I'm so glad that you got that time with him and were able to care for him yourself. It serves as a great reminder for me to hear what you said and I'll be certain to treasure the time I have left with my parents. Lots of love from Denver, Craig!

As for the SC - great news! You're absolutely right. Sometimes letting someone who diags cars day in and day out can cut down on a lot of guess work and can provide insight that's easily overlooked by guys like us.

Best wishes to you and your family - keep us posted on the SC!

 

Sorry for your loss, Craig.

Nick

 

Thank you Nick. We're hanging in there. We remember and celebrate all the positive times and love with him

 

I'm sorry for your loss. That's really hard to go through, but I'm happy to hear you guys were able to reconnect during your time together. You really put a positive perspective on family that really got me thinking that I need to go spend some time with my dad and grandparents soon.

 

Thank you Kira. Certainly it's absolutely a good thing to spend time with your parents and extended family members while you can. We have the time we have with people so why not make that time with them special and memorable when some opportunities arise?

 

First I read of your loss and the time spent at the end is precious. Sorry for your loss but it sounds like you and the family are doing well.

 

Thank you... we are now. We still have emotionally intense moments as processing it all takes time... but it was a long time coming. He lived to be 92 years old and we all had a lot of time to prepare ourselves when his physical health began to go downhill over his last few years. We made the very best of it that we could to enjoy what we could while we could and I tried my best to keep him laughing with my deliberately terrible so-bad-you-have-to-laugh jokes until the end even through the pain that he had.

He was the kind of person who always valued humor and wit in life and so as hard as this has been for us, keeping chin up and remembering all the good and not losing sight of that are what we wanted for us. And so we do : )

 

It's not solved yet but my mechanic found the true source of my leak. Apparently something didn't go quite right with my oil pump seating in correctly (which is therefore all my fault since I'm the one who installed it) and this has been causing a slight leak at the pump's lower seal and at one of its O-rings. This is in addition to the lower oil pan with a slightly bent lip that I was not able to successfully bend back into shape.

So in a nutshell I'm having him pull the engine, separate the transmission, put the engine onto a stand and install a new oil pump, re-seal the upper and lower oil pans (with my brand new lower oil pan) and button the engine up with a new timing belt job.

One way or another it was inevitably going to lead to the engine getting pulled to correct this rookie mistake with the oil pan. Well... now I'm glad he discovered a slightly deeper issue with the oil pump's o-ring seal before anything worse could occur.

...

I haven't done any Blackstone oil analysis yet for this engine but I'll have him take a sample of the oil so I can send that in for results. I have NEVER noticed any abnormal oil pressure condition on my gauge so I do not think there was any danger at all for my crankshaft bearings. But a leak is a leak and it's better to just get this solved and over with now rather than later.

...

Additionally in his care he ruled out any issue with the fuel system. Fuel pressure has been strong with every test. Everything was gone through. No abnormalities. I did have him install the new old stock OEM TT fuel pressure regulator and new OEM Idle Air Control Valve. The older IACV is still good so I'll hold onto it but now those parts are future proofed as well.

The final lingering issue is that none of the four ECUs that I have are keeping the car running consistently. It is possible that I may have damaged three of them with my missing and later poor cylinder head ground wire (corrected by me finally in the right location in early January)... but that is unknown. Two of them have been capacitor serviced. Two have not been. One of them has never been exposed to the car with the poor cylinder head ground but it does not have new capacitors.

It could just be that very, very old ECUs are not in the best of condition to begin with. Unknown.

However my mechanic did echo what Nick and others have been saying to me for months: Go with an aftermarket ECU... and namely a Haltech. A Haltech Elite 2500 in this case for which there are pre-made maps now that can work with the stock sequential twin turbo VSV system, stock evap systm, stock EGR system, etc.

I am beginning to think that this may be a good idea for my SC after all regardless of the CA smog legal considerations. Juggling old ECUs has been such a headache for a very long time now.

Nonetheless I'm into the engine repairs right now and an aftermarket ECU will have to wait even longer if it is REALLY the final solution to my SC troubles. My mechanic can test my car with his own Haltech 2500 with a Supra PnP harness to confirm totally smooth operation with one. If he gets a positive result that will be my next step but the SC will be towed back home after the engine repairs to sit again until I can get one.

...

I'm also already committed to buying a new car soon to use as a primary/daily vehicle... a GR86 for which I already have a confirmed VIN number through my dealer whenever it gets manufactured and delivered in a month or two... so for now this round of fixes to my SC will be the last for a while.

If I had known the repairs needed would be as extensive as this then I might have held off until later... but then I might not have become aware of the oil pump O-ring seal leak issue which could be very bad in the future. So despite the expense I am glad to have an early heads up to fix it now rather than discover it due to an oiling failure later.

Expensive and more complicated than I though but sometimes things work out for the best.

 

I suppose things always cost more and take longer than we ever think they will... However, I'm excited you found some good help and can keep that thing tuned up Craig. Can't wait to hear more about it!

 

Thanks Rudy! Fingers crossed you will hear only GOOD news about it going forward. This poor car has been undergoing more repairs lately than road time!

 

Ha! I know the feeling sometimes... I've got to remind myself not to get frustrated when my SC has issues. For god's sake, it's 30 years old, I've literally had my hands on every mechanical system that it has, it's modified, etc etc and the fact is they're just going to have issues and need modern solutions from time to time. I've got a good feeling about it Craig! Fingers crossed for you as well.

 

Glad you’re getting to the bottom of it, one way or another. Sucks that it’s costing more than you’d like, but sometimes it just works out that way. What shop did you choose? Feel free to PM me if you like.

Nick

 

Rudy, I know your many ups and downs with your SC as well. Yeah, they are 30 year old luxury cars with *just* enough complication in its design to need some TLC now and then. And they're modified. I thought I had accounted for all of the major stuff and I've got enough various critical spare service parts stored away to keep it happy over the long term. I just didn't expect this sidetrack but... live and learn. I got most of the car right on my own after all and it was my first time undertaking a custom build on such a scale.

I have a good feeling too. Fingers crossed, yes. What is the latest with your SC and going with an aftermarket ECU?


Thanks Nick! I agree. I'd rather have had this heads up on such a critical part of the engine rather than find out about it later on when a failure might have occurred suddenly. Now it'll be taken care of properly to eliminate that issue entirely. Then I just need to address an ECU solution.

I'll PM you with the shop info. I do recommend them and the owner. Very good and astute people.

 

I've been so damn busy that I haven't had a chance to start setting up the ECU Masters just yet... However, I need to hurry up and get on it before the fall so that the car is sorted and ready to rock before the baby comes. I have a feeling my personal time isn't going to look the same for quite some time LOL.

 

I hop you can do it before snowfall, Rudy! However being busy with the business is good! It's going to start getting like that for me also-- I feel you!