AquaMutt build thread...

[Safety Guy]

Thanks Skim. I'll have to make a trip to Lowes, then.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

This morning:

Tried to start her again. No luck.

Removed two plugs and turned the engine over several times.

Got out, smelled the plug holes. No gas smell. I doubt any gas is getting into the combustion chambers.

Took out my injectors (had to remove my air plenum--crap!) and took them and the four I pulled from a '93 323 yesterday to Hite to be redone. They should be done tomorrow.

When I took off my lines from my fuel rail, gas was in each one. Removing the injectors also produced gas out of the injector rail holes. Rail got fuel!

I'm pretty sure this should fix the problem. (I've been wrong before...)

I probably won't work on her until this weekend unless the weather cooperates.

Karl

[NicholasJackson]

You should invest in one of these. Very simple to make and very usefull. http://hackaday.com/2011/01/16/20-fu...er/#more-32989

[Safety Guy]

I may check into doing one of those someday Nick. Right now I'm waiting to pick up the eight injectors I took in yesterday.

I played with my HF bubble balancer today, but coudn't get a consistent balance point. Thus, the weights I added resulted in confusion, not balance!

I posted a thread on bubble balancing here:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?p=384728#post384728

The only other thing I did today was to crawl underneath Aqua and install a few washers on the shifter linkage to take up some slop. It began to snow as I did so.

I hope to do a restart try this weekend, weather permitting!

Gotta see how the injectors come out.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Today I searched for injector bushings, the ones that the injectors nestle in at the intake (spray end). I had gotten my injectors cleaned back from Hite.

No more Hite! No printouts. Worse, they lost one of my bushings (just noticed, so they probably have thrown it away should they even try to find it). So I went to several car parts stores and finally decided to order a "tune up kit" from O Reilly's. It has the four bushings, four other grommet things and four O rings, plus some gaskets for the intake assembly. The cleaned injectors already have new O rings and other grommet thingies. (You like my technical terminology?) Hite charged me $170, and now I still have to wait on injector parts. (A long time ago I had bought an alternator from them on ebay--turned out it was NOT for a Festiva or Aspire...) NO MORE HITE.

I checked my spare B3 and the bushings are different. Can't use them on a B6.

Thinking positively, I also ordered the following:

-B6 downpipe from AZ (paid too much)
-Magnaflow cat and Thrush turbo muffler from Jegs

My original plan was to take off Luxstiva's exhaust and use that. Now that Twin is wrecked, however, I have to drive Lux and keep her ready as a spare car. So Aqua will get her own new exhaust system, only with a cheaper muffler (Lux and Twin have Magnaflows).

Finally, since I'm waiting on "start parts," I put in some time on reassembling Aqua's front end today.

One picture to end this update:



The blue grille and corner lights are from Muttstiva. Left headlight bulb was shot, so I found a Sylvania Xtra Vision to put in.

I'm tard. Good night! And watch out for those #$%^&* stop sign runners...they'll screw up your plans in multiple ways...

Karl

[ShagFestiva]

If you put the injectors in and it still doesn't fire then make sure that your rotor is pointing at #1 plug when #1 cylinder is TDC....your engine looks great man! Props for getting your intake so clean i gave up on mine haha.

Also....where the heck did you get new bellows for your steering rack?

[Safety Guy]

Thanks Tyler. I checked the rotor position when I put the engine back together, so I'm pretty sure I have it right. I should check again though, I suppose.

Oh, I got my manual rack bellows from FMS. Roger sells them for $12.50 each.

Here is a link to my "help" thread on my starting problems:

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33517

Go there to see what all I do and try to get Aqua started. Info on the fuel pressure regulator, etc. is there, plus some pics on testing injector pulses with "noid lights" and a gratuitous picture of Twinstiva's "Toyota Trophy Grille" mounted on Aqua.

Here's a pic from a few days ago when I was replacing the injector "grommets" (they are thick and go in the intake at the injector nose):



That's one of the grommets on the VC. I think that washer beside it is from my broken PCV valve. So far I've broken off two of them! (Crap, I'm nickel and diming myself into poverty.) Also note the injector holes in the intake manifold. I have put in place three of the new grommets and the last spot is empty, awaiting it's grommet. (Cylinder #2 is the empty one, while cylinder #3 still needs its grommet tapped in.) Also note the air plenum off the intake to allow me better access to taking off the fuel rail. Maybe someone else can cope with it on, but I can't. Can you say "PITA?"

The next picture is of my newly cleaned injectors and the box that the new grommets came in. The price for that "fuel injector tune up kit" with TB gaskets, injector O rings, and some other parts was the same as four grommets by themselves, so I got the kit.



Tomorrow I'm putting in Twinstiva's good (nearly new) fuel pump assembly to see if that works. Maybe Aqua's pump went bad between taking out the B3 and installing the B6.

After that, I suppose I'll break down and spend the big bucks on "A Mobile Car Doctor", who was the one who I hired to get Twinstiva started awhile back. He did good work, and I have to say he was worth it. He charges around $170 total for two hours of work. He says that's about how long most jobs take to diagnose and test problems. Mr. Greenwood showed me how he used his multimeter, etc. and explained the whole process clearly and I can recommend him without reservation. (If you're in the Columbus area and need his contact info, just PM me.)

Well, that's my update. Wish me luck tomorrow!!

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Success!!!!

I GOT AQUA RUNNING JUST NOW!!

Put Twin's fuel pump in her and after about three or four tries I hear a "noise." Then another try or two and she almost started. So I got out and loosened the disty and moved it down a bit and next time she started!! Must have been a bad fuel pump, putting out some flow but not enough pressure.

I ran her for about four or five minutes. The exhaust manifold was smoking a bit, but I hope that's just crap burning off. Now I have to pay attention to timing.

Going back out to get my timing light and read the instructions, etc.



Karl

[stdsmt22]

Sweet...got it running. Just got mine running too.

[Safety Guy]

Excellent! Must be that kind of a nice day.

Karl

[Maxtiva]

Congrats !!!

[Damkid]

Congratulations Karl!!!!

[Safety Guy]

Thanks guys!! I'm so relieved...

Here's some pictures...

Smoked a lot at first:



Then it seemed to subside a bit:



Rear wheels on; rear end on the ground!:



First idle was around 2000 rpm. Went down eventually to about 1400 rpm. I need to set timing and recheck idle speed. Need to construct Aqua's own intake system instead of using Lux's stuff.

One more pic for now:



All my cars were helping out!

Later,

Karl

[SuperDaveGulvak]

Awesome Karl glad you got the Mutt up & running

[JPT]

You must be happy.

There's nothing like hearing a swap run for the first time.