In reply to GPz11 :
Or when they say racing, they mean drag or autocross.
For example, yes, I can crank the boost up to 30psi and do a single drag pass before cooling down. But I can only run a little more than half that pressure if I want it to live for a few hundred stage miles. Or, yes, the stock shock mounts are beefy enough for the 800lb/in coilovers on your autox car- but a yump is going to rip them off the trailing arms the first time it touches the bumpstops.
Changed the oil and cleaned a bit:
Oil looked fine, although it seemed to have some fuel in it. For some reason the oil filter on this car likes to self tighten, so it always requires channel locks to remove, but I guess that's better than the alternative. Drove the car and now it misfires again at WOT. I'm about ready to either sell the car or swap the engine, I'm so sick of this dumb 80s Ford bullE36 M3- I would think that it's just my own incompetence if not for the berkeleyton of other vehicles that seem to do just fine under my care. 
It seems to me that you need a nice e30/e36. or just put an LS in it. 
In reply to MrChaos :
I've done the BMW thing enough times now to know that they're decent cars but I don't really get along with them. Japanese stuff is really what I have the easiest time with, and I'd prefer to do a Toyota, Mazda, or Nissan for the next rally car.
An LS swap could be fun, although I have to admit I keep eyeing the $1200 3SGE/6spd/ECU combos that all of the engine importers seem to have for sale. I'd lose a little power, but also get to shed like 200lbs from the nose of the car. And if I missed the power, could always turbo it again... but that seems like a lot of work for a car that "should" function just fine as it currently sits.
I know this might be a little out of budget but what about one of the imported s chassis nissans that most importers are bringing in? Like Japanese Classics had a 94 s14 Silvia Q's just recently. Sr20de non turbo with a 5 speed. Seems like those would be a better buy than the usdm cars that are all drifted out by now.
In reply to MrChaos :
For this sort of stuff, probably not much point- so much stuff has to change that it's probably best to start with a shell rather than paying a premium for an entire car. Plus, I'm not good at shifting lefty 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:Changed the oil and cleaned a bit:
Oil looked fine, although it seemed to have some fuel in it. For some reason the oil filter on this car likes to self tighten, so it always requires channel locks to remove, but I guess that's better than the alternative. Drove the car and now it misfires again at WOT. I'm about ready to either sell the car or swap the engine, I'm so sick of this dumb 80s Ford bullE36 M3- I would think that it's just my own incompetence if not for the berkeleyton of other vehicles that seem to do just fine under my care.
IIRC the zetech engine from a focus will bolt up to a T5 transmission with the 2.3 bell housing. Stick a turbo on the side of it and you stand to gain quite a bit of power, and reliability. I also have a mk1 focus with a zetech engine you could have on the cheap.....
In reply to Gaunt596 :
That sounds like a really cool idea... you should do it.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:In reply to Gaunt596 :
That sounds like a really cool idea... you should do it.
I might have an idea or 3 up my sleeve about it.
I had forgotten what an original XR4Ti looks like. 
In reply to Ian F :
Did you stick around to help them push it? It probably broke down there
Testing and swapping components has revealed that the fuel injector on cylinder #4 had gone bad, I swapped it for a used but good (I test them by seeing if they click when 12v is applied) injector from my stash. I don't know why this car eats injectors so quickly, going to make a thread in the main forum for suggestions other than giving Injector Dynamics $600 (which I do appreciate, but I consider that the nuclear option since I'm not made of money.)
Just drove it again, this time cylinder #1's injector failed after about 20 minutes. I think I'm going to try to make a good set of old injectors by testing them first, hoping that my primary problem is that the Tomcos are garbage.
Waiting on a new ECU to hopefully stop the injectors being cooked, but in the meantime here's a picture from a brief moment yesterday where I thought things were fixed:
This fuel injector garbage has kicked my thoughts about the next car into high gear. Discussion of the Toyota option here.
New ECU:
Installed right under the current one- because redundancy is reliability:
Drove it hard, promptly fried another Tomco injector. Electrical stuff checks out so I think it's just that these are E36 M3ty injectors, more legit replacements inbound.
Checked injector current and a bunch of other stuff. Made a jumper for injector wires by cutting down a connector I had laying around:
Everything checks out, so I think it's just a case of seeing a pattern where in fact I just had a bunch of crappy injectors. Scored some fancy aftermarket injectors on eBay, waiting for those now.
Chris, I (David C) added you as a friend on FB in an attempt to get you in touch with one of our rallycross regulars. He played in the TurboCoupe/SVO world for decades. I mentioned your problem and he had some theories for you. I'll let you talk it out with him, as I don't want to miscommunicate what he was telling me.
Used RC injectors arrived:
Checked resistance, all are right at 3ohms. Installed, drove, not broken yet. More testing required.
fingers crossed
Nope, that hasn't fixed it, although it does seem to have made it more resilient. berkeley.
Well, here's a picture from the hour or so that I was driving it thinking it was fixed:
302 or zetec time
What happened this trip out?!
In reply to java230 :
Hard misfire on cyl #1, which went away when it cooled down. It will be a couple weeks before I can diagnose it again, which is good because at this point I'm about ready to roll the car just to be done chasing problems with this engine.
The other good thing about having to wait a couple of weeks is that getting this weird roving misfire to occur requires some pretty loud driving in my immediate neighborhood so I can get back to the shop in time to check things. I don't want to become the local version of VCH's 240sx bro.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
Strange. I dont know enough of that particular genre engine, but should like unhappy hot electronics to me. But who knows.
In case anyone has missed it, the ongoing misfire saga is here in the main forum.
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