well, unlike some may know or believe, I have actually been driving my car everyday for a month or so now. in this time, my car has developed a problem where it likes to mis-fire under load, and my oil would shoot out the back of my block. well, my oil stopped shooting out the back of my block just as mysteriously as it started. pretty cool. also, 2 of my 3 subwoofers "broke".......fixable. ok, well today I met up with ed at dynotuner.net and we put my car up against an oscilioscope<sp?> to figure out where the bad noise was comming from in my ignition system (I have changed EVERYTHING excludign the msd, so I know it wasn't a bad stock part). we checked the input square wave going into the msd.................ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS at ALL loads. but the key was the square wave going out ( supposedly ONLY a negative trigger for the coils)..........car dies instantly. we try uppign the scope's input voltage range........all the way to 50V..........car dies. also, the wave jumps clear off the scale and sparks fly when we tried connecting it (meaning for whatever reason the negative trigger wires after the coils are getting voltage...........and a lot of it). negative trigger wires aren't supposed to have voltage on them............msd is going bad :(. I talked to the tech department, and one of the guys there said he woudl check it out for me (cool). I would assume I will not see it again for at "least" a month. that means my avenger will be "down" for at least one month.............and to make matters worse, my car would have the tendency to get my oil "hotter than normal" for me. now, understand my circumstance.........I have a greddy 13 row oil cooler. my oil pan should never see above 150 degrees..........didn't before, shouldn't now. BUT when it sits for a long while after some 'spirited' driving, the temps would be at abotu 160, and would climp up to 190 or so if the radiator and oil cooler didn't have "really good" air flow. then the temps would go down accordingly to outside temperature. well, found out why my oil got so hot............no coolant. so basically my "oil" was cooling my engine (on the expresway, the oil was usu. abotu 150 degrees when the coolant had that "problem". ALSO on random occasion, my car would emit white smoke at idle.........then it would go away..........then it woudl come back........then it would go away. I said "oh shit". BUT my oil looks FLAWLESS. no hint of water "at all" also, my water looked pretty dang good. jsut a few remnants of rubber hose here and there (a few specks of trash, but nothing threatning). I said "hmm........maybe my turbo is leaking water" knowing damn well it wasn't my turbo. I also watched my egt's.......noticing that after a good run, #2 would cool down DRASTICLY faster under vaccuum than 1,3, and 4. you can see where this is going. but the excuse I gave is that all cylinders had perfect 190 psi compression (which is kinda high, but then again, my car isnt' normal ;) ). but knowing my luck EVEN WITH ARP studs, EVEN WITH o-ringed HEAD, EVEN WITH the stock headgasket..............I knew #2 was seepign pressure into the coolant line at "some point". maybe not at normal pressures (hince no water bubbles during a pressure test of the air system), but some how. so I do a leak down test......... cy. 1 and cyl 4 liked to kick open the exhaust valves. no water bubbles or abnormal results.......so I say "screw it, I know #2 is leaking a "small ammount". it only makes sence. I hook up the tester to #2........ALMOST NO LEAK....................EXCEPT for one slight problem...........the water level in teh thermostat housing "rose" slightly. this is with 100 psi in the cylinder. keep in mind without combustion, the cylinders push 190 psi under compression. SOOOOOO my head has to come off. now my car is broken again. all is right with the world once more. my car doesn't run. (well it does, it actually blows the tires off "quite well" in 1'st and 2'nd even with a missfire, but you know what I mean). at least it ran for a month. that was what I wished for. now I wish for it to make consistant power and for the nitrous to work (which I STILL haven't tried with the progressive nitrous controller btw). I think I am going to slow down cash flow to the car and get my stealth up to par to prove another point................this time for keeps ;)

A.D.P.
"...If you do too much, people become dependant. If you do to little, people loose hope. If you do it right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
bring it on............

Shit man, by the sounds of it, a 400hp 420A isn't real easy to keep together for long periods of time. I've had some 4 wheelers like that before. the worst was a late 80's Suzuki LT500. It was a massive 2 stroke, which also had this crazy powervalve and everything that was hard to adjust properly. But when it ran, it ran great. I'm hoping to have my car up to about 300 or so horse sometime after or during this coming summer. I've read everything on your site. It's given me alot to consider while building my motor. You are using Hastings rings aren't you?? I thought I read that on your page and I also read what you said about the total seals; that's why I am leaning towards the hastings. Well, goodluck getting things straightened out Armond!!

either way you can kick just about every other car on the roads ass sooooo ya know

you got the curse of the 420a like the rest of us. I got my timing belt replaced and the code went away and then the headlight stopped working, so if it aint one thing, its another.. atleast mines just minor compared to yours, but they'll sure keep you busy.

Good luck with the neverending teardown.

Yea... My oil sending unit is STILL leaking after its 3rd sealing attempt... and my break master cylinder crapped out on me today too :rolleyes Oh well, I guess that gives me an excuse to put on my new eibach springs tomorrow hehe

cut that hair soldier! on the double!

My boost controller is out, i have a big boost leak, autometer has my FP gauge, my ACC belt is gone. been driving for a week on 4psi and no power steering. Joy..

I hear ya. No fun.

Actually my problems arent too bad right now. My low beams dont work, and my car has supposedly been running pig rich due to a faulty O2 sensor, but that just means that my 15.7 could have been faster :)

I talked AM into letting me just send the FPsending unit. I didn't want a hole in my A-Pillar guage cluster :)
Still i don't know how my fuel system is holding up inside the car anymore :(

sounds like everyones probs are pretty weak compared to armonds :-)

Not to get offtopic, but you should have sent the gauge, too. The stuff you get back is better (and more expensive) equipment compared to what you send them, plus the replacement gauge is full sweep and not 90* like the 4309.

We should save this post for all the newbies wanting a 11 second 2gnt.

BTW, I bought a 4309 elec FP gauge on ebay for $60 and sent it to autometer for recall and got a brand new $186 gauge haha.

HEH here goes. I'll start out about 2-3 months ago. I blew my engine the first time( cracked ringh landings). I had it down for about a month then finally got it back and about a week later I blew the clutch. So it was down about another 2 weeks waiting for the clutch then the install. So I get the car back and I am running 15 psi for about 5 days and all of the sudden my coolent starts boiling under boost. So I assume its the head gasket which it was but there was much more damage when we looked at the pistons. I melted 4 pistons. So I get all new pistons and new rings and new rod bearings and get it together and when we go to put on the head the six ARP studs I got were to damn short. So my car has been sitting for about 2 weeks apart and I finally get the correct size head studs. We get the car together and about 4 weeks and $1000 later since I "thought" it was just a head gasket I fianlly have the car running and I am still breaking it in. High hp cars are nothing but problems.

>cut that hair soldier! on the double!


dammit I just cut it

alls i can say is keep up the good work!!


everyone! ;)

Hrmmmmm, high horsepower engines don't like to stay reliable. Wonder if that's my problem. My mods and times don't say that I have a powerful car yet, but it is sure breaking like one.
Motor #3 going in
on Tranny #3
fixing about 3,864,773,489 little minor problems while the car is apart.
-=B-=