4agze problems

[greyae92]

I have an ae101 gze swap in my 89 ae92. I bought it as a rebuilt motor, never ran. I've got it up and running but it has very low oil pressure, unsure of actual psi, just off of stock gauge, sending unit should be fine came off of my original 4age and worked fine on that. Also I'm getting only 5-6 pounds of boost. Before install I checked timing belt and made sure it was set right, I set ignition timing by jumping e1 and t1 and setting to 10 degrees, check engine light was blinking and had no codes blinking out, I pulled the jumper and it did not advance timing to 16 degrees like it should, ran kinda rough so I bumped it to 16 degrees without the jumper and it ran better. It seems to run fine, no backfires, easy to drive, idles fine etc but the low oil pressure and low boost bothers me. I checked for vacuum leaks but have not found any. I do not have the any vsv running. Have vacuum lines hooked up properly to run without them, does not have the abv mod done.

Any ideas??

[Davegt27]

You have a MR2?

My 5AGZE has slightly less oil pressure I am pretty sure it’s because of the AE101 GZE oil squirter block that I used

Not a big problem my rebuild has a year and a half on it

[greyae92]

It's a corolla gts fwd, I put a manual gauge on and it is reading on the high side (cold oil) at 23 psi, then when warm it is at 14 psi

[Crownvicman289]

14psi sounds pretty low at an idle. When you rev it up, what do you get?

[greyae92]

If it's warm it gets to about 18psi at around 4500 rpm

[Crownvicman289]

Wow, that is weak. Any knocking? You might try removing and inspecting the oil pump per the BGB, it's possible that the bypass valve is stuck open on the pump. For the record I'd get close to 70psi warm around 4000 RPM. I don't think I ever had less than 30 at a warm idle either. This too was on a rebuilt AE101 GZE.

[greyae92]

No knocking thankfully, hopefully I'll get some time soon to check the oil pump, I figured it shouldn't be less then my old 4age. Any thoughts on the weak boost from the SC? I'm thinking its worn out since I can't find any vacuum leaks....

[Crownvicman289]

I wonder if the altitude affects the abv. . .

[greyae92]

I think I'll do the abv mod and see if it changes. I wanted to wait till I got all the kinks worked out and engine broke in before modding it. You're about the same altitude as me in the springs, have you noticed any boost loss?

[Crownvicman289]

Still putting it together, build thread got lost when C4AG crashed and I've been too lazy to copy/pasted it from MR2OC. It's kind of long (that's what she said) and the only thing I could compare my boost to is what it was at sea level, but I've made changes to the motor so it'd be different even at sea level now.

[greyae92]

Well I've heard from a friend that runs boosted cars at the track that you lose 2-3psi because of altitude over here, that you need to compensate with pulley sizes to get the 10psi that you would get at sea level but I don't know because my SC Previa runs at 6psi as per specs without any mods to it. I'll mess with it and post what I find. What's your build link at mr2oc?

[Crownvicman289]

http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=457640&page=1

Need to register to be able to see it.

[Crownvicman289]

Yeah, brainfart. PSIA will be lower here as atmospheric starts off 2 or 3 psi less, and PSID will also decrease as the air entering the blower is less dense and thus doesn't get compressed as much since the blower spins the same speed here as sea level. Same reason why a turbo has to spin faster up here to create the same level of PSID it does at sea level, which it does automatically, so the only PSIA you typically lose in a turbocharged engine is atmospheric. Does your boost gauge read vacuum with the engine off?

[greyae92]

Makes sense, my guage goes back to 0 when it's off. It also has steady vacuum, it's not bouncing around like it would with a vacuum leak.

[Crownvicman289]

Nahh, I wasn't thinking vacuum leaks, I was thinking if the gauge read below 0 that there was part of the low boost reading. Hard to believe it saps that much boost, but IIRC my 10psi on my stock DLI GZE didn't hit until higher in the RPM band. A vacuum leak on a MAP engine won't cause a bouncy vacuum reading anyway, it'll just force the IACV to close more to regulate idle speed and then leak boost with your foot in it.

[greyae92]

It's all new to me, this is the 1st boosted motor swap I've done. I have a lot to learn, mostly cuz I've never messed with boosted cars

[Crownvicman289]

Only way to learn is to do it, so you're on the right track so far. I'd be hesitant to put miles on the car until you've inspected the oil pump. I've had the bypass stick closed before, so it's just as feasible to stick open I'd think. I've also had an oil pump shoot the regulator into the pan, if that's the case you'll definitely need to address it.

[greyae92]

That's how I learn everything, dive in, hope the learning process doesn't make me go broke! Well I may have bigger problems then just oil and boost, starting to get some nice milky oil! I marked my coolent level and it doesn't seem to have dropped at all and the cooling system seems oil free. Head gasket is new and before I put it on I checked all the surfaces, didn't see any cracks in anything. I may have a very expensive paperweight on my hands now. Looks like my car will be sitting for a long time again

[Crownvicman289]

Why'd you change the HG in the first place? Preventative maintenance or previous one blew? If the last one blew, you might just need to get the head skimmed. Did you check to make sure the head's flatness was within spec?

[greyae92]

I made sure it was in spec, I did it for pm. Well ****

[greyae92]

Interesting it automatically bleeps out cuss words lol

[Crownvicman289]

Yeah, it used to take 1% away for every time you swore too. I was down in the 50% range, I think you get booted after you swear too many times. Makes no sense as it filters it out anyway, so technically no crime gets committed.

[greyae92]

Always wondered about how ratings were judged. So here's a curious question. I drained my oil and it looks clean, refilled, drove about 15min checked dipstick, looked fine, oil cap had a white film built up on it, drained oil again, looked normal

[Crownvicman289]

Sounds fine, probably just condensation in there. Coolant is still full too, right? And the car doesn't overheat?

[greyae92]

I hope so, its been a long 11 month project and im sick of bad news. No overheating and coolent level is stable, actually need to change my t stat, cools off too easily. The sad thing is that I'm out of time to fix my oil pressure problem now, may actually have to pay someone to fix it, or wait till the end of summer to do it myself. Both options suck in my mind and I'm afraid to hear the estimate to pay someone

[Crownvicman289]

Let it sit, I would not pay the labor. I hear ya on the time constraint, my one single class I've been taking has sapped almost all of my time which is one of the reasons my Corolla is progressing so slowly. In the meantime, my DDs are shjtting parts and my track car still needs repairs it needed last year. Leaves no time to customize anything I own. The motor swap in the Corolla isn't near the progression I had envisioned either, so it's just a regurgitation of 2008 to give you an indication of how far behind I am. I've had a supercharger on the shelf for the truck since 2010, still can't fathom treating my garage floor or finishing the interior of it with all I have on my plate. Back yard is still a desert. The list goes on.

[greyae92]

I understand, I'm now actually more skilled in home renovation then I am at car customization, I did manage to install a heater in my garage so at least now I don't freeze. My wife wants my car running more then I do just cuz she's disgusted by the amount of time, money and effort that's in it and its a paperweight. Granted its going to be more for a DD then track use so my mods are mild and more functional based. I managed to keep my original AC setup, still using R12, got a little left just for recharge purposes. AC idle up works, cruise works, thanks to the digital adaptor my tach works, homemade muffler looks like crap but sounds decent. Need to decide where to put my boost gauge and egt gauge. Gotta finish mounting kouki trueno bumper and fog lights. Still looking for levin rear bumper. And redo all the railings in my house before my boy learns how to crawl, guess what's 1st on my list lol

[Crownvicman289]

I had mine running a blacktop previously, found the car in a junkyard. As soon as I wired up the AC, it worked even after sitting in the boneyard for 2-3 years. I've kept AC this time around as well but the cruise control servo must be relocated to accomodate intercooler plumbing. Same with the radiator overflow and windshield washer jug. Gonna keep it all though, I'm not ready to gut this car quite yet, though it is a bit on the hefty side for what it is. I even have aftermarket speakers throughout, sounds half decent. I do need to get a cat installed, the car sounds a little like ass. I want to get a metallic substrate cat, they're high flow and supposedly less prone to fouling. Even if it does, it has bigger holes to plug up. They're not as clean, but I don't have to worry about emissions here anyway. Have you checked out glowshift? I have no idea what their quality is, I'm hoping it's good enough, because they have cheap universal gauge pods. I've got some 60mm Greddy gauges and most of the other pods are only 52mm.

[greyae92]

I had a silvertop in my 88 gts. I had a lot of fun with that engine, I miss that car which is why I bought my 89 gts. I was going to go blacktop and turbo it eventually but I settled on the gze. I spent 3 years looking for a gts that was clean inside and out. I got lucky and found an old guy that was the original owner that couldn't afford to maintain it any longer, so I picked it up with only 107k miles on it and all it needed was a clutch. I haven't used any aftermarket cats but I was looking into getting a high flow one as well, but I have to worry about emissions, so I may just keep my oem. I've looked into glowshift and they look decent, I was thinking about doing the single din holder for a clean look and also since I haven't purchased any gauges for my car yet I probably will go with the 52mm, just can't figure out which brand and style I want yet.

[Crownvicman289]

The Chinese offerings seem to get better by the day. It's funny when you say you "settled" on the GZE, I promise at this altitude it'd spank the dog crap out of a BT. Hell, I had a pulley, header, and FMIC on my DLI GZE back in Okinawa in my AE111. I had a friend with an AE111 with stacks, header, and a bunch of other crap that did nothing and I whooped the ever living crap out of him. When I was stock and he didn't have stacks, we were neck and neck, shifting won the race that day, but after the pulley and intercooler forget about it. Downside is the extra weight, you'll feel it if you auto-x for sure. My BT setup was really really nice for auto-x, I was shocked at what I could do with so little power.