Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[HRH]

Ok, so I got my new Nissan fuel pressure regulator in yesterday...and it was for a U12 VG30 '85 Maxima. Boooooo! Not going to work. So I've decided to use the expensive Aeromotive FPR I got for the turbo car for the wagon. At least it will be nicer. And that means I can eventually get around to installing the cam and then re-working the fittings to put the new fpr in. They make them kind of bulky, annoyingly enough. Oh well.

Getting a late start today. Rose and I got up late and I'm dealing with a new cat. My co-worker had to give one up. She's actually super sweet. Trying to get her accustomed to the dogs. So far 2 are ok, the other one gets hissed at.

[HRH]

https://youtu.be/GcCNcgoyG_0

So I didn't get the cam in last weekend. NOW it's time to get the cam in! FPR is still the original one. Seems to be working reasonably well. Still planning on replacing it as with something newer. It works fine enough to break in the new cam though.

[HRH]

New camshaft is in. At a lunch point, need to put cam followers and springs in and set valve lash and find the right timing gear hole. I did find the chain hadn't stretched nearly as much as I thought and the cam was too far advanced, which explains the ho-hum acceleration even with just the stock cam. I'll dial it in perfectly this time since the chain is pretty well worn in. Have about 400-500 miles on it now I think.

[HRH]

Alright, camshaft is broken in, car is running appropriately. Still think the cam timing could be better, but I'll dink with that later. Going to weld up the exhaust after Rose and I take the dogs for a walk first.

[HRH]

Ok, so far the best 0-60 time has been in the 11 second range, most have been 12 seconds. Not the greatest, but not super slow. I still think I can tweak the cam another 2 degrees and get a bit better performance out of her. The 2 hole is drilled on the Ugly Betty cam gear with the 2 degree offset bushing. I'm drilling the other cam gear in the 1 hole and that should get me closer to where I want to be with the cam. Might do that tomorrow then go test again.

[HRH]

So I put the same cam gear as Ugly Betty on, but rotated the 2 degree offset dowel 180 degrees. Muuuuuuuch better. Guestimating 8 seconds 0-60 now, which can be reached in 2nd gear without falling on it's face. Lost some low end as expected, but there's enough compression that it doesn't matter. Still spins the tires, then hooks and goes! Not as hard as Ugly Betty, but I'm also not running 4.11s.

Anyway, timed the cam just a smidge retarded, probably 1 or 2 degrees, which is better for top end, and I like top end. Car sounds good, responds great, and as soon as 3500 rpm hits, she takes off decidedly. Good to 7000 which is plenty for me. And really it probably starts losing out at 6800 with airflow but not a big deal. I'll mostly be shifting at 6000 like I typically do, but it's nice to be able to stretch the shift points. Ugly Betty hit a complete airflow block at 7300 rpm with the stock (other than clearancing) head. Considering I haven't done any port work, I'm completely happy. I'll try and get some videos up eventually.

By the way, here is the correct way to degree a cam for L series. Really nice write up. I did NOT follow this because the motor is in the car and I don't have the patience. Used the factory slot to indicate base, then fiddled with different holes and positions. On a non full-race motor the screwdriver in spark plug hole watching up travel and fiddling the cam gear from there works perfectly fine if you know your way around L series and you don't mind trying a few different positions and having the valve cover off a bunch. If I ever build another L series motor for actual racing, I will follow this guide much more diligently.

http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/20414 ... eries-cam/

[HRH]

Re-installed the adjustable mixture MAF from Ugly Betty in the wagon. Much better with a bit richer idle mixture. Romps out of the gate now, seems to have cured most of the 3700 rpm hesitation under light load. Go figure, I've only probably doubled the amount of air the engine can suck. The adjustable part is drilling out the air bleed screw cap on the MAF.

[DRIVEN]

But...is it fast?

[HRH]

It's faster than it looks. Figure about an 8 second 0-60 time now, doesn't take all that long to get to 100. Not as fast as Ugly Betty, seeing as she had more cam and less weight, but still pretty good. I can burn the tires off (one-tire fryer) but wouldn't have a problem burning off both. So far I've only had her to 115ish. Haven't quite buried the needle. Probably will at some point.

[HRH]

Ok, been having some issues with hesitations at 3250 rpm and 3750 rpm. I've been trying to find a factory fuel pressure regulator to no avail. Motorsports Auto in Cali has been trying for a while now, they're attempting to source a supplier from Japan, but no promises. All the rest from Standard Motor Products and other manufacturers have been used up.

Consequently, I just decided today to use the expensive Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator on Wynona, instead of Betty White since I'll be driving Wynona a heck of a lot more until I get the new EFI system on BW. Had to mount it sideways and then install the gauge face up. Had to use my older non-liquid gauge because the liquid gauges apparently need to be vertical for the vent port not to ooze. Good news is the new fpr is dead steady, go figure. Not using a $30 cheapy ebay regulator really does make a world of difference.

So tomorrow I'll take the wagon to work and see if there are any hiccups in driveability. Hopefully not so I can start working on the center console, stereo upgrade, and putting the original gold 5 spoke wheels back on.

It's been holding 32 psi for more than 3 hours on the gauge, which is good. I noticed with the old fpr that it seemed to drop pressure after a while. I suspected it was getting weak and working well heat dependent. Not surprising being it was a factory 32 year old unit.

[DRIVEN]

[HRH]

Well the FPR DEFINITELY made a difference. Very little to not like about the wagon's EFI now. It's as perfect as it's likely to get with an old system annoyed by my fiddling with it. Really she's pretty good. Had a little longer crank after work to start tonight. I wonder if the rail pressure dropped a little, or maybe it was just because it was fairly cold out. I checked the gauge at lunch, it was still holding at 32 psi from when I shut it off this morning. Either way, once she's warm, she cranks twice then fires up, which is just fine. No more hesitations at 3-4000 rpm, that is wonderful!

And I beat an Acura RSX tonight on the way home! Ok, let's be honest, I think he wasn't paying attention or his car wasn't working as well as it could be, because it was an older 2000s, but even that is still way faster than the wagon. It looked like he was checking his phone, but he may have been tuning it too. Either way, Wynona didn't let him catch up easily. So I'll call that a win, regardless. Of course, if he was tuning, then next time I see it on the street, he's probably going to put the hurt down. But who knows, by that time I may have swapped the 280 turbo in. Hehe. No, probably not, but it still occurs to me to V8 the Z and turbo the wagon from time to time.

For right now, I'm happy the wagon runs and runs well. And she's not too slow, even though I do miss the extra zing of Ugly Betty's cam.

[DRIVEN]

Sounds like a win.

[HRH]

Damn skippy! Lol. Can't wait for the next Flatcat cruise!

[flatcat19]

Come down any time.



Oh, wait. Well...come down and work!

[HRH]

Lol, I have enough work up here!

Also, note on the early EFI systems, I seemed to remember 38 psi max at WOT, which I'm thinking now is for the D21 being it's a bit later system. As for the L24E, it's 37 max, and 30 at idle, though that's only if you have the stock idle set at 700 rpm, which most of us don't. So I was off by a pound at full throttle snap, and while she was running pretty well, I kind of figured she might be a smidge too rich on full throttle as my high speed runs weren't as quick as I liked this morning. So I'll test 37 psi on the way to work tomorrow and see if she doesn't respond just a bit better. Might help idle to main transition also.

[HRH]

Wagon works pretty well now. Still has an occasional hard time starting if I don't let the fuel pump prime key on for a second or two before starting. But I did find today if I crank and hit the throttle, she comes to life just like Ugly Betty used to do. The benefits of carbureted EFI. Anyway, she does decently to 100, after that she's a bit slow, but not too bad for a mild cam.

[HRH]

So here's something interesting. I got the wagon running pretty well, but decided to switch out the ECU to the Ugly Betty ECU after confirming it was in fact, a 5 speed unit, not the automatic. And as I popped in the connector block, I realized it clicks in and feels like it's all there. But on further checking, the little metal tang wasn't actually seated all the way. I had to reef the crap out of it to secure the tang around the connector tab. I'm beginning to think I never had the ECU connector properly fastened, although it was certainly connected enough to run.
I'm only thinking a mm of connection difference, but sometimes that makes a huge difference. We'll see when I test it tomorrow. Could be just a fluke that it seems to run better just now. I'll let you guys know.

[HRH]

Just a fluke. Re-connected the stock AFM today and it runs better. I also wiggled the head temp sensor connector. Think I will replace that soon for good measure. Still had some little hiccups this morning on the way to work.

[DRIVEN]

Good thing you've got a fresh batch of spares.