My old highschool car

[OhhShmit]

Hello Guys, I’m the new owner of the car and would love to stay up to date on this build! I have read this entire feed and got a lot of background. Sounds like Gary’s my man I need to be talking to

 

[We're on Boost]

Good, I was hoping the car wouldn't just disappear!
I'll help wherever I think I know something worthwhile to input, but there are lots of good 1g guys in this forum.
I see you've started a Specs page and a Build thread. And put in a front mount intercooler which was what it needed more than just about anything. Good deal. Oh the fuel tank is the other thing - I don't think Nick has opened it up yet to see how it looks in there. But it's been sending a lot of rust up to the fuel filter which then clogs up pretty fast.
I'll keep my eyes open for your posts, and I hope you can have a lot of crazy miles with that car!

 

[OhhShmit]

Yes! I’m trying to get everything down on here to be able to get input and help. I will absolutely keep an eye out on the fuel tank and actually today I’ll probably check the filter and see if it’s accumulating still and if so probably take care of it. At this point my main concerns to address are new front struts as their completely blown and either a new tranny or rebuild because second is grinding pretty good unless you slowly baby it into second and pressing in the clutch you can hear the throw out bearing crying . Also I’m not sure of nick ever told you but yes he is correct. After the FMIC and waist gate and BOV install we did 2 test pulls, 1st pull we hit 20 psi before blowing a charge pipe off, 2nd hit we hit 26 psi and it did pretty good! But I’m very positive we are having boost lag as when you getting on it it takes a minute to start building but right around 4,500 it just hits hard and pulls . Anyways I need to get logs and have someone check them out for me.

 

[We're on Boost]

At this point my main concerns to address are new front struts as their completely blown

KYB struts are very high quality and they are they are still made for the 1990. They are the only ones I know about. There might be others that are ok too.
But KYB, the ones that they consider to be "OEM replacement" are the Excel-G model number 334030 (front) and 341121 (rear). As far as I know they will be just slightly stiffer than the stock shocks would have been when they were new. My stock shocks were completely blown too when we first bought the car back in ~2003.
Here's the KYB web page where you can look up the official info for them: KYB catalog
And Rock Auto should be a good place to buy them, that is here: shock/strut

The KYB struts that are very stiff and also adjustable (but you can never make them as soft as stock) are the AGX model number 734005 (front) and 741014 (rear).
You'll see those listed on the same Rock Auto link I put above. They are shown under "Adjustable Performance".
On the KYB page they are shown on the same page as above, under "Manually Adjustable Performance".
I have the AGX struts on my car. At first I thought they were almost overboard stiff but it was what I wanted. Now that they are almost 20 years old they are still really good shocks and still very stiff. But I also have H&R springs which are stiff, and I don't think those springs are available anymore. For that matter, I don't know what you would find if you wanted stock replacement springs. I don't see any listed on Rock Auto.
If your stock original springs are in good shape and if Excel-G struts suit what you want, that would be about the easiest and cheapest way to go. I actually had my struts and springs installed at an alignment shop that was a really good shop at the time, so I can't be very helpful about doing the actual work. That shop had 3 guys who were all really good. Rare. Min, Tom, and Jimmy. Hollerin' at ya if you are out there somewhere !

1st pull we hit 20 psi before blowing a charge pipe off, 2nd hit we hit 26 psi and it did pretty good! But I’m very positive we are having boost lag as when you getting on it it takes a minute to start building but right around 4,500 it just hits hard and pulls

Yeah the wastegate hose is configured for minimum boost which we saw a few pages ago, and that not only keeps boost as low as it can go, it also slows down the spool up, boost comes up a little later in the rev range than it should. 4500 rpm is what we live with when having a bigger turbo, like GT35 size. But the turbo on your car is more like GT30 size so it should come up about 500 rpm sooner I'd guess.
To do that you should have an electronic boost controller operating a boost control solenoid.
The most straight forward way to do that is to upgrade your V3 Lite to Full V3 which only costs $125, and then buy the boost control solenoid that ECMtuning recommends and sells, and hook it all up. It's not a very complicated install. It's the kind of work I even like. Clean and pretty easy.

 

[OhhShmit]

Question what’s ideal idle for the car? Currently it’s sitting at 2k and I personally think that’s a little too high. Is there a way to change it without doing a bunch of crazy work ?

 

[We're on Boost]

Question what’s ideal idle for the car? Currently it’s sitting at 2k and I personally think that’s a little too high. Is there a way to change it without doing a bunch of crazy work ?

Yeah 2000 is too high.
I don't know why it's idling high now! The last log we got was from June 15. The idle seemed ok there, it was around 1000 rpm.
With stock cams and stock injectors like this, an idle of 800 or 900 is about right. 1000 is ok. Nick has the Target Idle in ECMlink set to 850. So if everything else is working ok it should be idling around 850.

The easiest thing to do is check the BISS screw. It's just a screw with a little air valve on the other end of it. Turning it clockwise should slow the idle down, turning it CC should speed idle up. So that's the easiest thing to try. It will act funny because of the ISC (that's another air valve that is run automatically with a little stepper motor). The ISC will try to make it run at the Target Idle. I don't think we ever delved into the ISC (idle speed control) yet on this car. We got as far as figuring out that V3 Lite won't log ISC Position. Which is too bad. Since it's a stepper motor, that position can be given by a number from 0 to, well, 120 is the highest number I've ever seen, so I guess that is the max. Looking at a log of ISCPosition is pretty much the first thing you do when trying to figure out if there is something wrong with it.
You could post a log and maybe something will be a clue about the high idle.

 

[OhhShmit]

Okay I will absolutely try that! I need to figure out this whole logging thing so I can start sending some over as the car is being driven more. It drives what seems fine and doesn’t have any hesitations or cuts, but once again coming to idle and sitting their it usually between 1500-2000 rpm.

Also is there supposed to be a cap or anything over this? I noticed when it’s open like in the pictures the car kinda runs what seems rough but when you cap it off the car runs perfectly fine. Just want to make sure before I make any impulse decisions .

 

[We're on Boost]

Also is there supposed to be a cap or anything over this? I noticed when it’s open like in the pictures the car kinda runs what seems rough but when you cap it off the car runs perfectly fine. Just want to make sure before I make any impulse decisions .

Yes by golly there is supposed to be a cap there. I never had a cap on my car, but, take a look at this from the DSM vfaq:

If covering it makes a difference, then I think that means air is leaking around the screw and messing up AFR and idle speed probably.
In that paragraph next to the lower picture, it gives the size of the o-ring in there. That o-ring is probably shot and that would be the air leak.
So you could buy an o-ring the size he says there, take the screw out, and put it back in with the new o-ring.
Be sure to smear the new o-ring with either motor oil or some kind of o-ring lube like Molykote 111 compound or Permatex 81101 before you put it on the screw.
The size he says is a little suspicious but it probably works or he wouldn't have stated it. I would suspect it is actually a metric o-ring, like every other o-ring I've found in my car.
People in the US then weren't very hip to metric o-rings yet.

BTW all that vfaq stuff is right here: FAQlocator
There's a lot of good info in there.

I think it's possible to buy a whole new BISS screw somewhere - ahh - here look at the stuff on this STM page, items 1,2,3, and 5: DSM idle screw
And actually the whole assembly they have for only $27: Biss screw, o-ring, and cap
Holy cats!

 

[pauleyman]

Also is there supposed to be a cap or anything over this? I noticed when it’s open like in the pictures the car kinda runs what seems rough but when you cap it off the car runs perfectly fine. Just want to make sure before I make any impulse decisions .
View attachment 774103

Cap isn't what holds air. If idle changes if you cap it the oring on the BISS screw is bad. Cap is cosmetic only.

Question what’s ideal idle for the car? Currently it’s sitting at 2k and I personally think that’s a little too high. Is there a way to change it without doing a bunch of crazy work ?

Its not possible to idle at 2k and everything be functioning.
If idle position switch is closed ECU cuts fuel at 1500rpm. Either you have a broken IPS, missing throttle body ground or your cable is too tight and throttle isn't really closed. Start with throttle. If its barely open you can just push the arm and see if it moves a little and fully closes. If it idles down fix why it isn't closing. If that isn't it diagnose the IPS.

 

[OhhShmit]

Update Guys! So that BISS Screw is just completely missing???? So looks like I will absolutely be ordering that new set you posted for 28$ I guess we found the reason for the high idle . But it’s making me wonder were the screw even went!???

Also I just got ECMLink downloaded and will be posting logs soon!

 

[We're on Boost]

Update Guys! So that BISS Screw is just completely missing???? So looks like I will absolutely be ordering that new set you posted for 28$ I guess we found the reason for the high idle . But it’s making me wonder were the screw even went!???

Awesome! Love it when there is an easy fix.
Should clean out that hole a bit. The threads, the valve area, and the o-ring will all be better if they are going into something fairly clean.

 

[pauleyman]

Update Guys! So that BISS Screw is just completely missing???? So looks like I will absolutely be ordering that new set you posted for 28$ I guess we found the reason for the high idle . But it’s making me wonder were the screw even went!???
View attachment 774107

Well....the biss is under boost too. If its loose it can get blown out.

 

[OhhShmit]

Just an update guys, got the BISS screw in and it’s idling way better about 1k, Wednesday I’ll be getting a new Trans and new struts for the car! Also I have downloaded and finally figured out how to use ECMLink so tomorrow when I go to work I will be recording a log for you Gary since it been sometime since you even seen a log on this I should say also it is being driven everyday.

 

[We're on Boost]

Sounds good!

 

[OhhShmit]

Garry do you have a email i can send this log to? I have the log and file saved but cant for some reason figure out how to get it to upload on here and only email so far .

 

[OhhShmit]

I think i may have found it out

 

[We're on Boost]

Yep that's it. It's the "Add Photos" button. I'll take a look later at the log. And just for whatever, I'll PM my email address to you.

 

[We're on Boost]

I think i may have found it out

This log looks good.
Nice easy drive. It's in closed loop for the whole drive after warming up to 87 deg. Highest load factor was 0.8 which happened at 285 seconds.
No knock really, I mean highest was 0.7 degrees of knock retard which is nothing.
As your load factor goes a little higher though, like to 1.0 and higher, you will at some point get some knock.
So before you drive it harder, you should update the ignition timing tables to what I suggested back in post #327.

But other than that, this looks good.
It started ok. The Combined Fuel Trim numbers look good all the way through - they are small numbers, and mostly negative, which sort of predicts that you will not be way off too lean when you go more throttle into open loop. Although you'll still need to feel it out gradually how hard you can get into it because as the rpms and throttle go up, it will still run out of injector and run out of fuel pump like it was with Nick.
Post a picture of your front mount intercooler when you have a moment!

 

[OhhShmit]

Sounds good! Now stupid question where is the link you where referring to for post #327? And also how do I adjust the Ignition Timing Table? Sorry once again new to ECMLink and have been trying to educate myself on it. I really don’t want to mess anything up

 

[We're on Boost]

Sounds good! Now stupid question where is the link you where referring to for post #327?

Just go back to page 14 and look for post #327 on that page.
I posted a picture and some words there, but not much explanation because Nick had done a little bit of this already before.

And also how do I adjust the Ignition Timing Table? Sorry once again new to ECMLink and have been trying to educate myself on it. I really don’t want to mess anything up

Right! Just take a look at doing this first, dry-run, by looking at your latest log on your laptop or a desktop if you have one. That way you are not connected to your car yet so you can fiddle around with stuff and it won't change anything. You can even pick "Copy to ECU" and it will just give you an error message because it's not connected to your car.

So for the dry-run, open up the log, and at the top pick View, ECU direct access (from log). That will give you another tab with a column of choices on the left. Pick "TmngMaxOct" from that column.
Then you'll see it looking like this:

And that is your current timing table.
Then just pick a cell and key a different number into it.
Do that to a few cells.
When you key in a number you can either hit the enter key or just pick another cell and it will enter the one you changed.
Then when you are "done" you pick the button on the lower right that says "Copy to ECU" and since this is a dry run not connected to the car, it will just give you an error message.
You can pick the red X at the top of the page and it will close the tab you are on. Then when you open it back up again you'll see it with the same old numbers that it had before, because you aren't changing anything when it's not connected to the car.
So you can play around with stuff in the software like that.

 

[OhhShmit]

Ohh shoot okay I had figured it out and I’m currently almost done with the log from page 327 coping it over. But now my question is since this is a dry log and once this is complete is there a way I can save it since I’m not connected to the car? Or will this just be my test run and go outside and connect and do it all over again

 

[OhhShmit]

Also I should specify I have the disc and the option to save setting data to disc. Wasn’t sure since I completed it if I could save it on their and go out and connect to the car and upload it or just simply restart

 

[OhhShmit]

Here is the picture

 

[We're on Boost]

Wasn’t sure since I completed it if I could save it on their and go out and connect to the car and upload it

There probably is a way to do that but I don't even know. What the heck that's how much I know

The way I know is like this:

When you want to do it for real:
Put the laptop in the car.
Plug the cable into it and start the laptop.
Start the ECMlink software.
Turn the key to ON but don't start the engine. You do this whole thing with engine not running.
Pick Connect.
Then pick ECU, ECU direct access (Live).
Continue.
Pick TmngMaxOct from the left column.
Make your changes in the timing table.
Pick "Save to ECU".
Continue.
Now it takes about 10 seconds and it shows you a status bar.
Then a message says "Reprogramming completed successfully!"

And that's it, you can red X that tab off.

Then to check it you should make a short log the regular way by clicking the disk icon, just 10 seconds or so with the car still not running.
When you close that log and it saves to disk, you can "Disconnect" if you want to and turn the ignition off.
Then open the log you just made and look at the timing table in it to make sure your new numbers are really in there for real. fr!

 

[OhhShmit]

Sounds good! I’ll go try it now!