Thanks! Questions...
Who is Alex?
Tanked? What chemical does it end up getting exposed to?
Thanks! Questions...
Who is Alex?
Tanked? What chemical does it end up getting exposed to?
SnS parts ;) Cleaning goes a long way.
Alex is the 2nd Chance Roadster of the Southeast. Also known as ScratchNSniff.
Agent☣Orange (05-14-2018)
Ah perfect - thank you.
That's me lol...
I've got valve covers and intake manifolds in stock I can do whatever color desired...generally I recommend a black wrinkle on the covers and an ardent silver on the manifolds...Squaretop Refurb.jpgRetro 2.jpg
Greasemonkey2000 (05-16-2018),Paul B (05-29-2018)
Damn. Those parts look fantastic.
PM'ing.
Edit: Box is full Can you PM pricing on wrinkle black/red powercoat? Going to hold off on the intake manifold for now...even though it looks AMAZING.
Last edited by turboedpickup; 05-15-2018 at 04:44 PM.
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You were right. A little bit does go a long way. Got some stuff done on the left side. Looks much better than when I first started (at least IMO). Now I need to put some time into the VC, IM and firewall. Intake and wiring, tbd.
Greasemonkey2000 (07-21-2018)
The hero that is scotchbrite pads came to save my vc and im. Not too shabby.
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Greasemonkey2000 (07-21-2018),Paul B (05-29-2018)
Nice! I have plans to clean my engine bay this summer, just need a little motivation.
nice! gonna have to scotch brite my intake manifold now ...
Lots of things... turns out the sound coming from my rear passenger side was indeed the bearing. Got that replaced and finished up the day before the trip. Thank GOD.
Longest trip I've done so far. Probably the last long trip for a while as the new member joins our family in a bit . But not to self...this was not the trip to do when your AC isn't working that well. I should have addressed that in addition to the bearing. Then again, I thought it would be much cooler in the mountains... not so much apparently for this trip. The entire drive was 80% spent at temperatures >90F. With 60% of that north of 98F. At least the windows were tinted.
After a few detours (Kern River area), we finally made it to Sequoia. Went up with my bud in his s2k. I had always wanted to return to these roads after doing them initially in my "family car" WRX.
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Big trees...
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Sunset overlooking King's Canyon...
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The drive down was HAIRY...it's been quite a while since I've done downhill like that. Note to self - don't ever have the s2k following behind. My eyes were shot by the end of the night from his HIDs going on/off through the drive (as I went above and below his beam).
The next morning drove back down...also hot. Thankful to finally make it to the other side...
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Some colder air finally. Then again...socal greeted me with lovely traffic through Malibu/Santa Monica.
Great trip. Great drive. Great times...and best of all, my car survived. There were only a few things that came up...
Notable mentions.
...After refilling fuel and driving up Sequoia. My car REEKED of fuel. It was coming from the rear passenger side. I'm thinking I'm going to need to address my evap tank down there and possibly the valve above the fuel tank. That drive was primarily >95F and started off at 105F. I could also use some better exhaust shielding right under the tank.
...Car was also PING-tastic whenever I needed to get up to speed again. If I was cruising, it was never an issue. It became less of an issue when I got my new intake in (CAI from bumper), but it didn't help when the weather was 100F+. Check engine light also came on - but went off again once I drove long enough without any more pinging.
...Since I didn't know what my cooling system could handle, I made it a point to put the heater on full blast for 30 seconds every 5 minutes or so especially while going uphill (grapevine).
Greasemonkey2000 (07-19-2018),Grumpy (07-19-2018),Midtenn86 (07-20-2018),tsingson (07-20-2018)
LOVELY! I long to see a redwood forest
Lots of memories I have on those roads...
Regarding the fuel smell, the best info about the evap system issues like that I found here:
http://gearheadsmiataclub.net/vB/sho...ong-fuel-smell
There is a vent there in the RR wheel well. If it's not the rollover valve, it's likely that vent or the evap purge valve (there is another up front next to the FR shock tower), or exhaust is heating up the fuel tank. Tim (timtim) had that issue at M@TG a few years ago. He stripped the rear bulkhead to look for the leak , and we noticed how hot his fuel tank was. He was pretty miserable with the fumes.
That rear evap purge valve depends on your car's production date. I looked up the part when I was researching an evap code I was dealing with a few months ago. The cutoff date is around July/99, then it was superceded by another. It is $60-100+, so testing it first would be ideal. Fortunately, I didn't need that one to solve my issue.
On the pinging (detonation), not uncommon, but perhaps cooler sparkplugs and gapping may be helpful.
tsingson (07-20-2018)
Thanks for that KFJ!
Those will be the next things on the check up list (fuel smell). The exhaust is probably the largest culprit followed by the valves that I'll be checking next. I've got the RS3 axle-back connected to the factory midpipe (~180k miles) so to say that the mating surfaces aren't flat...would be a large understatement. Add to that the >95F heat and we got ourselves a nice cooker.
2 more things accomplished...
Wrapped those pesky sensor wires. Still need to rearrange them a little...
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And I finally got my floor mats replaced. Just a few more little odds and ends to get rid of most/all tan components in the interior. Seats are the last thing to go...but I'll probably settle with the tan seats in black interior for a good while as the funds build up for their replacements.
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Demon I Am (07-25-2018),kung fu jesus (07-24-2018)
Replaced the factory NB1 injectors with cleaned and flowtested NB2 injectors (the ones that were in stock, and didn't want any downtime).
Also was prepping up a coilpack relocation bracket trying to see if this'll make aftermarket units last longer. I purchased an ebay special ($50) to use while I made the final fab and adjustments on the brackets. That thing lasted 2 days.
Coilpack history.
Bought car with 140k miles in 2014. Supposedly had the engine replaced a few years ago prior.
August 2015, bought a Beck Arnley as a backup, that I effectively installed and kept the original one in the trunk (since I knew it was working). 1 month later, misfire-town, and reinstalled the OE one and everything's fine.
August 2016, bought a new in box (though opened) OEM coil pack from a forum member and kept it as a backup for the OE coil pack.
March 2018, misfire town, left me stranded on the side of an onramp. Diagnosed, tools came out, replaced the coil pack. Car feels good again.
...which brings us today. Ebay special dies in 2 days. And the OEM one goes back on...with new brackets!
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Everything's working well so far. I need to get more heatshrink and some heatshielding for the wires back there since I unwound them. IF heat is the primary enemy and the difference between aftermarket and OEM units are simply the components longevity against heat - then I'm looking forward to testing whether or not those will last longer in this setup. Worst case scenario, I have brackets ready for when I go full COP conversion.
Current setup is a slightly PITA in that I need to remove the front rod to unplug the coil packs. Oh well!