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Ok, messed around with it a bit more this weekend.

Bought a no-spill filler setup and that really made burping the system much easier. Of course swapping out my 180* tstat with a motorcrat 192 also helped as well as the motorcraft had a burp hole but my original did not. Those two things made bleeding the cooling system a one and done thing. Ran the car for bit with the radiator capped after filling and did not observe anything leaking from the Tstat. Might take a few heat cycles to really stress it so will need to keep an eye on it. I should pressure test the system to ensure it's leak free at some point.

Still had my code 33. Troubleshot it a bit and I think my EGR vacuum regulator is dead. Resistance seems low and it actually does not activate with 12V. I had a spare kicking around so i tested that and it also didn't work. Two bad EGR vac solenoids? I ended up buying a cheapo parts store unit off Amazon so we will see. I really didn't want to snag a used one off ebay because no guarantee that those will be good. Goes against my "no cheap parts store crap" mentality, but ultimately the EGR will go away when i go to the megasquirt anyway, so a cheap solenoid for now is fine.

Still working on the fan wiring. Some parts in the mail.

Something in the accessory setup is misaligned. The belt was getting chewed up on one side and there was a thumping coming from the belt drive/accessories. (Removing the belt for a second made the system quiet) so i need to track down the misaligned part and correct. I flipped the belt and now it's silent, but I feel it's something that will come back. If you actually go back to post #947, you can see the front of the belt starting to shred up from something.

Idle quality. Not sure if this is a tuning issue or not. Since i adjusted the timing to 10 degrees (from 0 TDC) it runs much better. It had a big lope at 0 degrees, but now at 10 that has lessened and it idles smoother, but it has a shake like a misfire. It could also be the slight cam lope, combined with poly engine mounts. I haven't yet run the CBT yet (because i can't run the car long enough after warming up due to lack of cooling fan), but when it idles the motor rocks enough that the entire car shakes a bit. Giving it gas at idle results in a hesitation before it revs up. Seems to me it might be a tad bit rich. Off idle it runs and sounds healthy as hell. I didn't really think an untuned A9L would run this combo perfectly anyway, but I'm hoping this is more of a tuning issue and not a mechanical one. I can probably pull the spark plugs and do a compression test to rule things out. Could also be injector related as i did perform a flush and rebuild on those and might have screwed one up?

Gotta love chasing the small issues

For the accessories, what all was replaced/changed? Power steering only? New water pump? Alternator?
 
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For the accessories, what all was replaced/changed? Power steering only? New water pump? Alternator?

Everything is new. All new pullies, new water and power steering pumps, new balancer, new alt and pulley. New balancer. Only thing original is the tensioner arm and pulley. Makes it a bit harder to narrow down when there are so many variables.
 
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Pulled the other 7.


1 and 2 were the worst, but would this be fouling or just normal?

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Here’s #1. The worst. It did have a sort of oily/gassy smell
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All 8.
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While the plugs are out I’m going to do a compression test more or less just as a check. Can’t hurt and nows the time.
 
FWIW last weekend I had to redo the lash on all the rockers because I didn't read the cam card which said 3/4 turn, anyway went ahead and pulled all the plugs and mine smelled like gas but not the black coloration you have on parts of yours.

I went ahead and put 93 octane in mine and have timing set at 10 deg. It seems to be running better and better the more miles I put on it. I have probably a 100 miles tops now.
 
The black coloration extends all the way up the insulator out of sight. Hard to photograph that.

For the moment i'm blaming it on the retarded timing. It was set for 0-2 ATDC which is pretty late. In fact, at one point the engine did stall out and I had to depress the accelerator (into flood clear mode) to get it to restart. Idle quality deteriorated as this went on. She was definitely rich. Setting the timing back to 10degrees BTDC has improved idle, but nothing like where it was on initial start. On initial start it idled like a stock 5.0 even with the retarded timing. It feels like it has a misfire now, and i would bet it's on #1. I could always pull the injector plug while running.

I did buy new spark plugs. It was $12. I figure why waste my time and just rule out the plugs.

I am going to do a compression test just out of curiosity. A valve hanging open also crossed my mind, but the sound during cranking seems to imply i have even compression. I'm also pretty confident I did that right but never assume anything.

Of course, it could be that the A9L just can't handle the combo. :shrug:
That will be fixed later
 
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Compression test was unremarkable. 158-168psi on a cold engine

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Gapped the new spark plugs and threw them in. Was 11pm so couldn’t really fire it up with a house full of sleeping kids (and sleeping wife)


Started to try and troubleshoot my shredding belt. This might be a clue.

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Alt pulley is brand new and shows no wear. The tensioner pulley is old and pretty crusty. I think I’ll replace it. I knew the new ones are plastic which was my reason for not replacing it but at this point I have no choice
 
I have not looked at the mustang pulley but I found all the pullies on the dump truck used the same bearing that was six bucks verses forty plus (depending on which one) for a Ford pulley and not hard to R & R
I'll try to remember to look tomorrow, I have a few, you can guess where.
 
The bearing on this is fine. It’s the pulley that seems to be the issue. I just ordered a brand new one


It’s actually rusting through on the top left of the pulley. Only reason I tried to save this was because the aftermarkets were plastic.
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New tensioner pulley. Went with the Gates 38006 and was pleased to find it was metal

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No metal plate is supplied to cover the bearing, so I went on mcmaster and found an appropriate washer. Belt is chewed up a tad for being new, but I’ll run it for now Til I confirm I found what is damaging it and then buy a new one.

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Also, new fan controller is here. I found the Infiniti fan controller were rated at 50A and are dirt cheap. $15 for this with wiring. It’s a tad smaller than the Volvo unit (on left)which is rated for 60A but those S80 units are running $80+ used

Looks like my next free day is the Friday after Turkey day. Hopefully I can get this all wired up then.

Also on my list, making my CEL functional as 87-88 SD cars never had a functional cel
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Played around with it a bit with my PWM controller

500mhz seems to work well. Comes on at 24% duty cycle and is max at 100%. Very slow, gradual ramp up and down.

This is controlled by one wire. Without a signal, it defaults to fail safe which is full speed. For this reason, a relay needs to be used on the main power feed to cut power to the controller.

If you ground the wire, fan turns off. If you release the ground, it will slowly ramp to max.

It has an nice soft start feature. It will ramp to full speed gradually. Lowest speed at 24% duty cycle is 1.2 amps. Max speed is just under 24 amps. If you disconnect the wire and leave it open, it will slowly ramp from 1 to 24amps. It never goes over 25….ever. There is no 60a inrush (on one fan) like there was when I just turned the fan on and off by wiring it direct to the battery

Not bad for $15

Max current I ever measured when messing with it
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Now to wire it into the car with a bosch 75a relay and 40a maxifuse
 
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I have the 75a relay handy from another project. Just using what I have. Probably overkill but I don’t mind the extra cushion.

I started to mess with fan control on Tunerstudio but it appears the standard fan setup is relay activation only. Have to build a separate PwM output and map it to coolant temp. No ability to enable AC on or turn off the fan at a speed.

For now I’m going to wire in my little PWM controller on the car and just manually set the fan.
 
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