Return of the Gremlins

Yesterday my car wouldnt start. When i got home from school, it started right up. Today before i headed to the yard it refused to start again. After some fiddling around in the wiring, I found that one of my relays had gone bad.

I went to the yard and picked up a relay and pulled apart aac valves from a couple different cars. After i got home, more tests pointed toward the source power to the fuel pump relay was low and caused it to flicker when it was key on. I changed to a different source wire and it fired right up.

On my way to Justins house, my car gave up. After Jumping it, I drove it into his driveway where he had a look at it for me. Turns out that the alternator decided to let go. Luckily, he had a dual cam ka alternator laying around. The alternator fit with the dual cam ka hardware, some washers, and a modification to the rb upper alternator bracket. Several hours later (after some pizza and a few trips to different stores), it was all back together and running again.

Justin also had an extra aac spring from an sr. I threw it in and now my idle is low. At this point it should only be some timing adjustment and a bit of the idle screw in the back of the manifold.

Photos

Here's the most recent photo update. Not much news to add, really. I'm pretty confindent that the problem in the idle lies with the aac valve. Tomorrow i'm going to the yard to see if i can find something.

Some things never change

My dad put the remainder of the dash back in while i was away at work. When i got home, i put all the intake parts back together and set the tps. Although it feels smoother from the tps adjustment, it still has the same cold/medum cold idle hunting.

Fiddler on the roof

Fiddled with the car a bit today. I took off the throttle body, which was full of junk and gave it a good dose of carb-r-clean and tooth brush. I inspected the air regulator (under the throttle body) and found that the hose was pretty brittle. Parts of it crumbled off as I pulled the hose from the fitting.

We'll see how things go when its all back together.

In addition

Recently i picked up coilover springs (stance 9k/7k) and sleeves, just gathering components to do the suspension when there is time. The dash is still somewhat apart, the ducting isn't in place but at least the heater is working ok.

With the shift extender, the bubble knob sites pretty high, but ive gotten used to it. The old quick release that i had run on the s13 was too long, so i opted to grab a short release. It's much shorter and doesn't weigh the wheel down when i remove it.

The car is boosting well now that I re-set the tps and cleaned out the aac valve. It still idles high, but it drives well. I get some idle hunt as well after cold start and a 2 min drive.

On a side note, i got a few goodies from Erin as we began on her car.

Alive and well

I spent time last night putting in a new return line. Not fun with the motor, tranny, and all sorts of other junk in the way. Somehow I managed.

In addition, a couple nights ago, i got an apexi filter from Andrew. I was told that, without a filter and ripples in the turbo inlet duct, the turbo causes too much turbulence for the maf to handle.

Today Justin and I put together the exhuast, It is a downpipe back mandrel bent 3" system. I will eventually add tips to it but at least its all put together and on the car. It sounds great.

The timing is still off a bit but when that is all situated im sure the car will wake up a ton.


Justin with the ugmos on


Me in my lounging/hangin out/welding position
Justin's welder with argon shielding makes for much nicer, cleaner welds


Justin in welding position wearing the same nasty ass sweater

Almost there

HIDs are in, engine has some timing issues. We've been fiddling with it over a couple days with only small improvements.