rallyruss

CO is a byproduct of a rich mixture. HC is unburned fuel. sometimes go hand in hand if problem is bad enough. basically its too rich for some reason. do all the usual tune up checks first. then try to narrow down the cause.

sound like a hectic adventure, been on a few of those. well im not exactly in your area but its abit closer than washington. if you want to stop in this area sometime for a bit of wheeling / snowboarding Im here as well as a few other scattered sube guys around the area. dont let it get you too down at least you get to go play some. I hardly have time to get out there any more:boohoo: cheers:drunk:

sorry will work on it later. to tired now.

ok so I finally have acess to pics of my honda spring conversion. http://www.shutterfly.com/share/picture_dt.jsp?state=67b0de21a8411174f403&idx=43 that was with stock tires still on it. it now has room for my pugs with brigestone dueler a/t. also rides a lot better with a load in it. springs off 88 accord hatch back. front spring that is. installed in the rear of my car. dimensions are perfect for the interchange. best of all cheap

if you are going thru fan swithes all the time them mabey there is too much resistance/load on them. that will toast a switch over time. this is all stock I assume?

ok I looked at your test results again and I seriously am really saying not a vac. leak if you want to check for the mystery vac. leak. get a can of carb spray/ brakeclean ect. and give it a few squirts in the intake while it is idling. if the idle smooths out for a second then yes you have a leak. take same can and squirt near throttle body, vac. lins ect. you do have a fire ext. handy correct? so if all that proves that there is no rpm rise while adding a outside fuel source then do a ghetto cyl. ballance test. step one - get some vac. line and cut 4 inch long pieces. take peices and put them between the plug wires and the cap. do not let them touch anything else! step two - start the motor and using a grounded test light. touch the test light probe to the vac. lines one by one. listen to the rpm. it should drop evinly on each cyl. if not the cyl. that does not drop rpm. is your misfire. check/change plug wires and plugs. compression? no pressure, no bang. these are real tests no B.S. there are better ways to check for these problems but it requires the right equipment and understanding.

dam yo ! never have I seen so manny opinions about how to pass smog. for real the only thing that really says anything is the test results. I wont B.S. you. I have a smog licence here in CA where I am sure the requirements are much stricter. A few people have noticed the high HC and had a few guesses. high HC is unburned fuel. high CO is a rich mixture. MISFIRE is the number one cause of high HC. you say car runs like crap. right? is it at idle only or all the time? have you done a cyl. ballance test or a compression test? If you dont want to deal with figuring out whats really wrong I strongly sugest taking it to someone who knows thier stuff and has the propper diagnostic tools. dont just shot gun parts and snake oil at it. a misfire should be easy for a professional to find. hope your cats are still alive. good luck.

I do work on heavy equipment and not all tractor fluid is the same. there are manny different types for different vehicles. it is an interesting idea and may work.( Im not trying it on my car) tractor oil is about a 10W depending on wich one you use. regular motor oil is thicker than that. and some cars (honda) come with 10/30 in the tranny. so there really are lots of options for experimentation. I still swear by red line MTL and everyone else that I know that has used it say the same. do wathca want.

go for it! I have been looking for a "cheap" wrx turbo to do a similar conversion. yes at least intercool it. programable ecu? mabey if you are looking to run high levels of boost ect. the flange mods are not a real drastic problem as they are verry similar to the stock set up. while you do that you should go ahead and make custom up and down pipes. the flow helps out a great deal. if it works out let me know or i fyou decide not to do it you want to sell that turbo? good luck

hey Don, why dont you (or we) take a mission there to just check these bad roos out. if need be I still have that car trailer and I need to return it to its home in holister some time soon. I can only pull one at a time but its a better option than limping a car that just woke up from a long sleep a long distance. mabey see if one will run better than the other and drive one tow one. dig it? let me know;)

1 more vote for synthetic has worked much better for me. synthetic does well in both hot and cold extrems. redline is great stuff espically try the MTL lube. its only for man. trans. its like a thiner weight. but it protects aganst wear like a thick gear lube. and synchros ( the dogs that help you engage a gear) will love it.

I have torn down motors that blew coolant out the exhaust only to be frustrated with lack of sollid evidince as to the source of the leak. all previous comment are really good espically the intake gaskets. how clean are the pistons and valves? can you narow it down to one cyl.? head gaskets can leak thru the middle of the gasket to the cyl. its really hard to see but it hapens. have the heads pressure tested. if all is good put it back together and pressure test the cooling system for an extended time period. this can be done out of the car too if you want to make sure before droping it back in. requires a bit of creativity. cheers:drunk:

what about the wiring leading to the sol.? this is exactly why I dont OHM things if I can help it. perform a voltage drop test while the car is running( use long leads and a helper). or if you really like to check resistance. disconect the main engine harness by the battery and inspect. if all looks well check resistance on the wires back to there. then back to the ECM. you do have a wiring diagram? if not it will be a pain to trace. if all else fails dont just and come back to it later.

also think about the fact that if the cat did go belly up then you may have something else wrong. cats can live long lives but if you dont feed them well they die:boohoo: check for possible vac leaks or spark misfires . O2 sensor gone bad? just somthing to think about

all this fuel pressure business is interesting. I have to agree with skip for the most part. I have had no trouble leaning out under boost. but I dont have excessive mods or excessive increased boost levels. I hit about 15lbs at 6000 rpm and then I shift.

oh you betcha,(with fargo accent) I loved my 85 carbed D/R wagon. but it just could not pull up the hills. so I got a gl10 turbo. problem solved:D

Don was going to need to disconnect the steeering coupler any how to fix his misalignment to the rack. I sugested he fix it that way instead of moving the steering wheel and it does need a real alignment after everything is fixed up right. thanx for the good words Don. no more jumping for you that was a pain and its still not done yet:brolleye: .

http://users.adelphia.net/~oddcomp/turboroo.htm I was a VW guy from the very start. so when my VW buddy needed his new front mount intercooler installed I got his old parts:banana: yeah I will work for just about anything. ok issues are, it sits really high requiring a custom made fiberglass hood scoop. if you decide to go this way I can make a mold of my current scoop and form a new one for a small fee. hood scoop is NOT centered. that bothers some people. plumbing was not horibly dificult but I keep telling myself that I will weld up a nice replacement for that home depot special on top of the throttle body. the one from the turbo up had to reduce and offset in a verry short space. a little tricky to make. and yeah the bypass valve is plumbed a little cheesy for my taste. I have a ford probe intercooler too but It would need to be modified a little to work properly. FS cheap:brow:

mitch the intercooler is Off a 1.8t jetta as well as the bypass valve. the valve makes a bit of noise when it starts to dump. I call it the hooter valve:D . its starting to bug me a bit. odd comp from the old site had pics of my set up posted but I dont have the contact info any more. WRX intercoolers fit well too and they have a real nice stock bypass valve. pleiades interesting thought on the boost trickery. I am not sure how it would work on our subes though. they think differantly than a mazda system. you still would have to work out a fuel enrichment plan. I have a complete stand alone fuel system that I just removed from my truck. something like that would be the best way to go.

when you release the throttle they dump excess boost pressure. the turbo is still pumping air even when you close the throttle causing some stress on the turbo and throttle plate. there is a diaphram to minimize this efect from the factory. BOV dumps to the atmosphere ( the ecu thinks it burned that air) bypass dumps into the intake side of the turbo creating a loop to let the turbo keep spinning. BOV is the high HP solution but the others work too.

cant rember where exactly it was an AU site. of the AU BYB forum? not to sure. I will look again.

glad to hear I am not the only one curious about those. I know in general wheel spacers are not looked upon highly. but those look ok. not too cheesy. I have seen web pages from AU with those installed. it looked nice with sweet custom wheels.

go 165. yeah little wheels will do you well. ground clearance is not to big a problem with our cars. so in the case of rally X go small on the tire size. yeah more torque to the ground:headbang: when are you going down this way? thats a strange rally event. never heard of it.

I have an intercooler W/ down pipe and a bypass (not a blow off) valve. without altering stock boost settings I have had significant gains in power with these mods alone. It does over boost sometimes when I wind it out but it just makes it go faster I hit over 15 LBS sometimes with no fuel cut. mabey its just my car . manuel boost cotroller goes inline with the actuator on the turbo waste gate. I used a bypass valve because it was recomeneded by others on the board over a blow off valve. boost on

from my limited experience. this last couple of times I really wished I was running a smaller tire. mine were 195 75 r14. for regular off road use these are great but for rally X they made me sit too high and lose a bit of power. if I were to run again I would get some little 13" rally tires. you could really get loose when needed. I did the home work on rally tires after I picked up the brigstone deuler a/t's. now they are on the wagon. you understand rally tires throws you into 4wd open class against the real rally cars? I did not know that when I got into it.