street wheels

well got some bad news today.... The street wheels i have been using have been sold and i am going to have to return them. I knew it would happen soon and it was nice whilst it lasted but instead of planning and getting a set in advance i haven't so am stuck with just my track wheels now.

Now the choice of wheels and price is astounding, i am lost in a sea of choices ATM and looking at champagne tastes on a beer budget.

Ordering parts for the valve train

Ordered new lifters today as a pre-caution to the miss fire issue, thought whilst the head is being worked on it is best to replace the lifters as they have not been replaced ever.

Picked them up for $49.95ea from Frsport.com, $57.97 del and also grabbed a new apexi filter whilst i was at it. I thought about doing the rocker arms as well but it was just getting to much money.
As it stands i am up for $440 for the valve springs (unigroup ones), the Lifters and also labour of $400 so is an expensive exercise.

I really hope this fixes the issue as from here i am about to shove these cams in the bin and go back to what i had before.

Miss Fire Testing - Eastern Creek

Went to eastern creek on friday having taken the day off work to try and solve the alisusive miss fire issue.
The hopes were high that we have fixed it with Unigroup having checked over the car and tweaked the tune and it not miss firing on the dyno.

I have left late from home and dropped michele off to work but mid way to the track i get a call from James saying it was packed.
Said i needed to get here ASAP or fear missing a spot, luckly that was not the case and james picked up the last two garages so we were set.
Unpacking i had already set my tyres pressures the night before and all i needed to do was tweak the dampner settings and drive.

Unigroup was coming out to work on another customers car and we had organised to book two garages together, he was running late so was not able to hook up the gear before the first session.

We were first up and i was last out in the pack, feeling pretty good i took it easy the first lap then started to get stuck into it on the second.
Coming round onto the straight on the end of the second lap reving up to 6000rpm it started, same miss fire problem, same spot, same deflated feeling.

Keep going and then someone dropped oil down on the track so we all came in and it was hard to stay positive, after about 30min i decided to try and get some more fuel before my next session started.

Headed off and by the time i was back Unigroup had got there and the second session was about to start. Didn't have time to hook up the AFM meter but they wanted to try and few things and see if it was fuel related.
We had looked at the logs from the first session and fuel temp and pressure were fine.
Suggestion was to take it easy coming on the front straight and then floor it going throught the gears. I went out and did this and it still miss fired although not as bad as before.

We hooked up after some stuffing around the AFR meter and ready for the 3rd session went out along with the video to see what the AFR's were. It was important to look at them before it miss fired as well as when it did.
Coming onto the straight the AFR's were fine and it was good to rule this out.

Forth and final session we turned the boost right down to wastegate pressure (60 on the Blitz) and went out, the miss fire had sort of gone but it was still there just not as bad.

This was the end of the day and discussion is now related to the valve train and in particular the harmonics of the valve springs, thoughts are that the valve springs and possiably the hydralic lifters.

Fuel Pressure and Temp Sensor Installed

Andrew came around on Monday whilst i have been home sick and installed the sensors, i need to set up the logger to register them now and i can start seeing them.

Boost Pressure Spikes

since fixing the EGR valve the boost pressure has spiked as far as 25psi, i had the boost cut at 25psi so it din't go higher but it looks like the leak has made a difference to the boost pressure and hopefully will make a difference to the miss fire.
Planning on going to the eastern creek open day on the 20th May with Unigroup and test it out, need to get some new rear tyres as i have smashed them at the last EC open day.

Start Up issues

Ever since changing the fuel pressure from cold i have had to crank it 3 times to get it started. This never happened previously even with the E85. Also you can't put to much throttle in as it will start to stall when cold, even when warm from low down it stutters a little and i think it is because the cold tune and start up has not been fixed since we changed the fuel pressure.

Here is a short video showing the start up

EGR Valve Removal

After the suggestion from Unigroup that the miss fire problem might be because of a leak in the EGR valve i pulled it all out this weekend. I quickly found the problem and it was in the top section, i could have just plugged this up but i thought even though it has been a big pain to get out that i would take the whole thing out and make up a blanking plate to cover the outlet.

It looks to me that this was damaged either when the injectors were installed or when the engine came out as it has severed the hose.

 You can see how tight it is in behind and i managed to remove it without taking off the plenum which i was pretty happy about. A little bit of weight removed as well.

 Bit messy but i can't actually see the face of the thing and just put heaps of silicone on it to make sure it was sealed up tight.