James's 1996 850R "Minty"

jamesinc

In the meantime, got two Momo M3s to get me out of trouble. Total spend $220 fitted from St George Tyres. Much better service than Tempe tyres too.

nickm

They are very soft wheels. Did the Momo's balance up better? How are you finding them?
The paint code is somewhere on this site.

Yes St George offer far better service. I'm due for 2 new tyres soon I think I will go the Momo again after a set of emergency holiday purchased Achilles.

jamesinc

They did. I like them so far. St George didn't seat one correctly and it has a slow leak where the wheel weight clamp is (on the inside track of the wheel). So god damn lame, they are a 45 minute drive away. I'm just going to take it to my usual guy in Chatswood and have him re-seat it.

jamesinc

New plugs are in and I sanded back the junk on the cap and rotor contacts. Heading to @Philia_Bear's place shortly to pick up a new cap, rotor, and leads, but it already makes more power and runs better.

The PCV system is blocked, and the tie rod ends are worn, so I put in an order with RockAuto for all that stuff today.

I've been reading @Ghettobird's ostrich thread and got jelly, so I finally got around to modding my spare ME4.4 ECU with a flash mode toggle:

Ghettobird

Ahh very nice
Using a VAG COM Cable?

DO NOT FORGET to do the AC mod patch if the cars stock ECU was M4.3, you'll cook it otherwise - apprently
http://m44.wikia.com/wiki/M4.4_A/C_Converison

Let me know if it throws a Lambda light too, Im still trying to diagnose what mine it trying to tell me.
Oh and im averaging 19ish/100 atm too, The "Stock" provided bins utilise the white injectors, our cars have the oranges so she is running either pig rich, or dangerously lean

jamesinc

I am going to do the A/C conversion. I've been trying to work out if the way to do that is to just plug in the ECU and then flash it with the cable before starting the car.

Ghettobird

There is a way to fire up the ecu on a bench, but its a fk around
best bet would be to unplug your AC fans and hotwire the required pins to the battery... or whatever they need you to do

If I were to do it lke that, Id grab a bit of loom from another car and make up a flashing harness so I can do it on a bench

nickm

Is there a minimum voltage requirement of 13.5v to flash.
So doing this on a bench with a power regulator is a safer bet?

Ghettobird

They recommend hooking up a battery charger at the same time too to get it over the threshold
If you want the ECU socketed in the future let me know

jamesinc

I can socket it just fine!

Anyway, the 850 is being a bit of a dickhead at the moment. Went over to Mike's, got the new cap rotor and leads installed, on the way back the ABS/TRACS warnings come on, so faulty ABS module now it seems, and the turbo isn't boosting. Gets to 0psi fast, and stops. Weird. I checked the TCV plumbing as I was fiddling around down there yesterday and it was all correct.

jamesinc

So I'll try the ABS module solder reflow process sometime. Wouldn't surprise me that it's happened now, what with me poking around under the hood. If the joints were about to fail, that would probably push them over the edge.

Back to the turbo... gonna let it freeboost and see what happens.

nickm

Sudden loss of boost would be a hose.
ABS module or the wires to the ABS pump. Easy fix

jamesinc

nickm;75333 wroteSudden loss of boost would be a hose.
ABS module or the wires to the ABS pump. Easy fix

I'll have another look tomorrow. I've checked the hoses twice now and everything is correct. I'll disconnect the wastegate actuator line and see if it boosts.

AshDVS

Philia_Bear;75124 wroteVolvo blister pack is better imho

Just omg do whiteblocks hate non volvo plugs

Turbo 5s seem to be very sensitive to it plugs. I wouldn't use anything other than the Volvo Genuine ones in them.
NA 5s seem to be a bit less fussy,
The Focus is getting Volvo Genuine plugs when I get around to working through service items.

sucksqueezebangblow

I bought focus xr5 plugs for my Volvo thinking they would be the same, are they different beside the FoMoCo branding?

AshDVS

sucksqueezebangblow;75366 wroteI bought focus xr5 plugs for my Volvo thinking they would be the same, are they different beside the FoMoCo branding?

Good question -
Ford offer two different 5 cyl turbo plugs as far as I can tell.
One plug for Mondeo XR5 and Focus XR5 and another for the Focus RS.

I actually dont know (yet) which one of these the Volvo plugs are (assuming it'll be the same as one of them).
I'll tell you shortly though. I'll get a single plug of each in when we next do a Ford Genuine parts order.

jamesinc

Honestly the NGK iridium plugs have always been fine for me. I compared them when I was swapping out the old Volvo plugs. Design is the same, electrode shape is the same, gap is about 0.02mm different, which may well just be how worn the old plugs were. I can understand the scepticism of e.g. Bosch plugs, because the design is totally different.

jamesinc

I tried the turbo with the wastegate actuator vac line disconnected and it still doesn't boost. It makes maybe 1 or 2 psi, assuming the dash gauge is still calibrated. I figure it's probably the actuator needing adjustment. I can hear the turbo spool, it goes from vac to PSI very quickly, then stops. If there was a big boost leak I would expect the car to run like crap once it hit boost, but it doesn't, it runs happily, it just makes less power, so I'm less inclined to believe it's a case of air escaping the system. It seems more likely that it's some component of the turbo.

nickm

The wastegate diaphragm or lever. Or Bypass valve there isn't much else.

sucksqueezebangblow

When I popped intercooler hoses on the falc it ran fine just no powA. I could hear air noises though.

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