How did you go with scrutineering Curly?
All sorted?
Is the car all tuned and ready to rock?

Your story is the same as mine, just a gap of 6 years or so . Rally a BFMR to get into 4WD, then build a GC8 in huge hurry to start the next season. I won't tell you all the details of our first year with the rex. It took a few rallies to work out the bugs

Most of our spares will be with us at QFR even though we're not running a Rex. Come and find us if you need something on the weekend.

Karl

__________________
[B][COLOR=navy][B][COLOR=navy]Rally Driving Perth[/COLOR][/B][/COLOR][/B][COLOR=navy]
[/COLOR][COLOR=blue]www.rallyaction.com.au[/COLOR]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
[COLOR=navy]Rally Action Driver Training[/COLOR]

make sure you wave to me on ferndale and folly.

__________________
MY93 Impreza GX 1.8L, 0hp, 0nm

Umm, scrutineering was a bit of an issue. Got it running about two hours before our allotted time, cleaned it up a bit, and hit the road.

Only for it to overheat about 2km up the road. Stop, top up coolant, rinse, repeat. No joy.

Turned out that we hadn't got all the air out of the system properly, so we sorted that on Sunday.

Spoke to Ross and arranged to present the car at scrutineering on Friday. Doesn't give us much time to move if we fail on anything, but we'll deal with that as it happens.

Going to be a busy day - we have to pull the new turbo out to get it sealed up as well...

Which poses the question - we've got a VF23 now (thanks Alex!) and a 34mm restrictor. But it's a standard (STI) ECU. I've read somewhere that the internal wastegate is set to ~7psi, but the factory boost controller modifies the pressure going to the wastegate in order to get the desired boost?

Now given that we've run out of time to put a proper solution in place, how can we run this setup without damaging the turbo? Doug reckons that if we try to make boost high up in the rev range, we'll overspeed and damage the turbo?

I'm not sure I've got the willpower to short shift it all event - especially if there are spectators watching...

Is it an option to bypass the boost controller and just plug it in to the wastegate actuator and end up running ~7psi?

I'd be trying to beg/borrow/steal and ECU that suits your harness and getting a tune before the event rather than tring to dodge it up and blow your motor halfway into the 3rd stage.

__________________
MY93 Impreza GX 1.8L, 0hp, 0nm

I reckon there's more chance of blowing it up if he gets a new ECU and rushes to get it tuned. Mine only tapers back to about 12 PSI at full revs, so as long as you have no more than that right through the range it should be ok.
Having said that, there's no crystal ball to measure turbo life expectancy. A bunky old shitter can last for years, a brand new one can blow on the first stage.

So anyway, just got home from playing with the car tonight, and I'm bloody confused.

It wouldn't start on Sunday night as we went to move it to its parking spot, so we shrugged and left it there. It had been running fine all weekend, I'd been taking it around the block, moving it back and fore etc etc.

So it still wouldn't start tonight, no spark at all. Plugs looked fine. Scratched our heads for a bit. Alex suggested it might be a dodgy ignition relay, so found a spare and swapped that it, no joy.

Swapped to the spare ecu that we'd previously decided was faulty, and it fired up straight away. Took it down the servo, filled it up with BP 98, and drove up and down the Roe for a bit. Ran fine (with a hint of detonation occasionally) and feels pretty strong. Hesitates a bit on part throttle though...

What could cause a lack of spark, fixed by swapping ecus? The check engine light isn't on when it's running. Some sort of error, and it takes a while for the ecu to go into failsafe mode?

Swapped the ECU back to the original one, and it started fine, but died as I turned the headlights on. Will check that the alternator is charging properly first thing tomorrow afternoon.

Someone has also suggested that the crank and cam angle sensors are a common point of failure? We swapped some with a mate, and it didn't seem to make any difference. Not sure I want to drop $250 on a pair of new sensors unless there's a good chance it'll make a difference.

Sigh. Still, it feels pretty great when it's running and on boost.

Curly,
The detonation issue is a concern. Seen many a WRX engine go bang from too much boost/timing and not enough fuel.
Worth a look at the air flow meter as well.
I've had a couple of past problems with a combination of problem sensors. I have found if the car won't start, unplug the crank angle first and plug back in. If that doesn't sort it, unplug the cam angle and repeat with the AFM. We discovered one of our school cars had suspect AFM & crank angle sensors. Changing the ECU is similar to unplugging the sensor, it is like a re-set.

Sounds like your going to the Forest with a few teething troubles.
You don't really have the time now, however the best solution is after market ecu, boost controller and possibly Map sensor. Throw away the factory AFM (will need to fit after market air temp sensor). At least the after market ECU's will be able to pin point the problems straight away and a safe tune can be put in to get you through an event.
Have you checked/replaced all of your vacuum/boost hoses? On a few WRX's we've discovered the small factory rubber pipes have developed cracks/splits due to the age. A roll of small diameter silicone hose is a good fix.

Karl

__________________
[B][COLOR=navy][B][COLOR=navy]Rally Driving Perth[/COLOR][/B][/COLOR][/B][COLOR=navy]
[/COLOR][COLOR=blue]www.rallyaction.com.au[/COLOR]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
[COLOR=navy]Rally Action Driver Training[/COLOR]

Hey Karl,

Cheers for the suggestions, it's much appreciated. We've ordered new cam and crank angle sensors, and will try them out tonight. Ours come in at 2.1kohm (from memory), and the spec is 0.95-1.25kohm. The weird thing is, we tested a few other sensors from working cars, and they were about the same as ours.

We've replaced most of the vacuum/boost hoses already. I'll try and test the output from the AFM tonight.

And yes, a proper ecu is definitely on the cards, hopefully before the Experts cup.

I'm driving the car down there on Wednesday arvo, so hopefully that'll iron out some more teething problems. I'm putting the detonation down to the remnants of the old fuel at the moment, so it's going to be a very careful drive down there with one ear cocked.

Sounds like you're on the right track mate.
A process of elimination.
Something else worth checking is all of your earths, particularly on the engine.
There was a known problem with some ECU's/looms where a faulty earth caused misfiring. I remember reading about it in a Possum Link ECU manual and heard of a couple of people having the problem.
With the amount of time that shell of yours has spent in the weather and a new loom, it could be a simple thing causing you a whole bunch of headaches.

Karl

__________________
[B][COLOR=navy][B][COLOR=navy]Rally Driving Perth[/COLOR][/B][/COLOR][/B][COLOR=navy]
[/COLOR][COLOR=blue]www.rallyaction.com.au[/COLOR]
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
[COLOR=navy]Rally Action Driver Training[/COLOR]

Well, an update in case anyone is curious.

The car cut out once on the way to the workshop tonight - wavey had to change ecu beside the roe hwy before it would start again.

Went and tested the new cam and crank sensors - didn't make a difference. Mikey had a scantool that we plugged in to the OBD port. How cool are those things?!

Apparently the intake air temp is -40C - will have to check the standard airbox and see if there is a temp sensor somewhere that we haven't reconnected.

The O2 sensor wasn't working, so we replaced that with a spare.

Car then stopped working. After a good few hours of scratching our heads, someone poked the ecu plug while it was running and killed the engine.

Lots of poking and prodding ensued, and it looks like there are a few dodgy connections on the ECU plugs. Can anyone suggest a source for an ecu harness I can hack apart to replace ours - before we leave for the rally tomorrow arvo?

Anyway, bodged that up for the time being, but the detonation problem is still there. I pinched off the wastegate bleed line, resulting in ~9psi of boost rather than the 14 or so it was previously getting but it didn't make a difference. What can cause detonation? Bad fuel, too much boost, and too much timing? Any way to check whether the knock sensor is working?

Two steps forward, one step back...