Track Rat - '91 Pulsar

gtir_woody wrote:

Ryaneg6freak wrote:

VolksWagner wrote:

Ryaneg6freak wrote:I had no idea Buddy Club ever made anything for the Pulsar. That's got to be the first set I've ever seen, ever.

They may not have. Possible they are modified to fit from a similar car, B13 maybe.
The rear top hats were actually trimmed to fit. Sway bar mounts and such all seemed good to line up though.

Def not from a B13 then, the only difference between the 2 IS the sway bar mounts, otherwise they bolt right in.  I'm running rear AGX shocks and upper from a B13, and ended up just using a heim joint adjustable link to make the sway bar attachment work.

From memory the mount was way off on the B13, did you make a bracket from the top mount to make it work?

My BC's were from an n14/b13 and I just brought the correct lower mounts and screwed them on.

You know, now that I think about it I believe someone might have stuck RNN14 upper strut mounts on the B13 strut. I know they're B13 struts because of the sway bar link mount, they are vertical and not horizontal like the Pulsar. When I got the car the shocks were already on it but the rear sway bar wasn't connected.  I've never actually pulled them to see what upper mounts is on them, I assumed since the shock was B13 that the upper mount was too.  Now I'm curious.

Funny too, my rears are KYB AGX and the fronts are GAB's. Someone mish-mashed the suspension lol

automotive archaeology is fun

Now that it is a driver, I've been spending more time inside the car instead of under it. Time to clean up the interior!

I started by removing as much of the sticker, double sided tape, wire clips, etc from the dash. This meant getting all the way into the gauge cluster to get the yellow carbon look stickers off of there.
With the dash apart I was able to undo all of the electrical routing strung through the dash. I moved everything to the passengers side so it could be sorted all at once. The previous owner even cut and extended every heater control wire with red wire and bullet connectors so that it could be stored in the glovebox while all the add on bits were screwed to the dash.


Much better.


This left me with this impressive pile in the passengers area. Everything on the seat was deemed useless and removed.
Only kept the boost controller, digital water temp, and power meter were kept (won't ever use it elsewhere.)


This was my favorite wire


Lots of cutting, crimping, heat shrinking and it finally all got put back into it's proper place.


Tried on a steering wheel that I had around, liked it better.



Back to mechanicals, I removed the MAF and cleaned it up. Ran smoother but MPG didn't change.
Ran the ECU diagnosis, came back a clean 55.

Plugs suggest a definite rich condition.


Must be a bad O2 sensor.

A couple questions.

Is this PIAA lighting stock or aftermarket?


What is a safe daily driven boost level on stock engine? 91 octane. I have the KSROM ECU but don't know if it's tuned for higher boost. So lets assume stock tune.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, snow day!
The Direzzas did not like the snow

Nice slow mo drift on your snow day!!!

That wire with all the clips on is awesome! Nice to think someone did that and walked away thinking job well done

I've not seen any PIAA parts on my lighting so would assume after market.

And I believe the O2 sensor only has an affect at low rpm / idle. Could also be ECU temp sensor issue?

I hate scotch locks, those things should be illegal.

I was all ready to measure the ECT resistance before work one day and see if that was the issue, then I saw how buried it was! Decided to wait until a day I had more time. When I was telling my buddy this at work he pointed out something so obvious I don't know how I missed it...
My deigital temp gauge reads of the diagnostics port. And my temps read perfectly how they should so the ECT is not the issue after all.

The last likely candidate is the new fuel pump over pressurizing the system. Time to get a fuel pressure gauge!


In the mean time, I notice I was starting to get rev stall out at about 6k rpm.
I realized that somehow in my tune-up I forgot to check the cap and rotor.
Popped that off and sure enough it was super corroded. I cleaned up the contacts as best I could for the time being.
This made the car noticeably smoother and quicker to rev but I still get the spark blowout around 6-7K so I'll still need to get new parts.

I can't imagine, the plugs being degraded by the rich condition helps any.
I'm running BKR7E's, would you guys recommend different plugs?
What gap do these typically work best at on these cars?

NGK BCR8ES plugs are probably your best bet. Copper cored and cheap as. I run mine at 0.8mm gaps and it seems to run fine. Have you checked the coil and ignition amplifier with a multimeter yet? Easy to do and would at least eliminate those as potential issues. Might also be time to do a boost leak test too...
Definitely get at the very least a tee peice you can screw a guage into, a very useful diagnostic tool indeed!
Just another thought but, have you double checked the ignition timing yet?

Mike, thanks for the tip on the plugs, I'll try those next.
I haven't checked coil and amp but I will.
Since cleaning up the cap and rotor improved the symptoms I assume that's likely the culprit but may have only been a contributor.

I've never done a boost leak before given this is my first turbo car. Will have to give that a search.

Ignition timing was set and is good.

Alright. I need some help with this one.

To catch up:
Last I wrote, I was expecting my cut out issue to be an ignition problem. I chased this around for a couple weeks. Replaced the plugs, tried a couple gap sizes. Replaced the cap and rotor with new nissan parts.


Changed plug wires. Rechecked timing. No change.
I then noticed my ignition coil was getting hot after long drives and was going to relocate that next.
I also noticed that turning the car off for a few seconds and back on would stop the problem for a while. This made me think maybe something electrical was overheating or maybe even a bad ECU.

But then I noticed another very repeatable symptom that changed my line of thought. Every time I filled up the problem would go away completely until I got down between 3/4 and 1/2 tank, then it would come right back.

Uh-oh fuel issue after all. Right about this time a started noticing some smoke on shifts.
Finally hooked up a fuel gauge to watch as I drove around and sure enough the fuel pressure would plummet as the motor cut out. Yikes!
Fearing a lean condition I drove the car gently until the tank was below half tank so that it was in it's problematic state, then parked the car for investigation.

The smoke was getting worse so I started with a compression test.
150-90-150-120    damn.
Wet test, no improvement    damn.

Fearing the worst,
I got out the borescope.








predetontion marks on all cylinders.
#2 piston looks melted, hence the low compression.
#4 rust pitting on the wall (I assume from sitting for 15 years)

Obviously, that sucks. I'll have to do a tear down now.

However, before I do that I would like to sort out the original issue that got me here first. That way after rebuild I'm not right back here with a fresh motor to cook.

I also noticed the fuel pump would be much louder after a long drive.
I changed the fuel filter, and did the larger fuel pump power wire upgrade to bring my voltage from 12.5V to 13.9V No change, still had pressure drop.

All I could think is that something went wrong with my Walbro pump updgrade.
I opened the tank in hopes of a smoking gu.





There was some crud on the filter sock and some crud in the bottom of the tank but it just doesn't seem like enough to actually clog the pick up.

What do you guys think? Has anyone seen this before?
I can't seem to find anything in by searching.

I used a Sentra install kit for the Walbro because I couldn't find any pulsar specific stuff. My stock pickup was broken. Maybe this one isn't getting to the bottom of the tank? I could believe that if it starved at an almost empty tank but 3/4 tank?
Are there new pick-ups available?

Besides the fuel issue, rebuild questions.
I don't plan on pushing the motor past where it currently is. Running 1 bar boost. I just want a fun commuter car, my 510 is my performance/project car.
I have VET pistons and new Nissan rings.
I plan on rod bearings while I'm in there are there lower cost brands that are as good as OEM?
Same question for gaskets I suppose. I can get a Nissan head kit for $250, is there a better option for that price range?
I guess this gives me an opportunity to re-shim the head and grind the valves... trying to look on the bright side.

Also, while I have the head off and can access the back of the motor easy, are there other things besides all the dry rotted hoses that should be replaced while access is easy?

Thanks for any input.

Can you rig something up to bench test the pump itself mate ?

That sucks mate, but at least youre homing in on the original problem!
Have you still got the original fuel pressure regulator or is it an aftermarket one?
With the aid of a gauge, i recently found my standard regulator was running about 5-6 psi too high so fooked. Maybe yours is failing on the lean side instead? Would explain the fuelling issue if youve just put in a walbro...

I think testing the pump would be a good place to start since I have it out. Would anyone know how to do that? Maybe just run it through a regulator at my peak pressure and then measure the flow rate and make sure it would keep up with the injectors?

I may just drop the pump into a fuel can and go for a drive to see if the issue goes away, if it does that would at least tell me it's a fuel tank or pickup issue. If not then it's a pump/regulator issue.

Ya original FPR, I've never heard of them failing lean, they just can't hold the upgraded pump pressure as well and fail to rich which would be fine. My idle pressure was around 44psi so that is a few psi higher than expected.

VolksWagner wrote:I think testing the pump would be a good place to start since I have it out. Would anyone know how to do that? Maybe just run it through a regulator at my peak pressure and then measure the flow rate and make sure it would keep up with the injectors?

I may just drop the pump into a fuel can and go for a drive to see if the issue goes away, if it does that would at least tell me it's a fuel tank or pickup issue. If not then it's a pump/regulator issue.

Ya original FPR, I've never heard of them failing lean, they just can't hold the upgraded pump pressure as well and fail to rich which would be fine. My idle pressure was around 44psi so that is a few psi higher than expected.

The only way to properly test a pump is with a current ramp test on an oscilloscope. That will give you a waveform that you can look at to determine if the pump has worn brushes, or commutator. Also, fuel pump performance is a measurement of volume, not pressure. You can have all the pressure in the world, but not enough volume to feed the engine.  Seeing as how most people don't own a lab scope, I'd just get another pump. Walbro 255's are cheap.  And make sure you get it straight from Walbro, anywhere else and you risk getting a counterfeit pump, it's a big problem these days.

Oh, and while you're in there, consider upgrading your sock to a Holley Hydramat. They make one specifically for the GSS-342 (walbro 255lph) pump.  Pulsars are known to have fuel starvation issues under half a tank during left hand turns, because of where the pump is in the tank.  People used to run surge tanks to combat that issue, but holley solved the problem.

Ryaneg6freak wrote:Oh, and while you're in there, consider upgrading your sock to a Holley Hydramat..

Wow, thanks! I've never seen that product before, looks awesome! Do you have actual install experience with it to say it works as advertised? I'm very tempted.
I was considering a surge tank but this really looks simpler and easier for similar benefit.
I wish I had known of this before working a surge tank in to our endurance car last year.

I think I have identified the main issue.
As I said and showed the pickup sock had some crud on top of it but nothing that looked like it stop much flow.
I took the pump assembly and threw it on my bench as I worked on other thing over the last week.

Today, I took a quick look at it again in between working on other stuff, the gas was evaporated and the sock was dry.
I noticed this very fine white powder on top.

I looked closer and sure enough it is all over the thing.

Here is some I banged out on the bench.


I took the sock and tried to blow through it in various spots. Where ever the powder was I could not blow through it at all! (with my lungs not compressed air) Blowing around it seems as though at least 75% of the sock is absolutely clogged.
It seems like that would give me the trouble I'm having.
The fact that it seemed like when I filled my tank it alleviated the problem is the only unexplained symptom. It's possible that when the fuel is pumped into the tank, the flow was enough to "rinse" the sock off a bit and unclog some of the sediment. Then after some driving it would clog back up? Not sure.

So, this leaves me with a few questions.
What caused this sediment?
I cleaned a bunch of white slime out of the tank when I did the fuel pump when I was getting the car started. I heard this is caused by water contamination with ethanol fuel. I've also read that once this dries out it turns into a white powder. Maybe this is the problem?

Second, assuming the contamination is not actively being created and just needs to be cleared out, what options do I have?
I read that dropping the fuel tank on these cars is quite a process. Even then, I'm not sure how I would "clean" all he inner surfaces.
A friend suggested running a pump from the tank through a filter and back into the tank and just cycle it for hours on end to stir it up and filter it all out. Any thoughts on if that would work?

Related note. I need to change my pistons. I got VET piston for next to nothing. I know the GTIR is 8.3:1CR and the VET 9.0:1CR. Anyone know what the VET piston in gtir will yeild? I know GTIR head is slightly lower (8.3 vs 8.5) compression than DET but I don't know DET vs VET. Just curious more than anything, either way I don't think the final CR will be far enough out to cause problems.

Yes, I have confirmed that the Hydramat for the GGS-342 does fit in the GTi-R.

You can run VET pistons with a slightly higher compression ratio, you'll just need your tuning and knock control on point.  They do not however fit straight onto GTi-R connecting rods, you have to mill or grind a little bit off the top of the small end, because it hits the underside of the piston and you can't get the wrist pin in.  Several people have done it, and it works ok.  You really only need to take off a very small amount.

I finally got the gtir back in the garage. The bay has been occupied by the 510 wagon for longer than expected. Finished the VE+T swap in it and it sure makes me want to put one in the gtir! But now it's back in and it's time to get it back on the road.



I also was able to pick up some spare engine parts locally. A guy had a rod knocked block. I figured it would at least be worth the spare parts. Mostly pistons when I get in there to swap mine and rods if they are still good. Then the head should have shims to help readjust mine and spare rocker in case of a broken one at some point.



Crank ended up being toast I think but maybe I'll have a shop see if it can be saved.



Interesting side by side of 54C piston vs VET piston.


I got to work and yanked the tank, suprisingly easy except the stupid ABS connectors. Ended up having to break them both.



I found a NX1600 in the local junkyard. I was able to snag the rear seatbelt receivers since all three in my gtir were broken, no center belt in the nx though. I also grabbed the center console lid since mine was missing the pad.
That was all i found that was similar. and worth taking. Did I miss anything?



I cleaned up the fuel tank inside and out. All i was able to do was pressure wash with soap inside the tank How else can you clean the other side? Speaking of the other side, how does the fuel get from one side of the saddle to the other. Does it really just slosh over? Also, there is a wire connector that goes over to the other side. Whats that power over there?


My pump bracket shows the dorrosion and white powdery build up that is on everything and caused my problems...



Finally, I got a holley hydramat like Ryan suggested. I'm not sure if I got the right one but it fits the walbro pump.
The problem is I don't see any orientation it can be installed without being folded. Anyone know if folding these is OK?

Nice update mate.