VENOM parts for our cars!

[Intruder]

headers? do I have to make my own? last I checked, no one was making headers for the 2nd gen. am I mistaken? also, about the catback - I don't want my car to sound as loud as a muthafuk. I don't know if people do it on purpose or if there's no way of keeping it quiet with a catback.

[Torped0]

WEll according to kris, Essential Speed is willing to make one and they may do it.. but i'm not sure how long it will take them to start and how long it will take to distribute it. I guess they would need more people willing to buy the headers before they start producing it. If you don't feel like waiting, build it yourself lol

[Intruder]

make my own?? you don't know me bro...
just recently (maybe yesterday) I was reading here on this board that a header won't help even a tiny bit. is that true?

[Torped0]

I ai'nt sure about that lol. From what I heard, a header was created by gude but it show4ed no performance gains. Other than that, no one has really atempted to create their own performance header so I doubt anyone will be sure until they make one for themselves and tells us. So lets see if Essential Speed will have any success in making a header that will be useful.

[Intruder]

yeah, I guess we can't all order a header from ES before they've developed it and dyno tested it. it'll suck if we all bought a piece and found no gain at all. what a bummer.

[pigeon]

ya man, if you want to make power with the 1.5
you're going to have to spend money

the intake and exhaust are easy gains
but to be honest, its not THAT much

if you do any modifications that involve the ecu, most likely its modifying your fuel curves and timing curves
you're most likely going to have to run 91 octane gas after doing that mod

you could also advance your timing manually for free, and get a bit of gains if you didnt want to buy the computer thing and if you were already going to use high octane fuel

[Intruder]

how do I advance my timing manually?
also, please excuse my n00b question, but I thought that 91 octane gas ain't safe for our little engines. is that wrong?

[pigeon]

it is wrong that the 91 octane gas isnt safe
the higher the octane the better, the lower the worse

now some cars are made jus for the low, like our cars.. so you could put whatever you want
some cars are made for high octane cars (high compression cars) such as type r's
if you put low octane gas in them they will detonate

now, 3 things will cause a motor to preignite or detonate
1. a too lean air to fuel ratio
the stoichiometric (efficient) air to fuel ratio is 14.7 parts air to 1 part fuel
when i say lean, thats more air, less fuel
rich is the opposite
when there is a lean mixture, the combustion chamber temperatures rise, and the mixture will actually ignite BEFORE the spark plug sparks
this means that the piston is still travelling upwards, when the mixture ignites
this means that the explosion force, is working against the piston motion

usually after extended periods of time this results in a burnt valve, or piston
if you're turbocharged, its much more volitile, resulting in bent crankshafts, or connecting rods

ok, so too much air, not enough fuel = bad

2. a lower octane blend than required by the manufacturer
we dont have to worry about that cause our cars dont require anything over 90
but octane is a measurement that tells us how much compression the gas could take, before it ignites itself
the higher the octane,the higher the compression it could take (good for type r's)
the lower the octane,the less compression it could take (good for minivans/proteges)
turbo cars have higher cylinder pressures, so they need higher octane also
and as you kno, the higher the compression, the higher the temp

3. too high temperature
this actually just ties in with the first thing i said
but say something gay happens, your egr valve is stuck open, and you're getting pouring hot exhaust gas in your engine
but you keep driving
this will raise over combustion chamber temp's
and if you do it for an extended period of time, you will detonate/preignite and again, burn a valve or something

now, a car that needs only a low octane fuel, can use a high octane fuel without any reprimands
so we could put 94 in our cars, and not have to worry about anything
it wont make us any faster, however
it wont hurt
if anything, it will protect us against those rare times our car does run a little bit hotter

so a really long answer to your question, our little engines can take the higher octane fuel

and for your next question sir
how to advance your timing?

you need a timing light
and a socket size 12 or 14 i cant remember
open your hood, locate your distributor
there will be 2 bolts at the sides, and some elongated slots that they could travel in
loosen the bolts, dont take them off.. jus loosen them
and you rotate the disty
BUT FIRST

take your timing light, hook it up to the batter + and a ground
hook up the inductive wire to plug wire 1 (its marked on the wire)
and shoot the **** at your timing marks
they are on the belt side of the engine
its hard to find in our car, you have to go down really low and kinda search for it there
you will see how the timing light flashes every time the belt passes that certain mark
its like a strobe light, and it is so precisely timed that it looks like the mark is jus sitting there

you have your buddy ever so slowly rotate the distributer so that you are advancing the timing NO more than 2 degree's
the opposite of advancing is retarding

when you advance the timing, you are making the sparkplug fire earlier
if you make it fire too early, you will preignight, because the plug will be firing before the piston reaches top dead centre

and as we have established, preignite is bad
(preignition and detonation results in the same thing... burning too early, preignition is when the plug intentionly fires too early, detonation is when temperature or pressure causes the mixture to ignite too early)

but making the plug fire a tad bit earlier (one or two degrees) you are allowing a more full explosion to happen as the piston moves downward
resulting in a slight power increase along the entire rev range

if you do it too much tho, you will burn parts of your engine

now say you did this mod, and you started to hear a pinging when you're at WOT (wide open throttle aka flooing it) or when you are going up a hill... pinging sounds like marbles...

reset everything the way it was because either you advanced it too much
you're not using high enough octane gasoline
or you have a weak fuel pump/clogged injectors

you should understand this stuff before you do the modification, just to ensure you dont damage anything

if you would like to know my opinion...

i've done this mod, and i have un done it
mainly because, its very... unprofessional..?
im not sure if thats what id call it

more like, not precise enough for my liking

when you do it, its mainly a guess
when a chip manufacturer does it, they also modify the fuel maps (the amount of fuel given under different throttle positions, temperatures, speeds ect..)
as well as they tell you what octane gas to use
AND they have tested it

doing it manually is kinda half assed, and im paranoid about doing it.. unless i had a dyno and an emissions tester.. to ENSURE that im doing it properly

the same way you could tune a standalone engine management system
you could get by without the tailpipe sniffer tho, and jus read o2 sensor voltages (which also could tell you your air fuel mixture)

wow
that took a long time

peace
-chris

[pigeon]

oh ya
and if you were to do this mod yourself, which is still alright

make sure you tighten the bolts on the distributer
lol

dont fall asleep reading that ginormous post

[Intruder]

wow man, I just wanted to say THANK YOU. it will take me a while to read it and I can't take the time right now (need to get up from the PC).... just wanted to say thanks.. see ya!

[pigeon]

lol
no problem

its 2:08 am in ontario, canada right now
i think im gonna sleep
hahaha, night

[Intruder]

okay, I read and understood all of it.
my problem however is that my engine is suffering from a 4th cyl misfire caused/related to low compression in that cylinder. I have to take care of that FIRST because not only is it causing me to loose HP, but it might completely mess up my engine if I play with the timing (me being an electronics guy rather than mechanics). what you worte is inspiring and gives me some hope now I just gotta fix my 4th cyl. again - no leaks, no "blue haza" out the tail pipe, no bubbles in the oil... no oil in coolant reservoir. because of that I'm guessing that it's not the head gasket and it's probably a valve or valve rings or something... I don't know the names of the pieces. so, yeah, I gotta take care of that first. too bad I don't have a buddy that can help me out.

[pigeon]

LOL
I WAS YOU!

like, 4 weeks ago bro
i was in your exact position
low comp in cylinder 1 was my problem, i had a total valve job done, and replaced all the gaskets on the top half of the motor

come to think of it, that was the EXACT same problem as you
low compression in a cylinder
and the OBD II Code was a misfire...

after i had the compression test done, i had a leakdown test (you pressurize the cylinder with 150 psi, making sure the shifter is in neutral and the EFI relay is pulled, and the key is out.... yo set the timing so piston 4 is at top dead centre... and you listen... listen to your air filter, listen to your tail pipe, listen to your oil cap, listen to your rad cap... where ever you hear air pissing out of, thats the problem

if its pissing out of the oil cap, its your piston rings or valve seals
if its coming out of the rad cap its your head gasket
if its coming out of your air filter, one or both of your intake valves are burnt
if its coming out of your exhaust, one or both of your exhaust valves are burnt

in my case, my intake valve was burnt

and as i said in the previous post, something was causing me to have higher cylinder temperatures...
at first i thought my injector may have been clogged, so i removed them all and had them all professionally cleaned... this returned their flow rates back up to brand new condition

i thought i got the problem there, cause cylinder 1's injector was clogged a bit...
but the car still hesitates occasionally...
im next going after my fuel pump

however, i did remove the cylinder head and got a valve job, as well as a new intake valve

this isnt going to be a cheap job man, i spent 1100 and i did all the labour myself
i did extra stuff like change all the belts and clean the injectors tho

and im talkin canadian money... im canadian eh
lol

anyways, to be honest
you have a bit of work a head of you

some other options i would explore if i was you, would be an already put together cylinder head, which is WAY cheaper

or if you were ever in the market for a motor swap, now's the time...
i made the mistake of keeping this one
bruce told me not to, but i wasnt in the financial position to get a motor

so ya, car runs great now
lots of money later tho

but ya, do a leak down test first and try to determine exactly what and where the problem is

if you want more information about this stuff jus ask..

[Intruder]

I was changing my spark plugs today...
The engine was cold. I had to start it and it ran for about a minute. Then I changed the plugs one by one and when I took out the 4th spark plug there was oil on it! How does that fit into the 4th cylinder misfire problem?

[pigeon]

if there is oil in it, maybe you should double check your tailpipe smoke
there probably is a bit of blue smoke

if there isnt, its probably too minute too see

oil can seep into the cylinders 2 different ways
past the piston rings, and past the valve seals

the valve seals surround the valve stem

either way, that would cause low compression numbers
and the low compression is what initially tripped your check engine code as a misfire

a leakdown test should be next in your process
the way you do it, is you set your timing so that cylinder four is at Top dead center or the compression stroke

you fill the cylinder with compressed air, over 100psi
(make sure the car is in neutral)

and you listen to where air is escaping
it should be escaping from the oil filler cap
undo the cap and put your ear there to listen

either way, you're stuck taking off the cylinder head

well, i guess you could access the pistons from underneath too

either way, you're in for a lot of work