FC3S Murray's never ending build.

[FC3S Murray]

Originally Posted by batmanfc

Looks awesome. Is that a miata battery in the current setup pic?

No just a Optima red top

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by FC3S Murray

Really all I have left is the UIM, LIM and fuels set up. Add some fluids and start her up. However I can not find a damn place to mount these egt gauges! it is killing me.

Brian, you mentioned I should do a comp test before I let it run then one after an hour correct?

I am most likely going to start her on Sunday so I will try to get it on video. I am a little nervous for the comp test but if it is low due to my parinoia about the apex seal spring installation then I will just open her up and stack again(hope not).

Mount 'em like I mounted my extra three gauges, do away with the idiot lights.

More just for curiousity. If there was anything that went wrong during the assembly - pinched side seal, apex seal, bad springs, missing a cornerseal, something horrendous like that, it'll show up in the first comp test and MAYBE you'll be able to catch it before it does real damamge but if a side seal slipped out of place, the damage was probably done with the keg was torqued. Just things to make you more paranoid. If you heard 3 clean even whooshes and the engine spun freely, you really have nothing to be worried about. It's more for curiosity. In my case, Dave and I are worried about me overoiling the engine with the OMP and a bit of premix in the gas. So my comp tests are just to make sure that the comp doesn't fall off from over oiling.

Like I said Sean, if you heard some even pulses and the motor spun pretty freely by hand, stop being paranoid, clean the sand out, get some douche and go to town

[WE3RX7]

All will be fine - you would know by now if you installed anything horribly wrong.

[project86]

i was there helpin him put it all together and when he spun it sounded good. im excited for this.. oh boy

[FC3S Murray]

Hey all! Well I got everything tied up tonight. All fliuds are in and she is pretty much ready for start up. I WOULD HAVE started it tonight but unfortunately my daughter's room is right above the garage and I didn't want to smoke her out. I could have dropped the FC to the ground and wheeled it outside but I like to keep it on jack stands for the first start up for the ease of inspecting and accessing leaks if I need to lay on the creeper for.

I also calibrated my WB o2 with my datalogit to be within .01 of my actual xd-16 gauge. I did a trick that Chuck Westbrook has in his notes that includes a jar, syran wrap, propane tourch and a straw.

As for those fucking EGT gauges I am still undecided. I think for now they will live in the glove box until I can lay some new carbon fiber so I can re-arrange my center console layout.

Mount 'em like I mounted my extra three gauges, do away with the idiot lights

I like the two gauge set up now becasue I can still see my clock from my seat

All will be fine - you would know by now if you installed anything horribly wrong.

I know I have finally just convinced myself it is fine. It is what it is.

i was there helpin him put it all together and when he spun it sounded good. im excited for this.. oh boy

Thanks again bro for being there for the whole thing. Having your set of eyes was good not to mention u spotting that apex seal spring in the coolant passage was a HUGE time saver. I know we heard it but I never saw it.

[need RX7]

I bet the anticipation is killing you.

Originally Posted by FC3S Murray

I also calibrated my WB o2 with my datalogit to be within .01 of my actual xd-16 gauge. I did a trick that Chuck Westbrook has in his notes that includes a jar, syran wrap, propane tourch and a straw.

You must elaborate

[FC3S Murray]

Basically what you do with the WB o2 calibration is: get a mason jar and put the o2 sensor in with the tip of your propane torch. Wrap the SOB in a ton of syran wrap and turn your IGN on to heat up your o2 sensor. Then once the sensor is hot, turn on the propane torch until the gauge reads 9.0 AFR or whatever. What I wanted to tune for was 11.0 AFR and I wanted my datalogit to read 100% correct with my gauge.

So when I turned the propane on my reading skyrocketed to 9.0 AFR. The straw is inserted and you blow a little air into the sealed jar until you reach 11.0(or what ever you want your WOT AFR to be). The you go into you tuning software and adjust your voltage to AFR correlation.

my factory innovative set up was supposed to be 0-5v:9-15.99AFR. I had to cahnge it to 0-5v: 9.2-15.99AFR to get my logs from my datalogit correct with my xd-16 gauge.

Anyhow, Start up happens tonight!!! Stay tuned!

[Whizbang]

freakn' macgyver

[JShiz]

SO....? the anticipation is killin me.

[FC3S Murray]

Alright guys.

She started up with ease. Primed the oil system to 40psi and then gave her fuel. Took a couple turns and then she finally started. I needed to re-adjust my cold start/fuel ratio and all in all she idled around 1k with a 11.7 AFR.

I had a nice 1-2-3 pulse coming from the exhaust. MY VACCUUM was at -13 on my boost controller.

SOO..then it took forever to warm up to 80*C. Once it got there she keep climbing and climbing and no thermostat was opening by 86* C! I immediately shut the car off and hear my boil over resivoir going ape shit. A few seconds later after I know something is seriously wrong, I turn on my ignition again to see what my water-thermo sensor log is reading and it says 115*C!!

I scream FUCKKKKK. I say, "it's toast, its fucking toast!" Well one one my buddies pops the resivoir cap and a huge burp of air comes out. I check my water temp gauge again(about 45 seconds later) and it is down to 96*C within that 1 minute time frame.

So I THOUGHT the system was burped 100% but obviously not. By now I am thinking the motor is fucked. I mean the fucking gauge read 115*C !! I am sick to my stomach by now.

So my buddies are like "well you have a floor fan blowing on it, your oil temps were only 165*F and you were at idle only (no revs) and really the temp was most likely steam temp from the enourmous air bubble since the temp dropped dramatically from when it "burped", so it will be fine, yeah yeah fine..
..it will be fine..?.."

I on the other hand am thinking of Brians story and am convinced that I have either fucked the rotor housings or definately have a stuck side seal now and again am just PISSED..devasted actually.

So I started her up again after adding about a qauter jug of coolant. I am expecting to see a lower vacuum and hear a sparatic pulse from my exhaust........

She starts up fine.....I have 3 perfectly audible pulses- brap-.brap-.brap and my vacuum was at -14. I got more vacuum!?!

So I am sitting there just kinda confused and still feeling unsettled. I let it idle for an hour and no changes in pulses or vacuum. Steady -14 the whole way. I do have a very small oil leak coming from my front pulley bolts that is flinging VERY VERY small droplets of oil everywhere. I will deal with that later.


I don't know what to think guys. She shows no sign of overheat conditions and I have no white smoke, no un-even pulses and a higher vacuum.


I guess all I can do is drive her tomorrow for a 100 miles and check my compression.

Is my buddies thinking right and can the motor take a small burst of heat like that. There really was no stress on the motor oil temp wise or even heat saturation for that matter. i don't know..

I am still very sick to my stomcah from the whole situation partly because I didn't bleed it all the way and that was a FUCKING high temp at that water thermo sensor.

Anyone have any other conditions I should look for that are related to overheating?

She runs great but MAN what a cluster.

[RETed]

Localized hot spot...no big deal.
If the motor ate the water seals, you would've seen water out your tailpipe and temps start to shoot up again.

I've done it before in my modified coolant flush - very controversial.

Just because you see the water temps peg doesn't mean the motor is automatically goners.


-Ted

[FC3S Murray]

Well it has been a little over an hour and a half since I shut her down and after doing a little more research on overheat conditons I went back down and looked for culprits of fucked water seals. I had NO bubbles in my radiator and when I started her up again WITH my garage door close(to see smoke better) I had absolutely no white smoke on start up.

The motors water temp at start up was 56* C, so if I had fucked a water seal that would have bleed into the combustion chamber by now.....right?

I am a little comforted now and I also read a couple lucky stories on the RX&club with guys having the exact same secnario and one dude actually hit 250* F and had no issues.
LETS JUST HOPE.

[FC3S Murray]

Thanks TED, I am sweating over this fuck up but think it is OK.

My water temps stayed at a cool 81*C the whole idle time after the incident btw.

[FC3S Murray]

Well just fixed the front pulley e-shaft bolt oil leak. Had a buddy stop by(project 86) because he helped build it and he wanted to hear it pur and I ended up putting him to work. I had him hold the clutch in while I removed the front pulley bolt to apply some rtv to the o-ring and copper washer face.

Started her up again about 1/2 hour later and ZERO white smoke and no oil spitting all over my engine bay. I am high off of gas fumes.

Need sleep......I must have spent an hour at least tonight dousching out the sand from my vag after the scare.

[need RX7]

Sounds like a pretty scary situation. I'm glad it all worked out though .