so i'm trying to get my timing belt on and i get frustrated because no matter what i do the belt keeps slipping to the driver's side on the cam gears. i think my torque wrench is inaccurate and it's not really torquing the tensioner pulley to 21 ft/lbs. after the 3rd try, i temporally quit and decide to work on getting everything else in place. so i'm putting my MAP sensor back in place and i tried to bolt the missing link into place and it wouldn't fit. the holes were drilled in the wrong spots. cool.

i take it down to the vice and drill bigger holes. cool. metal shavings everywhere now. i bring it to the sink and i'm playing around with it when i notice...

...a probable cause for my problems with my old missing link.

i sent in my missing link to Synapse in CA and they sent me back a new one. they said the reason why my old one didn't work correctly was because it was "excessively dirty and you should keep it clean in the future"

yeah. cool. they were full of crap. my missing link spotless when i shipped it to them (inside and out)

so when i was trying to get the metal shavings out from the manifold side of it, i notice a small pinhole in the top half, the MAP sensor side. seems to be a very small outside air vent.

my guess is that this pinhole was placed to create some sort of hystersis, like a filter or some type of averaging thing during the vacuum/boost transistion, much like in circuit design when a capacitor is placed between ground and the output of an integrated circuit to reduce oscillation on the output.

off topic:

awesome. Howell sent me THE WRONG CAM GEARS. it took me doing the timing belt procedure (put the tensioner in the vice, put the pin in, feed the belt around, put the tensioner in, torque the pulley to 21 ft/lbs while tightening the tensioner at the same time, take the pin out, turn the engine over a few times to check the timing) 5 TIMES for me to figure it out. this definately made my day.

you know how rims have offset? it's like the Crane cam gears that i got have the wrong offset in relation to the stock cams. REGARDLESS of how much i torque the tensioner pulley, the belt settles 1/2 off of both cam gears.

good thing i didn't play ninja stars with the stock cam gears, because they're going back on. awesome.

i'm really pissed.

that is all.

Uhm, can you translate your first post into non electrical engineer jargon please. Is that hole a good or bad thing :shrug

Are you sure you arent just putting the cam gears on the wrong way. I know the stock ones were made for two different engines. Ours and I dont know the other maybe 4g63 or something but you just flip side... Maybe I dont know.

lol damn that sucks dude but reading your post was pretty funny...

its like you're pissed but in a happy way
maybe it's the smiley avatar

nah but seriously i hope you get everything straightened out soon :thumbsup

after talking to Todd i thought about reversing the cam gears, but we came to the conclusion that it wouldn't work. i tried anyways, but because of the design i would not be able to adjust them completely defeating the purpose and to make matters worse the timing marks were only on one side. reversing the outer movable cog would have been impossible, also because of the design. i guess Howell shipped me the ones for the 2.4. oh well. i'll try calling them and they'll probably bitch at me about waiting so long to try to return them (they were bought for me as a christmas present in december). if they won't let me return them, i'll harass them some more, and if they still won't let me return them, i guess i'll just sell them.

i ended up putting the stock cam gears back on, and i finished doing the timing belt. man, putting back that motor mount was tricky! i've only done a timing belt job once before, and that was with the engine out of the car. it went about 10 times faster that way!

i put my AF/X pulley back on. this time i put it in the oven set at 550 degrees for about an hour. it went on like butter, unlike a year ago where i put it in for 10 minutes at 350 degrees and i had to hammer at it with a rubber mallet for half an hour.

back on topic, i think the pinhole in the missing link on the MAP sensor side is definately a good idea, in theory. when my car is working tomorrow i'll post my results as to wether my fuel cut problem at 0 psi goes away or not.

if it does go away, i will highly reccomend that anyone with a missing link (and has problems with it) drill a very small hole in their unit. this hole is not very big at all, maybe half of the width of a thumb tack needle.

OOOKKAAAYYY. Cool you work on that, I have another plan as well.

I bought malenko's star vc 2 (fcd). I'll try this method using two fcds (one mechanical, one electrical). My minor boost problems happens between 0-1 psi. NEVER over 2 or above so I am guessing the ML is not closing/opening. Maybe an electronic solution is needed. Hopefully this fixes it. If not I'm out $10 and I may need to drill like you said.

Also, guess the whole phenomena happened again (if you remember from a post earlier). I am in socal again and no fcd boost transition problems. WTF :shrug

-------jezreel
hrc stage 1, sfmu, ml, prokits, egt, boost gauge, apexi tt, haydans tranny cooler, costum dp, dynotune fp gauge. gst muff, turbo spoiler

nothing like driving with the windows down and the music low: i love hearing the turbo spool, swwwhhhttt!!!!
thanks for www.kaptainmyke.com for the sig hosting :thumbsup

hey, what are the differance in the 2gnt crane cam gears and the 4g63 cam gears? like looks? i know the offset thing. because i ordered a set of fidanza 2gnt cam gears. and then i opened the howell box, they had crane cam gears. i hope i got the right cam gears.

my missing link problems continue.

after less than a day of having my car working again, the fuel cut problem came back. i still get the problem under these circumstances:

1. at 0 psi
2. if i am slowly backing off the boost (if the boost level is slowly going down)

i tried everything, again. WD-40, more RTV on the gasket surface, hell, i even tried covering up the hole with a piece of tape, AND i tried drilling the hole out and making it bigger.

no effect.

i have to either be flooring it, or keep one eye always on the boost gauge so i don't get out of vacuum in order to not have my car PMS.

yeah, i tried another MAP sensor, quite a while ago (last summer). right now, i actually have The1Bill's MAP sensor, and he has mine. i've had problems with both sensors.

under no circumstances will i put that electronic piece of crap HRC FCD back on. i'm not going to drive around with my MAP voltage clamped to 4.1 volts.

i mean what the FUCK? i quit. i should just buy a DFI.

Hehe... Have you tried the star fcd?

Also, is there anything bad performance wise, to having your voltage clamped? Damn, I should have tried to hook it up when I was home but I was too lazy.

In other news, I went back to socal, no fuel cut issues. I drive up here, and guess what..., it's back. x(

-------jezreel
hrc stage 1, sfmu, ml, prokits, egt, boost gauge, apexi tt, haydans tranny cooler, costum dp, dynotune fp gauge. gst muff, turbo spoiler

nothing like driving with the windows down and the music low: i love hearing the turbo spool, swwwhhhttt!!!!
thanks for www.kaptainmyke.com for the sig hosting :thumbsup

http://www.kaptainmyke.com/forums/uploads//post-44-1076084859.jpg:wary

MAP sensor voltage must be between 4.50 and 4.65 volts when true manifold pressure is at or above 29.92 inHg psia (0 psi above atmospheric)

if the voltage is any higher and fuel cut will ensue. i find that my ECU cuts fuel around 4.67 volts, according to my AFC when i still had one...

if the voltage is any lower the ECU will advance timing to 25-30+ degrees and lean out the mixture accordingly, thinking that the car is crusing under a light load... for example, my HRC FCD clamps my MAP sensor voltage at 4.1 volts, so no matter what it will NEVER exceed 4.1 volts. this means that no matter how much extra fuel is added from an aftermarket regulator, the ECU will keep the timing advanced and the mixture will be lean.

Ner, when you talk about your problems w/ the missing link it kinda sounds like what my car is doing. To begin with i'm running 8 inj setup, missing link and the fuel pressure is set to 45psi at idle. When i'm cruising and i start to creep up to 0 psi, right at or before 0 my a/f guage goes from all the way rich, to all the way lean, then back up to rich. If i stomp on it then it doesnt do that. Just when i'm creeping up on 0 psi, either after i've let off the throttle or am steady adding throttle to it. Is this what your experiencing? It sounds very similar to what you posted. For a while i thought it was my fuel pressure regulator giving me to much pressure or the 8 inj setup kicking the fuel in and it going so rich i was getting a miss. But this may explain it, if the missing link is malfunctioning and the map is seeing that boost and cutting fuel before the missing link has completely closed then that would make sense. What do you kids think?

Do you get fuel cut at 0-1 psi; sometimes getting the map voltage CEL. That's what I've been experiencing when I don't boost hard.

-------jezreel
hrc stage 1, sfmu, ml, prokits, egt, boost gauge, apexi tt, haydans tranny cooler, costum dp, dynotune fp gauge. gst muff, turbo spoiler

nothing like driving with the windows down and the music low: i love hearing the turbo spool, swwwhhhttt!!!!
thanks for www.kaptainmyke.com for the sig hosting :thumbsup

Originally posted by MR BLUNT 2gnt
Ner, when you talk about your problems w/ the missing link it kinda sounds like what my car is doing. To begin with i'm running 8 inj setup, missing link and the fuel pressure is set to 45psi at idle. When i'm cruising and i start to creep up to 0 psi, right at or before 0 my a/f guage goes from all the way rich, to all the way lean, then back up to rich. If i stomp on it then it doesnt do that. Just when i'm creeping up on 0 psi, either after i've let off the throttle or am steady adding throttle to it. Is this what your experiencing? It sounds very similar to what you posted. For a while i thought it was my fuel pressure regulator giving me to much pressure or the 8 inj setup kicking the fuel in and it going so rich i was getting a miss. But this may explain it, if the missing link is malfunctioning and the map is seeing that boost and cutting fuel before the missing link has completely closed then that would make sense. What do you kids think?

Are you adding fuel before 0 psi? That's what I do and it seems to smooth out the transition a great deal. You have to play at where you want that point to be, but IIRC, I'm at about 92 kpa's or so.

i'm still in the same boat too.. dunno what to do except get a good elect fcd. i'm in NYC and the baro is at about 101-102kpa.. when i go upstate into the mountains the fuel cut issue goes away. i really think it's a '97 ecu sensitivity thing.

What is the point of the Missing Link? All I've heard is that it stops CEL's... But I don't get any really... (Unless my Star downpipe breaks apart again and o2 sensor doesnt get any readings... THEN I get a cel... lol)