Ken-chan's car blog

This is a quick and cheap way to remove pilot bushing from the shaft without purchasing “special tools”.

Take a decent size bolt and 5/8″ hose, put the bolt in 1/3rd of the way into the house – you may have to turn it a bit by hand to get it in to the hose…

Now put in inside the pilot bushing hole.. ensure the hose sits right up against the end of the pilot bushing hole. Now all you have to do is either push in the bolt further into the hose or turn the bolt clockwise so it goes further into the hose causing the hose to expand inside the pilot bushing.. since the hose will fit snug inside the pilot bushing, u can pull out easily..

A quick note:

Keep it straight when pulling it out – to avoid scratching and also – the tolerances for the bushing size are precise so unless you keep it straight – it might get stuck. If it gets stuck.. just rock it gently back in and try again.

Oh yeah – when you’re putting on a new clutch kit.. don’t reuse the old bushing..

C: Likely cause – drained battery / short circuit in the system.

Solution:

Test voltage on the battery – anything below 12v is bad news – try to charge it up. (some notes coming on how to verify battery’s charging ability based on amps)

To test for short circuit in the system, do the following:

1. Visually inspect positive cables leading away from the battery.

2. Unplug the negative terminal of the battery.

3. Wire up a 2-5 watt 12v light bulb.  Place one wire on the negative terminal of the battery and the other on the disconnected negative terminal.  With car off, if you get the light bulb to light up even a little, you got a short circuit somewhere.  Intensity and the bulb you choose can indicate roughly how much drain there is – brighter = more flow / less resistance. 

3. To further test where the short is, uplug one fuse at a time until the bulb shuts off.  When it goes off, inspect the system or wiring associated with that fuse.

You can make custom soft gaskets really easy and save quite a lot of money.  By “soft gaskets”, I am referring to gaskets that are not do not include steel gaskets such as the ones used for exhaust, etc.  Soft gaskets can be used to provide a good seal against oil and air leaks.  I have been making custom soft gaskets for my turbo projects for 2 years now without leak issues, etc.  Just make sure when you purchase gasket sheets, you use the right gasket material for the specific job it was designed for – use oil type of gasket when you will be making gasket for the oil return line for your turbo – I found that coating the finished gasket with slight layer rtv sealant helps to give it rubbery characteristic which should make it more resistant to moisture.

Here are some DIY gasket pictures for a T25:

Let’s get started:

1. Take piece of regular photocopier / printer paper.

2. Put the part into a vice or on a stable surface.  Use pencil to trace the shape of the flange through the paper.

3. Cut the shape you just drew and punch out / cut out the bolt holes.  Basically we’re making a gasket template on paper so we can trace it onto gasket material.

4. Trace out the shape on the gasket using the template you just made.  Cut the gasket material to the shape you traced on it – hole punches are very useful to get the bolt hole sizes right instead of having to mess around using exacto knife or cookie cutters, but you can do it either way.

5. Put it on the flange itself to see how it sits.  You can gently file or cut it to fit the flange exactly – this way it will not reduce air flow and will last without tearing, etc.  Make sure you don’t cause any damage to the actual flange.  Afterwards – clean up any dust that accumulates from the trimming of the gasket (air compressor / cloth / visual spot check come in handy).

6. Here is how our new gasket looks back on the turbo…

Ok some more examples..

T25 inlet / outlet gaskets…

KA24DE IACV gasket…

* Point of interest: if you are putting your IACV back on the manifold that still sits on the motor, it’s good to use dental floss or string to hold the gasket & screws together until you start to tighten them on the back of the manifold.  It saves a lot of time and headaches resulting from falling gasket / screws.  Once you start tightening, pull on the string so it unwinds and you’re done.  This works great in places where you have limited access with one hand.

Here is an example of a pod I made for a friend. 

After measuring & marking the gauge circle cuts on the wood, using hole cut outs I cut out 2 1/16″ holes, spray-protected the pod with moisture resistant wood varnish. 

Example of hole cutout set I used to make the gauge pod – click here to see how the remaining cut 2 1/16″ wood pieces were reused in making a boost leak tester

Afterwards I lined inside of the gauge-holes with thin layer of padding tape to ensure gauges would hold firmly without being crushed by expanding wood if it ever gets moist (it also gives it some room to expand so you can still pull out the gauge if you twist it but it sits firmly inside without bouncing around).  Afterwards, I sanded the edges on belt sander to give it smoother, rounder look in case my friend would decide to mount it externally somewhere.  I am not so creative – it’s mostly about function & durability but you could make it round, etc.

Here’s a finished wooden gauge pod I’ve been using for the past 4 years:

BEST PART OF THIS DIY is that you can:

• Color it any way you want.
• Mount it any way you want.  It can also be made for exact fitment under your stereo, etc.  I am currently using a wooden 3-gauge pod in my car that I made back in 2006 that sits under the cd player – no issues with shaking, rattling, fading, etc.
• If you choose oak or other solid wood – it’ll be more durable than the cheap plastic stuff you can get online.  And it’s still cheap to make – provided you have the basic tools.
• You can create custom wiring layout with fuses and brackets to make swapping gauges and installation on any car real easy.

S: Your gauge shows low vacuum idling.  Car feels very shaky – may stall if revved & throttle is released.

C: There could be several causes why vacuum is low.

Starting with the easiest to the more painful to fix, here they are:

1. vacuum leak(s) on the intake piping (usually via vacuum hoses or cracks in the piping)

2. vacuum hoses on the intake manifold (past throttle body)

Usually the greater the difference between good vacuum level and bad vacuum level indicates how big the air leak is.

3. EGR – the diapraghm is known to leak.

4. Leak around throttle body.

5. Intake manifold gasket leak.

6. BLOWN PISTON RINGS or BENT VALVES / Head Gasket (?) ***  (check compression / leak-down)

Solution: To diagnose vacuum leaks – visual inspection helps but it can be hard to trace in a maze of hoses & cracks almost impossible to see.  Instead opt for air compressor – just ensure it is set to moderate pressure levels.  Do not worry 100 psi will not blow away your manifold right away or create leaks if you only have a 1/4″ hose – but pay attention to your boost gauge or whatever gauge you have on the large piping to ensure you do not run over pressure it is rated for.  I am checking my stock ka-t setup to 20 psi and can easily spot if something is not right – I found that my EGR leaked past 4 psi so that got fixed

Once you find out you do not hear audible leaks and haven’t found the reason for the leak, do a compression test.  And if it looks good – and you are sure there’s no leaks, it’s probably your timing that’s off – a symptom of that would be really bad uneven idle.

This page shows my T25 rebuild assuming you took the turbo apart (you can just see how it’s being put on and reverse the steps)…

http://www.makemilk.com/pic_hosting/s1495/diy/t25_rebuild/

S: On a hot day, you start to lose brakes after boosting for a while.  Brake pedal will get spongy and start to travel closer and closer to the floor as if there was a leak somewhere in the brake lines.  Brakes come back to normal operation few hours later once car is cool again.

C: Very likely problem with Master Brake Cylinder heating up. 

Here is what happens – usually occurs with boost past 9 psi.   Please note that ballpark measurements over time were taken with infra red meter.  With car boosting a lot especially during hot weather, manifold on T25 can reach close to 280 degrees C and on the underside of the turbo near wastegate / turbine close to 380 degrees (tested on non-water cooled t25). 

As long as you are driving, the flow of air through the engine bay will keep the air moving preventing the hot parts impacting the Master Brake Cylinder (MBC).  The problem often occurs once car stops and is either turned off or sits idling for a while – about 10 minutes later, you start car, drive off but notice the brakes are really weak and travel further to the floor.  What happened was that due to the lack of moving air through the engine bay – the manifold and turbo started cooking your mbc – I’ve seen temperatures close to 98 degrees C on the MBC housing and 110 on strut bar above.  Then when you let car sit for few hours, brakes return to normal operation once temperature of the MBC cools.   I haven’t looked into why exactly the problem occurs inside the MBC – from looks of it oil rises towards top of MBC plastic container and seems like less oil / lubrication is available in the actual cylinder – if you push pedal on hot MBC, you can hear bit of scraping and lots of pedal travel indicates there is just no oil in the cylinder when you push on it.

I noticed that anytime the MBC housing reaches over 65 degrees, you will start to see degraded braking performance such as spongy pedal, etc.

Solution: Make a brake heat shield & replace fluid in MBC with synthetic fluid.  Issue went away for me just by heat wrapping the MBC & just draining fluid from mbc & refilling with synthetic dot 4 fluid.

S: Car backfires after light throttle is applied and then applied soon after. It also backfires when boosting and letting off – it experiences rich condition and it starts to dip rpm. Sometimes it goes so low that it stalls.

** ONGOING: STILL WORKING ON RESOLVING THE ISSUE **

Observation / Tests:
-BOV is recirculated.
-New distributor was put in.
-The distance between maf and compressor is now over 15 inches (air tight extension was put in).
-IACV was replaced & spare one was cleaned & installed. On first start it blew lots of smoke (hard to tell if blue or black at night) – probably from KA-T#1 (maybe had some oil in it). I will check if it still throws a code.

-If SAFC is setup to subtract more fuel near the idle rpm, car doesn’t dip as much / backfire because (my guess) as it passes that rpm and slows down, the reduced maf signal causes injector pulse to decrease and not much fuel is dumped in. So technically the DEC-AIR function would work here except that doesn’t solve the original problem – it would only serve as a band aid solution. Let’s find the real cause…

-Determining whether fpr had broken down and car sucked fuel via vacuum diaphraghm, I unplugged it – started the car – revved it – appeared to have no leakage from the vacuum line. I went for a ride and discovered it had backfire even after I retuned it.

To be tested:
-INJECTORS: FPR appears to have been fine with vacuum line unplugged, so it could be injectors.
-FUEL PUMP?
-MAF? or MAF in/out setting on safc (It appears that it hits lean right before it backfires, I will try 2 in 6 out and subtract fuel)?

Valve cover painting is one of my favorite diy’s.  Granted it’s nothing fancy like powder coating, it still adds something cool to the unique setup.  I try to make each valve cover bit different from the other.

To clean, prepare & paint a valve cover expect to spend good 7-8 hours of mostly wait time and about 1.5-2 hours of actual work… Ensure you get about 3 coats of paint with some breaks between for each stage.

Let’s start…

1. Clean up the valve cover using degreaser, 400 grit paper, steel brush if needed – avoid creating scratches.

Afterwards wash degreaser off with water, dry it or blow out with air gun.  Tape off the cover top openings to prevent overspray from getting in (follow the shape of the oil cap).

2. Use vaseline to mark off areas you don’t want painted, such as lettering.

3. Use filler/primer to spray the cover – hopefully wet-sandable – if you spot uneven surfaces, use wet sandpaper to smooth it out. If you can’t find filler-primer combo, extra oversprays with some time out can help to make surface even. Afterwards let it dry.
 

4. Spray it with your high-temperature favorite color – in this case I chose orangy-red (lol tang? I am not good with color naming).

5. For the 3d feel / effect, I used mesh – ensure it’s tight (can use elastics) to give you good spread out pattern.

6. Overspray with another color – this time choose a darker color so that when you remove the mesh, the net effect will create lighter mesh effect.

7. After spraying few layers, leave it for a while with the mesh on.. once it hardens, gently peel the mesh away from surface – you will see the 3d effect and also bottom color will now show up as a grid.

8. Have a favorite sticker you would like to embed into your valve cover? Ensure it is a sticker with a shape – as the shape will transfer to the cover. Gently stick it on.. you can put very little bit of vaseline on the back of the sticker for easy removal. Just ensure that vaseline doesn’t spread over any surface areas or paint won’t grip there.

9. For this step, I’ve decided to create an effect of dark lettering on light background. I’ve measured out and created a spray rectangle over the lettering & sprayed 3 layers (with some time between) over the stickers and anything in that rectangle.

10. Now using exacto knife.. gently peel away the letter stickers..
As for nissan lettering.. Use qtip to rub off the paint – since the vaseline is below the paint, the paint will simply drop off the areas where you applied vaseline.. Use small paint brush to finish off the edges around lettering – it will remove the excess pieces you may have missed.

I found as an added protection – clear coat helps and surprisingly stands temperature well – spray 2-3 times (again with dry time between) – it will add more protection to the paint.

Here is the big shot for upclose…

Click here

And here is another valve cover done using similar but slightly different techniques.

And here they are for comparison…

Click here

And one more gloss-black for the new engine build…

Enjoy!

A quick generic tool to help pick tuning settings based on throttle / hi / lo points…

http://www.makemilk.com/pic_hosting/s1495/diy/safc2_install/safc2.xls