Woohooooo! Finally driving

[Drax240z]

Yup I had a fun time, but finally insured my turbo Z today. Its a long story... ah what the hell, it might be worth a laugh.

 

So I arrive home late from my eye appointment, and have only a few minutes to get to the insurance office, and then to the garage to get my provincial safety inspection done. (its an out of province car) Go to start up, dead battery. Oops. I wired up my injectors to a constant 12V instead of a switched 12V. Well no time to fix that now, swap in another battery, keep the injectors on 12V and go. Start it up, everything is ready... go to put my seatbelt on and the fuel pump cuts out, and the car dies. Hrm, thats new. Start up again fine, fuel pump works... maybe just a fluke. Let it idle for a few, go to put my seatbelt back on, and the car dies. WTF? Oh, must be this battery is down on power too, and when I let it idle the fuel pump can't draw enough to keep going. Hmm, swap in another battery. Start up, same deal. As soon as I am all ready to drive away, the pump stops. Argh!!! Finally, I clue in... start the car, pull seatbelt, pump dies, release seatbelt, pump starts, pull seatbelt pump dies... Huh?

 

So I just decide to go without the seatbelt for the moment. (turns out that when I looked for switched 12V to trigger my fuel pump relay, I used the seatbelt warning buzzer 12V line, and of course its worked perfectly in the driveway up until now because I haven't had the seatbelt on in the driveway.)

 

Get to the insurance office (I allready had a temporary permit) and all I needed them to do was a visual confirmation of my VIN number. OK, no problem... right? They come out to check the number, and duh, it doesn't match. WTF now? Well turns out I am on crack, and when I swapped in the best dash I had, the VIN number from that car went with it. I had always assumed that the VIN was attached to the unibody and not that dash, but 2 years ago when I put this dash in I didn't check. So now I've got a problem... or do I?

 

Well since I was the last owner of the car with this VIN number, and it was taken away and crushed, there is no problem at all! I register the car as an aglomination of a few cars, with this VIN number, and viola! No more inspections, no $100 fee, and I'm driving.

 

I can't believe how docile the car is with the base SDS maps I made in my driveway. Seems to have lots of starting torque, even with the touchy, not-so-broken in CF DF clutch. It drove like a dream compared to my L28 SU'd 260z! I love EFI. I've been babying it, set the rev limiter to 3250 for the first miles until the engine and clutch are broken in. It sure feels tight, no creaks or groans, very deep sounding exhaust note, and everyone and their dog in my backwards hick down just oggles when I drive by! Even though the car is a few different colours, its still an eye catcher. Only running stock boost at the moment, but I might have an issue there. I didn't really get on it, but I can hear the turbo spool and the BOV vent on shifts, but my boost gauge still shows vacuum. I guess this is totally possible since the BOV is on one side of the TB and the boost gauge hose on the other. Stock 7psi minus whatever the pressure drop is from the IC and piping... And I'm going to try to keep it there for the first while until things are broken in.

 

Other interesting notes and differences from my 260z:

- The Autometer gauges are awesome at night! Wow, I can actually read them easily.

- Short throw shifter is a little too short. I'll have to make another one or weld a piece onto this one. (Well it isn't a short throw, I just cut it... too much)

- The stereo rocks, but I just want to listen to the car!

- Throttle blips are very responsive and double clutching is way easier with this setup.

- Probably will be a loud car on a trip until I put some carpet in.

- Even without the strut tower bracing I had in my 260 (front and rear), this car feels stiffer. The urethane bushings probably help the feel too.

 

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Phantom]

I know the thrill of the first drive. Isn't it wonderful?!? Just know that you will become addicted to that extra power and you're going to want more. I thought I had enough with the stock LS1 but now I'm starting to have thoughts of more. Oh Lord, save me from myself!

[Scottie-GNZ]

Well its about DAMN time :D

 

Congrats!!

[Drax240z]

Heh, just ordered the stuff I need from Mcmaster in order to make a MBC. I'd better break in this engine before it gets here! Off to go driving. :D :D

[Tim240z]

Cool Richard!!!

I bet that seat belt wiring thing made you laugh your butt off!!

 

Tim

[DavyZ]

 

Davy

[Drax240z]

Hmm had some fun the last day or two.

 

Fixed up a bit of wiring and took my car out for another spin. Well I got a couple KM and smelt fuel, so I pulled over and parked, and investigated. As I pulled over and took my foot off the gas, the car died. Couldn't find a fuel leak anywhere!

 

Spent a full day troubleshooting it at the side of a not-so-busy road. Found out my cap and rotor looked like ASS, so I got new ones. I went through the car and found 4 or 5 things that "just had to be the problem!". I fixed them and no improvement. I certainly saved myself some headache down the road by fixing these things though!

 

Now the car was acting like it wasn't getting spark. 2 & 3 plugs were wet and clean from raw fuel. It would start, but was obviously only running on 4 cylinders. Swapped wires, same problem. New plugs, same problem. Seemed like there was no spark at all, though when I pulled the wire and cranked it, it did have some spark. So the situation is: I've got spark to all cylinders. I've got fuel to all cylinders. (I know because it is being pushed out the exhaust!) It will run, but not on cylinders 2 & 3. Odd. 2 & 3 are not a matched pair ANYWHERE that I can think of.

 

So back to the wiring I did. It seems that when I rewired the 12V power for the injectors, I used a switched source (same one that triggers my fuel pump relay) and it was just too crappy a source to power ALL the injectors. So, as soon as I swapped the injector 12V lead straight to the battery, VROOM!! I am still trying to figure out how exactly this all worked. All I can figure now is tha 2 & 3 were pumping in so much fuel that the plug was instantly wet and wouldn't ignite the mix. I still don't quite get how a bad wiring connection can cause the injectors to stay open too long. Ideas?

 

Anyway, got fed up, spent $60 on electrical goodies, and did a nice 5 relay/distribution block setup on a plate. Now the injectors are running through a relay, so no problems right now! I'm still a bit weary about this one though, as the solution doesn't really make sense to me...