August 2006 - Cams, Injectors, Valve Springs, Valve Base Plates & Retainers, Tuning

Specs:

All install work done at Euro Cars

                           

 

                           

 

   

 

 

Install

 

I didn't have my camera the for the most of install, but I did take these for the wrap up.  The install went alright a couple of hiccups.  Labor intensive to say the least I thought.  Its been done a hundred times before, so I won't go into great detail.

 

We discovered that there was some scoring on my exhaust cam.  I looked back through my service records for the car before I owned it, since I remembered there being a case of a low oil incident.  Here is it.  Oil starvation, and the exhaust cam is higher than the intake cam.  Since I've had it for the last 20k, the oil has always

 

       

 

*shrug* What can you do?

 

Hiccup #1:

Even though the Supertech kit was designed for the M/S 50/52, the Supertech base plates were 12.1mm at ID.  Factory valve guides are 12.4mm in OD.  **Oops**  I used a universal bit to carefully machine out each plate until they fit over the guide.  Not a huge deal, but a little disturbing.

 

Hiccup #2:

We get everything buttoned back up, start it up, and its rough, really rough.  No problem, the ECU is learning.  Let it idle for another few minutes, and the SES light illuminates.  Pulll the codes, and ~10 codes are stored [all kinds of random stuff], but no misfire codes.  We chalk it up to low voltage since my battery is likely struggling being ~5 years old, the hatch being open for a few days, and the strong pusher fan running several times at position 2.

 

We clear the codes and hook up a battery charger for ~15min.  Start it up again, and get a "Misfire #6" code now.  The long and short of this trouble-shooting event was that we think the connection of the injector rail harness wasn't the best from the off/on/off/on events.  We swapped plugs #1 & #6, cleaned plug 6 in case it appeared fouled, swapped coil packs #1 & #6, did a compression check [all 200psi +/- 1%] with no effect, so we lastly switch the injectors #1 & #6.

 

Finally, no codes, and still after putting ~100mi on it, no codes, so we're chalking it up to the injector rail harness connection.

 

After putting ~100mi on it, LTFTs are -1.6.      Pretty damn good for a custom tune NickG!  Power feels good, although it was ~ 90*F+ ambient yesterday.  The power last night felt better.

 

The near future plan is to drive it easy for a another hundred miles or so and do an oil change