Recent content by NutherDriver

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    Considering a Fumoto valve for the Civic

    I'll bet anything there's a self-tapping screw it in repair my oil pan drain plug bung. The moral equivalent of HeliCoil, maybe even exactly the same deal. I'm with those who would never put in a device that hung below the pan. That way lies a ruined engine -- and of course, madness.
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    Engine vibration after rebuild

    Use of a slow-motion camera to diagnose a vibration is a killer technique! By the nature of a reciprocating engine using short (actually, finite!) connecting rods it is impossible to perfectly balance the moving parts just by altering those at crankshaft speed. The F=MA for the rods and...
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    Too lean idle

    Final Edition. The fact that with modestly oversize injectors the engine runs perfectly and fuel trims (L, M, H) are all -4.6% indicates that the engine pulls more air than the ECM expects at all RPM. That's not an air leak -- it's more displacement than the ECM is designed for. While...
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    Aftermarket Air bag Clock Springs Recommendations

    In fact, virtually the entire air bag controller is a test set for the system. Follow the manual directions fanatically by all means but I'd go with an aftermarket part.
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    AC leak/fix. Anything I'm missing?

    Looks like the leak was around the compressor shaft; if you replaced that seal you should be good to go. The Shraeder 'leak' will always be there since some oil comes out whenever you connect to the service port. Sometimes a section of the plumbing next to the valve will also be green where a...
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    Too lean idle

    Still more data. The 'repair' ECM came back 'CPU dead -- unrepairable.' After several trips another look at the ALDL info with EvoScan showed all fuel trims -- L, M, H -- at -4.6% This is with 275/210 = about 1.30x the fuel. So it was short by perhaps 25% at all speeds/loads. In other words...
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    Resealing a 30 year old Denso AC compressor

    In general a system that's okay and develops a leak should just have the leak fixed and then be recharged. If things are worse than 'develops a leak' -- compressor failure, system has been discharged or open for a while, you are converting to another refrigerant -- then the bigger job is...
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    Disappearing (burning) oil - need ideas, please help newbie

    First, I'll copy others: Just stop with the additives. They rarely help and they confuse the issue. And run a 20-50 oil or so. The first question is where's the oil going. It sounds like 'burned in the engine.' Two ways that can happen: 1. Oil splashes or sprays on the cylinder walls from...
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    Too lean idle

    More progress -- Perhaps the end of the line for now. On further study the various ECM switch values that appeared to be wrong were indeed wrong because the Evoscan program was looking at the wrong memory locations for my car. Correcting that made the idle position, power steering, and A/C...
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    '88 Ranger Slow Starts When Hot

    That depends. If the fuel line is leak free then pressure in the line is maintained and the fuel may not vaporize before the engine cools. If, however, there's a leak then enough liquid may leak to let pressure drop to below the point where boiling occurs. This could be in the range of a few CCs...
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    Accumulator/dryer really cold even when AC is off

    "I got out of my OBS Ford truck after about a 20 minute drive this evening and noticed that there was a drip coming out of the back of the engine compartment. I popped the hood to find that the accumulator was covered with a heavy layer of condensation. The weird thing was that the AC was off...
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    Accumulator/dryer really cold even when AC is off

    Condensation on accumulator indicates liquid boiling away inside. Question is, why? Liquid moves around the system depending on temperature, collecting in the coolest part. The places with the most space for it are the condenser, the evaporator (less) and the accumulator. If the condenser and...
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    A little off topic AC conversion R12 to R134A.

    Before trying Red-Tex find and study the info on it. It's primarily propane, does indeed work well as a car refrigerant, but has the disadvantage that it's a gas at normal pressures/temperatures and highly explosive when mixed with air. So in using it in an automotive refrigeration system you're...
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    Too lean idle

    Progress ... Replacing the intake manifold made no difference. I thought that eliminated the last unreplaced/twice tested part that could cause lean idle. But I was wrong. I started cycling through the spare ECMs again, this time not just doing a short functional drive test at a time when I...
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    Too lean idle

    Some further data. There are only three connections to the plenum: The brake booster, the PCV, and the vapor canister purge. I have now reproduced the problem with each plugged or closed with a finger. The PCV connection makes a slight difference (nothing like a fix) while the other two make no...
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