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Go to start the car and move it for some tinker time. It cranked but didn't start. Seemed like no spark.
Checked all the fuses and whatnot. Looks good.
Flip the breaker between the battery and car and throw a charger on it just in case. Try again after some time passes, the damn immobilizer is keeping the car from cranking. Stupid little car/key light fast flashes.
The stock ecu runs my gauges, power steering and of course, the damn starter.
I can't overstate my appreciation for a bush button starter and a couple toggle switches. An immobilizer was a hidden toggle switch that disabled the fuel pump.
II feel like a dinosaur.
Have the Penskes installed
An unexpected benefit is my tire no longer rubs the spring at full lock. Lowered as much as possible on 8" springs puts the car at 13.5" I haven't verified this myself but I'm told I should have 8" of total travel so the use of an 8" spring would allow for more than the full compression stroke to be used.
I'm thinking of going to a shorter spring.
6" spring. It's nearly a pound lighter and 3.25 travel
7" spring, 1/2 pound lighter and 3.83 travel
I went with 800/550, it's stiff but not overly so.
I have a route is take for tuning my rx8 that had various shitty road conditions with 2 RR crossings and the Penskes do a good job at making the bad roads disappear.
Quick adjustment? The rear is fine, Not so much in front.
im thinking I might make a remote adjuster for the compression side but the sweep style rebound adjuster is probably going to require wheel removal to adjust.
I was wondering if there is a known tool (besides a bench press) to push the lca bushings out. Snapon used to have one for Honda's, you didn't have to even remove the arm.
schley 6100.
Team did you notice the front shocks are inverted also?
Anyone care to know why this is a bad idea with double adjustable Penskes? Rebound adjuster is a sweep style adjuster and it's behind the wheel and hub assembly. Not easily accessible.
I guess I'm good on the tool, still open to suggestions but I guess a few washers, the proper bolt and a pipe will probably work.
I'm wondering how you keep the lca camber/caster bushings from accidentally rotating. They don't look like they will be particularly easy to adjust either. More reading to do I guess.
Updated first post with review stuffs. Couple pics if anyone interested.
Very nice! What did you use for the ratio charts? I did everything in a spreadsheet, but my numbers were far different from yours so I need to go back and compare to see which inputs were different. I’m pretty sure I had 2nd gear topping out at around 57mph with the 3.91 with 245/40/18s. The 3.91 looked really short to me so I decided to start with the 3.45.
My car arrived today. The driver of the delivery rig called ahead to tell me the battery was dead and he couldn’t find the battery. I told him it was in the trunk. When it arrived I put a meter on it and it was around 3 volts. I was able to get it jumped and it was fine, but I think there is a drain. I checked it after driving it tonight and I’ll compare in the morning to see if that is the case.
Wow, this thing is tail happy! It was totally controllable, but easy to light them up going through the gears. The first major problem is a huge loss of power at around 5200rpm. It feels like I’m losing 3 cylinders and doesn’t really want to rev past that. I’ll talk to Andrew and get his take. The car is definitely very loud inside, but it sounds mostly like the engine bay/intake and not the exhaust. Any engine braking at all sounds pretty rough. It is also bringing out even more rattles in the car. The transmission is definitely not as smooth as my stock RX8, but maybe I just need to get used to it. The gate to reverse is not very strong, so I fear I might go past first when downshifting sometime. Those are the main issues. Overall though this is a blast to drive, and It will only get better as I get through some of the teething issues. I really want that full power band. I’m looking forward to getting more seat time.
Last edited by Skinless; May 24, 2020 at 02:47 AM.
Sorry to hear of the trouble.
If you purchased a whole car like I did, keep in mind your also inheriting previous gremlins. I recently had issues with an alarm system causing some issues with the immobilizer.
I reached out to Andrew and even though it's not really his problem, he sent me some write-ups and fsm diagrams to help me diagnose the issue.
Your power problem is interesting. You should feel extra power hitting, the gm tune doesn't allow the throttle plate to go fully open till higher in the rpm range. Have an OBD2 reader?
First post. There's a 3500rpm fuel cutoff if the ECM thinks it's in neutral. In HP Tuners its under Engine/Fuel/Cutoff, DFCO/RPM Limits/Fuel Cutoff RPM (In Gear).
There's also a torque limit in Engine/Torque Management/General/Trans Default Torque Limit. If you're running an automatic ECM, that one kicks in at 4k rpm.
re: no spark. LFX uses a boost circuit in the ECM to power the injectors to 48v. This boost circuit (because reasons) doesn't like a weak battery. Doesn't help that the alternator outputs default 13.8v without a BCM, which results in a slightly undercharged battery. A lithium boost box helps get a little extra umph and will let the injectors fire.
Sorry to hear of the trouble.
If you purchased a whole car like I did, keep in mind your also inheriting previous gremlins. I recently had issues with an alarm system causing some issues with the immobilizer.
I reached out to Andrew and even though it's not really his problem, he sent me some write-ups and fsm diagrams to help me diagnose the issue.
Your power problem is interesting. You should feel extra power hitting, the gm tune doesn't allow the throttle plate to go fully open till higher in the rpm range. Have an OBD2 reader?
Re-reading my post I think it came off more negative than I intended. I'm really loving the car, and I didn't expect there to be zero issues to work through. My experience with Andrew has been similar to yours. Throughout this process he has been incredible, and I don't think I've ever had better customer service.
I hooked up my ODBII today and there is one code: P062F - Internal Control Module EEPROM Error.
I'm not sure if that is expected or not and I haven't asked Andrew yet. Do you have the same code?
I had a chance to go out and do a quick test this morning. I revved freely in first and second, but repeatedly hit the same problem in third. I had my odbii hooked up and I could see the timing jump all over the place every time it happened. I'll have to look at the logs more closely when I have a chance later. Right now I need to get the family out of the house for some fresh air.
Originally Posted by gooflophaze
First post. There's a 3500rpm fuel cutoff if the ECM thinks it's in neutral. In HP Tuners its under Engine/Fuel/Cutoff, DFCO/RPM Limits/Fuel Cutoff RPM (In Gear).
There's also a torque limit in Engine/Torque Management/General/Trans Default Torque Limit. If you're running an automatic ECM, that one kicks in at 4k rpm.
re: no spark. LFX uses a boost circuit in the ECM to power the injectors to 48v. This boost circuit (because reasons) doesn't like a weak battery. Doesn't help that the alternator outputs default 13.8v without a BCM, which results in a slightly undercharged battery. A lithium boost box helps get a little extra umph and will let the injectors fire.
Thank you, that is interesting info. This battery was down at 3 volts when it arrived and it is possible that it did some damage. Andrew thinks the shippers left a light on because he had it sitting for a while at his place and never had a problem with drain. I think that is pretty likely. It would be a shame if this brand new optima is damaged. After driving yesterday I was up at 12.3 volts, and when I checked it when I got up this morning it was at 11.85.
Teething issues aside, this thing is a beast! This is the power the car always needed!
Andrew thinks he knows what the problem is. In the tune there is a setting for wheel revolutions per mile, and it looks like it is likely way low in my ECU. There is also a setting that cuts fuel when the speed reaches 255mph, so since the wheel revolutions per mile is way off it is hitting this limit around 5200rpm in 3rd gear. That is the theory anyway. He has seen this on one other car and fixing the wheel revs per mile fixed the issue. I confirmed that the ECU is reporting the speed as many times the actual speed. Andrew is mailing me his tuner so I can fix the value and test.
the honey moon is over.
Go to start the car and move it for some tinker time. It cranked but didn't start. Seemed like no spark.
Checked all the fuses and whatnot. Looks good.
Flip the breaker between the battery and car and throw a charger on it just in case. Try again after some time passes, the damn immobilizer is keeping the car from cranking. Stupid little car/key light fast flashes.
The stock ecu runs my gauges, power steering and of course, the damn starter.
After you fixed the problem with the key and got it cranking again did you have any trouble with it starting? From your post it sounds like it wouldn't start prior to the immobilizer issue. I ask because the other night I went to start it and it cranked but wouldn't start. It also seemed like no spark. I tried a few different times but no luck. I pulled one of the plugs so I could check spark and had my wife crank it and it started immediately. Andrew mentioned that he'd seen flooding that required pulling multiple plugs, but that doesn't appear to be the issue I had given that I only pulled one plug and that plug was still out when it started. Since the immobilizer keeps it from cranking it seems like it was fuel or ignition. I still don't know what happened, but I'm definitely going to keep a plug wrench in the car with me until I understand the issue better.
Ill get more track oriented now that things are opening back up. I recognize the need to start a lfx swap issues thread/group though.
I installed the the Supernow camber/caster bushings this weekend, well one side at least. I have some gripes that are likely due to my lack of knowledge.
having some kind of marking to show adjustment gain if installed and clocked a certain way would be nice. It seems like I'll have to get on an alignment rack and see what my min/max adjustment range are in their current position.
I can mark this and if I choose poorly I'll at least have a reference point to work from. I don't relish taking it apart again but it should be much easier now that I've done it.
At 40 I'm surprised how little my hands enjoy doing this kind of stuff now. I figured I had a few more years before my joints hurt from doing moderate levels of work.
Posting picks of how I pressed the bushings out.
I didn't use anything fancy.
this 12ton hf press was barely up to the task. It seemed like the bottle jack jack bypassingwbypassing pressure when things got difficult.
This was before I figured out I had to press these in using some intelligence, the 2 Allen bolts are lined up with the length of the arm now and pushes the control arm forward a reasonable amount. With it as pictured it was wayyyy to far forward.
Well I think they have to be aligned in the maximum inboard position to push the ball joint outward for increasing negative camber and then you still use the OE cam bolts to adjust it from there? So in the pic it looks like the rear caster insert needs to rotate approx. 45* clockwise to sort of align with the C-L plane of the other bushing
I ended up doing what your pic shows. This morning it made sense to just line up the horizontal axis. After fighting with it all day yesterday today did both sides in 2-3 hours.
