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Love the progress, Rudy. I went without an IACV on my build first too but the cold starts and even keeping the idle consistent in different conditions is quite difficult. Ended up going with a Bosch remote mount IACV which is controlled with PWM by the ecu. Really makes life simpler.
Thanks for the note man. I have a feeling I'll be doing the same sooner rather than later!
I just got back into town after being out in MA for a wedding with my wife. Between a bit of travel, my wife being pregnant, and my office manager out on maternity leave I just haven't had quite enough time to make this happen as quickly as I hoped. However, hopefully I'll get some more time booked with my tuner in the next few weeks to keep getting this dialed in!
Haven't had hardly a free moment to work on the SC as of late... My office manager is out on maternity leave, my wife is 8 months pregnant, and life is uh... a bit hectic! However, I found some time to get out with my friends last night and went on what could be our last ever run down the drag strip at Bandimere Speedway. If you're not familiar it is a truly iconic speedway that hosts the Mile High Nationals. I grew up drag racing Civic's at Bandimere all through high school and college. Over the last two decades they've been building housing nearby and they have mercilessly complained so long that the track owners finally decided they'd had enough and decided to dismantle the speedway and sell the land. It's truly a blow to the gut for Colorado car guys...
Since the SC isn't 100% I said F-it - let's take the taco lol. It ran a BLISTERING 19.9 @ 70 mph with the tent, full tank, and two passengers lol. We had a great night at test and tune and got to watch so many cool and different cars make passes all night. I can't believe the amount of 10 second cars there are running around this town...
Hoping my next post will be SC related. Happy cruising fellas - and don't forget to appreciate and support our local race track. We never knew how lucky we were until they decided to close it this year. The next closest legal drag strip is almost 2 hours away now...
I hear you with the sound ordinances and track issues. Our local track PIR (Portland International) used to have top fuel but no longer, and surrounding areas have tried to close it but thankfully its still open now with restrictions (no loud cars at night type ****).
That is VERY sad news, Rudy. I'm sorry for you and your local friends and for all the nearby car folks who now have no place to go in the practical sense for drag runs. Do they only have a straight track there or is there a road race track course also?
It is very sad to see famous tracks get closed down and turned into housing developments or strip malls.
Two hours to the next track is a big commitment most people will not make. Over here where I am in Florida the closest track is 1.5 hours away. We used to have one in town in the 1960's and 1970's but I never saw it by the time I was old enough to drive.
HOA's probably had a hand in harassing the owners of your local track to get them to shut it down and sell it. But those same people will probably complain when the locals with enthusiast cars drive around town in their vehicles too after they successfully get the local track removed and turned into a shopping area. Very sad. I'm sorry Rudy.
Don't worry about your SC! We know you're getting it there. The important thing is that you take care of you and yours first and get it right at your own pace
It certainly is a shame Craig... I think there's been so many complaints the past ten years, lawsuits filed, etc, that the Bandimere family finally gave up/in and decided to sell the land. We'll see if they manage to re-locate. For now, well, drag racing in the Denver area will cease to exist until then lol.
Thanks Craig - I have to admit it breaks my heart a little just seeing the SC sit in the garage. But you're absolutely right - handle what's important! My pregnant wife, our home, and my business are all being looked after and those things must come first. You always have such a nice way of encouraging people and know that I always notice and appreciate your thoughtfullness!
FINALLY I can get you guys some updates! Yesterday we spent a few hours diagnosing why the car simply seemed to have a mind of its own, even at idle... Long story short, on this particular revision of the ECU Master Black EMU hardware (revision "O") we learned that we do not need the inline resistor that's called for in the installation instructions. That solved our A/F ratios being off (we confirmed with a tailpipe tester as well while we tinkered). Lastly... and this was so dumb... We hadn't seen any vacuum being read by the built in MAP sensor. I had tapped into the nipple on the back side of the intake manifold on the driver side... Little did I know there's no vacuum at this port... LOL. Once we got those two things figured out we went back to our basemap, made a few adjustments, and low and behold we were out driving the car around the block last night! We've got plenty of partial throttle tuning to do, however, we're close enough now that it's time to make a dyno appointment to get this bad boy dialed in. The dynos around town seem to be booked out a few weeks, however, once I have a chance to strap it down I'll be sure to update with first impressions and final power numbers.
It felt... SO GOOD to drive this thing after just staring at it the past couple months. I'm also quite relieved as it's taken hours just to get it to this point. Patience is always the name of the game when it comes to big changes like this, but nothing beats the feeling of driving something for the first time after a LOT of tinkering lol.
Oh man that red looks so good in the pics!! thought I was looking at my old car for a second being wingless with the sc4 lip (best oem look on an SC IMO).
Glad it's progressing along.. sometimes the little things make a big difference
Hey Ali - thanks man! It photographs a LOT better than it looks in person... But for being a 10-footer this old girl still makes me look back every time I walk away. Thanks for the nice compliment!
You're absolutely correct - after figuring out a few little things it felt like we truly accomplished something yesterday. I can't wait to get back to ripping this thing around town.
FINALLY I can get you guys some updates! Yesterday we spent a few hours diagnosing why the car simply seemed to have a mind of its own, even at idle... Long story short, on this particular revision of the ECU Master Black EMU hardware (revision "O") we learned that we do not need the inline resistor that's called for in the installation instructions. That solved our A/F ratios being off (we confirmed with a tailpipe tester as well while we tinkered). Lastly... and this was so dumb... We hadn't seen any vacuum being read by the built in MAP sensor. I had tapped into the nipple on the back side of the intake manifold on the driver side... Little did I know there's no vacuum at this port... LOL. Once we got those two things figured out we went back to our basemap, made a few adjustments, and low and behold we were out driving the car around the block last night! We've got plenty of partial throttle tuning to do, however, we're close enough now that it's time to make a dyno appointment to get this bad boy dialed in. The dynos around town seem to be booked out a few weeks, however, once I have a chance to strap it down I'll be sure to update with first impressions and final power numbers.
It felt... SO GOOD to drive this thing after just staring at it the past couple months. I'm also quite relieved as it's taken hours just to get it to this point. Patience is always the name of the game when it comes to big changes like this, but nothing beats the feeling of driving something for the first time after a LOT of tinkering lol.
Here's a few pics, just cuz...
Oh SNAP! here we go. It's an awesome feeling when you get over big hurdles huh! I'm sure you were jumping up and down when it started and worked properly.
Glad to hear of your success Rudy!! It's good to see your SC out of the garage again!! That has to be a good feeling to drive it again after sorting out the last couple of setup issues with the ECU Master. It's always something simple and not quite obvious (until it is) that usually is the holdup
Here's hoping I can follow your lead soon-- I just sent out my most recent stock ECU for capacitor service. Hopefully when I get it back it'll let me get my SC back on the road as well until I can also go standalone as you have.
MadMax - funny enough, red happens to be my wife's favorite color! Far from mine, however, the color of my SC has certainly grown on me over the last 6-7 years of owning it (but I sure miss my pearl white '96 LOL). And you're absolutely right - I was so discouraged, but you should have seen the smile on my face getting to cruise it around the side roads once we got things dialed in a bit!!
Craig - thanks for the nice note man! I'm thrilled! You're right - sometimes you stare at something too long from a single lens and all it takes is for a fresh perspective to come in and go "hey - why isn't your MAP sensor value reading any vacuum?" haha! I can't wait. If we have to get on a wait list or two for some dyno time no big deal, we'll probably do some mountain cruising and get some street tuning done so that the car is drivable and safe and from there we can fine tune whenever we can sneak in a good half day on the dyno. The last time I went standalone was on my 2jzge vvti swapped Cressida and it was an awesome experience with a truly terrific final result thanks to this same tuner. I can't wait to hear more about yours, and I hope the 86 is treating you well!
