MrMazda92's '92 GS - New daily

[crazycanadian]

Nd4SpdSe,
I have rotated front to back to check, and this had no noticeable effect. Taking the wheel off had no effect either, sadly. That corner still bounces up and down, no matter what I've changed this far.

crazycanadian,
The wheel bearing seemed good to me, using Ryan's walkthrough in the suspension section as a diagnostic routine. As for the inner tie rod ends, I'll check once I get the car up again. I did swap the driver's side outer out with the axle, as it was completely shot.

Turning the driver's side wheel by hand is difficult, at the point where the "bounce" occurs in powered rotation. It still lifts that corner up, and takes a lot more force to turn. It's about 30 degrees of the rotation that are noticeably difficult.

This is where it gets hard to explain over the internet and experience becomes key... At this point I would be pulling the drivers side axle out and feeling it for binding.. With out being there to look at the car and feel the problem is sounds like you might have a defective drivers side axle...

[MrMazda92]

Ahh damn. :/ I'll try to yank it back out, it does have a warranty(thankfully), so hopefully that will fix the issue. I'll check the inner tie-rod ends first, and try to simulate weighted driving whilst the car is midair.

Thank you very much, everyone!

[MrMazda92]

Sunroof woes!

I, like many others on here, discovered a puddle of water in my passenger seat a few months back.
My solution was the typical one, unclog the drainage hoses.

Unfortunately for me, my OCD got the better of me, and I removed the sunroof assembly entirely... Standing water had me fearing that automotive cancer might be creeping into my baby. Lo and behold, that thing we all fear... RUST!
Thankfully, in this instance it was merely surface rust. It'll be wire-brushed, sanded smooth, and rust-proofed before being replaced in the car.

This also gave me an opportunity to remove/examine the headliner, which I had no plans of re-installing anyways. I'm on the hunt for a 94+ headliner now, as well as 94+ A pillars and lower belt mounts. The manual seatbelts are a big improvement over the auto belts, but the ghetto look is growing old quickly. I like to have my car in one piece, given the choice.

I also finally put the trunk trim back together, after over a year without it. My coilovers no longer clunk on every bump either, it's been a mildly productive summer afterall!

[MrMazda92]

This will be my next performance purchase:

http://www.stratifiedauto.com/index.php ... pb7u7rr2k7

I know it's more cost effective to buy and build your own MS, but I'm honestly not confident doing so... My history with electronics is pretty sketchy, including some unpleasant electrical shocks that I will never forget. I'm more scared for my wallet than my body though, to be honest. Buying, building, and then destroying a $400 ECU doesn't appeal to me very much.

That being said, 100% Plug-N-Play with zero splicing sounds pretty nice, considering we get so very little of that with these cars. I'm going to take the easy route for once... I'm a little scared to be honest! \

I do have pending payments on a few items first, which will be sent out on or around the 17th of this month. Don't worry you guys, I haven't forgotten about anyone!

I'm pretty excited about the MegaSquirt to be honest, I may start messing with tuning my K8 for fuel economy while I dump money into my KL project.

[JayoM]

Looks like a good deal. I was toying with the idea of the MS PnP - http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/mega ... 73aece9526 - but this one seems a bit more cost effective! If it goes well for you, I reckon I'll invest in one myself

[kulluminati777]

what improvements would you get from a K8 with this thing? Or is it for people with turbos and megasquirt and what not....

I was just thinking it sucks that almost EVERY other car manufacturer out there easily benefits from a little computer tuning and we dont...or do we?

[JayoM]

Well, you'd be able to map the car for performance over economy for one. One of the big reasons I would get a programmable ECU is so I could get it mapped for the octane of fuel we use here in Ireland rather than in Japan.

[MrMazda92]

JayoM, I stumbled on it a while back and had considered trying to set up a bulk buy... Honestly though, only a few people seemed interested at the time. I doubt they would give discounted pricing for fewer than 10 buyers, and possibly even more than that. Still, it's definitely the cheapest Plug and play option I've seen out there.

I will definitely post feedback when I get this going!

kulluminati777,
It honestly depends on your goals, and whether or not you have access to a dyno. You could probably squeeze 10 HP out of the K8 with tuning alone, but I'm thinking I will mess with a fuel economy tune, mainly out of curiosity(I have a fast car, why not have an economical one too?)

Our cars benefit as much as many other makes, but it honestly comes down to how well you tune it. I'm not going to dyno the car pre-swap, but it would be really nice to bump my fuel average from 31 city to possibly 35. I've hit a record of 33.2 MPG, but only topped 33 on 2 tanks so far... It took considerable effort on my part to do so, and it'd be nice to see if I can top it.

[mx3matt]

i think you'll see more then 10hp even with a stock k8. plus drivability will be amazing.

i think a k8 with header/exhaust and a cai would see more like 15-20hp. i think this on a midly modified k8 will see better economy and still run more then plenty fast for a dd.

this is the biggest thing i want...even more then a 2.5 swap.

[SuperK]

If you're going to be playing with a K8, you should go ahead and swap the intake manifold on it too. They're cheap, and it'll be a great way to get a little boost in performance. Especially if you can play with the maps then it'd be a good combination.

[MrMazda92]

mx3matt,
It'd certainly be nice to lean out the mixture at idle. I hate wasting half a gallon of gas warming the car up in winter, it's a joke.

Show me K8 headers, that are currently available, and I'd do it just to say I tried it. 160 BHP out of a K8 would be impressive, matching an aged DE with better fuel economy to boot.

SuperK,
Do you mean a DE/G4 IM? I do have a spare DE that won't be used otherwise... I believed the ports were not identically sized though, is this incorrect? I haven't pulled a K8 IM yet, so I have only 2nd hand information on this one. Now I'm starting to get excited!

[JayoM]

I think the DE mani's bolt right up, but the ZE (apart from the millenia ones) need to be ported out. Finding a millenia IM is definitely on my shortlist!

[SuperK]

Well the G4 is noticably better than the DE manifold, and I think the neck is shorter so you should have better fitment.

I believe the ports on the manifold are larger than the k8 heads, so you could either just grind down the K8 heads to port match (put some paint in the intake manifold ports, let run down to the head and dry, then you'll know how far to go)

You could stuff the head port with a wet towel/napkin of sort that way the shavings don't get into the port, then take a sheet, and cut out a small area of the port that way all the external shavings just fall on the sheet and not in the engine bay.

jayom, the millenia manifolds aren't round ported, you're thinking of the 626 manifold

[JayoM]

Ah right, cool, I've been misinformed so I might just get the k8ze mani port n' polished, save all this round port square port hassle!

[MrMazda92]

Definitely true about the G4 being superior to the DE, but I don't have a G4 currently(still debating G4 and straight-neck for my KL build, I have a halfway polished straight-neck already)

I'm very apprehensive about porting the heads in the car, at that rate I'd happily give up the potential gains offered by the intake manifold swap, entertaining as the idea is to me! If the engine were pulled now... That would be tempting indeed, but if I'm pulling it, I'm swapping it.

Interesting note, ProbeTalk members *claim* to have found oval-ported Millenia manifolds over the years, but I've NEVER seen actual evidence of it.