Ohhhh....lots of updates that many of you are familiar with via FB and Shootout war stories....but to capture on here too....
After I got the starter relay replaced, that fixed all of the starting issues.
Turns out that all four of the relays I had must have some corrison built up on the contact internally. The one in the car would never make electrical contact and the others that I tested wouldn't either...except one would, if I triggered it several times.
So then, startup....
Car started instantly, like I'd never parked it...let alone put in a new motor, etc. Tune isn't spot-on, but was as I expected - good enough to start the car and run well. Power steering was non-existent due to needing bled badly. I should've done this first, but really wanted to get the car on the road. I could hear alot of blower whine...even more that I would expect....maybe just because the hood was off....oh well...lets take it down the road!
I made it 1/4mi with maybe 5lbs boost max and an intercooler pipe blew off....whoops! I didn't want to break the clamps, so they were all too loose to hold the boost after warming up a little. Tightened all though and got that fixed. After a couple of miles, the car started missing pretty badly....pulled over and found a plug wire was working it's way off....I got dielectric grease all over the porcelain on the plugs, so I assume when the air trapped inside the plug boot got warmed up and expanded, it started pushing boots off.
So I decided to get it back home...on the way back, I heard a slight "pop" sound and then white smoke out the back...lots of it.
You can guess what I instantly thought....
Got the car parked and immediately noticed there was coolant all over the engine bay....started to get hopeful that it wasn't a headgasket or intake gasket.....upon looking more, I found the front passenger side freeze/expansion plug was missing!
*sigh* it was about 8pm on Thursday night, and I was bent on making sure it was ready for the Shootout!! Ran to Autozone and picked up a couple of different plugs to repair it. Got home and got the motor jacked up and the motor mount out of the way and got it changed quickly....cool
Wiped off all of the spark plugs and got some of the grease out of the boots and I also thought I would get the lower front shock mount taken care of, so I took the control arm off the car and pressed the old out and new one in on Friday morning. Friday morning....put the arm back on (almost broke my piky while doing so!!), filled the radiator with mostly distilled water and started it back up...took it out and drove it for 15minutes or so....popped another IC pipe (forgot to re-tighten after taking a pipe off)....fixed that and drove it some more. Car was running pretty good and was starting to feel strong on the bigger pulls! Got close to home and figured I'd do one more lap of break-in, then water spewed up somewhere out of the engine bay all over the windshield, etc. ...sigh.....short trip back home!
Turned out that a 2nd freeze plug popped out....this time behind the driver's accessory bracket!
Is this going to be a trend!?
Picked up another one on Friday morning and delayed getting packed for the Shootout...got the 2nd plug replaced and took it out on the road one more time. Ran okay, but it was apparent that the tune needed some work in the part-throttle, wide-open throttle range...no biggie, I'll check the tune and adjust! None of the datalogs were saved.
apparently, when I "checked" the checkbox telling BE to save the logs, and using the spacebar to start/stop the logging (like I always do), instead of hitting start/stop, I was just checking/unchecking the box!!!
But on the bright side, I got it home without blowing coolant everywhere.
Anyway, it was 3:30pm by then and we were going to be missing some of the social activities at the Shootout, so I reluctantly agreed to leave it home.
Racing was cancelled on Sunday anyway though.....
....glad I left it home in that aspect!
So last night, I finally got back out to messing with it and got discouraged. 5th gear in the new-to-me transmission won't engage without grinding...there is no "stop" or any physical feedback before grinding, so I wonder if the synchro isn't shot...maybe a shift linkage problem? I checked the synchros as best I could and they all had about 0.8mm or clearance...so they should be good. Anyway, it's gotta come out to even look at it. Concerning the freeze plug drama, I was told that I should pull the motor and replace with new plugs and red loctite. It appears that Permatex gasket-maker was used previously, but it looks like it may have never sat-up...still a little tacky rather than being hard.
Oh yeah....when I pulled into the garage last night, I was followed by another white cloud....I didn't even feel like looking at it at that point and just walked away.
I should probably have my "Spirit of the Shootout" award from this weekend recalled.
It appears that the crankcase evacuation system is working a little too good too...lol.. I thought all along I might need to add some additional baffling, but had planned on trying it with factory valve cover baffles removed first, then add them when checking hot valve lash, if needed. I think they're needed! burns alot of oil!!! I think one or both of the chrome baffles get a healthy spray of oil out of the lifters, so the foam baffling gets soaked. I think with the factory baffles added back in, it will burn alot less. If it still burns too much, I have a plan B and Plan C....