So, for getting me through the Winter, and keeping my happy. I decided I'd treat her nicely, and buy her a nice and new full Racing Beat Exhaust, with the convertible downpipe of course. The original exhaust was getting quite rusty, and was leaking quite a lot anyways. One of the mufflers even fell off!
And this is where the story of the Exhaust swap from Hell begins...
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LoginAnyways, brought her over to Groll69's place to work on her there and help him with the ball joints on his Rx-7.
Well... things went wrong...
1. The studs on the original Exhaust manifold snapped. I had to call it a day and go home and bring my spare S5 exhaust manifold with non-rusted studs.
2. Had to take off the 5th and 6th port actuators to even get to the manifold, by the way, these were frozen shut, they have never moved since I had the car.
3. Finally got the exhaust on (was quite easy besides the manifold part), and went to start her up. She started fine, but wouldn't idle... Had to come back another day.
4. Couldn't find any vacuum leaks visually. So we took off the upper intake and TB, to get a better visual. Found the vacuum leak! one of the vacuum lines was completly severed! Decided while I was at it, to replace just about all the lines with some high temp silicon lines I had laying around. Had to come back another day.
5. Since the lower intake's actuators were frozen shut, I decided I'd replace this as well with an entire Lower-upper-TB that I had laying around that was cleaned up nicely and had functioning actuators.
6. Replacing the lower intake... OMP line had snapped right off by looking at it the wrong way. I was quite worried with this, and decided I'd think on it over night. Had to come back yet another day.
7. Brought over my spare S-5 OMP that was in fine working condition and had no snapped lines. Of course one of the lines snapped... Had to take nearly everything off of the car except just about the radiator and alternator to get to this. Had the old OMP off, and replaced the line on the good OMP and threw her back on there with the new Lower intake as well. Finished replacing most vacuum lines, and threw back on the Upper intake. Oh! Also replaced the lower injectors with freshly serviced ones I had laying around.
8. Came back yet another day to finish the installation of just about everything else. Replaced the upper injectors with fresh new ones as well ( I didn't have any extra O-rings for them at the time though... so I reused the old ones). Finally got everything back on, hooked up, wired, and plugged in. Added some pre-mix into the fuel JUST INCASE, then primed the fuel system.
9. Finally went to start her up and check for leaks. She took a bit to get started, as if the fuel pump wasn't working, de-flooded her just incase, finally got her started. She idled at 4k... never returned down below that speed. Also we noticed a lot of "smoke" coming from the "exhaust". Probably just an exhaust leak. Anyways, we realized the cruise control cable was on too tight. Took that off, and she idled perfectly!
10. Drove her home that night, figured the EXTREMELY STRONG smell of fuel was just the exhaust leak, that I was planning on fixing "one of these days". She did drive quite nice though (I took the long way home even)!
11. Drove her to class the next day and realized I smelt like a wet leaky gas tank at all times. I was getting worried now...
12. Next morning I had the day off, figured I'd look at her. At idle, very thick clouds of white "smoke" was venting throughout every way possible, I was confused now, as this was quite unusual for an exhaust leak. Well, the engine bay was covered in a clear liquid, what i thought was condensation actually turned out to be raw fuel... Yes, the upper fuel rail was somehow by-passing the injectors and spraying high pressure raw fuel everywhere! When I saw this, I immediately ran and turned the car off and hid in my room for about an hour thinking WTF! How did I not notice this? Is it safe to come outside? How am i alive? How stupid am I for not noticing this!!?
THEN THIS HAPPENED!
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LoginJust kidding, but this image was posted on my facebook by a friend a week prior and had scared a lot of my friends and had a lot of people worried. Thank you Rotary God that this didn't happen.
13. Anyways, I had spare O-rings laying around, I quickly brought all the fans I had out of storage and had them drying the car off, as I quickly replaced the O-rings. The original O rings were torn to shreds already! Note: They look fined even being used when I put them back in. Let the car dry off for a few hours, used some water and a ton of rags and fans.
14. Tested the car a few hours later for any more leaks. None! Looks like the issue was fixed, took her for a quick spin up to Five guys and back, no fuel smell! No smoke!
15. Been driving her for a few days now, everything is great! She runs better, idles smoother (no lumps), upper RPMS actually HAVE POWER now, feels much faster, sounds wayyyy better, She's actually quieter at idle, but much louder at WOT. Also MPG seems to be significantly improved, duh!
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