Smoky the Magnificent, a tale of Magic Spinning Doritos

A little deadline helps me a bunch. 

So Bent-valve had a stuck valve in a rotary engine.  

I should be confused, but I am not.

Scott

What's funny is I just read another thread about 30 minutes a day in the shop.

I didn't want to hijack his thread so here is the result of my 8+ hours a day in the shop.

This includes insulation, walls, paint, rewiring through conduit and selling / cleaning etc. Built a new rolling bench, organized all my tools, threw out / sold tools,etc.

The whole point is to quickly and efficiently do work on my projects. The first is those stuck valves, in a rotary engine, which doesn't have valves....

And though I am not finished with the barn I do need to fix this and start my Challenge car. 

just watching you mess with the upper intake on in the car is giving my PTSD... 

Detaching the A/C, 2 brake lines and a steering coupler then the whole subframe assembly lowers easily 

the whole intake and electrical is a massive puzzle and like most puzzles they only really go together one way so if you are stuck on something because it doesn't quite fit this way is because it was probably designed to be installed a different way at a different time. Very annoying and gives anxiety for the quantity of parts that get jigsawed together only to find out you need to tear it down again. 

In reply to fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) :

Muscle memory.  I get faster each time.

and maybe this time I'll remember to attach the antifreeze line to the throttle body.

If I drop the subframe I have to do an alignment. That said, I may try it this time.

I wanted an alignment prior to the autocross season.

In reply to fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) :

You can watch, I didn't pull the intake. Much.

There is a question at the bottom.

I did not want to pull the engine, I figured there had to be a way to remove that actuator and see if the valves were stuck. I removed the air pump for the exhaust and the right front tire. I pulled the egr tube and one intake bolt to move a metal vacuum tube and I was able to get the actuator off.

Looking down it goes here, its difficult or impossible to get to.

From the wheel well its possible after removing a few things. The gear activates the APV (aux power valves) and is driven by a small motor. The magnet is a position indicator. The gear turned and operated the valves smooth as melted butter.

The actuator has a connector like this:

D and B operate the motor, it runs fine.

E, C, and A are the sensor. C is the ground, it does not connect to E or A (checked with a meter). yet the manual shows that it does.

Or am I reading this schematic wrong? Should I have some resistance and not an open circuit between C and either E or A?

I also tried measuring anything with a magnet near the sensor, no results. So I feel the sensor is bad.

I ask because it's a $234 part. Yeah, ouch.

In reply to Bent-Valve (FS) :

Per that horrible schematic, I'd almost say A is the output, C is ground, and E is reference voltage, most likely 5v.

Edit: found a different schematic probably a different year but there wouldn't be a reason to swap all the pins around. That is the American but not the Japanese way of doing things. Plus it's how schematics should be written, positive at the top and ground being on the bottom.

I found and downloaded the manuals for the mechanics, I thought they were better than nothing.

I'll look at rotaryheads for more info.

I have a 170 ohms between E and A, and I get 5780 ohms either way from C to E or C to A.

I'm going to run a test they list, then I'll start checking the wiring harness. The valves aren't stuck so it has to be in the control, either setup wrong, electrical or short / bad ground.

That's very likely a hall switch. I'm not sure an ohm value will tell you if it's good or bad. You could probe pin A on the sensor with it connected and powered and see if the voltage changes as you pass a magnet across it. 

RXBeetle said:

That's very likely a hall switch. I'm not sure an ohm value will tell you if it's good or bad. You could probe pin A on the sensor with it connected and powered and see if the voltage changes as you pass a magnet across it. 

this is a good oppotunity to splurge on a power probe :) 

1) Checked all the wiring from the sensor to the ecu, no bad wires.

2) Checked, no missing grounds.

3) Beat head against wall, didn't help.

4) Rechecked the SSV switch, its good.

5) Everything mechanical is free moving.

urrrrr.....

So I put it all back together, since I don't have one to put in. I think I may just buy the dang thing and shove it in there.

I think I will go break something.

I just checked the APV motor from the engine I pulled from my RX8 and I get the same ohm values you do, but that doesn't really confirm anything.  You want it? 

In reply to RXBeetle :

Sure, I'll PM you later tonight. It's been a busy day on other subjects.

My new daily is choked down and I may have finally found a partial cause.

There are three pictures, a whole shot, then close ups. I think I have a mostly clogged cat.

I am going to take more pictures to see if the angle of my cell phone jammed in the exhaust just makes it look clogged, but I would not mind input form the group mind.

Whole thing:

Now a close up of the top section:

I think that's clogged.

Then the lower left center close up and what looks like clear honeycomb.

But it might be the angle of the camera. While I get some new shots y'all carry on.

OK, not clogged.

The "clear" section moves with the camera.

P0107 code - found a loose connection on the baro sensor. Got it connected.

I sprayed the honeycomb with Mopar CCC and bolted it back up.

Reset ecu and fuel map, its idling now to relearn how to run.

A possible cause I can't test tonight is the fuel pump being weak.

If I can't make it run right stock I'm a gonna make that damn thing BRAP! 

Updates -

1) Ordered new Deatschwerks fuel pump. I'm just going to eliminate the possiblty of a failing pump.

2) AC stuff came in, I am slowly destroying my car looking for the firewall, seriously it has one, I've seen it from the engine bay.

Why? That's a good question. It seems this little piece, called an expansion valve, mounts just under the windshield wipers.

The manual shows it here:

The steps include things like draining the coolant and removing A pillar covers. I will be quite intimate with the 8 by the time this is over.

I had hoped they were being overly optimistic about how much had to be disassembled, but no.

I take solace in the fact the pump is mounted, I have a new condenser, I flushed the system, etc. Its going a smooth as can be expected.

The idler pulley and belt should come in today.

I got the kit from Rock Auto. The only complaint I have is that out all the new o-rings supplied several sizes are missing so I had to reuse the old o-rings. A vacuum and pressure test are both in order anyway.

Well, enough break, back to the disassembly!

Two things on the fuel pump, there's a recall for the whole module, see if it's been replaced yet or not. The filters is built into the pump module and can't be replaced individually...

Second, the pump is normally powered through a relay and resistor brick under the hood. At high flow demand a second relay will activate and bypass the relay for full juice. 

That dash teardown looks like the stuff of nightmares. Good luck!

This is what success looks like.

I managed to NOT break anything and the little bugger is replaced.

When I got down to it, it had some kind of industrial sticky silly putty wrapped around it.

So now I need the vacuum pump to check for leaks before I put all back together.

I also have to rewrap the valve to keep condensation from soaking the carpet.

Yo RXBeetle -- Thanks I'll check that also. I didn't get crazy with the pump, just a good one. So it shouldn't draw more than the original. If it's the relay the pump is just a bit more insurance.

They make high volume pumps but I figure that would get into more wiring etc.

In reply to RXBeetle :

Oh and they replaced the fuel pipe on the recall but not the pump.

Another recall was the a arms, and 2 other recalls were all done at the same time.

Went to rent vacuum pump and gauges. They were already rented.

I had an empty freon can so I took the hose added my hand vacuum pump and got it down to 20 inches before my forearms gave out.

So far it looks good but I'll check it properly when I get the tools tomorrow. 

Seriously?

I put the dash back together. It only blows hot air.

I left the radio unit out due to the face plate being broken (it was broken when I got the car) and deciding if I want to put a double din unit with nav in. I'll have to wait for funds on that though. Face plate is in so there isnt a hole in the dash.

Got gauges, filled it with freon, didn't take pic's, sorry.

Anyway, searching for a possible cause I found:

" a/c reprogramming instructions.
only works if the build date is after 9/03, but it may work if the a/c compressor was replaced under the tsb.

1. Make sure the car is off AND the HVAC fan is off AND the A/C on/off button is off.
2. Press and hold the front defroster (on the left) AND air source (recirc/fresh air) buttons
3. Continue pressing the buttons in step 2 and turn the key to ACC for 3 seconds
4. Continue pressing the buttons in step 2 and further turn the key to ON (NOT START) for 3 more seconds.
5. Verify the programming update by observing the REAR defroster LED blink 3 times.
6. Release the two buttons from step 2 and start the car.

When you turn on the A/C with the MODE button set to FACE and turn the thermostat to full COLD (max counter-clockwise setting) the RECIRC should automatically engage. In addition, the amplifier should put out colder air (~ 5-10 degrees F colder and not just from the RECIRC setting) and the compressor will not cycle nearly as often (which some of us found annoying).

Note: This programming change is not persistent. If the battery is fully discharged or disconnected the procedure needs to be repeated to re-enable the settings."

I am used to it relearning idle, resetting the DSC unit, once I even recalibrated the sunroof after I tried to close it doing, um, tried to close it with some wind resistance.

Is there anything that isn't programmed / added sensors in an RX-8?

I didn't copy the link but whoever wrote the instruction above is full of crap.

OK, on to today. I have a/c, yah! I put the fuel pump in today to eliminate the possibility of a failing pump.

And I find mud dauber nests.

After taking it out and apart it was going slowly but Shirley, (don't call me Shirley!) until I got to putting on the new fuel tube.

I tried almost boiling water to soften it up....

I finally got it on, not sure the hot water did anything but burn my fingers.

I also had to trim the new filter they gave me to be able to snap the 2 halves together. I had to use it because the original broke. Then it went back in pretty quick.

The original was an Arram unit which is typical. It also means that it has never been changed.

So I take it out to test it.

If fires up and runs fine, I warm it up, open it up and ......

It screams to 4500 - 5000, and then loses power from there.

I did check the relays, I also switched them thinking if the one was was bad it wouldn't start. Nope, starts fine and those are ok.

So the fuel is being delivered, on to the next item. I'll recheck the injectors later tonight.

Wait, the AC didn't work after reassembly, but then it did? What was the fix? All that reprogramming mumbojumbo even though you said the person that posted it was full of crap? I want to know how you fixed it! 

Ah, yeah.

So the radio controls the HVAC. No radio no control. I put the radio back in.

The brass inserts in the plastic face plate pulled out and cracked the plastic mounting points.

I am going to add a Metra module. It's an aftermarket module that let's you remove the original radio BUT use your HVAC.

I am going to replace the OEM radio with an aftermarket radio. That way I can have all the features I want.

But I'm broke at the moment. 

Sorry I didn't post that. I try but sometimes I just work and forget to update or document.

Glad you got ac! It's a must have!