Debugging of my Caterham begins

[mrmustang]

Ok, so vacuum ports are plugged, fired the car up, still the same three to four cycles to get the car to run and took a quick read

1 maxed out at 10

2 maxed out at 10

3 sitting at 3

4 maxed maxed out on 10

 

Go to loosen the nuts so I can start adjusting and find them all loose already. Start at number 1 and all of a sudden I get a fuel ignition flash out of number 4 and the car dies. Reversed what I had done (I think) and killed the battery trying to get the car to run again...SIGH. Did I screw the pooch, or will this be a reversible error once I've charged the battery overnight?

 

How can I get the adjustments done if the car won't run?

Do I turn the adjustment downwards or upwards to lower the numbers on #1. Downwards will pull the thread in, while going upwards will pull the thread out (clockwise thread)

Then again, how the hell can I make adjustments on four throttle bodies with only three doubled threaded (clockwise and counter clockwise) adjustment rods.

 

 

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Bill

Edited March 4 by mrmustang

[MV8]

Skimmed three pages of posts. New plugs and  injectors. Fuel pressure with the pump running/jumpered on? Compression test? Have you looked at the programming yet? CTS temp shown look right? There is no accel pump so if that emulation is off, it would be hard to move until sufficiently warm for the programming. The hidden linkage is not helping matters. I'd take the intake sys off to set it up on the bench for equal closed position and understand how to make one adjustment for idle. Write down everything you find and if you eventually want to change anything in the programming. Take pics of the setting screens if necessary but you should be able to make changes as save as a name you come up with, like the date the change is made, so as not to overwrite the original specs you may want to go back to.

[Vovchandr]

Between the software and the throttle bodies take pictures of EVERYTHING and screen shots of "point zero" if you need to go back to it. Count the threads on the linkages if you have to. You want to have a "known good" to come back to. I know you said you already adjusted one, its still fine take measurements and counts to go back to this stage if needed. At least you know at this stage only one is "compromised". 

 

You're not screwed but this will be painful. I never messed around with this too much alone and let the tuner at the time try to set everything to a "good zero" position before continuing with tuning. Smart but scared the hell out of me and was lots of adjusting back and forth. 

 

You can use feeler gauges of even a piece of folder paper to measure the gap quickly as you're doing adjustments. You stick them into the butterfly to see if they all allow the same amount in/past them in the "closed" position. 

 

For what it's worth, fair warning I sent mine out from a running car to Borla/TWM to make sure they are fine and aren't a variable in my troubleshooting. They sell a "tune up" for $100. When they got mine they told me almost everything on mine was "beyond repair" and was needed to be replaced and so they did. I got back essentially a new unit by the time they were done. 

 

Also at some point in time might be worth taking them off regardless to make sure you dont have same issues as me. My runners developed a collapse in the thin metal by the gasket and were a problem on a few cylinders. Hopefully you dont have this problem but its good to double check. 

 

  

 

Also the mysterious flash out still happens on my car all the time. 

[mrmustang]

13 minutes ago, Vovchandr said:

Between the software and the throttle bodies take pictures of EVERYTHING and screen shots of "point zero" if you need to go back to it. Count the threads on the linkages if you have to. You want to have a "known good" to come back to. I know you said you already adjusted one, its still fine take measurements and counts to go back to this stage if needed. At least you know at this stage only one is "compromised". 

 

You're not screwed but this will be painful. I never messed around with this too much alone and let the tuner at the time try to set everything to a "good zero" position before continuing with tuning. Smart but scared the hell out of me and was lots of adjusting back and forth. 

 

You can use feeler gauges of even a piece of folder paper to measure the gap quickly as you're doing adjustments. You stick them into the butterfly to see if they all allow the same amount in/past them in the "closed" position. 

 

For what it's worth, fair warning I sent mine out from a running car to Borla/TWM to make sure they are fine and aren't a variable in my troubleshooting. They sell a "tune up" for $100. When they got mine they told me almost everything on mine was "beyond repair" and was needed to be replaced and so they did. I got back essentially a new unit by the time they were done. 

 

Also at some point in time might be worth taking them off regardless to make sure you dont have same issues as me. My runners developed a collapse in the thin metal by the gasket and were a problem on a few cylinders. Hopefully you dont have this problem but its good to double check. 

 

  

 

Also the mysterious flash out still happens on my car all the time. 

Did you send the whole assembly to them?

Given my location, I'm wondering if  taking my car up to 1turbofocus shop in NC (about 95 miles from my location) would be a better choice. I don't want to screw things up worse then I already have.

 

Thinking I'll try for a few minutes tomorrow morning with a charged battery and see if I can get the basics down.

 

Bill

Edited March 5 by mrmustang

[Vovchandr]

14 minutes ago, mrmustang said:

Did you send the whole assembly to them?

Given my location, I'm wondering if  taking my car up to 1turbofocus

 

Yeah. I think it was over winter. I send the whole thing out. Was expecting to do the $100 rebuild but it turned out to be not so. They were very nice to deal with though. New manifold didn't have vacuum ports at all, but I specifically asked them to redrill them in case I ever wanted my IAC to work (so far I haven't even tried and kept them plugged). They said nobody really uses IAC on ITBs 

 

After dealing with my car I can't tell if Tom would be delighted or frightened to deal with another "sister configuration" to what mine was. 

 

To properly tune a car he wants a few things. He wants adjustible cam gears in place, wideband installed, datalogging strongly preferred and at least laptop properly working with tuning software for ECU. My car did not have a knock sensor but those help. 

 

Just looked it up: Rebuild was $1100.... dont recall if that includes shipping back. 

Edited March 5 by Vovchandr

[mrmustang]

Ok, well I adjusted back to as close to original as I could get it. Car now idles at 1,400 rpms warm

Cyl 1-10

Cyl 2-10

Cyl 3-10

Cly 4-5

Go figure-

It starts, it runs, I've locked everything down and will allow it to cool so I can see if I can get it to fire again.

If I had actual instructions on how to balance them, I think I'd be alright, but as of right now, I'm gun shy.

 

Sent a PM to Tom to see if he wants to lay eyes on it. I'll be happy to throw it on my trailer and haul it up to him, even if it's for just the basics at this point as he has far more experience with this than I ever will.

 

Bill

[mrmustang]

Two turns and the car fired up, cold idle at 1,800rpms

#1 cyl-10

#2 cyl-10

#3 cyl-6.5

#4 cyl 10.5

 

I may disassemble the aircleaner cover and horns again to see if I can tweak #3 & #4 a bit, but my feelings are that it's running and I should leave well enough alone as I really don't know what I'm doing. Tuning wise, at this point, I'm just looking to tweak the throttle bodies and maybe fuel pressure (unknown at this time). Thinking with that done, the car should run really well and I will not have to touch the ECU.

 

Bill