daeron

This is gonna be kinda long.. By the way, backinbrat.. the secret to a long post that is still easy to read, is to hit enter once in a while to insert a pause.. Kinda like that. Anyhow, in october of 2001, I rolled my little brother's civic..I had been out very late the night before, gone to sleep at about 3:30-4:00 AM, and awoke just before 6 AM to drive my little brother to his bus stop, 2 miles away. I normally did this on my way to work, but due to the concert the night before, I had arranged to have that morning off from work. So, when the choice came to get in my car (legal, registered insured 75 280Z complete with missing exhaust and plenty of leaks) or his car (out of state registry, uninsured 90? civic hatch, but with AC and a nice little radio, easier to drive half dead as I was) I chose his car. Since I did that, i did NOT roll down the window, and did NOT light a cigarette.. I was going back to sleep, dammit.. The neighborhood we lived in was a rural one (rural neighborhood.. its contradiction only possible in south florida) and it was DARK.. We get to bus stop, wait five minutes for bus.. I kinda get a little sleepy. Bus comes, bright f***in lights, I arouse and say bye, put the car in gear (fivespeed) and drive down the road. I've had my license for about three years at this point, pretty confident I can handle myself.. Anyhow, I am only going two blocks on this road, for a total distance of about half a mile. Somewhere past the first road, I drifted off. Top speed while awake couldnt have been more than 45.. in fourth or fifth gear. When I fell asleep, I drifted to the right, and into a shallow ditch that ran alongside the road. Then I encountered a culvert where someone's driveway went over the ditch.. my driver's side wheels were on the level, but the passenger side impacted at some point of the angle and I destroyed his mailbox, and flew spinning on two axes.. end over end, AND spinning around like the driveshaft.. eventually land on the roof, but mostly leaning up against a guardrail in between the sidewalk and a canal... about 165 feet down the road, as measured by Google Earth. Must inspect this number further by a revisitation of the premises on foot. The instant of impact jarred me awake, and stole all my light from me. (battery cable got popped) My seatbelt was on, no airbags. I just reacted with an instinct to hold tight on the steering wheel and hold my arms tense. I didn't lock my elbows quite, but they were rigid at least. My dad has told a story of rolling a VW van end over end, with a broken leg, my infant oldest brother in passenger seat, and no seatbelts for anyone.. so his one hand on the wheel held him in, while his other hand on my brother, held HIM in. The guardrail I spoke of, was the deathknell of the windshield; the only place it broke was where the corner of the guardrail went through it. That spot, is the spot on the windshield that you can just reach with your right hand while sitting back in the driver's seat.. somewhere between the rearview mirror and the top inside corner of the gauge pod on the EA82s.. Basically, the vicinity of where my head would probably have been, had I not been belted down, AND locked to the wheel. This car was utterly totaled. My only injury, was a slightly bruised ribcage, from the seatbelt. Naturally I was sore all over the next day.. but two days after that I was back to normal. Granted, I was 20 years old at the time.. even now I doubt my body would recover THAT quickly but I still feel that as long as I have ANY clue what is happening to me, I can hold my own behind the wheel in case of a car accident. I also agree very very highly with Reveen's comments above. In the end, I feel that if I cannot hold my own, the way I think I can, then it is basically my time. All that being said, the same control that I had behind the wheel, is TOTALLY absent for someone in the passenger's seat. The back seat at least has the front barrier of the seats, but the front passenger is very vulnerable. I would prefer having a vehicle with no driver airbag, and one for the passenger. Like THAT would ever occur to the folks in washington.... I didn't even read the whole thread, and since it was a civic, maybe my long story was TOTALLY off-topic.. but that is my take on vehicular safety.. thanks for reading it.

...?? By "that shelf in the spare tire well" do you just mean the shelf that the pin-bolt screws into??? I cannot for the life of me picture what else you could be talking about..

I am like, 99% positive that any soob badged "loyale" was SPFI. They MAY have made turbos, and those would naturally be MPFI, but they did NOT make MPFI NA "loyale"s and they did NOT make carbed loyales. The fuel pump you are talking about will not work; any electronic fuel injection system uses much much higher pressure than a carbed vehicle. The Soob wants a constant supply of 22PSI fuel pressure, and you need to overshoot that and regulate it down to that pressure.. The stock pump is rated at 45PSI. There is a common retrofit that takes a pump out of a circa 1990 Ford F-150 pickup truck and slips it right into where the stock fuel pump goes. The advantage of this is that the ford pump costs like 60-100 bucks new, and can be had at the JY for a dime a dozen. The ford pump in question is rated at 90PSI output. The pressure regulator shunts any pressure above 22 back into the return line. I do NOT know if people have had long-term issues with the pressure regulator using this pump; but I do know it has been done many times, so the stock unit should be able to take it no problem. I would wager to say that you could PROBABLY use a fuel pump out of any FI vehicle that had as large or larger engine capacity (which is most ) and find similar results.. but the ford pump even bolts into the stock mounting position, IIRC. Search "ford fuel pump" or something like that, it should turn up.

Same here.. Back on topic, my Dad (who works for the local school board) obtained like 8 copies of a textbook called Principles of Automotive Mechanics from a local high school. This book covers everything, and is a FANTASTIC "all-purpose how to work on cars" book... Unfortunately, I have loaned it to a friend, who has somehow left it in a storage unit..

funny, I remember both the spark plug tool you mention, AND the two-ended screwdriver from my dad's XT6 staying around alot longer than the car... They got used, too. I actually try to keep my eyes peeled for a soob screwdriver whenever I am in the JY. I question the "worthlessness" of said bag O tools.. :-p

ooRAAYY, BEER!

but what about AC voltage? you can blow a rectifier diode or two and not lost the alternator entirely. is it low 13+? because anything under 13.6 isnt REALLY the strongest charge in the world. Make sure to check for that. The car may well have a weak ground connection for the dash area, BUT that might not be critical, on it's own yet.

I am beginning to agree..the face overfills the frame. that camera needs to take a step outta your "personal space"

The airflow restrictions are built right into the cylinder heads, and go out the intake runners and through the throttle body. Sorry to say, but these are small engines, not DESIGNED to breathe a great deal of air. Turboing it can result in some power, but there you run into headgasket worries before you can really *reliably* accomplish too much more power. That statement is one of great debate; but most people agree that there is a line somewhere. You can increase the amount that your engine can breathe *slightly* by port matching the intake manifold to the cylinder heads and the TB, and maybe hone the intake ports on your heads a tad.. but there isnt alot of room to gain. It will help, but I can't really say that the numbers will be significant. Just think of it this way.. you've got 90 horsepower, for 250,000 miles, guaranteed. Your alternative would be 250 horsepower.. for 90,000 miles, guaranteed

"Magic Wrench" FTW

Interesting points.. First off, I also learned virtually everything I know about cars through my father, uncle, and older brothers.. all five of us (I am #3) matured in turn by becoming the grease monkey. Some of us saw that as a chore to be avoided, but by the time we got into vehicle ownership, fixing them ourselves has been a must for ALL! At this point, three or four of us (myself being the one on the fence) definitely know more about things than the old man in a NUMBER of ways.. One has become an ASE certified tech for like, 10 years now. AT LEAST four of us have taught my Dad a thing or two.. and he has long since learned how to learn from those that he taught. As far as having two different kinds of "learning," you draw a line between having a "need" to learn something, and simply a desire to learn.. I hadn't thought about things quite that way, but I also divide "learning" into two kinds.. The way _I_ see it, learning by discussion, or reading, or watching a movie, etc, is more abstract than going out and actually Changing your alternator, or converting your carb'ed car to EFI, or whatever. I can only know so much about rebuilding a gearbox from reading and talking about it.. Until I actually tear one apart (probably with a need to fix it :-p) I will NOT "grok" how they function. I am not saying I think my way of putting it is right and yours isnt, quite the contrary.. Typically, if there is a "need" to learn it, thats because it broke and you gotta fixit! BUT at the same time, it is most certainly a different mindframe with which you are absorbing the information. I have always studied thought and memory, and I find that the more you understand how your brain works, the more useful it becomes to me. Thanks for the perception from your perspective.

Would "Rear Ventilation" count as a luxury item???? because that is my point. My GL-10 is a GL-10 by dint of power windows, factory cruise, AC, sunroof, digidash and trip computer only. Two wheeler, non-turbo, automatic trans. Plus, half of it is missing! (see what I mean about the rear ventilation? ) Its a GL-10, minus about five....

The sensor heats up one of the wires, and reads the air temperature with the other wire. It monitors the voltage of the hot wire, and using that voltage, and the difference between the hotwire's temperature and that incoming air temp, and between the two of them infers the mass of air that is being taken in to the intake. I could get more complex, if you'd like... but thats the short and sweet.

cue the photograph of the formula 1 flat 12 subaru engine... I dontt have it linked anywhere, but I seen it!!!!

I am now calling my car a GL-5. I think it qualifies, with all the rust, and the fact that its 2wd 3at its HALF a GL-10.

Engine leaks oil. (puddle confirmation, not being burnt.) Where you ask? see quote.

yes, GD, thanks, and I already knew that about the HG only from autozone.. believe me. When I was price checking I simply ignored the gasket only price (beyond a wince) and presumed that the kit would be appropriate? looks like I was wrong, knock on wood. I'm searching, but I'll ask anyhow, what about front and read main seals and cam seals? dealer or non dealer OK? the T-belts were done, and the waterpump, separately.. the belts are 30K old. I am not replacing them, not yet anyhow, doing them as a one-off in the future shall be easy enough. It will be nice to put a timing belt on an engine that already HAS one, for a change... (thank god for non-interference engines!!!)

no, I don't.. but haven't you got the bolts? :-p

Well I am already ready to buy heads, if necessary.. In a way, I want to buy them in the first place.. just have to watch the cash front. I am *trying* to replace the front clip on a friend's volvo for some extra cash, which I have already mentally earmarked for the HG job.. but progress with that particular young lady's volvo has been slow, The more info I hear from people who have seen the results of (mis)treating an EA-82 like I have for no more than 12,000 miles, the better. Thanks for helping me make up my mind. Any particularly cheap dealer i could buy the dealership parts online from? I can find the fel-pro stuff pretty cheap, I know already.

Now that I have seen it, darkening the gold paint used does ALOT to tone down the "gaudy" factor that I typically find distasteful about gold paint.. in other words, dark gold == gooood... and I would NOT have thought so, without seeing it. thanks for the fotos!

I will repeat, don't forget to clean the threads in the heads out with a thread chaser. You should have one in your shop, hopefully. If not, "to do it right" as your teacher said, you should go buy one. The new OEM bolts are worthless if you forget that. good luck convincing your teacher that the internet was right

The reason I phrased the question as I did, was the O2 sensor code thrown by the D-check. Thats a fact that merely needs to be dealt with, my dad has two O2 sensors that should fit, and are known to be functional. Well, I myself had come to the conclusion that my next step was the be the IAC.. I was already looking at how to take that thing off. Would it be a simple affair to unbolt the throttle body from the intake so that I can access those screws easier? Otherwise it looks to be a PITA to fit a screwdriver onto them, what with my power steering pump in the way :-\ Every vehicle needs it ALL done, or at least checked through, once in a while.. When it works right, this SPFI is a great thing. When it fails, at least theres reliable, simple, and accurate testing procedures for each bit... if only I had a real garage (tools-wise) at my house!!

Could a bad O2 sensor be bad in such a way as to cause poor low idling, as well as a major hesitation on throttle when cold? My car cannot br driven until it warms up a little, and when you hit the gas cold the engine just TOTALLY stumbles over itself. This is a problem that arose alongside my intermittent sputtering issue that I resolved by replacing my missing gas cap.. I had thought it was a CTS issue, because I had come away with the misconception that this was a common problem with the SPFI, but now I am finding its more of a turbo issue.. Knowing what I do about FI in general, this is DEFINITELY behaving like a CTS issue, but my say-so doesn't mean much more than saying "it runs like crap when its cold." I have no CEL, but I *do* return an O2 sensor code in d-check mode. I am going out to check for at least 0.1 volts between the O2 sensor plug and the vehicle body now.. for that matter, could it be a grounding issue with my exhaust pipe?!?? Im trying to take all of the reading, thinking, and discussion I do here, and actually DO something for a change... and if this O2 sensor would just die (as I think it may finally have) it would force my hand.. At the same time, the more subtle misfires that I DO get to track down, the more I learn about how the system works. EDIT Okay, I verified proper voltage with the key on (0.25V) but got to thinking about the condition of my exhaust manifold (holey) and grabbed a crappy kinda rusty old set of jumper cables.. spritzed the clamps with deep creep, and grounded the exhaust to the alternator and the sensor bung to the battery, and tried to start the car again.. and it SEEMED like it might be running a little less poorly.. I couldnt run for too long without losing my control on the experiment though (problem drastically reduced at operating temperature) Has anyone else experienced poor grounding of the O2 sensor? I've got to find time to get up to the shop and swap in a spare, but I wonder if a new y-pipe might not be in order.. there are four or five other reasons (broken angle on one side of engine, rust hols on the weld lines from the gutted cat) BUT I already have a gutted cat, so I dunno..

Well, thats more good news. I had made a few comments about my situation in other threads, and gotten suggestions that I might be in for more than I thought I was.. good to hear that my fears are (probably) a little over the top.

Skip, thanks for the reply and the clarification... how I failed to note that this was typically a turbo model issue, I do not know. Once I got home last night, I found the relevant page in my FSM telling me the resistance values.. Holmes, I read your post.. I just did not click on the links, as I felt I had no need to see more pictures of my sensor.. mud on my face. Well then.. I wonder what is making my engine buck and stall whenever i give it gas, only when it is cold.. Well, to the multimeter now that its daylight AND I have the requisite information!