Tire Patch
After taking about 1/8" off the tread on my front tires at autocross school and then running another autocross the next week, it was time to rotate my tires. While I was rolling the driver's front tire to the passenger rear location, I heard a "click--click--click" and thought, "Oh shit". And there it was, a nice shiny sheet metal screw stuck right into the tire in a channel between tread blocks.
I threw on a snow tire for the time being (gotta love extra wheels with tires!) and planned on having the tire fixed the next day. Then I figured, what the hell? I can buy the patch kit for the same price as having some one fix it.
So $6 later, I have a patch kit. I was told the rope style plugs work much better than the rubber style plugs, even though the rope style calls itself temporary and the rubber ones claim permanence. So I removed the screw, reamed out the hole, loaded it up with rubber cement and inserted the rope plug.
It held pressure immediately and has been doing fine on hard road driving for a three weeks now. We'll see on 8/20 how it holds up to an autocross!
This happened at an autocross back in May or June. It worked fine all morning, then, when I started up for Heat 2, the fuel pressure was stuck at 90psi. I entered grid and tried to rev it to get it free. No luck. I tried removing and reattaching the vacuum hose. No luck.
I usually turn my gauges off when I autocross. I just check them before each run to make sure things are OK. I didn't want to bail out of Heat 2, so I left the gauges on, thinking I could keep one eye on the gauges looking for total failure of something, and one eye on the course.
DOH! That does not work! I went off course after about 100 feet. Did I mention it was raining too? No white lines anymore.
Now I went back and parked and scrounged up tools to see what I could do. No matter what I did to the FPR, it would not operate properly. By the time I had to make my last run, the pressure was stuck at 85psi. I tried to run again while watching the gauges and went off course again.
The FPR remained stuck for the rest of the day, but on my way home (1 hour on the thruway) the pressure began to relax. By the time I was home, fuel pressure was in the mid 60's at idle and only went up to the mid 80's at full boost. The next day, it seemed to be working again, albeit with a slower reaction time than before.
I couldn't trust that FPR anymore. So I called JR and explained my situation. They claimed that not many people had problems with their FPR's (yeah, right! There must be 10 people on HostBoard alone who have had multiple JR FPR's crap out.). They sent me a new one without really causing any grief. You gotta give them that! They wanted the broken one back for investigation, so I sent it to them. I never did send in the first one that went funny.
The new one arrived as promised and it works just fine. I checked my fuel pressure while I was swapping them by connecting the fuel lines together and checking the OEM FPR only fuel pressures. I was surprised to see 53psi at idle and 60psi at 0" vacuum. LINK
I'll be switching to a Cartech 20005 FPR later this week. LINK
I went to the local drag strip, Lebanon Valley Dragway LINK back in June. At first, I was the only import in the pit. Big old muscle cars and suped up late model Camaro's and some stock Mustangs and Corvettes had me surrounded.
Then, there it was, another Honda pulling in! Unfortunately, it turned out to be an Accord. And it was carrying slicks for a Camaro! DOH!
Later in the night, more and more imports showed up. The drivers were mostly friendly. The only attitude I encountered was from some punk in a Nissan Sentra running in the high 15's who had the nerve to come over and check out my ride and then say, "Shouldn't you be running faster than that? (ed. 14.180)". I kept it civil and told him, "No, that's exactly where I should be running with street tires, 6psi boost and no drag experience."
Some of the nicest people I met were older Mustang drivers, believe it or not. I guess once you get serious about participating in motorsports, you start appreciating speed, whatever flavor it comes in.
Anyway, I got three runs in. The track was very smooth. I drove around the water box and just did tire-cleaning mini burnouts. Reading drag racing FAQ's helped because I knew just what to do. Here's how I did:
Run 1:
Hmm... More traction than I expected... Must launch harder!
Run 2:
Hmm... Still no traction problem. Launch harder still!
Run 3:
DOH! Launched too hard. Wheel spin and hop for first second or two. Got it under control by the top of first gear, but you can see what it did to my times.
All in all it was a fun evening. I still like autocrossing better. I would have had more fun if I hadn't been there alone. (I got a last minute chance to go because my wife and kids went to grandma's, so I didn't have time to round up some other motorheads.)
I'll be going back with my brother once he gets his 240SX / SR20DET hybrid working. He's shooting for mid-13's. I'm going to LINK 8psi boost and will be shooting for mid-13's as well.
I went to an Evolution (McKamey) Autocross School Phase 1 in July. It was fun beyond belief and really helped my driving. Best $190 I've spent on motorsports so far.
There were two identical courses setup. The course I was on had two instructors and eight drivers. That's right! Eight drivers with a course all to themselves all day! I made over 30 runs and improved my time by about 2.5 seconds (35 seconds down to 32.?) from beginning of the day to the end.
I learned:
Braking. This had been my worst driving skill. I got plenty of practice and really learned to brake hard at the right time and slow down enough to stop sliding wide around every turn.
Slalom. The whole feel of what to do and when to turn and where to look (not at the slalom pylons!). One of the instructers was new to the program and didn't know he was supposed to drive the student's cars at 8/10ths. (He was pretty much a 10/10ths kind of guy.) This pissed some people off, but he took my car through the slalom faster than I had imagined it could go. This really opened my eyes and pushed me to push my car harder.
View/Focal Points. i.e. Where to look. You can read the proper technique for this in any autocross book, but until you have a course that you can run over and over and over again, I don't think you'll have the patience to really try to focus on where your eyes are pointing. Once you do, you'll be amazed at how much more time you have to think and how nothing surprises you anymore. This technique feels like it took my brain from 100% occupied to 60% occupied while on course. That 40% you just freed up can be used for other things, like DRIVING FASTER!!!
Even if I hadn't learned anything, I had a great time and got close to 15 minutes of actual drive time. I recommend this to everyone. 15 minutes of 10/10ths driving did take their toll on my tires though. The fronts lost about 1/8" of tread. The rears also lost some tread, but not nearly as much as the fronts. I'm down to the wear bars after only 6000 miles on the tires. Sounds like I'm driving just about right! (Take that AAA driving guide!)
The JRSC performed flawlessly all day. I did notice some detonation during a low rpm 2nd gear part of the course after I had done a few runs back to back. That is to be expected. Autocrosses don't exactly give cars a chance to cool down.
The new JR FPR still causes pressures over 100psi, but now I know that that is normal. Most importantly, I get three green LED's into the rich at WOT. I got a B&M mechanical FP gauge and it says the Intellitronix gauge reads a little high.
So my fueling situation is settled for the moment.
I attacked my water leak by spending 3 hours replacing the water pipe behind the block (it can be done w/o removing the manifold/SC). I knew I was in trouble when, 2 hours into it, I pulled out the old pipe and said, "Hmmm. This doesn't look broken.". Of course this was not the source of my leak. It took all of 45 seconds of actually looking to find a hose clamp I had not tightened during the install. Duh! Not only that, but I found ANOTHER untightened hose clamp. What was I thinking? (Probably: "Must finish... must finish... must finish...").
I've cleaned up the engine bay and applied a liberal amount of black wire loom. All in all, things are looking good and the car is running great.
I had a new suspension put in. I'm autocrossing on 4/30, so I'll post how it goes.
The next thing around the corner is putting in a vented catch can for the PCV hose from the oil seperator box and the valve cover. Good stuff! I'll write more later.
I'm practicing launching and reacting to green lights, so hopefully I'll see the 13's when I try dragging this summer. (I know reaction time doesn't matter for the time, but it does on the street!).
After my gauge install, I found that my fuel pressures were way too high. The following is excerpted from postings on HostBoard.
****
Lundgren: On your website, you say:
"Fuel pressure should be 50psi at idle with the vacuum line connected, 60psi at idle with the vacuum line disconnected. At WOT 6psi of boost, the pressure floats around 85psi. From 0 to 4.5 psi of boost (that's zero vacuum zero boost) the pressure rises from 60 to 85psi at about a 5:1 ratio. "
Do you still stand by this?
My FP at idle with the vacuum line connected is 57psi, it max's out my gauge at 99+psi at full boost (I'm seeing 9psi boost - another problem), and my A/F is in the richest 2 stoich/yellow LEDs at WOT/Full boost. Another thread is currently saying this is too lean.
Maybe I could cure some of this by lowering the baseline FP to 50psi as you recomend. Lower FP's could get me a richer mix since I have the regular pressure pump.
What do you think?
BTW, my FP goes up to 68psi at 0 boost. What could that mean?!?!
(And a hex on all of you who were calling the high pressure pump "unneccesary" last fall and got me to buy the regular one! JK)
****
I'm at 6psi.
So the fuel pressure I see at 0 boost is approximately what I will see
when the vacuum line is removed.
So I am running 8-13psi too high baseline.
I will commence tinkering!
****
OK. I just got back from tinkering round one and things are f'ed up.
First, I had to back the allen bolt out MORE THAN 1/2" to get baseline, vacuum disconnected, pressure down to 60psi. My original baseline was 67psi. I thought the allen screw was going to fall out of the JR FPR.
Now, with everything connected, idle is at 56-57psi.
Then, out testing, the first two 2nd gear runs looked promising. fuel pressures didn't go into the 90's and I got one of the green/rich leds at WOT.
Then, after the third run, fuel pressure STUCK AT 99+psi!!! It stayed that way for the next couple minutes of very tame cruising. Then it dropped to 60psi.
So I try another run and, voila, NO RISE IN FUEL PRESSURE and the a/f sat in the lean side of stoich. Not good.
Babying it home, I try once more. This time the fuel pressure rises, but I'm still on the lean side of stoich.
WTF?!?!?
Is my JR FPR bad?
What the hell do I do now?
BTW, all runs in 2nd gear over 4000RPM. I'm still seeing 8.5 psi boost.
****
OK. Tinkering round 2 is done and things are looking a bit better.
I was trying to put things back the way the were, so I screwed the allen bolt back to where it was originally. When I checked baseline, no vacuum hose, pressure however, it was at 76PSI!!!
So I figured there's a lazy spring in there that took time to relax. So I screwed the bolt out until baseline was at 60psi and then screwed it back in until it started going up. It went up to 64psi and I backed off 1/4 turn.
Now, with 60psi baseline and I know the bolt is pushing on something, I went for another test drive.
Idle/cruising FP fluctuates between 52 and 58psi. Good. At WOT, pressure went up to 81psi, but that's as high as I saw. Also, I'm richer on the a/f, with 2 greens and 1 yellow at WOT. Also good (or at least better).
I probably hit 6000-7000rpm's, but my eyes weren't on the tach.
Nothing freaky happened like last time, and baseline was still 60psi after the test drive, so I'm going to stick with this.
One new thing, though, is that the engine bogs for a second when I floor it. It didn't do that before with the elevated pressures.
I'll keep my eyes on the gauges and keep you posted throughout this week.
BTW, I've now confirmed a coolant leak. 99% likely from the main pipe. Anyone have success with the stop leak stuff you pour in the radiator? It's a 1 quart per 1000 miles leak. Hot only.
Thanks again folks.
****
(from Jim Helbing, aka JRCivic)
Holden, come DOWN two more pounds of baseline fuel pressure... this will help the sluggish throttle response.
As for the coolant leak... repair/replace it when you swap your JR manifold.
With this out of the way, all that is left to do is disconnect a few coolant
lines, remove the thermostat housing, and pull the main
water pipe out !!! Do your "fix" and re-install... it is that simple.
****
I will fix the water pipe when it is removeable. Until then I guess I'll add fluids regularly.
JRCivic: I would love to follow your advice, but the JR FPR I have won't go lower than 60psi baseline. Could it be defective?
I'll try to lower it again in a few days. Maybe whatever it is in there that took time to change last time will relax more in a few days.
On the one run I got this morning, my a/f situation was not as good as I saw yesterday. I was back into all stoich/yellow leds at WOT.
I want to test the relay/resistor next. How do I put the resistor into the circuit (close the relay) permanently? Do I just pull the wire off the pressure switch?
Maybe this is my problem.
Thanks.
****
My JR FPR will only go down to 60psi baseline and has been performing erraticly (intermittantly sticking at high pressures after hard driving).
I'm currently playing phone tag with Keith at JR, but in the one conversation I did have with him, he told me an interesting tidbit I thought I'd pass on.
Apparently, even though the stock FPR doesn't have anything to do with
the fuel pressure anymore, it does perform a job by "smoothing out" the
"pulses" in the fuel pressure (I'm not sure, but I'd assume these pulses
are from the injectors opening and closing).
I guess the JR FPR won't work properly if it sees these pressure pulses.
****
(after Mr Rogers praised JR's customer service)
Mr Rogers: I agree. Dealing with JR is always pleasant and I have no worries that Keith is trying to dick me around with his suggestions. I know he is honestly working with me. If only more companies had this level of customer service.
His first idea was to check that the inlet and return hoses were hooked up to the JR FPR correctly. They were correct.
Now, I'm going to switch the vacuum hoses so that the JR FPR uses the barb the OEM FPR was using and vice versa.
Apparently there have been cases where the blue loctite used to secure
the barbs has formed a flap attached to the barb that flops around on the
inside of the manifold and can get pushed into the fitting under boost
and then take a while under vacuum to get sucked back into the manifold.
I'll do this, try to lower the baseline to 58psi again (couldn't get lower than 60psi before), and drive for a few days and see what happens and report back to Keith.
****
Well, there are no obstructions in the vacuum lines and fittings. Also,
the JR FPR is getting worse. It keeps sticking at 60psi and not boosting
enough. On the last run I tried, fuel pressure only went up to 70 and I
was way into the red leds.
I'll be asking for a new one on Monday. No WOT until then. :-(
****
As expected JR's customer service once again comes through. No fuss, no hassle, a new FPR is on the way.
****
It arrived on Wednesday.
Tightened the belts today. The alternator was very loose and squeeled horribly over 6500rpm. WOW! What a difference on the but dyno! There's like 15 or 20 HP up there I couldn't get to with the loose belt. WooooHooooo!!!!
In the last week, I added hose clamps to every vacuum connection that was easily accessable. Where the hose from the bypass valve connected to the throttle body was really loose and obviously my main, if not only, vacuum leak. My idle doesn't bob around now, even though it still bounces once after you let of throttle completely, from 900 to 1300 rpm and then slowly settling back to 1000rpm.
One more month until real tires!
After fixing the fuel leaks, I got 26mpg on the next full tank of gas.
Just a few notes on how my setup is going. I installed on 1/9-11/2000
I have had the following problems since the install:
1) Fuel leak, probably from injector(s). 23 mpg so far. Ouch!
2) Upper hose clamp on Air Bypass not tightened (forgot during install)
3) Loose Belts (Squeel at WOT > 6000 rpm)
4) Probable Vacuum leak because:
a) CE light has come on 3 times, always in the same circumstance,
code 14, IAC valve
b) After driving, the idle bobs between 1000 and 1300 for a while
before settling down to 900.
Today it was finally warm enough to do some work, and I was pretty lucky/successful.
Problem #1 was a visible (thank you!!!) leak from injector #4. I had
an O-Ring and replaced it. Problem solved. Unfortunately, when I removed
the JR adapter that
goes under the stock FPR, the O-Ring was ripped to shreds. It must
have shifted when I installed it. I put a replacement in, but it is too
thick and not rated for fuel.
I fixed Problem #2 and only had to remove the PCS valve from the manifold to get at it. Phew! I thought I was going to have to pull the throttle body and IAC.
Problem #3 is going to wait until warmer weather and more time. I have snow tires on, so I can't use the power up there anyway.
For problem #4, I put hose clamps on the line running from the TB to
the Bypass switch because it felt loose. My idle still bobs around a bit,
but is slightly better. I'll
have to keep looking.
That's it for now. Let's hope my MPG goes up now.
My engine started on the first try. It cranked a few times before the fuel got everywhere it needed to. While I was looking for warning lights on the dash and being amazed that the engine started, I smelled gas. Really bad!
I turned off the car and got out. There was a Lake Valdez of gasoline under my car. Two of the injectors were wet with gas, so I replaced their O-Rings (one was obviously destroyed). This fixed the gas leaks.
So I restarted my engine again to flush the coolant, retard the timing, look for problems, yada yada.
After the engine was fully warmed, a water leak began. I found water leaking from near the NPT fitting on the top, passenger side of the manifold. Unfortunately, further research showed that it was not the NPT plug that was leaking. There was a casting flaw in the manifold itself that allowed the coolant to leak out.
More on that on the My Flawed Manifold page.
As JR recommended, I cleaned the area with Simple Green and used JB Weld to patch the holes. The next day, JB Weld takes 16 hours to cure, I fired it up and let everything warm up. Luckily, the JB Weld worked and I had no water leak anymore.
I was now concerned about water leaks from the main water pipe behind the engine. Some people have rotated this pipe and broken the stud that held it in place and developed a leak. I rotated this pipe by accident during the install and was concerned I would get the same leak. My luck held and there was no leak.
So... I put everything back together, retarded the timing to 8 degrees (I'll go to 10 degrees later. I should be able to do that since I use 93 Octane fuel.) and went for a test drive.
Looks like a successfull install!!!
Last Updated: 02/17/2000