Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[HRH]

Motherfucker! So the rear Sentra one does NOT even come close to passing fluid through the curved nipple end. It dead heads. I put the factory rear regulator back on, car runs again. However, the front regulator is either working, or just bypassing. I don't have a spare new one to test, and the rear one is still original, and old.

The question is now: do I buy the two factory pressure regulators offline (assuming I can find the rear one, and it'll take a month from Japan) or should I just put some adapter fittings in so it's not regulated, and run an Aeromotive adjustable fuel pressure regulator like the race car has. I'm leaning towards an aftermarket regulator, though I really did want to keep this thing stock, and new fprs will easily last another 30 years. Then again, adjustability is nice if I ever need to do a little tuning on the wagon with the stock ECU. Or if I upgrade ECUs at some point in the future.

Don't worry Wayno, my bp is usually 101/65 or thereabouts. It may be higher today, lol.

[wayno]

Good for you, that is an awesome blood pressure to have.
Personally I would just want it to run dependably, who cares if it is stock as long as it runs good, I would rather drive it more than work on it myself.

[HRH]

Yeah, I'm hoping I didn't hurt the fuel pump any. Seems to be okay, but I had it dead-heading for a bit. The oscillation was either the pump over pressuring and backflowing (not good) or managing to overpower the fuel pressure regulator. It's not like I had it on for that long, but I should probably have another one on order in case it craps out due to my incompetence.

I'm thinking about the FPR, I think I am going to go with the same Aeromotive unit as the Z car. It's a 13129 pressure regulator with 1:1 rising boost. Although I'm wondering if that is correct given the fprs for the RB seem to be a static unit, I'm wondering if they just adjust it for different fuel mapping when it hits boost. They're just regular vacuum it seems and fuel pressure tests are 43 psi line pressure and 36 at idle. Doesn't have a reference for boost.

I'm doing some more digging now.

[HRH]

Ok, so interesting. I have been reading more. It appears the rear FPR (inlet) may actually be a fuel pressure damper, while the front is the regulator (outlet) So technically I may just be able to get the factory FPR for the front, which explains why I can find those, and the rear, well, I can do a bypass or something else. Or just leave the original in there since it's not leaking. BUT, I'd still like to replace both or switch to a single regulator setup. I remember the old 280zxs having a fuel damper that caused issues off the fuel pump in the back. Most everyone removed them and they were fine. But it does screw with idle quality. How much, I don't know. Probably just going to have to remove it and find out if it's annoying or nothing to worry about.

Still digging for info.

[HRH]

Weasel has a new toy.

[HRH]

https://fuelab.com/11-boost-reference-f ... egulators/

OK, here is a seriously good article about how 1:1 boost pressure regulators work. I didn't under stand it before, I do now. I thought it would overfuel if 15 psi boost means 15 psi of additional pressure. But in fact, it's the opposite. If it's regulated at 43 psi under full load (no vacuum), if you have full boost at an additional 15 psi, that means you're now actually running at 28 psi! So, the 1:1 means for every pound of boost, you increase 1 psi of fuel pressure, meaning the system stays static at 43 psi, even under boost, which is what the factory regulator would do too, given the factory manual only has two settings, one for idle with vacuum and no vacuum (full throttle)

[HRH]

That said, ordered up the same Aeromotive unit as the Z car. Got two adapters for the regulators. Next weekend I shall hook it up! And I'll finally use the liquid filled gauge because I should be able to mount this FPR straight up. I hope. I have a liquid filled gauge I haven't been able to use due to the regulator always being sideways on the Zs because of all the fuel rail plumbing. And I thought they'd be sealed, but they have a vent at the top to equalize pressure and if it's sideways, they leak! Bah!

[wayno]

It's different when you have fuel injection, it's not a carb where 7psi boost will over power 3psi fuel pressure, but the fuel pump has to be rated high enough to reach them pressures, so if I have a 9psi fuel pump and the carb needs 3psi to work, then if have 7psi of boost I will not reach the 10psi of fuel pressure I need using a boost reference regulator, so I need a 15psi fuel pump.

So if you need 43psi to have your injectors to work right, and your going to run 7psi boost, you need at least a 50psi fuel pump, I would get one rated at least 60psi because boost spikes will be higher than 7psi.
Boost reference fuel regulators are awesome, before them one had to drill and tap the mechanical fuel pump vent hole on the back side of the diaphragm and use that as a fuel regulator, then you had to make sure the fuel pump didn't leak into the engine case, that was the good ole days.

[HRH]

You missed it earlier Wayno, I have a Walbro pump. About 130 ish psi, possibly more.

[HRH]

Got my stuff from Summit the other day, and the ISR fuel pressure regulator adapters came today, woohoo! That means this weekend I should be able to hook up the new adjustable fuel pressure regulator and finally get the RB back up to correct!

[HRH]

Makin' braccckkkeeeeetttts.......pretty sure I'm going to need to cut that bottom piece out for the return line, I'll double check. Didn't think about that before I painted it, lol. This time I should be actually able to use the liquid filled gauge as it will be vertical so the fluid won't leak out.

[HRH]

Motherfucking ISR fuel pressure regulator adapter!!!!! I tried to weld it 4 times, leaks every time. Wait, back up, I wanted to re-orient the nipple, so I cut it off, welded the hold and drilled another hole to put the nipple in. Every fucking time, I get a leak. Finally, I weld the hole, spin it around on the fresh side, tape it for 1/8 pipe plug and figure it'll be good. Nope. Itty bitty bubbles on the back side I just welded. Enter setting 4 and lots of wire. Boom! It holds! I put it on. Just the ever so slightest leak, still.

I have come to the conclusion whatever ISR made their adapters out of, has porosity or some other thing that makes gas bubbles during welding. So I said fuck it. I'm in the process of cutting apart the brand new regulator I had that wasn't going to work (the hardbody one) and welding it back together as a pass-through, so it can connect to the new Aeromotive regulator and just fucking work. Will do that after dinner. I am so mad right now, its not even funny. Hopefully dinner will improve my mood. I've wasted about 4 hours in a hot fucking garage only to get really really small fuel leaks. Sigh.

[DRIVEN]

Drink.

[HRH]

FUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKK. Should have called dad sooner. So, yeah, the ISR adapter is goldish. So zinc coated. And apparently zinc releases inpurities, which is why I had little leak bubbles everywhere I welded. Apparently you need to grind the zinc coating off really well before you weld. And I didn't do that.

I'm guessing the factory regulator I cut up is zinc-coated as well. So yeah, fuck me. Apparently I didn't know what I was doing. Dad says you can also silicon bronze weld those with a tig. Which means I'll probably drop those off at his house when the come in. I got frozen yogurt. It's hot. Fail today.

F A I L fail. That is all. Hopefully there will be a much better report later this week.

[HRH]

Alright, so things are sorted, should have it worked out this Saturday. THEN I'll finally get to drive the wagon again! At least it will be much cooler temperatures. Also lo-jacked the wagon and the RX7 today. Got some sweet little bluetooth trackers. www.xyfindables.com Hid those little suckers in both cars. Pretty cheap insurance that I'll hopefully never have to use. Battery life is 3-5 years.

[HRH]

Finally! It's back up and running. Fuel issues all sorted out. Now I need to finish up the other things. Got the passenger side compartment mostly back together, but now I'm trying to find my bag of plastic clips. I'm missing the bottom door edge trim clips and the ecu cover clips. Not that many, but specific. Gotta dig a little more and find that stuff. I'm going to be super annoyed if I lost them.

[wayno]

You will find them, I find stuff all the time that I forgot I have, that is why I usually go thru everything at least once a year, to sort and remember what I have.

[HRH]

Found them!! Got everything back together, even put the brake booster back on with the new master cylinder. With the car off, pedal felt pretty good. But with the car on, brakes seem to go to the floor and I'm running out of pedal. I'm suspecting I haven't gotten all the air out of the system. I'll have to fiddle with that tomorrow. Vacuum is holding at 13 pounds, no high and hard pedal so booster is good. I didn't bench bleed the master cylinder. Should have. We shall see.

I did get the passenger side footwell all put back together. Only reason I didn't put the lower tray in the driver's side was because I was messing with the brake booster, which is fucking cramped, in case you were wondering.

[HRH]

So I realized after checking the factory service manual, that A: I have the booster pedestal adjusted incorrectly, and B: when I removed the power brakes, I apparently took the check valve line with it. And I'm sure I squirreled it away somewhere, but damn if I can figure out where that is. So I went up to pull and save and got one off a hardbody. I shall try again tomorrow. Talk about aggravating! I just want to drive the damn car!!

[DRIVEN]

What's the rush? It's only been 4 years.