kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

[kimokalihi]

This car pisses me off sometimes. It does not run like OEM but what did I expect? I guess I thought since it was on a stock ECU from the same sized motor...lol Actually it's not a stock ECU, what am I saying?

Anyways knock light comes on more and more the more I drive it. Last night leaving work just pulled out of the parking lot and down the road a couple hundred feet and the knock light lights up 8 times in pairs of 2 blinks over a period of about 5 seconds. On a cold engine in 60 degree weather foggy as hell. When I first started driving it I saw the knock light occasionally and now I can't drive the car anywhere without seeing it pop up a few times. Not only that but now it's hitting fuel cut again when before I could downshift all day and it would be fine. I guess I need to turn the boost down again. 16lbs just is too much but the strange thing is when it hits fuel cut it's never up at 16lbs on the gauge it's always hitting at like 10 lbs and 12 or 14 lbs. And it doesn't stop gaining pressure it just jerks a bunch and kills my acceleration not to mention I look like a douchebag if I'm passing someone and can't hardly accelerate because the car is having a seizure.

Any ideas where to start? I keep thinking EWG and EBC but then I think it's got to be something else because it hits fuel cut sometimes at only 10-14 PSI!

And this knock business...probably could be a wide range of things right? Injectors, timing, fuel ratio, etc.

[kimokalihi]

Gotta love YouTube. I learned how to effectively reduce noise in an image using Adobe Photshop CS5 Camera Raw. Awsome. Here's a link to a before and after shot of my new wallpaper 1920x1080.

Noise Reduction Comparison

[Legacy777]

Nice after shot. Got a link to the noise clean up?

[kimokalihi]

Yeah here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2OXyLRDgrk

[beatersubi]

Fuel cut is dependent on volume of airflow, not pressure. Maximum airflow volume is usually achieved at peak torque.
You could try reducing the size of your turbo. j/k I don't know how to combat that other than a FCD. At your boost and power level be sure its getting enough fuel, though.
As far as the knock, it kinda sounds like a dying sensor.

[kimokalihi]

Sensor is brand new. Smaller turbo lol. Bigger injectors?

[91legacyawdturbo]

I haven't kept up with this thread but hows the knock harness any breaks or weak connections??? If the knock is going off then you will have a limp mode situation in which your car will buck because of ignition timing being pulled back and the over fuel while trying to build boost.

[kimokalihi]

Knock harness is solid. I rewired it myself because the connector was torn off. I did a good job so it should be fine. It's documented in this build thread many pages back.

[Legacy777]

Fuel cut is dependent on volume of airflow, not pressure. Maximum airflow volume is usually achieved at peak torque.
You could try reducing the size of your turbo. j/k I don't know how to combat that other than a FCD. At your boost and power level be sure its getting enough fuel, though.
As far as the knock, it kinda sounds like a dying sensor.

For the turbo Legacy's ECU, I don't believe this is correct. Fuel cut is dependent on boost pressure. All the fuel cut defenders tie into the MAP sensor and alter its signal to defeat fuel cut. These cars are not MAP based for fueling and do not have IAT sensors. So it really has no way of using pressure to determine air flow. I have not seen any fuel cut defenders that tie into the MAF sensor, which would imply the ECU is using air flow for fuel cut measurement.

[91legacyawdturbo]

I wonder what else could be causing the issues?

[beatersubi]

For the turbo Legacy's ECU, I don't believe this is correct. Fuel cut is dependent on boost pressure. All the fuel cut defenders tie into the MAP sensor and alter its signal to defeat fuel cut. These cars are not MAP based for fueling and do not have IAT sensors. So it really has no way of using pressure to determine air flow. I have not seen any fuel cut defenders that tie into the MAF sensor, which would imply the ECU is using air flow for fuel cut measurement.

Thats right. For some reason I remembered it being tied to the MAF signal. Thanks for the correction.

Knock harness is solid. I rewired it myself because the connector was torn off. I did a good job so it should be fine. It's documented in this build thread many pages back.

I remember this now (this thread is epically long). What condition are the fuel system components in? Do you have an adjustable FPR?

[kimokalihi]

I have the stock FPR or whatever the stock setup has. It mainly knocks when I first start it up and drive down the road. For instance, today I started it up and drove about 200ft down the road and it blinked about 10+ times in like 5 seconds. It also flashed a couple times when I shifted from 3rd to 4th not even hardly accelerating.

I don't get it. Makin me not want to drive the car anymore. Just park it, take it off the insurance and forget about it.

[ericem]

check the knock sensor wiring or replace the sensor again? Sounds like BSOD when he had knock issues....

[kimokalihi]

Well I don't know if this means anything but last night when I got off work it flashed 20 times in the first 3.5 miles and then after that it only flashed 4 times for the next 14 miles and I stopped at walmart. Went inside and bought some clay pigeons and some 12 gauge shells and then drove home another 15 miles and it only flashed once in the parking lot.

To me it doesn't really sound like a bad sensor or wiring because of the nature of it. It only seems to do it a lot when the car is cold.

[ericem]

is your test connectors under the dash hooked up lol.

[kimokalihi]

lol no or the check engine light would be flashing constantly.

[beatersubi]

How old is the coolant temp sensor? Harness grounds good and clean?

[kimokalihi]

Coolant temp sensor is 65+ thousand miles old as far as I know. I believe the harness is in great condition.

[kimokalihi]

Bad news. For about a week my car has seemed to be making a bit more noise under the hood. I wasn't quite sure if I was hearing things and when I looked under the hood I couldn't see anything wrong and it was not as apparent with the hood open. I dismissed it as me hearing something that wasn't out of the norm and kept driving it. Last night went one a bit of a joyride with my girlfriend and did some power slides in some gravel and when I got sideways I noticed I almost couldn't turn the wheel at all. It felt like it locked up. Was fine going straight but once I was got sideways it would not want to turn. I just figured it was because my steering rack is shitty. It was seizing up on me going over the mountains back in august but hasn't really done it since.

Today I got in the car and started it up and the whole car was shuttering. I knew something had to be wrong and I thought I had done some serious damage to the engine with all the fast driving I've been doing. I've launched it a few times recently. Not sidestepping the clutch but 5,000RPM launches none the less.

Popped the hood and right away I noticed the accessory belt was halfway off the power steering pulley!







Then I noticed the crank pulley wobble. It's pretty bad. Doesn't seem to be wobbling side to side but up and down and left and ride. Doesn't look like the rubber between the two pieces has come loose and it looks like the whole pulley is wobbling but it doesn't look like the bolt is wobbling at all. So that must mean somehow the hole in the pulley has become wider or I suppose the bolt may have come loose but shouldn't the hole in the pulley be a snug enough fit on the bolt that it wouldn't wobble like that?

I'll have to take it off tonight. I really need that tool. I'm scared to drive it so I parked it and I'll drive the metro That car is so slow and I feel like the suspension is out of a lincoln town car compared to the tein coilovers on the legacy.

Here's a couple videos so show you how bad it is. Let me know what you guys think.

[kimokalihi]

I don't remember how tight I tightened the crank bolt. It's been so long. I don't remember if I just hit it with a 1/2" impact gun or if I did it by hand.

[logan9691]

I think you do it to like 100 ft lbs with thread locker on it. I had mine come loose and the bolt ended up getting so tight in the crank that it snapped off so be careful if you haven't taken it off yet.

[logan9691]

when mine broke it was torqued to the Chiltons specs which said 30 ft lbs with thread locker but that isn't right. It's between 100 - 150 ft lbs.

[kimokalihi]

Yeah I think it's about 135ft lbs.

[kimokalihi]

The bolt on the crank pulley was extremely loose. I undid it by hand. The key slot was sheared almost halfway around the pulley. The key itself is somewhat rounded but it'll hold for a little while if I don't drive too hard. I'm thinking about getting a new key insert and a lighweight crank pulley and replacing them both at the same time.

Can anyone tell me if I can replace the key insert without removing the crank gear? It looks like the key is halfway into the crank gear as well as the crank pulley so I'm not sure if it'll come out without removing the gear.

Luckily I happened to have 4 more pulleys sitting on a shelf. It's too bad, this one only had about 2 or 3 thousand miles on it when I bought it from a WRX guy. It WAS in great condition. Perhaps I didn't tighten it enough.

[jake15]

get another stock pulley and a new crank sprocket, when the pulley wobbles it tends to chew up the crank sprocket enough to where the new pulley wont sit flush on it. I dont think you're going to get the key off of the crankshaft without yanking the crank sprocket anyways. did it hollow out the keyway at all?