i built a car

[alex.s]

[alex.s]

it's a fun car to drive. its slowly getting better. the engine tuning still needs a lot of work. also it looks like a giant turd. need to spend time making it look nicer. the family enjoyed rides during the holiday. also lots of work still to do to controls and gauges. and the seats need a lot of work. there are still 7 or 8 missing struts on the frame that i need to finish. they are fairly low stress and mostly just for high load impacts stresses. also needs more body work and some small wind screens.

[Hero Danny]

When are you going to install airbags?

[alex.s]

right after i put on the wings and turbojet and reach a minimum altitude of 60 km

[spacemonkey]

In one of the pictures I saw a Licence plate. I was just curious if you registered it as a kit car or as the donor vehicle? I have been thinking about building a rock buggy and want to register it for the street in California but haven't gotten into the details on how to do it yet. I was thinking of starting with a wrecked Jeep TJ and maybe get a firewall with vin tag off of a CJ5 to register it against so I don't have to deal with smog.

[choneofakind]

Usually the legality of a vehicle showcased online is well handled with a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy.

[alex.s]

the plate is a joke actually. trying to go for sb100. but i need to prove things out better and have things like fenders, headlights brakelights signals, proper plate mounting and light and a trailer to take it to have it inspected. all in time. with sb100 you're smog exempt so no real issue for this car there. it will be mostly a track car though. probably wont be able to even apply for sb100 till 2016 anyway

[alex.s]

so my uncle took the car for a test drive. it was great because he hadn't seen the car in person before and it revealed many faults that i will need to address. one major fault was in the linkage between the rack and the steering wheel. it simply was not strong enough and went past yield and didn't have a good spline to prevent it and started slipping from some sudden "test steering movements". so i simply welded that end solid onto the rod for the rack. but also simple stuff like the fact that the shifter is not at all obvious as to what gear its in unless you know it well. (it looks like its in neutral when its in 4th because of the angle of the shifter rod) also the steering radius is simply too large, mostly due to the geometry for the steering rack stuff on the left side. right turns are fine though. this has to do with the amount of available adjust on the sides of the rack and where the rack actually stops... should be easy to fix. just lengthen the other end and pull in the left and recenter the wheel. also it needs things like a dead pedal and feet braces for the passenger as well as "oh-****" bars on the inside so a passenger doesn't grab the roll bar/frame in an incident and get their hand crushed. needs better waterproofing for the humans, too. fenders, some clear side panels, some boxing in at the front under the cowl, and maybe a rag top and windshield. the tuning on the engine is also pretty far off, but i've finally managed to get the flywheel pully off so that i can get this stupid cover off so i can actually set the timing correctly. i had to use a 10 foot pipe on the inch breaker bar and jump on the thing to get it off. both the electric and the really big air impacts wouldn't do **** to it. so once i get back around to it, she should run quite a bit better. also it would be nice to hook up the oil pressure and water temp gauges... and lights would be nice. i also need to make her a trailer and take her to the track when she's ready. (soon. i think march if i'm lucky. maybe in may if i'm unlucky.

[alex.s]

after lots of fiddling and figuring and messing about, i've finally got the engine running on a reasonable tune and its nice and secure... and holy ****ing **** this thing is scary fast. really light weight and twitchy. you get antsy on the gas and one of the rear wheels starts spinning. need to swap an LSD in. also the brakes are not good enough for some reason. the front just locks up if i brake too hard. could be my UCA length is off and its pitching incorrectly. maybe just needs more bias to the rear. the ride is kinda rough under 10mph because of the higher damping compared to a street car but its pretty good at 30-40mph. haven't taken it higher than about 40 on my little road just because it's a small road that doesn't really allow higher speeds. the seat frame backing needs to be better secured to the seat chassis and the seat chassis itself needs better support to the rest of the chassis. i had accidentally ran the clutch line as a hard line all the way to the engine so i had to add a soft flex line at the end since the engine is rubber mounted and moves a little bit... the clutch line had started to leak from it.

for the throttle, i started building a full digital TPS setup (atmega + potentiometer and a high torque servo) but decided instead to go with an analog setup for simplicity/reliability since i was able to get the digital setup to crash if i intentionally caused anomalies like power fluctuations or memory corruption from interference (which is very common next to the engine due to the magnetic crap and all the little solenoids on the engine) but an analog system will never have that kind of issue. the amount of interference into the analog system will be so small that it will be completely negligible unless it got hit by lightning. basically the analog system is a sprung solenoid attached to the throttle valving powered by a variable voltage controller set from a potentiometer connected to the throttle pedal. very very simple and hopefully reliable. everything is overspec'ed by about %300 because i dont want to die

[JohnnyBravo]

The tires are too small :/
Good thing it's tuned up though!

[alex.s]

since my last update i found some important things out. it turns out the valve timing was off. also the spark timing is still off.

[alex.s]

valve and ignition timing are dead on now. but unfortunately it got rained on / flooded and doesn't want to fire on two of the cylinders but i think its just water in the gas lines. hopefully tonight or tomorrow i'll purge the gas line out the regulator and put some new gas in. i hope my fuel pump is okay :/ the engine sounds much more like a stock honda engine now though when all cylinders are firing. much less brap due to correct valve timing now. i was probably overheating the exhaust valves before too. don't worry- she's getting new valves cams and pistons soon.

[JohnnyBravo]

Glad it's all Geting sorted

[alex.s]

have i mentioned that i hate efi? its too rich as the throttle opens. i'm not sure why. the iac seems broken so i have a manual idle raise on a vacuum line for the old brake booster. past 15% throttle it just starts bogging hardcore. thought it was not enough fuel pressure but after several mods to increase fuel pressure and no change i'm not convinced that's it. the distributor is kinda ****ed and could be the culpret. but i also am not convinced that spark issues would cause this kind of trouble. i believe it is miscalculating the required fuel and splooging too much in and flooding it. the plugs read rich. its got new plugs and wires. unplugging the downstream o2 sensor seems like it makes it run better. its very confusing. i wish i had carbs.

[alex.s]

after talking to nickjpass of all people i've decided my o2 sensor is probably the problem.

[alex.s]

okay so i've done a whole **** ton of reading.

i made a check engine light and hooked it up to the ecu. i put the ecu into service mode which pulses out engine trouble codes. it is throwing code 14 and 20. iacv missing or short and ELD missing... the ELD makes sense now... its part of the fuse box which i'm only using for positive lines but the ELD requires a ground which isn't hooked up as well as a line from the fuse box eld to the ecu which i don't have. so i'll run that line tonight and ground the fuse box to the frame. the iacv is a bit more troubling. i think its just that i've wired it up wrong. i will test the iacv and the wiring going to it tonight also. i also decided the fuel pressure regulator wasn't working correctly so i bought a new one but i think i may be wrong. i'm going to remove the fuel filter i'm using and check the resistance going through it. maybe its causing a low pressure on the fuel rail and the presure reg isn't bad. blocking off the pressure release line back into the tank which raises the pressure on the rail makes it run much better. otherwise if its got okay fuel regulator i'll just return it. this might all be being caused by the iacv. but it seems like the whole thing is like 90 degrees ignition off set or something... i keep fixing these really small problems and every little thing i fix it gets a bit better but there's still something majorly wrong.

[alex.s]

i fixed the iacv but its still reporting a code for it. i am not sure why the code 20 for the electrical load detection isn't working but its charging at a good 14v throughout the rev range so i'm not worried about it. i fixed some other wiring and grounds and presto chango the engine started running good again. so i took it for a quick back-up and forward and spun out the right rear and scared the crap out of myself. so naturally some bolts were tightened and i did my first donut. it has a lot of power for its weight. but alas i ran out of gas. i think my tank might be leaking. it's so nice to finally be able to say its quick

[alex.s]

air is getting in the fuel line somehow.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by alex.s

air is getting in the fuel line somehow.

Can you pressurize that section to locate the air leak?

[alex.s]

the fuel rail is supposed to be near 40psi. i have a clear fuel line leading from the fuel pressure regulator back to the gas tank... this is where i see the bubbles. tonight i will pull off the inlet for the fuel rail (output of fuel pump) and submerge it in a container of gas and turn the pump on... this should show me if the air is entering from the pump or from elsewhere... i suspect a seal in the pump is failing or something. or maybe the return line dumps directly into the pump inlet which would mean i would need a way to bleed the air out, like a swirl pot maybe.

[JohnnyBravo]

Turn out a bleeder screw after what your trying to bleed, and add air pressure to the tank, bleed out air, Close your bleeder and see how it worked
... It's always easier with two extra hands [/e]
Used to bleed a lot of air outa fuel systems that way

[alex.s]

its a seriously simple system. fuel pump goes from in tank to the rail. then a pressure reg lets it back into the tank.
the fuel pump looked okay but i noticed there was some metal shavings stuck to it.. maybe they went into the pump and cut a seal? not sure.

i pulled and tested my o2 sensor with a blow torch and it did go to 1v with the blow torch on and it did back off pretty quick with it off. and the heating wire tested good ohms. so i think its ok.

i found out the #2 fuel injector wasnt firing. i figured out it was my fault for wiring it wrong. its fixed now. now it will rev up to 5 or 6krpm but only below 10% throttle. more and it chokes and dies. not sure if its rich or lean. i want to replace it with carbs.

the iac is definitely actuating now. (i also fixed its wiring) the idle is now higher, around 1.25k but one cylinder seems to be considerably less. maybe i plugged a fuel injector in backwards? can you do that?

[alex.s]

i replaced the fuel pump and it seems like a better fuel pump but it didnt fix my problem. i think its the wiring. maybe to the o2 sensor.

[alex.s]

might have just realized the problem

i was using this diagram: http://repairguide.autozone.com/znet...5280061b2b.gif

it turns out, its actually this: http://www.superhonda.com/forum/f55/...inouts-217405/

MASSIVE differences.

[alex.s]

oh man, i had it for like, 30 seconds. it was amazing. but then i lost it. i discovered many things tonight.

first of all, the ecu is some weird funky up mish mosh. it doesn't match any ecu diagram but i grabbed my brother who can see color and we fixed the colors that were wrong and things started working better. some messed up grounds and some other stuff. it still didnt want to run so i disassembled and cleaned the fuel rail and injectors... well it turns out two of the injector bungs are leaky just a tad. i did as much as i could and put it back together and holy crap it almost ran like a healthy engine. i got a bit over excited and tried to take it on a test ride but the bubbles in the return line soon came back and i had to push it back up the driveway. ugh. so i need to order some injector bungs. i wonder if napa stocks them

here's some eye candy

[alex.s]

replaced the injector bungs and the fueling system is working obviously much better. it runs amazingly well from dead cold. but i've discovered what i think is one of the last remaining issues... my coolant temp sender is dead! on this ecu that sensor has the most impact on the fueling and so after running for about 30 seconds, the engine no longer wants to go. so i think once the temp sender gets replaced she will be purring like a little kitty cat. hopefully.

[spooph]

So badass! Sub'd

[csmith12]

[Alex]

"I'll take - worst place in the county for squirrels to gnaw on things for $100, Bob."

Originally Posted by alex.s

[alex.s]

i've never understood why small rodents love chewing on wires. we don't have a whole lot of squirrels around here, but we have lots of field mice that love making nests in engine bays

[alex.s]

well, it turns out i mixed up the rad fan switch and the temp sender. temp sender tested good. wiring for it tested good. so i'm back no having no real idea why its not running. i think it might be the fuel injectors though. it just seems like its not getting enough fuel consistently.

[JohnnyBravo]

So when I think the colors are messed up on video games I can blame you now?.

Sounds like you are chasing you tail... Technology can be a blessing or a curse
You wouldn't have these problems with a lil old carb engine

[alex.s]

so as i said in the other thread, i got the **** out of the fuel injectors. they were clogged all the **** up. so i reassembled with new fuel filters and it started right up and revved great. really sounds like a honda engine now. kinda a bit too much like a honda engine tbh... but i guess that means its running better. it has a little bit of a high and slightly fluctuating idle. i think its actually just that i need to bleed the cooling system. its a common issue for this engine after air gets in the cooling lines... and i had just removed/replaced that water sender thing for testing. so i will bleed the coolant more tomorrow and do some donuts.

[JohnnyBravo]

Without vids donughts are worthless... Unless thy are the blueberry kind at Krispy Kreme

[alex.s]

i'll take vids

[alex.s]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[alex.s]

Link to original page on YouTube.

[JohnnyBravo]

This California place is so fancy... It's like straight outa Beverley hillbillies with all the dusty cars in front of the neighbors house too

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBravo

This California place is so fancy... It's like straight outa Beverley hillbillies with all the dusty cars in front of the neighbors house too

they had just sanded and oiled the road a week or two ago. then friday t hey did the street sweeper and it threw the sand everywhere. idiots man i swear

[JohnnyBravo]

Originally Posted by alex.s

they had just sanded and oiled the road a week or two ago. then friday t hey did the street sweeper and it threw the sand everywhere. idiots man i swear

(Edit grumble grumble)
Sorry sir I seem to have forgot all the sweet ride and pleasentries, I hope my oversight will be overlooked as you know your car is pretty freakin awesome! (/e)

I don't think I've ever seen a road sanded and oiled.. Off to YouTube
Cali does look as it does in the picture show though, my trip to Cali was less sightsee and more I'm close I might as well go before I drive to northcarolina via Texas to get my license plate.
Vegas didn't find my Texas temporary tags amusing at all, after th second time I think thy posted a bulletin to stop pulling over the new red truck from Texas or maybe they just stopped caring about checking my papers