Sorry for the book guys, wanted to give you an idea of what a nightmare this has been. My stft's are all over the place but stay in the -/+ single digits most of the time. My long term trims are now at 19 at idle and whenever I let off the gas while driving. When I give it a little gas they drop between 14.8 - 19. My AFR stays pretty close to stoich bouncing between 14.69 and 14.81, jumping into the mid 15's a couple of times but no codes. Not seeing very much KR either .04 here and there.
Okay so in late December I brought my car to IPS Motorsports to have a downpipe, FMIC, catback installed along with a tune. I originally wanted to go with the AP but they talked me into Mazdaedit. I have an in depth conversation with the owner about my concerns with not blowing up the car. Everything was bolted onto the car and it was tuned. I had over boosting, cut issues. They could not get an mbc to work on the car. This is late Jan. I also had the dreaded smoking issue because I was now catless. They installed an OCC and PT-P pill to try and fix the smoking. Car never felt right when driving. I made an appointment to have the tune adjusted. They fixed the cut car does not feel right still over boosting. I buy a dashhawk so I could start monitoring everything. I noticed I was getting KR (have gone to or talked to the shop several times at this point). February, I made another appointment to tune out the KR and decided to upgrade the fuel pump as well. They installed the fuel pump and said they did not want to adjust the tune until I broke in the new internals. All along telling me the KR was fine. I started to see KR in the 7s because of the increased fuel pressure and no adjustment to the tune. The car felt like s*** and I was regretting my decision to bolt and tune. I couldnt really test the car out that much because of poor weather conditions. Were now in March, I have an appointment the following Friday to finally adjust the tune and get rid of the KR. The Tues before my appointment the rod in #1 lets go. Theres a hole in the front and back of the block, the engine is toast.
I call the owner of the shop and tell him I think the engine just threw a rod. It was cold as balls outside I had the flu and was coming back from class so at this point I dont know for sure. I have the car towed to IPS Motorsports so they can take a look. Sure as s*** she blew up.
I start hitting the forums and gathering info trying to find out my options. I just spent 5k on parts and labor. The car has like 17k miles and I still owe a ton. I decide to go forged. PT-P builds a new short block. She blew up 3/16/10 the short block arrived at the shop on 4/20/10. IPS tells me a week to install. They tell me they are backed up. There goes a week. Then they start ordering parts, we go though two more weeks of need to order more parts / thought we had this / thought the kit came with this.
May 7th, the engine is finally going in. Doesnt actually go in until the 12th. On the 17th they tell me # 3 is not firing and compression is around 25. Great! They discover the head was not built properly. They blamed Fowler Engines, Fowler said you never told us how to build it. When Fowler took it apart they did not label anything and put it back together in random order. IPS orders buckets / tappets and other parts to fix the head.
May 25th I get the car back. Getting a lean at idle code and my short and long term trims are maxed out at 25% WTF. Car goes back to IPS on the 27th. They think it is a tuning problem. My buddies and CP-E / PT-P are saying mechanical error / boost leak or bad sensor. At this point I said F Mazdaedit and switched to the CP-E standback. I told them I wanted to do my break in miles on the car with no tune. IPS talks to CP-E and starts to agree it may not be a tuning issue. I tell them I want the EGR and PCV systems restored to stock after having talked to several people. I go on vacation and come back and they talked to PT-P and tapped the valve cover to try and fix the PCV system. Trims are still all jacked up. CP-E tells me to get the car the hell out of there.
June 15th, at this point I have not had a car to drive in 93 days! Everything has gone way over budget Im a little over 11k parts in labor not including the 5k I just spent before it blew up. I take to car the Auto Assets. They tell me the PCV system is a wreck and the FMIC is rubbing against the cars frame. Its rubbing a hole in the pipe. They tell me they are not comfortable working on the car trying to clean up another shops mess. Right before I pulled the car from IPS my buddy Scott asked if IPS replaced the injector in cylinder 1. No was the answer.
Im completely broke and in debt now because of this fail ass car. I start getting a ton of support on that other forum and from Jake and CP-E. We decide to go NATOR with the car. I have the car towed to Sardinia, a hundred miles away. We swap the injectors, replace the seals, restore the EGR / PCV systems to stock. Take off the Catch Can, which had pieces of tig in the lines to keep them from collapsing. Check the plugs, not gapped, gap them to .28. Plug the valve cover where it was tapped. Drive the car around. The stfts are staying in the single digits and the ltfts are staying around 10. Were hoping she is fixed, the car is maintaining stoich and no lean codes. I drive home. By the end of the hundred mile drive my ltfts are in the 14s, stft are still all over. At idle the ltfts seem to be going up still. After a week of driving my long terms are now in the 19s unless Im on the gas they drop to high 14s. STFTs are still all over. IPS said they tested the primary o2.
IPS chopped up the injen cai to make it fit since the FMIC was installed wrong. We are going to swap that to see if that helps along with a different maf sensor. I got a new valve cover well throw on tomorrow. I am seriously praying that this fixes the car and hope that it is not the head that IPS had problems with. FML
Sorry for the book. Thanks to CP-E Jake, Scott, Chris, Marcus and several others for your help.
So, any ideas?
Okay so in late December I brought my car to IPS Motorsports to have a downpipe, FMIC, catback installed along with a tune. I originally wanted to go with the AP but they talked me into Mazdaedit. I have an in depth conversation with the owner about my concerns with not blowing up the car. Everything was bolted onto the car and it was tuned. I had over boosting, cut issues. They could not get an mbc to work on the car. This is late Jan. I also had the dreaded smoking issue because I was now catless. They installed an OCC and PT-P pill to try and fix the smoking. Car never felt right when driving. I made an appointment to have the tune adjusted. They fixed the cut car does not feel right still over boosting. I buy a dashhawk so I could start monitoring everything. I noticed I was getting KR (have gone to or talked to the shop several times at this point). February, I made another appointment to tune out the KR and decided to upgrade the fuel pump as well. They installed the fuel pump and said they did not want to adjust the tune until I broke in the new internals. All along telling me the KR was fine. I started to see KR in the 7s because of the increased fuel pressure and no adjustment to the tune. The car felt like s*** and I was regretting my decision to bolt and tune. I couldnt really test the car out that much because of poor weather conditions. Were now in March, I have an appointment the following Friday to finally adjust the tune and get rid of the KR. The Tues before my appointment the rod in #1 lets go. Theres a hole in the front and back of the block, the engine is toast.
I call the owner of the shop and tell him I think the engine just threw a rod. It was cold as balls outside I had the flu and was coming back from class so at this point I dont know for sure. I have the car towed to IPS Motorsports so they can take a look. Sure as s*** she blew up.
I start hitting the forums and gathering info trying to find out my options. I just spent 5k on parts and labor. The car has like 17k miles and I still owe a ton. I decide to go forged. PT-P builds a new short block. She blew up 3/16/10 the short block arrived at the shop on 4/20/10. IPS tells me a week to install. They tell me they are backed up. There goes a week. Then they start ordering parts, we go though two more weeks of need to order more parts / thought we had this / thought the kit came with this.
May 7th, the engine is finally going in. Doesnt actually go in until the 12th. On the 17th they tell me # 3 is not firing and compression is around 25. Great! They discover the head was not built properly. They blamed Fowler Engines, Fowler said you never told us how to build it. When Fowler took it apart they did not label anything and put it back together in random order. IPS orders buckets / tappets and other parts to fix the head.
May 25th I get the car back. Getting a lean at idle code and my short and long term trims are maxed out at 25% WTF. Car goes back to IPS on the 27th. They think it is a tuning problem. My buddies and CP-E / PT-P are saying mechanical error / boost leak or bad sensor. At this point I said F Mazdaedit and switched to the CP-E standback. I told them I wanted to do my break in miles on the car with no tune. IPS talks to CP-E and starts to agree it may not be a tuning issue. I tell them I want the EGR and PCV systems restored to stock after having talked to several people. I go on vacation and come back and they talked to PT-P and tapped the valve cover to try and fix the PCV system. Trims are still all jacked up. CP-E tells me to get the car the hell out of there.
June 15th, at this point I have not had a car to drive in 93 days! Everything has gone way over budget Im a little over 11k parts in labor not including the 5k I just spent before it blew up. I take to car the Auto Assets. They tell me the PCV system is a wreck and the FMIC is rubbing against the cars frame. Its rubbing a hole in the pipe. They tell me they are not comfortable working on the car trying to clean up another shops mess. Right before I pulled the car from IPS my buddy Scott asked if IPS replaced the injector in cylinder 1. No was the answer.
Im completely broke and in debt now because of this fail ass car. I start getting a ton of support on that other forum and from Jake and CP-E. We decide to go NATOR with the car. I have the car towed to Sardinia, a hundred miles away. We swap the injectors, replace the seals, restore the EGR / PCV systems to stock. Take off the Catch Can, which had pieces of tig in the lines to keep them from collapsing. Check the plugs, not gapped, gap them to .28. Plug the valve cover where it was tapped. Drive the car around. The stfts are staying in the single digits and the ltfts are staying around 10. Were hoping she is fixed, the car is maintaining stoich and no lean codes. I drive home. By the end of the hundred mile drive my ltfts are in the 14s, stft are still all over. At idle the ltfts seem to be going up still. After a week of driving my long terms are now in the 19s unless Im on the gas they drop to high 14s. STFTs are still all over. IPS said they tested the primary o2.
IPS chopped up the injen cai to make it fit since the FMIC was installed wrong. We are going to swap that to see if that helps along with a different maf sensor. I got a new valve cover well throw on tomorrow. I am seriously praying that this fixes the car and hope that it is not the head that IPS had problems with. FML
Sorry for the book. Thanks to CP-E Jake, Scott, Chris, Marcus and several others for your help.
So, any ideas?
