It lives!

Whew, got the car running again with the turbo, but it took some doing. We did have spark, the fuel pump was working, the alarm-ectomy was successful. However, it still wasn't starting. To debug it, here's what I went through today:

• check spark (ok)
• check fuel pump and flow (ok)
• check for engine codes (none)
• check for blockages in the intake plumbing (none)
• sit and look at the engine for awhile (thinking ...)
• take off all intake and install old Jackson intake (bypass turbo and intercooler) - It runs!
• put back on some intake pieces (turbo in-line, bypass intercooler) - No dice!
• put back on one intake piece (bypass turbo and intercooler but AFM in right place in terms of intake length) - No dice!
• tighten the crap out of the hose clamps - It runs!

So, here's the deal. It turns out that the silicone connectors for the extra shiny aluminum tubing we have sitting around don't quite fit right. This means that even if you tighten the clamps up pretty tightly, they still have lots of air leaks and the AFM gets really confused. So, after hooking up all of the intake tubes again and tightening the crap out of the hose clamps, it finally ran with the turbo, but even then there were still lots of leaks. Oh yeah, and I almost burned through a heater return line with the new exhaust placement.

Maybe tomorrow I'll figure out a better way to connect up the intake tubing. I'd really like to take it for a test-run and see what breaks.

Ps

Intake complete, turbo oiled, but no spark?

This weekend was reasonably productive. We took some existing parts and pieces to do up one half of the intake (intercooler to throttle body), and some new shiny aluminum tubes to plumb up the other half (charge tube to intercooler). We undid the spark plugs and cranked the engine a bit to make sure that the oil was getting to the impeller housing (it was) and draining back to the sump (it was). However, after hooking the spark plugs back up and connecting the air flow meter, the engine turns over but never catches. Unfortunately it got dark, I got tired, and the problem still remains.

Is there spark?

Is there something obvious unhooked?

Did Zandr's foray into the alarm nest-o-wires disconnect something?

Coil plug wire?

Fuel pump working?

Stay tuned ...

Alarm-ectomy, exhaust, makin' money

Zandr came over today and scraped out the alarm from the car (see picture). It's a pretty impressive set of extra wires designed to make the car not run. We're glad they're gone.

We also contorted ourselves just enough to install the downpipe from the turbo. It involved a bit of limb re-arrangement, but now we can reach nuts and bolts from pretty much anywhere. We also clamped up the current exhaust as it was resting on the rear sway bar.

Last, we sold an arm rest to RobK for $10 - his was all ripped up.

Unfortunately we didn't get the intake fully plumbed up so we were unable to start the car. We may need to dip into our sponsor pool for ideas, or break down and buy something.