Zach's Legacy FrankenSTIn TW

[Mattheww044]

Whats wrong with russian beaner mobiles?

[SubaruNation]

im getting so sick of this cyclical BS with this car.

just spent 3 hours putting everything back together with (1) new coilpack of the four i purchased and it sounded terrible when it first chugged over... and for 40 seconds.. then it sounded like it improved...? and i listened from by the engine and the exhaust and it sounded better i think.. but then when i sat in the car i could hear that it was not "purring" like the normal soob idle sound.


i could try with all four except evidently cylinder 1 coilpack is welded/siliconed to teh wires themselves.. no clips. ugh..



-------

so isolated issues that may fix er'thang;

-wiring to coilpacks

-one of the coilpacks themselves, most likely cylinder 4.. as when i pulled the plug it was clean with just fuel and no explosion evidence.

--OR the fact that i don't have a knock sensor wired in for some reason...

[SubaruNation]

so i just went and drove the car, and it still acts the same when driven. i just got some backfire/detonation also.

the main issues:

-it doesn't accelerate under boost, for what the car has done to it. this may be because of the timing eric did something to.

-when im driving and i pull out of a gear and let it decellerate it just falls on itself and dies, but will keep the same speed because it's in neutral.. of course. but it just looses power and all lights pop up on the dash and the engine dies.

-i changed what i though was the broken coilpack and it's still the same issues as above.
-there also evidently is no knock sensor...for reasons unknown.

so questions:

either it's a wiring issue in the ignition, which...FML... is def. a possibility... or i have a dead cylinder.it also could be a dead sparkplug on cylinder four also. my compression on it is 120 which means maybe there isn't enough to get it to ignite and combust..?

will adding a knock sensor make the above issues go away?

if anyone could give me any ideas and recommendations that would be great and i would appreciate it if you have any.

*im also considering parting it out as much as i can, and either buying a new car or a new engine/ecu setup because this business is rediculous.

thanks,

[wtdash]

Zach,
I've not gone thru your whole thread, but I do know from my experience that the car runs poorly w/out the knock sensor. I'm not willing to say it'll fix it, but it will eliminate a major performance issue. Fix it b4 making any 'rash' decisions.

Td

[Mattheww044]

Zach, Todd just reminded me of something. My old car had an issue with the knock sensor wiring. When I bought the car, the knock sensor was unplugged. So I tried plugging it in, and it would just fall on its face as soon as it hit boost. So I unplugged it and it ran fine, but eventually it just started doing it anyways, but very rarely (less than once a month). If that sounds like anything like what your experiencing, try replacing the knock sensor and if that doesn't work, maybe there is a short in the wire or something?

[smh0101]

Remember guys. This is no stock ecu.

Its an AEM.

And as I have told you multiple times... A cylinder with only 120 compression will STILL FIRE. fml how many times must I repeat this.........


So Zach... that means its something in the wiring. The knock sensor may make the car run poorly, however it will NOT prevent just a single cylinder from not firing. Especially when you said the spark plug looked brand new.

[SubaruNation]

Remember guys. This is no stock ecu.

Its an AEM.

And as I have told you multiple times... A cylinder with only 120 compression will STILL FIRE. fml how many times must I repeat this.........


So Zach... that means its something in the wiring. The knock sensor may make the car run poorly, however it will NOT prevent just a single cylinder from not firing. Especially when you said the spark plug looked brand new.

i feel like thats not enough compression if stock is like 150 AND the car has low compression overall to begin with. im going to tear it all apart again this weekend and see if that plug is still clean, and replace it. if it is actually wiring then it will be something on cylinder four. then there's the issue with my car where it just dies randomly when im driving that still needs explaining.

really considering parting everything out to get a different motor/turbo/ecu setup in a month. im not going to spend my time chasing wiring issues because then this will become my life and thats not my goal here at all.

i dont even like driving it right now, at all. its just a huge stupid burden on my life.

[evolutionmovement]

Or you could get another engine and ecu and still chase wiring issues.

[SubaruNation]

Or you could get another engine and ecu and still chase wiring issues.

could... but not very likely considering what i have been through w this car.

[SubaruNation]

i just realized the irony of this situation coupled w my signature.

[evolutionmovement]

Not really—you find the limit when you push beyond your capacity. Maybe you just found your limit.

[SubaruNation]

it's just great because i discussed a similar situation with brando while i was in PDX.

yeah def taking a couple of days to think this through.

[ericem]

Zach just go back to stock, and get the revtronix chip. It is plenty fast, economical, and runs really well.

[smh0101]

OR... actually build a good motor... go back to stock wiring... and get either the revtronic tunable chip or a link... like i said wayyyyyyyyyyy back in the beginning.

[SubaruNation]

[smh0101]

[Mattheww044]

SO MANY OPTIONS!!! haha. $$ is a bitch though huh?

[SubaruNation]

yes

[SubaruNation]

so i just talked to my tuner and he agreed that it may be the wiring,
but since the injectors were never flow tested, there is a possibility that cylinder 4 is flowing way too much and causing some of the issues i am having.

yes im going to check the wiring, because it's the 1200lb albino gorilla in the room.. before i freak out any more and sell a 350whp potential car.

ill change my fuel filter and maybe that will help also, especially since the inside of my car smells like fuel rrrreull bad....

im looking for info on who modifies or flow tests injectors also in the mean time, because if i can pick up 4 OEM blues and modify them myself and get them flow tested then just keep the 4 that are within 5% that would work best.

[ericem]

Yet, you have no spark, i haven't scrolled through page by page. What are the issues?

GO BACK TO STOCK WIRING! THEN REVTRONIX STAGE 2!!!!!!!! lol.

Stock EM = moo money for a awesome suspension setup.

[smh0101]

Eric... The revtronic chip is NOT the end-all-be-all of tuning.

If he can figure out the wiring issue with the AEM he'll be in a MUCH better situation.

And stage 2 really isnt all that much power... just sayin...

[SubaruNation]

Yet, you have no spark, i haven't scrolled through page by page. What are the issues?

GO BACK TO STOCK WIRING! THEN REVTRONIX STAGE 2!!!!!!!! lol.

Stock EM = moo money for a awesome suspension setup.

I have H&R Coilovers

Current Issues:

Possibly all coils are not on the plugs because they suck
- really Frankenstein self explanatory situation

no spark/firing on cylinder 4:
-has to be wiring or bad spark plug related...

driving on 3 cylinders:
- could be a part of the reason above or it would get expensive and i would need to do engine (internal) business.

Car dies when i pull it out of gear to decelerate:
- could be related to the Idle air controller setup in the aem, or most likely its related to the fact that i am on either 2 or 3 cylinders right now/ the fuel weirdness.

Exhaust leak:
- if it was in the headers or somewhere...anywhere.. that would explain the loss of alot of things maybe.

[Binford]

Have you actually checked for spark on #3? It's really easy to do, that way you know if it's spark or injector related. Spark testers are cheap man, or you could pull the plug out, hook it to plug wire, ground it out anywhere on the motor, and fire it up.

[SubaruNation]

Have you actually checked for spark on #4? It's really easy to do, that way you know if it's spark or injector related. Spark testers are cheap man, or you could pull the plug out, hook it to plug wire, ground it out anywhere on the motor, and fire it up.

I have attempted to get the plugs to spark on the outside of the motor, but since its coil-on-plug, and requires crazy grounding... i was unable to see spark from the outside of the car.

i tested on both cylinder 2 and 4, i said 3 earlier above but ill change that now for info purposes. i touched the sparkplug to a bunch of stuff to try and get a decent ground...to see spark.. and i have been unable to do so. (block, fender, front swaybar...etc)

when i removed all 4 plugs initially, all had evidence of spark because they were black..rrreal black, except cylinder 4.. which looked brand new and was wet with fuel and smelled like fuel too.

i heard that testing the plugs without a sufficient ground is bad news because you can blow the plug and or mess up the coil, so i averted myself from too much testing.

when i work on it this week ill put a dif plug in again and see if that helps... maybe get some higher gauge wire to use for the grounds. where it sits right now, the percentage chance that i have had 2 busted coilpacks on cylinder 4 is a real small number, but i have a ton of backup coilpacks lol. it has to be wiring or a messed plug or too much fuel.

[ericem]

Eric... The revtronic chip is NOT the end-all-be-all of tuning.

If he can figure out the wiring issue with the AEM he'll be in a MUCH better situation.

And stage 2 really isnt all that much power... just sayin...

Im just saying IMO for our cars it is. As there is alot of work needed to run anything but stock EM with a chip. Obviously its not brutally fast, but a td04 is a td04 and its goes as fast as a td04 will

If its not firing, its not firing! That's the problem, find out why it's not firing!! Of course your running on 3 cylinders if its not firing. Don't on to the other problems that could be. What wire from the ecu goes to the coil which is related to spark on cylinder 4? Trace it.