I did it again!

[Reitrof]

Reman calipers? Yeah, it's what I have to do for the left rear temporarily, I picked one up this morning. I just don't really trust reman parts for critical components that see track stress. Mistakes can happen and I'd rather not find that out at 120+

Calipers are pretty simple components. I could see it if the part was more complicated. Also you trust reman for the street but not for the track? I'd rather have a part fail on the track, not in a more complicated environment like the street.

I'm just being a dick, but can't buy your argument for OEM calipers and thus justifying a big brake kit. If you're worried about safety, I would save the money on brakes and use it elsewhere.

 

[6speed]

Fair enough. No offense taken.

I knew it wasn't exactly a solid line of logic to use, but as long as my wife doesn't care enough to break my reasoning, it will be sufficient

 

[Reitrof]

Lol, If you just want a big brake kit, than have at it.(2thumbs)

 

[THE Phen]

Mike, sent you a couple pics on Facebook.

 

[6speed]

The MSM hasn't been moved much. My wife's 2 has the winter wheel set (handy that they share bolt patterns), plus I ran into more misfiring problems that I determined was the coils. So rather than a set of new OEM coils at $100 each, I ordered and received Fab9's Coil on Plug kit for $250, which is now fully PnP. All-in, it's $280 for the coil kit and the plug type that it uses, but new OEM coils, plugs, and wires is about $290 + shipping, so it's really a solid deal. I'll be just plugging it in assuming a factory ECU for the moment, and when a warm spell hits I'll play with the wiring change needed to change it to full sequential ignition from the Hydra.

 

[Reitrof]

Keep the info coming Mike.

 

[6speed]

Not all that much to tell at the moment

Waiting on the cash flow to start ordering the bigger stuff. About a month for the tax return, another month for the bonus. One of them will pay off the MSM. A couple ideal places available to move to as well, one with a 3-car detacted garaged that I have my eye on for the preferred place.

 

[THE Phen]

Nice! You'll have to let me know how you like that coil set up. I may be up for upgrading mine this coming season.

 

[6speed]

Apparently my misfiring and throttle problems are not ignition related. Spent all weekend on troubleshooting, and realized I have several different problems.

1) I believe my fuel pump is failing. The relay is fine, and I replaced the fuel filter. I get periodic misses while driving, and I'm starting to hear different noises from the fuel pump
2) The multiple firmware and software changes for the Hydra have royally screwed up my tune, and rolling back to r68 and my original dyno tune have 'solved' my huge throttle tip-in problem. I'm going to have to work with FM to figure out what all changed, so I can at least get the base settings right on the latest firmware. Their latest base map won't let the engine start, but then it's not set up to account for my various changes.
3) The Fab9 ignition upgrade seems a bit suboptimal for installation on an MSM at the moment. I could only get the car to fire with it in with a lot of trouble and lots of cranking, and only when hooked up to my wife's 2 with jumper cables. Once it is running, it sounds fine initially, but gets rougher and rougher as the engine heats up, struggles to maintain idle until it finally stalls. I'm fairly certain that the core of the problem is in a weak connection between the plugs and the coils, specifically because of the MSM's tighter valve cover on plugs 1 and 3. Plugs WAY fouled from flooding the engine multiple times doesn't help.


Some pics:

A really good quality kit.

Looks pretty good installed in the valve cover (they were still too high in this pic), though the wiring is rather messy at the back, in part due to where i mounted the coil driver.

The coil driver was designed to be bolted to the coil location for the pre 2001 cars, and can be bolted to the firewall instead. But we don't have room for anywhere that I could get a drill. I'd have to start pulling out a lot of other stuff to get a drill to the firewall in any of the available spots I could find. And no option at the back of the valve cover. So I used a bolt and nut and that mystery bracket hanging off the brake booster

And how jacked up my new plugs became from all the flooding/no-start. Literally brand new plugs from the first pic, after about 15 minutes total of engine running and several dozen start attempts.

I'm going to re-install the ignition today (with clean plugs), on the old Hydra map and firmware, to see if there is any improvement there. Discussing with Fab9 options for confirming a solid seat on the plugs.

 

[6speed]

DeatschWerks DW200 fuel pump is in (255lph), engine idles fine. Will be taking it out for a drive a bit later.

I used crimp-on splice connectors that could also be heat shrunk a bit. I don't trust just heat shrink when it's immersed in gasoline for years at a time. Gasoline can disolve most heat shrink types.

Fully assembled next to the OEM pump I pulled off.

 

[THE Phen]

Wow, you actually run irridiums in the car? I stopped doing that a few years ago.

 

[6speed]

Not with stock ignition. The Fab9 kit has limited plug compatibility. These are one of a few plugs that work.

 

[THE Phen]

Oooo, that makes good sense. Gotcha. I look forward to your thoughts once warmer weather comes around and you can really drive the car to its fullest potential to get your thoughts.

Though I need to focus on the Honderp for my overall goal... but yeah.

 

[6speed]

Yeah, it has to do with the terminal end, not the spark end. The little caps that are on the ends of nearly all spark plugs are too big for the coils, so Fab9 ended up having to find plugs in the right heat ranges that had removable caps, and the coil snugs down over the tiny threaded bolt that the caps screw onto.

I'm looking forward to warm weather too. My wife's 2 is currently wearing the Blizzaks, and I have on her factory steelies with 80,000 mile or whatever 185 width no-seasons. Traction is laughably bad in all conditions, but slightly better in the snow than the summers if I get caught out. I rolled 3rd gear @ 4,000rpm getting onto the highway today.

 

[THE Phen]

I know all about the removable cap spark plugs. The BMW requires those. I bought a set of NGK's for cheap for the car. Went to install them the other day. First step, I grabbed the pliers and tried to unscrew the cap. Didn't work, but I did find out how much you can twist the electrode before it snaps.

 

[6speed]

(hah)

 

[6speed]

I picked up another FM downpipe tiday, with the cat welded back in (after it had been cut out previously). I then got a request from another MSM owner to trade me that catted one for his de-catted FM downpipe, since he wanted a cat back and paying for shipping both ways was cheaper than buying another cat. So I'll be doing that trade. Will be testing a Moroso resonator in the decatted pipe at some later point, mostly out of curiousity.

 

[THE Phen]

Going to go the FM route for sure? I had someone asking me about my BEGi downpipe a couple days ago and wanted to check your interest before giving a price.

 

[6speed]

Yeah, I don't have much reason to pick one over the other at this point, and I could get this one from a local easier than I could get yours. Feel free to sell yours.

 

[THE Phen]

Cool cool man.