Getting Ready for the 2006 Race Season...................

[Slapnut]

ok.. but i have no under hood fuse box...all i have is the kick-panel box and the 3 fuses on the +cable..... the car turns over.. just won't fire.. no spark

 

[Greg Collier]

ok.. but i have no under hood fuse box...all i have is the kick-panel box and the 3 fuses on the +cable..... the car turns over.. just won't fire.. no spark

The harness for the fuel injectors, knock sensor, ignition coil, power transistor, idle speed contorl actuator, sensors, and so on, comes out the fire wall on the passenger side and runs along the firewall toward the intake. These are the wiring points that will give you spark and ignition.

Greg

 

[Slapnut]

ok...so either my coils are bad, my ecu is bad or my little gold box is bad then???

 

[Greg Collier]

ok...so either my coils are bad, my ecu is bad or my little gold box is bad then???

When I replaced my wiring harness I checked the continuity of each and every wire. I discovered two bad injector wires and the knock sensor wire. I have the full electrical service manual which helped with all the gray areas that I had to deal with.

To assume you have a bad ECU, coil, or MPI are costly assumptions...

Greg

 

[mavisky]

Yea, its time to bust out the manuals and the multi-meter. Sometimes there's just no better way.

 

[steve]

To assume you have a bad ECU, coil, or MPI are costly assumptions.

Replacing parts based on assumptions is always costly.

You take your asumptions and test them to diagnose problems.

Yea, its time to bust out the manuals and the multi-meter. Sometimes there's just no better way.

When it comes to electronics what other way is there?


BTW the usual little gold box people talk about is the MPI relay.

Steve

 

[Slapnut]

Ok, after looking at my harness even closer, right at the ecu plugs i noticed that 4-5 wires are striped bare and 1 is cut/ripped from the plug, I mean right at the plug to. I assume that is very bad. I was informed, and would like verification on this; a turbo harness will work if I rewire the MAF??? If this is true I can get a new harness today, if I can't get this thing running by tomorrow, I need to switch to plan x-y-z a Acura Integra

 

[Slow old poop]

Ok, after looking at my harness even closer, right at the ecu plugs i noticed that 4-5 wires are striped bare and 1 is cut/ripped from the plug, I mean right at the plug to. I assume that is very bad. I was informed, and would like verification on this; a turbo harness will work if I rewire the MAF??? If this is true I can get a new harness today, if I can't get this thing running by tomorrow, I need to switch to plan x-y-z a Acura Integra

If all else fails, we've been working on a 1st gen turbo laser FWD. The engine is completely disassembled (head's off, anyway) to fix a bad balance shaft, but you could probably buy the whole thing for $750 the way it sits. PM me if interested, and I'll give you the owner's contact info.

Rich

 

[Slapnut]

Thanks for the back-up back-up plan, but my asphalt oval racing class has a $250 claim rule so if another racers wants my car, they can buy it for $250cash ori get banned from the track for life Anyone have a chevy chevette?? btw my JDM 2.0 dohc was $300 so i might get banned this year

 

[mavisky]

Thanks for the back-up back-up plan, but my asphalt oval racing class has a $250 claim rule so if another racers wants my car, they can buy it for $250cash ori get banned from the track for life Anyone have a chevy chevette?? btw my JDM 2.0 dohc was $300 so i might get banned this year

You will have to undo the work I would normally do to a nt harness to make a turbo work with it. Namely switching from the 7 wire maf plug to a 6 wire on the nt harness, and re wiring the fuel injectors to by pass the fuel injector resistor pack.

You'd probably be better off just working with what you've got and running a new pin and wires for those few there.

 

[ninjai_ruken]

Greg you make me want to cry and smile at the same time. Its great to see a DSM on the track other than Drag, Wish I could be out there, for now im stuck on dirt circle track. Daughters are way expensive....but worth the money spent just to see them smile car looks great keep up the good work. Maybe ill make it down that way this summer and come watch ya race

 

[Slapnut]

I will get some pics here in a sec, i think redoing the plug might be more of a pain then rewiring the injectors, but thats just me. Because I have no extra wire at the plug.

 

[Greg Collier]

Greg you make me want to cry and smile at the same time. Its great to see a DSM on the track other than Drag, Wish I could be out there, for now im stuck on dirt circle track. Daughters are way expensive....but worth the money spent just to see them smile car looks great keep up the good work. Maybe ill make it down that way this summer and come watch ya race

Yes... kids are definitely expensive. It wasn't until my last one moved out that I was able to start spending some money on myself.

Now we're looking at racing in the rain this weekend, the forcast calls for a wet track Friday through Sunday. I'm lucky I have a brand new pair of Hoosier rains waiting in the wings... should be interesting on a 150mph track like California Speedway

Greg

 

[Slapnut]

Ok I got some pics, sorry if there fuzzy, I'm kinda shaky in the morn. So from what you guys see: 1. is this all the harness I'll need and 2. is this harness save-able?

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[mavisky]

Looks like a little re-wiring is in order, but other than that it doesn't look too bad. I actually intend to go through my car next year and remove all of the non-essential wiring. Should be interesting.

 

[olmytsi]

Lookin great! Glad to see you got a real turbo on there now...should be a good season

 

[Slapnut]

WooHoo, I fixed the harness, and found out somemore bad news (grrrrrrr), the 2.0 n/t eprom that I bought off of my local DSM site, is in fact not an eprom and is for a 92+ 2.0turbo eclipse. So, off to the junk yard I got tomorrow... i wonder if that was the cause of my no spark?? anyway.. baby steps, but its getting there.

 

[mavisky]

WooHoo, I fixed the harness, and found out somemore bad news (grrrrrrr), the 2.0 n/t eprom that I bought off of my local DSM site, is in fact not an eprom and is for a 92+ 2.0turbo eclipse. So, off to the junk yard I got tomorrow... i wonder if that was the cause of my no spark?? anyway.. baby steps, but its getting there.

I've got a good non-eprom nt ecu I'll switch you for from when my car was nt. Let me know if you need it.

 

[Greg Collier]

I got a call from PWR this morning, "the radiator is here from Australia!" A two-hour drive and I picked it up in Lake Ellsinore California. Back at the garage, I drained the Fluidyne and pulled it out with the fans intact. Then the big test… The fan attachment on the PWR was exactly the same as the Fluidyne so I was able to slide the new radiator right in place. Problem; The new wastegate and dump-tube touched the one fan. I was able to loosen the wastegate and give a slight tweak to get a quarter of an inch clearance from the back face of the fan. Then, when I went to fasten the OEM radiator hold-down brackets on the top there was know way they would fit. I ended up cutting out at least a half and inch and we’re in business.

Looks like we’re going up Thurs night to do the dyno with Scot. Staying the night, we’ll drop the car off at the track and get an early start with testing on Friday morning. They’re calling for a few rain showers on Friday and then a major winter rain storm on Saturday… it should make for an interesting weekend to say the least.

Greg

 

[tstkl]

wait, what did you cut the half of an inch off of to make the wastegate fit?

edit: Btw, just wanted to let you know that I have resently become extremely interested in making my car good at turning as well as being able to beat everyone else in a straigh line. no thanks to you I might add, . keep up the good work and bring us back another championship. My only question is, if you have an awd 1g, why are you using your fwd 1g still? maybe I'm too much of a chassi newb to understand what goes into making a car road race prep, but I would think that everything would just swap over almost. a few things such as a new flywheel and everything after that would be needed, but wouldn't it help in the long run? maybe I'm too textbook, I have never driven a fwd dsm, so I'm not one to preach the improvement of awd over fwd I guess.

and also, care to tell me how a kid such as myself could start getting involved in some road racing. obviously it wouldn't be anything that involved winning stuff, since my skills are probably far below the average road racing driver. at least I can say I have no fear when driving the minivan, I keep up with m3's in that thing. It's all about mentality to me.

 

[Greg Collier]

wait, what did you cut the half of an inch off of to make the wastegate fit?

edit: Btw, just wanted to let you know that I have resently become extremely interested in making my car good at turning as well as being able to beat everyone else in a straigh line. no thanks to you I might add, . keep up the good work and bring us back another championship. My only question is, if you have an awd 1g, why are you using your fwd 1g still? maybe I'm too much of a chassi newb to understand what goes into making a car road race prep, but I would think that everything would just swap over almost. a few things such as a new flywheel and everything after that would be needed, but wouldn't it help in the long run? maybe I'm too textbook, I have never driven a fwd dsm, so I'm not one to preach the improvement of awd over fwd I guess.

and also, care to tell me how a kid such as myself could start getting involved in some road racing. obviously it wouldn't be anything that involved winning stuff, since my skills are probably far below the average road racing driver. at least I can say I have no fear when driving the minivan, I keep up with m3's in that thing. It's all about mentality to me.

I was able to turn the wastegate down to clear the fan. I had to cut the radiator hold-down brackets to get them to work. (it's been a long couple of weeks if I don't make sense)

As far as the AWD vs. FWD. To me, it's the driver driving the car to compensate for the car. At one point Formula One was accerate-turn-and brake, they didn't even have to shift. Then they brought the shifter back into the series, but it's sequential paddle shifting so not a lot of difference in my book. Bottom line being, if the car drives itself, then what's the fun in driving the car. To make a FWD do things that an AWD can is pure drivers skill. Everbody assumes my car is AWD and when they find out it's FWD they say, "Wow!" I like that feeling...

If you want to get involved in roadracing check out: www.nasaproracing.com then check out the HPDE program... Once your done it you'll be hooked

Greg

 

[Greg Collier]

Hey Rich, hows the motor doing? I don't think I'm gonna be ducting the brakes for the first race, I'm running out of time... It's also gonna be real wet so I'm not that concerned about heat

Greg

 

[Slow old poop]

I To make a FWD do things that an AWD can is pure drivers skill. Everbody assumes my car is AWD and when they find out it's FWD they say, "Wow!" I like that feeling...Greg

What I like about AWD -- and I've had a 3000GT VR4, a Talon TSI and now an Eclipse GSX-- is the ability to brake, turn in, and nail the gas. No trail braking, no easing down on the throttle. Just nail the mutha and feel the AWD claw its way through a turn, sometimes getting wheelspin on all four tires.* You can apply the power long before a RWD car like a 911 or Z06 can, because those high-powered cars can get power oversteer, so you can close up on them in the corner.

And an AWD car has neutral handling and is forgiving if you screw up, which makes AWD the perfect car to start driving HPDEs with.

Rich

*Not something you want to do all the time. First, it shreds the front tires. When I shredded one running on an oval, the cords were showing at a 45-deg angle across the tire. Weird. Second, AWD wheelspin feels just like you hit a little gravel, so you keep your foot in it. That is the wrong thing to do, of course, ### it'll snap spin on ya (been there, done that. The corner worker came up to me afterward and said, "we've never had a car go off at that corner before. How'd you do that?")

 

[Slow old poop]

Hey Rich, hows the motor doing? I don't think I'm gonna be ducting the brakes for the first race, I'm running out of time... It's also gonna be real wet so I'm not that concerned about heat Greg

In a previous post somewhere above, I told my tale of my good news/bad news disastrous weekend, where we got the motor going, did a 20 minute break in, and then discovered the walking timing belt. So, I am waiting on parts once again. *sigh* Seems like we take two steps forward, then one step back. Alas, that one step back is a week long, whilst we await parts. Been doing this for several weeks now. At least I am on a first-name basis with the parts guy at the dealer, and he's giving me a 10% discount on parts.

 

[Greg Collier]

I bought my wife a Dodge Stealth R/T, so twin turbo and AWD. The car had 3 inch straight pipes and sounded bitchen! I loved driving that car and even thought about racing it when she lost interest. The damn thing just weighed so much. It definitely took the corners with ease but it just didn't have the response that I've been use to.

We sold it (exactly what we paid for it) and she got a BMW-Z3. This car is so small I can't drive it. I can't even be a passenger in it without having my knees in my chest. It's pretty quick and real light, but I end up smelling like a sardine when I climb out...

Greg