fender flares were meant for as it seems that there arent any 'fc3s specific' flares of this type.

this was even better but would of course entail ordering overseas from shine auto and contracting the services of a painter as i no longer have a painting booth or garage for that matter. (you may have noticed that im sad about that)



this was colour matched with the rivets showing. this i like very much.



all this considered however, i did take the same wheel dimensions as this gent(give or take a couple millimeters), and his fc3s is in my humble opinion the cleanest fc i have seen and the stance is perfect.



my stretch would be the same. i basicly did this just to minimise the risk of my 'custom wheels' being a complete and utter fitment failure.

whattya think?

any inspirational pics/suggestions are welcome!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Those Fairlady flares are so common they've become trite and most of 'em don't even fit Z's very well, much less other cars.
They are a quick and dirty way of covering up some protruding rubber, but hardly a cosmetic improvement.

rx7inLt

The Ep racing site has DMAX front fenders and rear overs if thats the style you want. I found these also Aerokit Mazda RX7 86-91 SPEC D-1 Bak Frp skärmar +50mm Aerokit Mazda RX7 86-91 SPEC D-1 Fram Frp skärmar +25mm

meerkat8701

the style has definately gone full circle again and like it must have done the first time around, its getting overused and becoming the norm. i also think its difficult to get them to look 'right' on the fc3s body. still look damn sweet on the z though...

thanks tomat! i looked at the overfenders from Ep and badass parts and im 99% sure theyre the same. (and quite nice i might add) i checked the price difference and ifi were to, i would get them from badass parts. i bought my coilovers from them and the owner is a very nice fella. i wouldnt hesitate to do business with him again.

this said however, i must say that in my personal taste regarding the fc3s body, they got it right first time. i havent seen a kit out there that i would have preferred OVER stock but im not entirely closed to the idea of getting one if the wheels dont fit within reason. the added cost of the kit and eventual moulding and painting that would follow is definately factoring into this my financial situation is not tipptopp right now i think another 10,000kr would leave a bitter taste in my wallet.

i think the best route i can take right now is wait till the steelies are finished, slap on some tyres and do a test fit again with the full weight of the seven sitting on them and see how it looks then.

over the weekend i thought i would have a fiddle with the timing while my twin brother was here visiting. my twin brother is sorta my party trick. because nobody believes were twins..
thats me on the left..forcing him to hug me..



anyway we had a fiddle with the timing and restabbed the CAS because most of our time was spent arguing/me explaining stuff. then my neighbour came out and complained about the smell so i had to switch her off. (she's running that rich. their windows were closed.) yesterday i took her to the supermarket. she went really well and i felt a noticeable difference in power. i bought my groceries and went to the parking only to find that she had flooded and i had to take the bus home. in my face . i picked her up this morning and decided that the next thing i need to do is install a fuel cut off switch. pulling the fuses is already becoming a little tiresome. i found a very nice write up here and will be following that.

i rang the insurance today and they agreed to replace the windscreen i just had to pay the deductible of 850kr which is bloody cheap. i think i paid the same for the micra this year! ill be leaving her in next monday. one step closer to getting through the safety test!

clokker

iTrader: (2)

All you humans look the same to me, so I can easily believe that's your twin brother.

Why is your car running so obnoxiously rich?

meerkat8701

touche' monsieur horloge

i dont understand it either. saying that i have not adjusted the tps and the wideband lamda didnt work when we were going to check so i have no idea what the a/f ratio is at the moment but something definately aint right..

meerkat8701

going to need a bit of help here..

i was fiddling around with the timing yesterday and i lined up the yellow mark on the leading but then when i went to check the trailing the red mark was way off BTDC. any tips on what could cause this? this said, my cas has a distributor cap so i dont know if it should be adjusted in the same manner as the american models and i dont have any kind of data on this in any of my manuals.

i am also unsure of which order i should do things. i had fiddled with the accelerator cable before when she was running really badly so thats a bit off.

in which order should i adjust these?

accellerator cable
cas
tps

im also curious as to if any of these being misaligned could contribute to flooding?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I would disconnect the cable and adjust the CAS, then the TPS.
Reconnect cable, adjust to ensure it's not artificially raising idle.

meerkat8701

thanks clokker! i disconnected the cable and she hovered ominously around 400-600rpm (which is actually the closest she has been to a normal idle since the rebuild). i tried to jumper the initial set test connector but nothing happened when i turn the air screw. i have tried to adjust the idle several times this way since the rebuild without any result.

its beginning to look like the tps can be the cause of all of this. i just had a vague memory of when i first started messing around under the hood of the seven that i actually unscrewed the tps screw all the way out (im pretty sure that i thought at the time that doing this would somehow help me remove the intake) then screwing it back to approximately where it was. this means that from day dot, i threw the whole thing out of adjustment and this has probably caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth during re-installation. all because of a bloody screw..

of course this is all theoretical but the symptoms match. this could even explain the problem with her running rich. i actually got all excited and rushed out before i had finished writing this but she flooded and then it started raining. typical..

on the bright side, i now have a nice new windscreen which was the last hurdle (apart from some troubleshooting) that was hindering me from getting her through a safety test.

im hoping to have a go at sorting this out tomorrow morning and then ill be going to a garage with skyline robban to get the wheels aligned and then i can check out my emissions at the same time. if all goes to plan i dont see why i shouldnt be able to go and do the safety test this week.

placd1

iTrader: (3)

Good luck with the safety test.

meerkat8701

thanks placd1 but as per usual i was getting way ahead of myself.
today i meant to adjust the tps. i got her up to temp and then backprobed the connector..


just added the picture to make absolutely sure im doing it right/wrong
with my multimeter set to read 2000k ohms i tried turning the screw. nothing happened. i then plugged in the connector again with the multimeter still attached and it showed 5.0 (which means 5000 right?) when i depressed the throttle the numbers went DOWN to around 500 ohms. from what i read its supposed to do the opposite.

when i tried to drive it after that she ran worse than she had before. im a little unsure of what to try next. i have read a load of threads on this quite simple procedure but either im thick and have done something wrong or am just that unlucky to be the only one that gets wierd results like this..

there is also the issue of my timing. with the timing light attached to L1 the yellow mark sits under the pin. when i move it over to T1 the red mark is way off to BTDC.

if i remove the accellerator cable she idles really low and this time she actually died.

AND shes still running rich as f..

any tips guys?
im gonna get a rash or something from scratching my head so much..

clokker

iTrader: (2)

The cable is not a "tuning" device and shouldn't have anything to do with idle, so leave it disconnected till you can get it idling right.

I just checked my TPS last week using the "volt" method.
(Not sure if the S4 is done differently than my S5)
I stick a needle into the appropriate wire (G/W?) and use the multimeter grounded to the block and adjust to 1v with the car hot.
Took about five minutes.
I've only read ohms to make sure there are no dead spots in the sweep and think the volt method gives better results.

meerkat8701

thanks for the speedy reply clokker!

apparently they are the same apart from the s5 has two. a wide and narrow range sensor. saying that my s4 has the green connector by the AFM and i tried adjusting the screw with the multimeter connected but nothing happened. the only time i got any kind of reaction from the multimeter was with the TPS plugged in. when unplugged i got no reading whatsoever. from what i have read it is supposed to be unplugged.

how did you ground the multimeter to the block? did you connect it to the connector the same way as i did and then used an extra wire or in some other way?

trouble is that jumpering the initial set test connector and turning the screw on the intake doesnt affect the idle whatsoever and i dont know how im supposed to adjust it otherwise.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I left the connector connected, stuck a needle into the wire, touch the positive from the multimeter to the needle and the negative to any convenient ground point (I used the strut bolts on top of the tower).
Key to ON, multimeter set to 20v.
Adjust to 1v and done.
No initial set coupler involvement in this procedure.

meerkat8701

after she flooded two times i got her going so that i could warm her up. i dont get why she is flooding more all of a sudden. i tried your method with the needle but i got a reading of zero. tried in all holes (insert dirty joke here) but nothing happened.
if my tps was dead wouldnt i be having super serious idle problems like i had when it was disconnected before? i dont know if i am just doing something wrong or if my tps is buggered..

in summary, today i have succeeded in flooding the engine about four times, making the seven run worse than it did before, and getting it back to the way it was. (which isnt very good) most frustrating...