she said yes!

Tonight Desiree and I hosted our 2nd annual After Holiday Ugly Holiday Sweater party. In attendance were are family and friends. We presented this years winner, Carly and Kyle, with the prize of a Simpson's Holiday beer glass set. Afterwards, I got down on one knee and asked Desiree if she would spend the rest of her life with me and marry me!

She said yes!!!

Thank you to her parents and my brother and sister-in-law for helping me out!

Additional pictures: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/579662121SKAxZa

ready for the pros

I wish I was talking about myself and my current cycling status. However I'm talking about Silvia in that she is ready for professional help.
We concluded that the ECU wasn't getting the correct reading from the MAF was we discovered that the wiring used was not shielded. Therefore the computer was getting mixed signals or interference with the voltage wire. So we re-wired the MAF, I changed out all the ATC fuses in the engine bay and we go to fire her up. She was trying to turn over but wouldn't hold idle. On top of that, the tachometer and gauges weren't working. Then I remembered that I didn't tighten the bolt for the ECU to the harness. So I did that and problem solved. Gauges work, car turns over and idles, and things actually sound and feel better. She's still running rich, but idling much better.
So we drove it off the ramps out of the garage to pull out the tarp that has been under the car since day one. It feels good to finally get all 4 wheels touching the ground as is was on ramps a few hours after I got the car 3 weeks ago. We also put the hood and front bumper back on. It feels good to have a complete car.
Adam also brought over 7-8mm spacers for the front wheels to eliminate the tiring rubbing on the coilovers. It solved the problem, however created another one as the studs for the lugs weren't long enough for slip on spacers as we were only able to thread in about 25% of the lug. I think that 5mm spacers should be sufficient and we'll be close to 80% thread-in with the lug nuts.
Next up is to drop off the car with Adam's buddy and see if our issue is a simple iron out with a good tune, or if there is something else that we are missing.
stay tuned for the ongoing progress update.

making good progress

Today Adam and I got a good bit accomplished.
We initially fired her up and he already said that it was running better. We ran a timing gun and the light was no where near what it needed to be at 15deg for TDC. I know that I that I installed the CAS correctly. So we unbolted the valve cover and saw that the marks on the CAS were correct. So we rotated the crank pulley 1 full revolution back to TDC and the CAS was not alligned. Again we rotated the crank 1 full revolution and the CAS was in allignment again. So we concluded that there is a 1:2 ratio- so 1 full revolution of the crank = 1/2 revolution of the CAS. So we concluded that the CAS as 180deg off. We rotated the crank pulley again 1 full revolution and realligned the CAS. Bolted up the valve cover and tried to turn her over. No go!
So, how I initially had it was correct. So set the motor to TDC and pulled to valve cover off again. Rotated the crank pulley 1 revolution and reallign the CAS. Bolted up the valve cover. Fired her up again. She started up and was holding idle. We put the timing gun to the motor and it was almost on. A little adjusting of the CAS and she was hitting 15deg with the timing light. Yay. Much better. She was still running rich with black smoke and a little rough however still able to hold idle at 750rpms.
We then noticed a little smoke coming from the engine bay on the exhaust side. Again, it was the same water line that I had to tighten a last week that is very difficult to get to because it is located between the 2 turbo housings. The leak wasn't a drip, but was enough to very slowly drip and burn off. The motor was hot so we weren't able to address that.
Next we move onto switching out the new wheels that I bought for the car. We took off the driver's front wheel and bolted on the new one that was already mounted with tires. Before I torqued the lug nuts, I attempted to turn the wheel, however it was rubbing on the coilovers. The width and offset was the same as the old wheels: 8.5inches wide and 35mm offset. However, the new wheel had a 235 width tire whereas the old, 225. This was the cause for the rubbing. Luckily, Adam has 7-8mm spacers at home. We will revisit tomorrow and mount the front wheels/tires with the new spacers.
Also on the docet for tmw is to address the leak and we are now to the point to employ professional help. Adam has a local buddy who has dealth with SR, RB and a plethora of high performance motors/cars helps us out before I hook up with Martin for tuning.

things are looking up

Did a compression check tonight and each of the 4 cylinders were between 140-143psi. This is with a cold engine. So the compression would be a little higher if it were at operating temp. This is good news as it is unlikely that there is any motor damage. I replaced the old spark plugs with NGK BKR6E pre-gapped at .034"

Tomorrow Adam and I will fire her up and see how she's running. Also we need to figure out what is going on with cylinder 3. The coilpacks are fine, but the wiring to cylinder 3 might not be getting any power. So we'll hook up the ohm meter and see what the voltage is to that coilpack and compare to the other cylinder coilpacks.

still no go

Tonight, I addressed the water leak and topped off the fluids. Then Adam came over and we fired her up. The car was all good from leaks: air(vacuum), water, or oil. Good. We adjusted the idle air control valve and got the car's down to ~750rpm idle. All seemed good. However, the motor was still a little shaky at idle and it was still running rich. With a little throttle, it sounded like a lawn mower.
We checked the spark plugs and they were pretty charred. We did a check with the motor on and pulled each coilpack thinking that possible one of the coilpacks weren't working and not sending a spark to the spark plugs. If the motor got worse, then that coilpack was ok. Cylinder 1, 2, and 4 all got worse when the coilpacks were pulled and no change when cylinder 3 was pulled. This ment 1 of 2 things- either the coilpack was bad, or there is something wrong with the cylinder. we switched the coilpacks 1 and 3 and repeated the test of pulling the coilpacks with the motor on. Again, cylinder 3 was the only one with no change in the motor idle when the coilpack was pulled. This ment that the coilpacks were fine and that there is something wrong with cylinder 3.
Game over for the night.
What I need to do tomorrow is to do a compression check and buy new spark plugs. Hopefully we get similar readings in each compression and after changing out the spark plugs, the car is running correctly.
It just seems like if it's not one thing, then it's something else.

training update

Training lately has taken a back seat as the car has consumed much of my attention and energy. However I have been riding to/from work 4-5 days a week for the last 3 weeks. This week though, the base miles begin again and I will definitely keep utilizing the rollers or be outdoors as weather/motivation permits.
So in the last 3 weeks, I have only ridden 5-6 times for training instead of just as a form of transportation to work, swam a couple times, and ran 3.4 miles with Desiree.
I need to get my arse back to it.

just a little hiccup

Today everything went pretty well doing the work on my own. I capped of the vacuum nipple, took of the valve cover, put the motor to top dead center (TDC) and realligned the CAS correctly. After everything was bolted back on, I fired up the motor and it was idling much better. Didn't smell rich and no more black smoke. However, there was a little water leak from one of the new water lines out of the turbo. I wonder why it didn't leak last time we fired it up on Thursday night? Possibly because I filled up the radiator.

I started to unbolt some air plumbing but got burnt on the dorsum of my hand as the work needed to be dome was close to the exhaust manifold. The water bolt off the turbo is difficult to fully tighten because it is stuck between the 2 turbo housings.

I'll let the engine cool over night and get up taken care of tmw, then we should really be up and running.

I also start to get the car ready for the road by giving her a wash and replacing the windshield wipers. Silvia is almost alive!

almost there

Yesterday, we got all the fluids topped off and was all set to start the car. However, the battery was dead probably from me testing out the car audio/video. So we charged the battery and with start assist, finally were able to turn it over. Adam then noticed that there was an oil leak. So we shut off the motor and traced the source of the leak. It was the new braided oil line from the turbo to the block. I used the old copper washer which upon inspection, had a very little slight bend allowing oil to leak through. No worries, new copper washers installed and the car was fired up again.
It was now having a rough idle as it did before we changed out the exhaust manifold. Fortunately, no more leaks- oil or coolant as the new braided stainless steel lines solved all this. We now needed to figure out the reason for the idling problem. We started to play with the crank angle sensor (CAS) thinking that it might have been put in a tooth or 2 off causing the timing to be off. Also, we found a vacuum port under the throttle body that was open to the atmosphere that should appearntly be capped off. I stuck my finger to block the port and the motor started to stall and bog worse. This is due to the fact that the idle air control valve not being turned up enough.
Next order of business.
1. Pull the valve cover and reallign the CAS correctly with top dead center
2. cap off open vacuum port
3. adjust idle air control valve
Then we should be in business and be up and driving on the road.

Silvia is here and the work has begun!

So my new car arrived last Friday, just in time for the new year! I drove it about 60ft from the street into the garage and the work began. The car has been under construction since.

Things in the order that they have been fixed:

1. re-wire headlights to work.

2. re-wire and hook up in-dash dvd player into the car

3. remove turbo and manifold

4. install new manifold, new turbo lines, gaskets and accessories

5. bolt new manifold back onto the motor

6. bolt exhaust back together and onto the turbo

What's left to do before starting the car: bleed the clutch.

Then fire her up. Should be doing this tomorrow and then finish up the audio/visual system since I'm waiting on the radio brackets to come in and fix all little things about the car that I'm particular with.

Also I have a new set of wheels that need to be mounted. MRR GT1 18inch staggered wheels: 8.5 in the front 9.5 in the rear.

Stay tuned for more of the build to come.

more pics can be found at: http://community.webshots.com/user/asiangq