kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

[kimokalihi]

I have no idea since I only filled it up with 7 gallons I have no way of calculating it. Plus It was mostly freeway miles which kills my fuel economy since I'm between 3-4K the whole time with this 4.444 FD.

[Florin1]

I had my flaps on for a couple months. Maybe 3.
Did you notice if it knocked any more kimo? I'm curious about that.

[kimokalihi]

Oh yeah, forgot. Knock did not change with 101 octane fuel. So it's almost definitely not detonation. False knock is being investigated starting now.

Thanks to Eric I realized the spring on my clutch fork is missing. I looked in my garage and it's nowhere to be found. This could possibly be my problem. We'll see.

As soon as I hunt down my false knock culprit I will be cranking boost up and owning on fools. lol Also going to get the more aggressive tuned chip back from Rob and rewire the patch harness. I think PhyrraM's (Jess) connector are failing. Yesterday on my way to Sea-Tac we hit some rough freeway up in Tacoma causing the car to bounce a lot and the engine started missing and dieing while in heavy traffic at 60mph. Luckily I've become quite skilled in fondling the patch harness just the way she likes it and I got it running again and all was well the rest of the trip. I'm really hoping Rob finishes up his ignition converter so I can ditch those ignitors and not have to deal with that wiring mess under my dash.

Hey Florin, you don't happen to have a spare clutch fork spring do you? Stupid junkyard didn't have any hydro clutch transmissions.

[ericem]

ill pm you the part number when i get home .

[kimokalihi]

Oh I have the parts catalog so I can find it but I was hoping to not have to wait to order it.

[mike-tracy]

Only the turbo hydro trannies have the spring, and I've yet to see a 5mt SS or other 5mt turbo subie at the yards. It's only a couple of bucks, but ya they'll have to order it.

[kimokalihi]

Oh, damn. Something is still rattling under the hood. Could be that. Would really be nice to get rid of this false knock.

[ericem]

At my dealer came right away actually I think it was instock!

[PhyrraM]

Let me know what you find on the patch harness Kimo. I'm pretty good with that kind of stuff, so I wanna know what failed.

Look specifically at the female pins being pushed out of the back of the connectors when plugged into the ECU. I've seen them want to come out on a few of mine, but generally only well used connectors. Not a brand new patch harness. Also check the same female pins on the vehicle harness for the same pushing out the back.

[Florin1]

Kimo, what spring.
hahahaha

[kimokalihi]

lol. Spring has been ordered but won't be in for a week. Meanwhile I did some hunting around and found some suspects for my false knock but I don't think they were guilty. Either way less noise and things are more solid now.

Picked these up at the junkyard for a couple bucks. Covers up my coilovers so nobody is tempted to turn the dial on my dameprs.








My car has been missing a couple important grommets that I finally got from the junkyard as well for free. No more hood stand loosely rattling around. Yay!








Popped my hood and found my coolant reservoir tank was about to fall off. Lost a wing nut and the other was almost off too. Decided after close inspection that I don't like the way it sits and is bound to be rattling on the bottom mount. Doesn't reach because of the stupid phenolic intake spacers so I decided to fab up a bracket and relocate the whole thing. Afterwards I decided this idea sucked and it made my engine bay look like shit and now hoses run all over the place in the way. I will be relocating it again in the future but it works for now and it's rock solid.









Gotta love this 1/4" aluminum. So easy to work with when you don't have the proper tools.







Had to modify the tank a bit to get it to clear the bolt on the alternator/AC bracket.












I noticed the BPV plate on the intercooler is hitting the pipe on the IAC. Forgot to take an after picture but I took some radiator hose, cut it up and glued it on the bottom of the plate to cushion it.







I also replaced my knock sensor with another brand new one I found in my garage. I have 3 or 4 now somehow. 2 brand new and one has 4K on it. I made sure to torque it to 16 ft lbs this time. I zip tied my intake to the ABS hard lines. Found out it was rubbing on the fender and probably rattling. Chopped off the ends of the bolts that hold my scoop on because I noticed they are hitting the intercooler. The T-Bolts on my intake were hitting the hood. Before I relocated the coolant tank the cap was hitting the hood. When I had the intercooler off doing the knock sensor and checking for rattles I grabbed the pitch mount and shook it and it was super loose! I tightened that up REALLL good. All this stuff was 100% tight when I installed this engine. I guess some good pulls with the car and things come loose.

If you only learn one thing from my build let it be this: DO NOT USE PHENOLIC INTAKE SPACERS!! Everything will hit the hood. It's a headache and installing your intake manifold and turbo is a huge bitch with those spacers on because of trying to keep the intake gaskets lined up and stuff.

[ericem]

Shit all that man because the stupid spacers why not just remove them and sell them?

[kimokalihi]

Well, I'm lazy. lol If I happen to take the manifold off in the future, they're coming out for sure and you'll see them for sale cheap in the parts shed. I'm pretty sure they drop intake temps at least 20 degrees but not worth the bullshit you have to go through to make them work.

[ericem]

I really don't see how they can work! Think about it even if the aluminum manifold is hot it doesn't necessarily mean it will affect the air itself going through it at a high cfm rate.

[mike-tracy]

Kimo, I thought one of the reasons you wanted the spacers was for the aftermarket under intake manifold, right?

[mesoslow6969]

what did those "strut covers" belong to?

[kimokalihi]

They work. I've seen graphs from people's temp sensors. It's a hot manifold. Burns when you touch it. Mine doesn't. It's pretty warm but nothing like it was before.

No, mike, the spacers had nothing to do with the under the inlet intake. I was just trying to achieve some cheap performance by keeping the intake temps as low as possible. I also bypassed the coolant that went through the throttle body and I had nylon coolant reservoir mounts so basically the only heat transfer into the manifold was whatever managed to transfer through the bolts and maybe hoses or hard lines on or near the manifold.

The strut covers came off a 90 L AWD Wagon. There's a couple more sets at the junkyard but most of them are broken on the feet that go over the strut bolts.

[PhyrraM]

From what I have been able to figure out, the strut covers came on pre-facelift cars. They were dropped on post-facelift. All air-suspension cars - pre and post facelift - came with a similar, but different, strut cover.

[beatersubi]

So, is the sensor still sensing knock?

[kimokalihi]

I have only driven it twice since putting the new sensor in and I saw a few flashes but not many. I think I may have possibly eliminated some of the false knocking. I don't think the sensor was bad that I replaced but Rob wanted me to replace it just to eliminate it from the list of possible causes. I will report back with more findings and I'm excited to put the clutch fork spring back on when it comes in at the dealership.

[kimokalihi]

OK, nevermind. Drove it home from work tonight and tons of flashes like normal.

[Florin1]

Bummer Kimo. Let's hope its false knock.

[ericem]

As much as were hoping its that spring I still question the wiring to be honest.

These knock sensors are a pain in the ass with these cars because the wiring is getting fragile.

[cj91legss]

what you should do is replace the whole wire from the sensor plug to the ecu and see if that will help. You're going to want to use a shielded wire. probably 6ft. You may be able to get some from radio shack.

It's not too bad of a process. I have replaced my cam & crank sensor wires with shielded wire as well as my knock.

[kimokalihi]

Really? Sounds like a major pain in the ass to me. But if I must...Pray to God it's the clutch fork but I really don't think it is because when the engine is cold and I rev it a few times I get knock flashes when it's in neutral with the clutch in or out, doesn't matter. I can't see the clutch fork rattling when it's pushing on the clutch.