So, after DD'ing the corolla for a month or two, the week of a drift event in May it started PUKING blue smoke out the tailpipe. I thought maybe PCV or piston rings, but upon tearing it apart I found oil in the #4 exhaust port. After looking at it more, I discovered that the valve seals were not installed very well. And on top of that, I had inadequate oil pressure, so the cams, cam journals, and cam caps in the head were all scored bad enough that I now have a giant paperweight.
I picked up another head from a friend of mine, and after paying a shop to do a full valve job, valve seals, and deck my old head, I decided to do this one myself, aside from decking. I lapped all the valves, installed valve seals, and had Pro Machine deck the head for me.
While it was apart I installed new rings and bearings. So now I have a completely fresh engine.
Also, decided to lower it in the most terrible way.
While swapping parts between my shell and big red, I discovered something awesome.
Blue, under all the road grime on the front sway bar. I measured it, and sure enough it is larger than the stock sway bar by 1mm. The shell came with a Cusco FSB on it. wooooooooooooot!
I now have Cusco front and rear sway bars, I just haven't gotten around to installing the front one yet.
So... got big red back together again, but I have the weirdest effing issue. If you don't want to read all of this shtuff, I put bullets down at the bottom.
Only on LEFT hand turns and going over bumps, does my car misfire/bog/CEL flashes, and the tach jumps around. Originally, the tach and water temp would go up at the same rate, and teh cell would flash. I ran new wires for the underdash harness (thought I found a short to power with the tach wire), but it still didn't solve the issue (I think it fixed the water temp, dunno for sure).
From the main connector in the engine bay to the gauge cluster the harness is perfect. When I inspected/checked for resistance for the engine harness I found OL with the main connector disconnected, and the ignitor disconnected (good). I shook/pulled at the harness while measuring resistance hoping I would see some sort of change, but nothing.
The CEL only stays on for a few seconds then turns off, so I can't check the code.
What I do know:
-The tach gets the signal from teh ignitor, which gets the signal from the dizzy.
-Water temp gauge goes straight from the cluster, to the sensor, then grounds through the block.
-Underdash harness is 100% good.
Symptoms:
-slight misfire at idle (could be old gas or old coil, dunno if it's associated)
-misfire/bog on left hand turns and big bumps
-erratic tach on left hand turns and big bumps
-CEL comes on left hand turns and big bumps
Possible issues:
-Ignitor/coil
-distributor/rotor
-engine harness shorting out
Ruled out:
-underdash harness
-pigtail off of igniter
Other interesting thing... I shake my coil and I think I can hear liquid moving around in it. I know that the old style coils were filled with a non-conductive mineral oil, but I was under the impression that you aren't supposed to hear it slosh around lol. It's an OE toyota coil... I think I'll replace that. Anyway...
I ran new wires for the underdash harness, didn't fix it. I tested the engine harness, and it seemed good. But, it made more sense for there to be a short in the harness than the igniter to act weird depending on which way the Gs pull.
Started tearing into the engine harness and found this...
Insulation for several wires melted together. Red goes from the igniter to the ECU, black goes from the igniter to the tach, and the brown wires are for AC. I'm going to finish going through the entire harness to make sure there is nothing else wrong, and do a nice little wire tuck. I've been meaning to do it for awhile, and right now I've got the motivation while I have the harness pulled apart.
oh and also...
).
, hahaha
