Rising from the ashes - Valhalla

[Valhalla]

Was going thru this thread trying to find some information pertinent to NSXPO2022. Why? Because I'm on the committee. Again.

All good.

So what is new? Had to replace a fuel relay that crapped out on me on track during my last event at Arizona Motorsports Park. Good news is the new exhaust passed noise restriction which is set at 95 db. Bad news is I only got two sessions in. But the new GuageArt setup pointed me right at the fuel system and was able to jump the relay and fire the car back up. Replaced, have a spare, and ready to do it again.

Stereo acted up and was able to trace that back to some speaker wires touching and forcing the head unit to clip at low listening levels. Upgraded the drivers and the sound system now sounds like a sound system. Very pleased.

Most exciting news is I finally have a new MASIV radiator version 2 heading my way. I had already ordered from MITA a newer version of the bleeder pipe for the front firewall to replace my original 1991 bleeder pipe. For those that have ever had to bleed the coolant system on an NSX, they will KNOW the pain. This should make it much easier.

No other real news to report. Car is built, starts, stops, turns and is as reliable as the sun coming up in the east every morning. it's a great life to own an NSX

 

[Valhalla]

 

[docjohn]

Looking good!

 

[RYU]

My NSX is driven regularly. I even drove it 2hrs in an absolute downpour 2 wks ago. There's mud in places that haven't seen mud in a long time. So in the process of cleaning I checked off some maintenance To-Do items. Your most recent post reminded me of an overwhelming sensation that came over me this wknd as I did a bit of a shakedown after installing a bunch of new parts (that included the new MASiV V2) ----------->>> This is really a great car.

I keep thinking.. if i'm ever going to sell this.. it better be now. Folks like Jhae know what's up. He just sold his to move on to a different platform. I want to do the same but damn... but this car is just so good.

 

[RYU]

btw... i can't recommend enough to drive this car in the rain. It's so so so good in the wet.

 

[Track Addict]

Love the NSX in the wet.

If you sold the NSX, Pam would kill you.

I understand though, I’ve flirted with the idea more than once. Especially since it’s on an entirely different continent.

At this point, I can’t say that the NSX market will get any cooler. Starting to look like the Ferrari market. Just can’t lose.

Enjoy it and hope to see you BOTH on track next time I’m stateside


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Valhalla]

So a little update. Met the rest of the NSXPO committee at a site inspection this past week and drove the NSX. It was 100F and my GuageArt was flashing low fuel pressure at cruising interstate speed. Ranging from 36-43psi. This tripped my alarm as it's set at 40psi. The tune is set for a constant 43.5 and increasing with boost. So I get home and start troubleshooting.

I'm thinking one of three things, fuel pump, fuel filter or fuel pressure regulator. I noticed on the way home that if I put my right foot down, the psi's would jump to 55psi so the fuel pump must me working and the fuel filter couldn't be clogged. Both of these have been replaced within the last 1000 miles or so. So i pulled apart the AEM AFPR. Noticed that the little machined screws holding the dome and diaphragm barely finger tight so I inspected the diaphragm, noticed no tears and put it back together. Now the pressure was reading ~52psi and with the vacuum line connected, ~43.5. So maybe the heat caused the AFPR to close up restricting fuel flow. Really wish I had an Infinity ECU at this point. The Infinity can adjust fuel pressure due to ambient temp recorded through the FlexFuel sensor. Anyway, a retune is set with Tony at UMS for later in the month. I can't justify the funds for a new ECU and full tune at this point in time.

So this morning i go back to confirm my suspicions. I jump the fuel relay and get 52psi and when running drops down to 43.5psi. Good news, or so i thought. I remove the jumper, reconnect the relay and now the car just cranks but doesn't fire up. Checked the relay with another one and still no fire. Jump the relay and the car comes to life. I pull the main relay and sure enough, I have a bad relay. New one is on the way. Other than this little hiccup, the car has been flawless. She'll run again, just not this weekend.

Oh, by the way, I have no intentions of selling Widowmaker. My wife would kill me. It would not be pretty and NSXPO 2022 in Scottsdale would suffer for it. i can't leave you guys hanging like that.

 

[Valhalla]

Quick update: replaced the fuel relay and then found the #2 15amp fuse in the footwell fuse block blown. Cleaned up the ground to the relay and double checked connections. Car fired right up. Now I have spares for the Main Relay and the Fuel Relay. And spare fuses. Still going to send it back for a tune up of the tune. We're good.

 

[Valhalla]

Tune up of the tune was a mixed bag unfortunately. First thing to notice on the dyno was that the AFR's for both banks was 1 point lower than actual. That means the car was running lean under all conditions causing the tune to default and pull timing to protect it. Both banks were exactly the same reading which was of some comfort but still running lean. I had just replaced both of the O2 sensors not more than a couple of weeks ago so that was not the issue. About an hour into it we had to quit the session. And we discovered why I had replaced the O2 sensors on a fairly often schedule.

Several items made themselves apparent. I had a UEGO controller failing. Not all the time but intermittently if would die and then come back to life. So the spikes I was seeing during driving was it going off line. And I was blaming fouled sensors and just replacing them. The entire tune being lean condition was causing the engine to run hotter than normal. Ok so that explains some things too. And then we discovered the culprit. The reason why it was running lean was because my fabricator installed the O2 bungs behind the cats! They should be placed behind the turbos but before the cats as the cats will pull gases that the O2 sensors need to read correctly. So i purchased some new AEM LSU 4.9 controllers and O2 sensors, drove home and placed the car on stands in the garage.

I pulled off the bumper and diffuser in order to gain access to the exhaust and turbos. Removed the exhaust and marked where I wanted new bungs installed. Then marked the O2 controllers with "bank 1" and bank 2" so not to confuse myself upon the install of the 4.9's. I pulled wire and pulled apart the panels on the rear firewall to gain access at the ECU and the fuel fuse block. I have the SOS fuel wiring upgrade kit which has fuse links for adding a boost controller and two UEGO controllers. This time I decided to run the controllers and wires down the drivers side of the engine bay to reduce heat to this wiring as much as possible. Wiring is done. Exhaust is ready to be dropped at the fabricator tomorrow and with some new p-clamps and a couple of electrical connectors we should be back on the streets in a couple of days.

While I was down there (keep it clean boys!) I decided to service the turbos. The Aerochargers require little of this but I did want to add oil to the reservoirs and check them for operation. On the dyno I noticed that boost was coming on way late and that is just not how these operate. They should begin building boost at 2k. So I did the driver side first. I checked the control rod for movement and double checked the adjustment for engagement. The control rod's movement is derived from boost against the wastegate spring in the controller. As boost increases the rod moves the internal vanes to spin the compressor wheel faster, creating more boost. Oil added, boost lines checked and the driver side is good to go. On to the passenger side.

This was a hot mess. Boost lines were good and the oil barely needed topping off. Strange as I had to add a couple of ounces to the driver side. And then I checked the control rod for movement, it was froze in the open position. I checked the adjustment screw and it was not in contact with the diaphragm at all! So I pulled the top hat off the rod controller, yep she was stuck. I put some Deep Creep onto the control rod and into the port to the vanes. After a while I was able to get the rod moving and the vanes to fully engage. And then I discovered what had set this all in motion, or no motion in this case. The entire controller body had unscrewed itself from the turbo body by about 5-6 mm! So there was no physical way for engagement of the control rod to the vanes. The vanes remained in an open state regardless of rpm's so little to no boost from that turbo! So I spun the controller body back tight to the housing and confirmed I had full movement and engagement with the control rod. Replaced the top hat and set the adjustment screw to mimic the driver side. Doubled checked movement of the rod and satisfied with my discoveries and repair, cracked open a beer.

Now you may be wondering that by repairing this boost controller, am I afraid that the car will now create even more boost? If by repairing this turbo the tune will be rendered ineffective or dangerous because of the possibility that boost will exceed what it was originally setup for? The answer is no. The turbos are both set with a 10# wastegate spring and with the boost controller set at only ~12 pounds of boost, that did and will in the future limit the boost. And I now know that one turbo can get me to 12# so running two will be much easier and should also bring my IAT's down too. I'm looking forward to the car being the beast it was. Track day Saturday and if the exhaust doesn't get fixed in time I still have the straight pipes with no cats or mufflers. Oh this is going to be fun, again.

 

[Honcho]

Wow- what a crazy array of problems! Glad you got them sorted.

 

[RYU]

I'm glad you're finding these issues and fixing them.

In case your exhaust guy isn't already aware of proper O2 sensor orientation ...

 

[Valhalla]

Wow- what a crazy array of problems! Glad you got them sorted.

Yea it was a cascading array of issues. One led to another. But in the end I think I found all of them. I'll know more tomorrow once I button everything up.

 

[Valhalla]

I'm glad you're finding these issues and fixing them.

In case your exhaust guy isn't already aware of proper O2 sensor orientation ...

Yep, got the locations already marked and the new bungs will go in tomorrow. thanks.

 

[Valhalla]

Well that did the trick. Got everything put back together and took a small drive yesterday afternoon. Turbos both spooled up and what a blast that was. Still need to calibrate the wide bands to atmosphere and then back for a touch up of a retune. Man does it ever feel good to having boost again.

Update: Tried to put the ECU back into Open Loop but the AFR's went down to 12.5 and the feed back control was going -14.8. It could not adjust enough for what was going on. It idled like crap. A quick email to my tuner and he reports that in his file he noticed the Coil/Injector file was flipped with cylinders one through three reporting in as Bank 2 and vise versa for cylinders 4 through 6 as Bank One. So I switched the assignments to what they normally should be and voila, I'm now running Open Loop and the AFR's are reading exactly what he have programmed in the fuel maps. I'll plan a nice long drive tomorrow morning and if all looks good and safe, a track day on Saturday. Fingers crossed.

 

[RYU]

Great to hear!

 

[Valhalla]

Great to hear!

Even better to experience. The car was perfect. Broke the rear end loose in the first three gears. Incredible response to throttle and smooth as can be. I can't remember her ever running this strong. Still going back to get the tune solidified but all I can say is WOW.

 

[Valhalla]

It's been a long time between posts but for many good reasons. NSXPO 2022 demanded a lot of time. A lot. Now that that event has been put to bed, well mostly, I can begin to work on some other things.

One upgrade that I really didn't expect to have to do was address the charge pipe connections. While at the Podium Club for the track events at NSXPO 2022, I had an experience that I have experienced once before. I was going down the main straight and heard a "pop" and then the car felt like it hit an airwall. Instead of reaching 135+ at the end of the straight I was like 110. I knew right away I had lost boost. But where? In the charge pipe above the driver side rear tire. I fixed it, or so I thought, only to blow it off two more times during the weekend. Ordered a bunch of t-bolt clamps in various sizes and that will not happen again. I replaced every coupler and clamp.

Installed a small Pioneer subwoofer in the stock location and that cleaned up the audio portion. Couple of little nit-picky things addressed the car is once again solid, fast and reliable. So what's next?

I may be listing the the FI system in the near future. Complete from the Comptech headers to the exhaust tips inclusive of the AEM Series 2 and tune. It was tuned at UMS in Mesa and Tony is one of the tops in the country. Trying to determine a price and timeframe. If interested feel free to reach out to me with questions. Right now I'm having a debate with myself and the better half whether to do this. you may ask why? The need. The need for more speed. Race season is upon us.

 

[RYU]

Ouuuuuu so what's next?

 

[Valhalla]

Ouuuuuu so what's next?

Oh nothing.....yet. Doing some research and waiting for the Powerball numbers to come in!

 

[Mac Attack]

Glad to see you're having a lot of fun with your awesome car! Sometimes it's fun just to go back to OEM for a little while and enjoy that balance.

 

[Valhalla]

Glad to see you're having a lot of fun with your awesome car! Sometimes it's fun just to go back to OEM for a little while and enjoy that balance.

Who said anything about going back to OEM stock? I won't do any changes until late spring. The weather is too nice right now to lay the car up any length of time. But i have made up my mind and I will be pulling off the entire system and selling it complete, turn key ready to install and drive. Will have plenty of time to detail the For Sale post. Hope you are doing well.

 

[Mac Attack]

It was a suggestion as far as going back to the original high 200's HP for awhile to get re-calibrated.

Over the past 18 years I've been tinkering with mine, it's been through many powerplant configurations and each one has it's own benefits and drawbacks. From the 290ish crank HP, to a 9k RPM ITB variant with nitrous, to a 9k RPM 600 crank HP twin turbo beast, each one has its own merits.

Now I'm back to around 300 crank HP with the original intake manifold and enjoy the car mainly for the balance and precision. Of all the variations though and talking with others that have gone through the same thing I have, we all seem to agree that 400 WHP is a nice sweet spot for this platform, but to each their own.

I'm interested in seeing what you'll do next!

 

[Valhalla]

So I've had a little time on my hands since NSXPO 2022 has wrapped up. A lot of fun and a lot more time went into it's production. But it was successful and everyone has sung the praises as a really good event. So now I have time to work on the car some more.

First thing to do was to replace every clamp on the cold side turbo piping with t-bolt clamps. I have replaced every single one of them. And I found something, a lot more boost! I guess the old worm clamps were only for looks as the car really locks into higher boost numbers sooner than before. Must have had some boost charge leakage. I don't have any leakage now! Very fun.

Also after almost two years of adventures on track, canyons and a very steep driveway, the splitter was failing. The aluminum skin on th bottom was gone and the corrugation was disappearing too. So time to build a new splitter. It's partially constructed so I'll add another post with pictures. I saved the Professsional Awesome diffusers, supports and brackets from the original and am waiting on the Pro Awesome splitter support rods to finish. Time to take some pictures.

 

[mcano]

It was a suggestion as far as going back to the original high 200's HP for awhile to get re-calibrated.

Over the past 18 years I've been tinkering with mine, it's been through many powerplant configurations and each one has it's own benefits and drawbacks. From the 290ish crank HP, to a 9k RPM ITB variant with nitrous, to a 9k RPM 600 crank HP twin turbo beast, each one has its own merits.

Now I'm back to around 300 crank HP with the original intake manifold and enjoy the car mainly for the balance and precision. Of all the variations though and talking with others that have gone through the same thing I have, we all seem to agree that 400 WHP is a nice sweet spot for this platform, but to each their own.

I'm interested in seeing what you'll do next!

Yup, 400 HP is reportedly what my 97 supercharged NSX is running at! I like it!!!
NSX

 

[Valhalla]

So what is a good story/build without pictures? I will not disappoint. here is the splitter build and install.

First a pic of the front lip of the old alumalite splitter. Still functional but looked like crap and would have severed a foot of anyone walking too close to the front of my car.