LankyKiwi's Rally-flavored SP20

It's very nice :) nearly no rust to deal with either! Although it's hitting mid 30 degrees with near100% humidity lately :(
Don't forget to add that's 30 deg Celsius. Our North American friends use that stupid Fahrenheit system 😁. And yes, 20+ years now and our cars have hardly any rust on them. Only reasons our cars down under get crushed are total write off accidents (think it's wrecks in US speak), and/or big money mechanical repairs where the cost of repairs exceed the value of the car. No BJ 323's being crushed here because of excessive rust and failing an inspection.

Good news, the starting issue ended up being the starter, not the ring gear thankfully. I scored a new starter through work and stuck it in. Now the thing is giving me trouble with hot starts. Popping the circuit breaker and refusing to start, I think it's fouled plugs plus a higher current starter that are popping the breaker so it's now got a new set of plugs and we'll see what happens
What brand starter did you get? There are some really bad aftermarkets that are simply rubbish. Better off getting a OEM rebuilt than using aftermarket IMO.
 
@JazzySP20 Forgot about the unit differences! Yep, I've seen and owned 50 year old English cars with less rust than some N.A proteges :D my last daily was written off with accident damage, and a potentially thrashed engine after being stolen and recovered

New starter was an OEX brand, fit and finish seemed alright, I've got another OEX starter in the daily that's going strong too, I kept the motor and relay off the old starter as it was the gear drive that had failed

@323 It sure does! The joys of owning an older modified car 😅 New plugs seemed to have fixed the hot start issue for now....
 
The car still lives! Over a year on the road now, with only minor issues :D
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Not too much has been changed, wrapped the intake with some gold foil but that's about it lately
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It's been having some hot-start issues lately, either the fuel pump is on the way out or there's a dodgy O-ring somewhere. I've managed to tweak the tune settings to compensate but I should probably fix the thing properly :p

Apart from that, it's been dead reliable (touch wood)
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Been taking it to a monthly cars and coffee meet too, trying to park next to other BJ's if there are any. Most people don't take much notice unless the bonnet is up!
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And lastly the daily Blue Familia is still going strong, 310,000kms of no-fuss motoring.
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No immediate plans for the car, just enjoying it!
 
It's been having some hot-start issues lately, either the fuel pump is on the way out or there's a dodgy O-ring somewhere. I've managed to tweak the tune settings to compensate but I should probably fix the thing properly :p

I don't remember what you've got going on under the hood, but you may need a new fuel pressure regulator solenoid valve.

It's the same solenoid as the VICS and VTCS valves, and it can crap out in the same way.
There is a code for it but you may not have popped the code if it is sticking intermittently.

The valve is activated for 100 seconds to increase fuel pressure for a hot start.

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Just thinking,..
If you didn't restart your car twice in a row, while it's hot, then you wouldn't have two consecutive drive cycles to pop the code.

I popped that code and replaced my solenoid valve, but I didn't notice any starting issues.

I think that you should just replace that solenoid. Doing a fuel pressure test to verify is kind of a chore and the solenoid valves aren't expensive.
 
Hmmm, agree, will probably replace that just in case :)

It's most annoying at the petrol station, it'd refuse to start after filling up and would need a push of shame off the forecourt 😆

Seems to be better now with more fuel pump priming but I haven't tested it properly yet
 
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Gidday guys and girls :) an update, and a question...

Update first: Car still runs!

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Made a replica Mad Max supercharger switch for funsies
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And painted the interior plastics because the wrap was peeling off, still needs a cut and polish for more sparkles. Have got a dual USB socket to plug the old cigarette lighter hole

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Aaaand found some foglight delete panels on a wreck at pick-a-part. Not 100% sold on these yet though, they might come off again soon when the bumper gap annoys me too much XD
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In the quest to figure out the hot-start issue I splashed out and got a boost referenced fuel regulator and AN fittings for the engine, plus a new pump for the tank, and new injector O-rings and seats for laughs. Got rid of the PRC solenoid as well, which has tidied things up slightly

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BUT, here comes the question: Fuel pressure is set at around 40psi cranking, 32psi idle. The car cold-starts and runs great. As soon as the engine is turned off, fuel pressure bleeds away over about 30 seconds. And the car still won't start after driving for a while.

Is that normal or should the fuel system hold pressure for longer?

Manual states a line hold pressure of 22psi after 5 mins but that's with a special service tool cutting off the main feed line before the fuel rail so I don't 100% know what the whole system is meant to do...

If it is normal, then my next guess is that the ignition coils are heat soaking and cooking, which might be the perfect excuse to upgrade to a Yaris coil-on-plug setup. 🤣
 
BUT, here comes the question: Fuel pressure is set at around 40psi cranking, 32psi idle. The car cold-starts and runs great. As soon as the engine is turned off, fuel pressure bleeds away over about 30 seconds. And the car still won't start after driving for a while.

Your fuel pressure needs to be higher for 100 seconds for a hot start.

I don't know what would happen if the fuel pressure was higher for a cold start?

Maybe turn it up to 45psi and see if your car will start when it's cold, and then again when it's hot.

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Thanks! Might give that whirl on the weekend
Still concerned about the drop in fuel pressure, might be a leaky injector or two? At least it's not starting or running worse after replacing the factory lines :D
 
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Still concerned about the drop in fuel pressure, might be a leaky injector or two?

There's something about our car continuously circulating the gas through the system and back to the fuel tank.
Perhaps when you hook up the fuel pressure tester, it bypasses the fuel recirculation?
 
BUT, here comes the question: Fuel pressure is set at around 40psi cranking, 32psi idle. The car cold-starts and runs great. As soon as the engine is turned off, fuel pressure bleeds away over about 30 seconds. And the car still won't start after driving for a while.


Your fuel pressure needs to be higher for 100 seconds for a hot start.

I don't know what would happen if the fuel pressure was higher for a cold start?

Maybe turn it up to 45psi and see if your car will start when it's cold, and then again when it's hot.

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One thing to consider is that if your coolant temperature is below 65°C when you start your car, the VTCS will be activated.

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Perhaps the car won't want to start with the VTCS activated AND the fuel pressure is at 45 psi?
Or maybe it will just waste gas and pollute even more ? 😂

Some guys remove that whole system anyway, and remove the butterfly valves for it.
You can disconnect the VTCS shutter valve rod to deactivate it without throwing a code.

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Tried bumping up the starting pressure to 45psi today but no real change :( hot start was *slightly* better but I'm not real keen on leaving it that high if it's not the proper fix

Good thinking on the VTCS idea, I'll have to check that the VTCS is actually working now that the microsquirt is handling most of the engine management 😂 might remove the control rod and see what happens....

Been thinking of pulling all of that system out or swapping to a 626 manifold lately, it'd reduce some complexity and give even more low down torque :D
 
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The plot thickens...

Pulled the injectors and jury rigged the Mazda specified Special Service Tool for leak testing them:
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No leaks after 5 mins of full pressure, so that's good! Still getting the pressure drop off so that's not the problem :( Also unplugged the VTCS solenoid (it was working, btw) but no change to hot starts.

Then I decided to have a look at the fuel map because it was sitting at around 10.5-11.5 instead of closer to 14 on the AFM. Hooked up the laptop and cranked away

But! For some reason now I'm not getting any spark and the microsquirt is powering off when cranking? Aaahhhhh!

A quick poke with a multimeter shows a 6V drop at the main microsquirt relay when cranking so something funky is going on further up the chain...

It WAS working, I promise!

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A quick update:
Battery was toast, would hold charge and read properly but as soon as any load appeared it dropped off immediately :(

Swapped it out for the battery out of the daily ( the brand new battery I bought was 15mm too tall to fit in the battery box :rolleyes: ) and it starts up much better. Not factory-instant but still an improvement. Also went through and cleaned up all the earth points around the car just for kicks.

Which has me wondering if the battery has been the cause of my problems all along? It was getting progressively worse over the last year, which kinda tracks with a battery cell slowly degrading.

Fingers crossed, need to give the thing a good test run tomorrow :D
 
I ran into an electrical gremlin years ago where my car would suddenly shut off without rhyme or reason. I couldn't track down what it was but it felt like it was cutting out electrically. I decided to run extra grounds from the battery, to the block, and back to the other side of the engine bay. Never ran into that issue again. Maybe something to consider?
 
Thanks, yeah I ended up checking the grounds and sanding them back to bare metal on the shell and the block, ran a tap and die over the threads to really clean them up :D that and a fresh battery have made the car start almost like factory again

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Gave the car a good run today and the hot-start issue seems a lot better, still got the pressure drop issue I'd like to figure out but at least I can use the car without fear of being stranded at the petrol station :p
 
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