Domino's Tune at PRE

With the wiring all sorted out, it was time to get a tune.  I booked a tune a PRE in Portland.  There were a few minor build snags to start: there wasn't enough waste gate preload, and the EBCS vacuum lines were in the wrong order.  With those small items, Domino started building power.

But, it was not to last.  Shortly thereafter, Domino developed a nasty preturbo exhaust leak.  She did make it two 325 WHP on the dyno sheet and was on her way hit the 360-400 WHP range.  Note these are uncorrected numbers.  The atmosperic correction for the day in Portland was 106.8% if you care about that which means the real number would be about 347 WHP.

By the time I got Domino home, the exhaust manifold gaskets were destroyed, and there were only 2 bolts left keeping it on the motor.  We have new OEM bolts which we will apply with some kind of thread sealer next time with new OEM gaskets.  I hope that the manifold to up-pipe gasket does not start to leak, because I can't get an OEM one here in the US for the twinscroll manifold.

We also gave PRE an STX 71 for testing a while back, and it actually got tuned that afternoon as well.  PRE wanted to do a Steam STX turbo day!  The tuner got 370 WHP on the 2015 STI before he stopped.  He said there was probably about another 40 WHP left in the turbo, but he did not want to push the customer's stock block past 400 WHP.  He told me that he hasn't tuned another turbo that could make that much power on pump gas using a stock style inlet.  So, for corrected numbers that would be 395 WHP when he stopped, and 438 WHP with the power left on the table.

Two Steps Backward, One Step Forward

We went from Domino being for the most part buttoned up, to this.

The car was driving great, but we had two problems: OCV codes were thrown, and the ECU wasn't programming with EcuFlash.  OCV valves drive the AVCS cam timing system.  With the codes, we can't use the variable cam timing that AVCS provides.  The programming voltage was frustrating.  EcuFlash will not program if the voltage pin 11 is not exactly 12v.  We were reading like 11.2v.

What is the solution, take apart the wiring loom and figure it out.  That meant taking apart the interior again. :(  First redid all of the splices related to pin 11.  The voltage was still low.  Then we split open the whole loom.  Eventually (after a lot of looking) we found a black wire with a red stripe.  Confusingly the wiring diagrams say that it is both supposed to have 12v and also be grounded.  Eventually we found that there were two black and red wired in the loom, so one was supposed to have 12v, and the other was supposed to be grounded.  We figured out that the loose one was supposed to be grounded.  We grounded it, and just like that the ECU programmed!  Also, all of the OCV faults were gone too!

SUCCESS!

Now that all of the wiring is fixed, Domino can get a tune.  We are very near now to having Domino being a real fully functioning car.

Next up:

- Put the interior back together

- Get a tune

- Do the DCCDpro wiring

- Fix gas tank venting

 

The interior is back together, and now we back to where we started!  Notice the missing hole in the dashboard?  Hopefully I will be getting a EDM glove box from Italy soon.  :)

 

 

Project Domino:Getting the Old Girl Road Worthy

One of the first things that was lacking, was a good battery.  The old lead acid one, like maybe 10 years old, and long dead.  The dirty yellow top is also mostly dead and not up to the task.  You may have noticed I went with the Optima D51R this time instead of the normal sized battery.  It actually has plenty of cranking power, and weighs 10 lbs less.  I also am not planning to have a banging stereo in this car.

Ultimately the battery will be mounted in the trunk, probably in this spot, but standing up.

The green plug in the center is the flashing mode jumper from the 03 WRX harness.  As you may guess, it needs to be in test mode for the Tactrix cable, plugged into the OBDII, to read and write the ECU ROM.  We actually had a few problems getting it working in the first place.  Brydon actually had a bug in the write up, and a few of the pins were swapped in the OBDII connector.  Once we fixed that, the ECUFash tool was working perfectly.  

Still pending on the harness, are the AVCS solenoids are throwing faults, so maybe there is a nother bug?  Also the O2 sensor is reading 0.  Oh well, we are almost there.

Another large gap was the exhaust system.  Luckily I had an extra turbo back laying around from my other car that I could cut up and make work.  I also had a Kinugawa twin scroll bell-mouth elbow that they don't sell anymore.  I had to cut the single scroll elbow that was on there off, and swapped it for the Kinuagawa one.  Then the midpipe was shortened by like 1.5", and then the transmission brackets were adjusted.  Voila, I now have a custom turbo back that is compatible with a GM chassis and a JDM EJ207 twin scroll motor.

The other part of the story is that it was really hard to find a place that would work on a catless exhaust.  Even when I got there they didn't want to do the work.  Eventually I convinced them, doing the work, but reinstalling the OEM catted downpipe so that I would leave complaint with emissions.  They still charged me for installing a full turbo back all the same.  Then I just spend a few hours putting it back on later that night.

Next up, suspension setup.

Project Domino: It Finally Happened

Yesterday was a big day for Domino.  She was driving under her own power.  It almost brings a tear to one's eye.  Look at her slowly burn off years of old oil and fluids.  If my neighbors could see this, they would understand why the flowerbeds look like crap!

Project Domino: Final Throws

It has been a little while since I last posted anything about Project Domino, but rest assured, we have been making steady progress.

For an update, the wiring is all but buttoned up.  It is all completed except the DCCDPro.  All of the sensors, etc. are connected.  Everything is correctly grounded with my "JDM yo" grounding kit.

All of the water lines and power steering lines are hooked up.

The interior wiring.  Obviously the interior needs to be put back together fully.

All suspension and chassis component's torque specs have been double checked and verified on Domino.  It is not sexy, but it is good to know the rear diff will not come off while racing.

Project Saabaru: New Wheels

After owning my SAAB 92x Aero (aka Saabaru) since new (about 10 years now).  I finally broke down, and replaced my stock 16" wheels.  I went with the Enkei PF01s (18"x8.5") which actually are a very similar style to the stock wheel also made by Enkei.

I finally broke down because: for some reason, one of our part distributors we use at SteamSpeed has really cheap prices on Enkei wheels, if I take my 92x to events representing SteamSpeed other people care about the wheels, and I needed new tires anyway.

Original:

New test fitted:

My 92x in the U-Distirct with the new wheels and tires:

But, am I that guy now?  You know the one with the old car with old paint, and shiny new wheels trying to compensate for having an old car?

Here is the final look.  It is fairly close to the stock wheel, except a larger size that actually looks good.  It is still kind of sleeper looking but more aggressive, just how I like it.

I was told to not be lazy, so I cleaned up my headlights while I was at it.

Now that my car looks presentable, I added a SteamSpeed logo.  Too bad the D didn't fit all the way on the glass.

Project Domino: She's Alive!

Major milestone, we've managed to have the motor running.  What this means is the wiring is now all sorted out, and we managed to hook up the last fuel lines.  We only ran the motor for a few seconds because that is about all that is hooked up.  :)  With that said, we actually don't have a lot of major things to do to have Domino rolling around on her own power.

Things left before Domino is a working car:

• Cooling system
• Remaining coolant lines need to be hooked up
• Needs to be filled
• Power steering
• Lines need to be connected to the pump
• Reservoir needs to be secured
• Filled up
• Add gear oil to transmission and diff
• Intake pipes
• Last two IC pipes need to be hooked up
• BOV installed
• Intake installed
• Chassis bolts need to be double checked against correct torque specs.  They should already be there, but we'll double check.
• Install downpipe and catback
• Reinstall interior
• Relocate battery to trunk
• Reattach a few body components

That might be enough to take Domino to get some licence plates.  Obviously there will be a lot more to do after that, but our next goal is to get her registered.