In reply to Jehannum :
Yep, just seats an o-ring. I've pulled the plugs and the o rings look fine. They're only a month or so old, and were the recommended viton seals from EFI express. Torque value's 37 ft-lb, but I can't get there without the socket slipping out, so I resorted to the BFH and a screwdriver. And then when I got really frustrated, I might have used the airhammer lol
Turns out, when you want to remove the piston from your PS pump, it helps if you remove the entire piston. That was probably my issue. As has been the case with so many things lately, I'm the source of this car's problems. It's tough to be patient when the end's in sight.
Anyway, I found these hex plugs to replace the X-plugs on the brake stage. The stock plugs have a recess on the bottom side to allow for the piston to travel. Since those are gone, I can get away with a normal plug. Threads are M18x1.5, and the part number's below. As a bonus, these come with a viton O-ring, which should handle the hydraulic fluid just fine. Torqued to 37 ft-lb without issue. Hopefully I'll be able to install the pump and test everything later this week.
Nice find on the hex plug, Turbine... I may eventually use some of these myself.
I hope the leaks are resolved going forward!
One last drive before the new year to test the PS system, and I'm happy to say that it was leak free!
I've traveled 30.8 miles in this car over the course of my ownership. All this year. It's not much, but it's a start.
That being said, there are still plenty of issues to sort out.
1) Shifter still needs aligned. No surprise here.
2) Car needs an alignment. Bad.
3) I’m only getting WG pressure. About 8-10ish psi of boost if my gauge can be trusted. Definitely feels down on power
4) I hit fuel cut (or is it boost cut? I’m not smart) a few times around 7-8 psi at 4k rpm. Probably related to the boost issue above?
5) The oil pressure autocheck indicator came on at the end of the drive as it idled in my garage cooling down. I shut the car down immediately, but I saw the gauge hit the lower tic mark on the gauge (slightly less than 2 bar indicated). Hopefully something benign like the fact that the oil pressure sender has been doused in PS fluid multiple times at this point, but we’ll see. There's also an oil pressure switch beneath the sender that could be suspect. The switch is cheap, so I'll probably start there after verifying oil level and other basic stuff like that.
So other than sorting out the above, what's next?
First, a thorough wash and detail. I've never been big into detailing, but I'm looking forward to developing some skills as I bring the paint, trim, and interior on this thing back to life. Any resources or product/tool recommendations are appreciated!
Next, style. I'm building a set of coilovers using the large chassis DIY guide on The Project Pad. I'd like to bring the front down a little and, more importantly, get the front caster back under control.
I'd also like to figure out the AC. The original components are all there, but they're completely uncharged, and being an R12 system, I'm out of luck as far as recharging it conventionally goes. Gotta look into this more.
Finally, put miles on the thing. Or, if the oil pressure issue turns out to be more major, it's onto phase two-building the bottom end. Stay tuned. Or don't, up to you lol
I'd also like to figure out the AC. The original components are all there, but they're completely uncharged, and being an R12 system, I'm out of luck as far as recharging it conventionally goes. Gotta look into this more.
Mine was r134a converted before I got it. I believe it is just swapping out the O-rings and receiver tube (which is only a couple bucks). I have now replaced the compressor and also flushed the lines. I am convinced it is incredibly efficient (compared to the S6 wagon) due to the R12 condenser. It blows COLD! 
In reply to steve_3b :
Nice, that's encouraging to hear! So you're still using the original lines? I figured they'd need changed out, but again, I know nothing about HVAC lol
Man, my car doesn't even get respect from the scammers!
Got a message today that somebody was using pictures from this thread in a scam. I'd say I'm flattered, but looks like they're trying to part it out lol. I'm not a member of that group, but thankfully a couple people that know me and the car called the guy out.
Visha, if you're reading this, thank you!
Bonus pic of the car in the snow
Progress! We've been dealing with illness in the household since Christmas, which has basically killed any momentum I had going on this thing. Finally got back to it this weekend.
Went for a longer drive and ran into the same boost issues. The AAN ECU looks at the G62 coolant temp sensor on the back of the head vs the 3B ECU which looks at the MFTS. The Bentley manual says the resistance spec should be between 1.5kOhms and 3kOhms. Mine read open, so I replaced it. Thankfully these sensors are still available from Bosch. We'll see if that makes a difference.
Next, I adjusted the shifter linkage. Doing this solo from underneath the car was fun, but I managed to get it first try. The rod no longer hits the reverse lockout and I can get into 5th without pushing down the shift lever. It may not seem like much, but these minor fixes and teething issues are where I generally lose focus on a project and start to look at other stuff. Still feeling motivated here though!
And finally, started stripping my spare uprights down to build some coilovers.
In reply to Turbine :
Those wheel bearings are just too much fun.
In reply to Jehannum :
I haven't even attempted to get the outer race out yet lol. Last time, it took 6 feet of cheater pipe and all my weight to get them to budge. I've bought a hydraulic press since then. We'll see if it can do the job
In reply to Turbine :
I did it with my hazard fraught press using one of the disks from my screw-style bearing installer/remover set, so you ought to do fine.
Winter hit Ohio again, so I haven't had a chance to drive the car to see if the new G62 made any difference, but why not address some other suspect items?
1. Investigate the WG spring. I've heard of these not playing nice with chipped ECUs. Popped the WG cap off and found a 1.9bar WG spring. Not stock. Thankfully my spare WG had the stock spring and as an added bonus, the screw on the cap didn't appear to ever have been adjusted either. I swapped both onto my car. Might as well eliminate one variable, right?
(Pic shows the two springs. 1.9bar on the right, stock 1.4 bar spring on the left)
2. The CCV valve showed some oil building up on the outside, so I replaced it. New ones are cheap and easy to come by. Not sure why I didn't do this earlier.
3. The 'Michelin Man' hose. I've got a set of 034 silicone boost hoses on the car now, but I've never really loved how they fit, specifically the MM hose that runs from the intake tube to the intercooler outlet. I picked up a set of Venair hoses and a 2Bennet MM hose and piece together a full set that I feel confident in. Still waiting on the 2B hose to arrive, so stay tuned.
I know this is a little unscientific, but as long as the boost issue gets resolved, I dont care lol
And finally, the coilovers are taking shape. The fronts are essentially done. I need to do another round of cleaning, then hit the uprights with some POR-15, then they'll be ready to install. I'll do the bearings and hubs on the car, most likely. Also picked up a C4 strut bar from Steve_3b, so the brackets will go on at this time. The bar itself is probably gonna need a decent bit of massaging to make work.
And just for the sake of compilation, I followed Phil's guide from the project pad, and used the following parts:
2x Bilstein B8 (p/n: 34-003695)
2x Coilover Sleeve
2x Coilover Perch
2x Coilover Spring Floater
2x Eibach Tender Spring
2x Eibach Coilover Spring 450lb/in spring rate
2x Needle Bearing Kit
Coilover Spring Bags
Camber plates from Blake Dunham/phantomoperator
Uprights from a 5000q
UrS4 Hubs
Wheel Bearings
For the rear I'm planning on building around these QA1 shocks - these come in two versions. One with a bearing and one with a bushing at the bottom. Apparently the bushing's pretty weak, so I'm going with the bearing.
I'll also need the following parts:
2x Eibach Coilover Spring 400lb/in spring rate
2x Eibach Tender Spring
2x QA1 Stud Top Adapter
4x Reducer Bushing (these allow the stock lower shock bolt to be used)
2x Coilover Spring Floater
Coilover Spring Bags
In reply to Turbine :
Excited to hear how your coilover setup turns out. I'll likely do similar in a few months.
Nice find on the wastegate spring and boost hoses, looking forward to hear if it solved the issues.
This thread brings me back....
I had a black/black '91 200q over 20 years ago, sold it in '04 or '05. The parts availability back then wasn't great, and that was one of the reasons I sold the car.
I was going to say something about the boost hoses, but it looks like you have reinforced silicone hoses on there now, so that's fixed.
It sounds like you're running an aftermarket ECU, so getting a pressure transducer is probably not an issue? Even 20 years ago, the Bosch transducers were getting hard to find.
In reply to steve_3b :
No coilovers yet, unfortunately. I forgot to order bump stops for the rear. They should be here here this week though! I've got a few days off coming up, so I'm hoping to at least get the fronts installed and adjusted.
In reply to t44tq :
Nice! Yeah, I definitely got spoiled by the aftermarket and OEM support of my e36 m3. It is kinda fun going on scavenger hunts for parts, or maybe that's just Stockholm syndrome setting in haha.
Yeah, that thought's gone through my head as well. I assume a 3 Bar sensor was installed at the same time the chip was, but I don't know for sure. I reached out to Marc at EFIexpress to see if I can get more info
So when I last left off here, I was waiting for boost hoses. I ended up with a few different options.
Overkill? Yeah. I ended up going with the 2Bennet hose-more reinforcement than the 034 and a larger ID than the Venair.
Then I went for a test drive. Seems like most of the issues are gone! Boost onset is much smoother with the stock WG spring, and I was able to hit 17psi for a little while. And then I hit 4k RPM. This time, I tried to stay on the gas and realized it wouldn't rev over 4,000 at all. Came home and read the codes and found this:
The first code (00543) reads as though I hit the rev limiter, which should be around 7400 RPM. The second (00281) makes me think that the ECU isn't getting a speed reference and it's limiting the car to 4k, almost like a launch control mode.
Looking through wiring diagrams in the Bentley manual, I feel pretty confident that the issue lies between the cluster and the ECU. The G22 VSS is a Hall effect sensor that reads signals from a magnetic ring in the front differential. It sends the signal to the cluster to the speedometer, then on to a variety of other systems in the car, one of them being the ECU. Since I'm getting an accurate speedometer reading, the sensor's gotta be fine. So yeah, next weekend I'm gonna pull the ECU and trace some wires. Feels like the end is in sight (knock on wood).
All in all, I put another 50ish miles on the car this weekend and it's not bad to drive as long as you treat it like a diesel. The Volvo turbo makes getting this thing up to (totally legal) speeds a breeze. I just need the rest of my rev range lol
That being said, what do you do with a ratty 34 year old project car with no exhaust? Take it to church, obviously
Heard back from the tuner today and he verified that the ECU was most likely equipped with launch control set to 4,000 RPM. It looks for a signal from the VSS indicating that the car's moving to disable the rev limiter. Unfortunately, like I said earlier, the ECU wasn't seeing a signal from the VSS.
After going through the Bentley and various SJM Autotechnik articles, it looks like the 200 20v wasn't designed to have VSS input to the ECU, meaning that I'd never get this signal. I can either add this wire or have the launch control disabled in the ECU. Probably going to go the second route since I'm not a drag racer lol. If I ever get around to building the engine and going with a standalone ECU, I might revisit launch control. The v8 Torsen diff I installed might not like it, but that'd just be a good excuse to upgrade to a wavetrac in the rear
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