Captain Obvious

Great timing! As of yesterday my 77 280 just saw it's first miles back on the road since last November. I did a whole bunch of suspension work during the off season and just finished. Keep in mind that I'm no suspension expert, but I'm very happy with the results. Biggest thing for me is that it's now "predictable". Not a road hugging track star, but it's doing what it's supposed to do now which is a huge improvement over what I started with. First off... For struts, I put KYB struts on all four corners. Then in the front, I did a whole bunch of work to my steering rack: Lots of details in this thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/suspension-steering-s30/51640-steering-rack-disassembly-refurb.html In addition to all the steering rack work, I also replaced the front control arm bushing, outer tie rod ends, and ball joints. Front control arm bushing location: Front control arm bushings from Raybestos. (Short side towards the front): Front ball joints from MOOG (make sure all the mating surfaces are clean of rust and debris): Front outer tie rod ends from MOOG (non-interchangeable between sides. Threads are opposite): I'll post some info on the work I did to the rear suspension as well, but I have to get more pics uploaded first.

Unless you've now got your heart set on the tinted ones... I've got a set of NOS clear covers from MSA if you're interested. Bought them for a Z a while ago but sold the car before I installed them. Still wrapped up in the box. LMK if you're interested? Save some bucks?

I'm not sure you did the calibration correctly... I think you have to use a Canadian beer. :bulb: Seriously though, I wish I could tell if my AFM has been messed with. I've looked it over from every angle, and even with magnification, I can't tell for sure. I've got no glue blobs or marks that would indicate one way or the other. My cover had been popped by a previous owner, but I can't tell for sure what (if anything) he did in there.

I'm unclear still if it's vacuum, electrical related, or strictly mechanical... Warm it up to the point where it starts hanging. Once it's warm enough and starts exhibiting the problem, open the hood and rev the engine by grabbing the throttle linkage all the way back at the pivot point by the firewall. Then drop the RPM's slowly by releasing the linkage gently. The object is to get it to hang. Then once it's hanging, grab the linkage right at the throttle body and manually force the throttle body butterfly closed. Does it still hang while you're forcing the throttle body closed, or do the RPM's drop like they should? http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/fuel-injection-s30/48078-sticky-throttle-body-hanging-idle.html

I don't know Zed... I don't see any misrepresentation there. That relay clearly says "No Good" on the outside of it. Truth in advertising! PS - Holy crap!!

Woof. That's no fun. How many miles do you have to go? I'll reset the odometer for you if you want to ship it to me. If you have to go only a couple miles, then no biggie, but if you've got to go halfway around the dial, that's a lot of drilling!

Ugh... If your diaper if that bad, I can just imagine what the kid's looks like...

Congrats Len!!

Lenny, Another data point... My spare 77 ECU has no such internal pull-ups. I've got a snubber to ground to squelch inductive kickback from the injectors and I've got 1.5Ks that go from the emitters of the output Darlington to (and only to) pins on the main ECU connector. Pins 11 and 26? I'm thinking they are test port connections to probe the action of the outputs without connecting directly to the injectors.

There is an enrichment circuit built into the ECU which adds extra fuel while the engine is cranking. It tails off over the next thirty seconds or so after the key is released back to ON. But other than that, I'm not aware of anything different about firing the injectors between START and ON. My money is on fuel, but just a quick test to make sure? Pull a vacuum hose and give a quick shot of starter fluid into the intake manifold? Should pop on that for a few seconds if there's spark. Another idea would be to disconnect one of the bullet connectors going to the temp sensor (either one will work) and then try to start it. This will fool your ECU into thinking your engine is Antarctica stone cold and add extra fuel accordingly. Pull it and see if it will start then. It'll billow clouds of smoke if it starts, but while it's running you can then reconnect the sensor bullet. Doubtful. He says the fuel pressure looks good even when the problem is occurring.

Yeah, that doesn't look good. It may be just me, but I find noises very hard to identify through a youtube video. I'm not sure where the detail is lost, but by the time it goes into your camera and out my crappy little computer speakers, I'm doubtful I'm getting a good representation of what you're hearing. However... There's no doubt that the blue cloud out the tailpipe is not good news. Compression test next maybe?

Well let me back up a little and ask... Are you just concerned about a noise, or are you concerned by the way it's running? In other words, is it running as expected but sounding bad, or is it running poorly and sounding bad?

How do your float bowl levels look? With all that stuff missing from the intake tract, it ought to be easy to see the sight glasses. Maybe your front carb isn't feeding it's cylinders. What happens if you goose just one of the carbs? With the EGT's you're seeing, I'd guess that goosing the front carb won't do much, but goosing the rear one would raise the RPM? And out of curiousity... You running the stock needles? You removed and plugged all the idle air circuitry and I'm thinking you'll be rich at idle because of that. But I guess that doesn't matter for a track car?

Haha! Speaking of timing issue... You know this thread is like over three years dormant, right? :laugh:

Haha!! Most of mine start with "Hey... Hold my beer." Funny though... Mine end the same way yours do.

Hahahahaha!!!! Hey Y'all, watch this! That's great!

The FI Bible (page 3) warns against running the tank out of fuel because it may be difficult to prime the system after that happens. They even used capitol letters and everything. I suspect that may be the source of the apprehension about priming the system. That said... I didn't run my car out of gas, but I did the same thing you did and took the pump out. When I disconnected the line between the pump and the tank, gas came out of the tank and didn't stop. I had to cap the fuel tank outlet nipple to stop the flow. I think I had about half a tank and the head pressure was enough to keep the feed line to the pump full. When I was done messing with the pump, I pulled the caps off the fuel tank nipples and hooked all the hoses back up. Then I pulled the starter solenoid wire off the starter and hit the key. The engine doesn't crank because the starter is disabled, but the fuel pump will run. I could hear the pump run and I could also detect a change in the sound once the pump fully primed. Then I could also tell when the bubbling stopped and liquid fuel had gone full circle back to the tank through the return line. Whole process took less than thirty seconds. Connect the starter solenoid back up, hit the key, and vroom. Maybe I was lucky and mine primed itself easily.

One last sorry to have provided bum info and I'll move forward. Just remember that all I wanted to do was help! I don't know how my stock check valve got empty, or where the bits went. I've had the fuel pump apart and there wasn't any damage to the internal parts, so I doubt the guts went through the pump. I can tell by the date codes on the fuel lines that my PO had been messing around back there, but I can't come up with any reason that he would have gutted the valve. I'm thinking aliens. Here's my original valve. Clean as a whistle: I can hear Adam Savage... "Well THERE'S your problem!"

Thanks for easing the pain. I just feel bad for providing bum info. Worst that you made a break in the schedule to do the work and then got stuck. If you decide to try again, here's some links for good prices on the 539: Amazon has some for $17.15 plus shipping: Amazon.com: 1 587 010 539 Ebay has some for $24.24 shipped: New Bosch Fuel Pump Check Valve 1587010539 Volvo OE 1326899 | eBay And Rock auto says they have them for $12.60 plus shipping "Stocked in outlying warehouse--shipping delayed up to 1 business day". Just search by part number 1587010539.

Haha!! Glad to help! Here I was thinking that I was the last person on the planet to realize what was really going on. Feels better to know that I'm in good company! Thanks!!

Awesome. Glad you were able to get some more life out of your original valve. That wasn't an option for me as my old check valve was empty. Completely empty. I don't know where the guts went, but they were nowhere to be found. No spring... No seal... No nothing. I dug into the numbers a little and only answer I can really come up with is that I was juggling so many different check valve part numbers that I simply screwed up and listed one that didn't belong. I've verified that the Bosch part number 1 587 010 539 works for the Audi hose. That's the one I'm running on my car now. The -004 is the one that fits into the fuel filter I mentioned earlier as an attempt to move the check valve to the engine compartment. So sorry for the screw up and I'll send a note to the moderators to see if I can have them delete the -004 part number from the list so no one else falls into the same hole.

Oh crap... Rhat's not right! Don't know what happened, but I'll dig into it right away and let you know. Can I send you my check valve? It's already cut down, and my car isn't going anywhere for a little while yet. Put your old one back in for a few days?

And one more thing. Any of you guys putting one of those alternative valves on... I'll cut them down to length for you if you want. You can do it with a hacksaw or a file, but it's a fifteen second job on the lathe and it's a nice clean square cut. I'd be happy to chuck them up and slice them for you if you want to cover shipping. Just don't forget to shorten them somehow before you smash the excess into your pump armature!

Mike, Haha! I've got bags of extras from McMaster. Nitrile though, not Viton. As soon as I get my car back together and can verify that everything works properly, I'm going to offer my extras to the forum. I know you can't wait though. Sorry I didn't move fast enough to cover you.

Well duh. :bulb: So you want a new part from Audi, but don't want to deal with the hassle or cost. I get it. :laugh: If your local hydraulic shop succeeds, make sure you take some pics of that. It would add to the knowledge base. Let us know what the hydraulics shop comes up with for costs too.