kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

[kimokalihi]

Good news! I sucked half a can of sea foam through my intake and took it for a drive. Then I came back and sucked about 10-12oz of water through it. Then I drove it again for 30 mins and came back. Let it cool off for half an hour or so and did another compression test.

132, 130, 137, 130. So it must have been a valve that was stuck slightly open when I did the first compression test before running the engine. I should have done another one after running it for the first time. I'm sure it just needed to be run to close it up but hopefully the sea foam and steam cleaning got everything nice and clean in there. Also dumped half a can of sea foam into my oil. I'll be changing that in a hundred miles probably.

It's running like a champ now. Just added it to my insurance. Went from $93/month to $214/month! I guess a turbocharged older car costs more to insure than a 3banger with airbags. This is no collision, just medical.

[mike-tracy]

Woohoo! Congrats kimo. Wierd on the Insurance thing, my insurance (USAA) treats an SS as any other 1st gen legacy. Discount for auto seatbelts, lol.

-Mike

[kimokalihi]

Oh yeah they mentioned the discount for the auto seatbelts which I don't have anymore and I just chuckled. That was before I took it off back in october. They didn't say anything about it this time.

So Mike, are we meeting up soon? Next week I will be on vacation in Oregon. 5th anniversary with my GF. Are you almost running? Did you get your intake or whatever you were waiting on?

[mike-tracy]

Got the intake, it has a broken vacuum port nipple, it's broken flush with the manifold so I think I'll just take it to a machine ship to have em extract it. Already have the replacement one - it's the one for the brake booster. So yeah, pretty much I get off work when everything is closed, so it's difficult. My days off are the same as yours I think, Weds and Thurs. I'd love to go for a drive, as long as you keep it slow for my td04-powered ass, lol.

Congrats on 5 years. That's how long my wife and I have been together too - tax day is our 6th anniversary.

[kimokalihi]

Oh I won't go too fast. I've got 3 tickets in the past couple months. Only one was for speeding and it was only for 5 over even though I was going 15 over. It's not that fast anyways lol. That's cool you have the same days off. Think you'll be up and running the week after next?

Thanks Mike. Congrats to you as well. 6 years is a long time. At least for me.

[mike-tracy]

3 tickets in the Metro, lol?

[kimokalihi]

First one was driving my friend's Nissan Maxima. Failed breathalyzer. Got lucky no DUI. Was only buzzed but thank god. Other two was metro. Not making a complete stop at a stop sign $124!

[madmallard]

[quote="kimokalihi"]
Any tips on removing mold and drying out the interior? I think my trunk leaks along with my sunroof. :(

.[/quote]

Yes:

First, while its still moldy and musty, prove that the trunk and the sunroof are leaking. Douse them alot and fix the leak.

No amount of cleaning will make a difference 'til you stop it. ;p And it won't matter [i]now[/i] if you do spill some more water in.


After that, the best way is to gut the interior, including the roof liner. There's 2 problems to prioritise:

1: padding doesn't dry out, it holds onto moisture. So the padding on the other side of the roof liner and the floor carpet would basically hold onto water almost indefinitely if they get saturated. It is also holding moisture against the metal body, increasing corrosion.

2: two particular chemicals available to you eat, kill, or dissolve mold with minimal harshness. Hydrogen Peroxide and Oxy-clean. If you need to scrub, I'd try these two things before resorting to a bleach mix to kill mold.

[kimokalihi]

Cool thanks. I dried the trunk carpet out and put it back in. There as no mold on it and it doesn't seem to be spreading. The mold on the steering wheel is gone and basically the rest of it. I think running the heater 24/7 when I'm driving has dried things out. There is no fabric on my headliner. I have the canadian one with a hard plastic backing and the bottom side if vinyl.

[madmallard]

yes, but usually theres a pad under the headliner, much like the one under the carpet.

also, if there are no airbags in the seats, pull em out and pressure wash them. :P

[kimokalihi]

Pressure wash them? How do you get them dry after that?

[madmallard]

A big arse fan and the power of THE SUN. :P :P

seriously. Grassrootsmotorsports restoring a Miata did the same thing.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articl ... -treasure/

[Falken-18c]

my insurance is 326 am month and the ss is 322 no colision on either but none are insrured at the moment cause snaped the rings in the 92 then ran out of oil now its knocking hard core an 3 weeks after geting the 93 ss some one smocked me in driver side door my head went through the driver side window now i dont rember the accident are that whole week so now im gunna switch thing over to the na well atempt too because i have no expereince i dunno nothing lol it will be fun

[darkcrave]

So those gC8 coilovers bolted in np?

[kimokalihi]

Yup like they were made for it.

[kimokalihi]

Uploaded 3 videos to youtube. Just clips of my gauge cluster (shaky because I was unable to mount the camera) to show the knock problem I'm still having. The first is when I started up my car cold and drove a couple miles down the road. Many knock flashes under no load-to minimal load with zero boost. The 2nd video is one I made immediately after the car had reached operating temp and the knocking ceases all together. The 3rd video is a small pull I did from 2nd through 3rd gear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oshx37MXe7k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_AtIzdhERA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6k9YzY0PGY

[ericem]

Car runs nice it looks like! But the cel are you sure it is not just telling you there is a cel? I had something similar and the wire for the knock sensor was shorting to the grounded shielding. Did you run a new wire? Or just simply splice? It's really easy for the grounded shield to make contact.

[kimokalihi]

I ran a new wire to the firewall area and spliced there. Soldered it together and heat shrink. The only place the ground could possibly be touching is at the end of the shielding and I doubt that's touching anything but I'll look. I also do not think it is because this problem goes away entirely when the car is warm.

[ericem]

ya true have you tried another sensor? When things are hot and cold the resistance could change. Did rob have any feedback?

[kimokalihi]

Yeah I'm speaking with Rob on it via emails. He says it should learn eventually and correct it but says I may need a custom tune. Last time it did not learn. It got worse until the piston got eaten up and the rings went. I have not tried a different sensor because this one was brand new when I put it on. OEM Subaru knock sensor.

Florin is experiencing the same issue running the same block with different heads so I don't think it's a problem with my car but it could be a coincidence.

[beatersubi]

Have you checked your fuel pressure?

[kimokalihi]

Negative. I have no way to check it.

[Florin1]

Hey Kimo, here some vids i took in my car so u can compare.
This one is 2-4th pull.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImGmuc7VKnM

And couple really short ones
4th pull
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZvp0Kq8OOE

and a 5th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LWz9Oy4bdQ

[kimokalihi]

Oh wow that's worse than mine. I don't see knock when I floor it. Odd. I just got my car started again. For a couple days it wouldn't start and I had a hunch the fuel pump wasn't working. Took the cover off and jiggled the connector and it started right up. Took it for a drive and did a quick 4th gear pull down a hill. Should have probably done 3rd but didn't want anything too crazy. It flashed one time when I downshifted from 5th to 4th and put the pedal to the floor I saw one quick flash but that was it.

Rob has already made me a new chip with a little less agressive tune in the areas where I'm seeing knock and we're going to meet up soon and swap it out.

[ericem]

Hey guy's I was just thinking your cars run pretty good definitely looks like your topend is better than my car. Here is my car with td04/440's running the revtronix on a STOCK ej22t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzDo0yJID2U