Breathing

As the CG10DE is a hard breather, this one at least, so I built an oil catch can for it :) True DSG creativity with some JDM influence and tadaa, here it is:

 

The location isn't the most optimum one, but it is stable there :) Secured it with cable tie :D

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the CG10DE response better now. Also, especially at the present with broken MAF, the idling is much smoother and the engine doesn't wobble around the engine bay as much as it did. I guess, the amount of fuel is now much larger than the amount of oil in low revs. Which obviously was not the case before :D Making of this could had saved the MAF, but little did I know that I even had one...

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New Belts

Installed new belts.

The installation wasn't as easy task as I have used to with Honda. The belts are too short and adjustability of the alternator is way too short. I had to remove the Alternator in order to remove the belt.


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New Fuel Filter

The stalling did not stop even with sealing the manifold, so I changed the fuel filter.

Didn't help, but filter is changed.

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Checking and Fixing

The idling was awful and exhaust gasses leaked around the manifold. So, I cleaned the air filter and checked Lambda Probe. Also replaced the headers gaskets and bolts for the exhaust pipes flexible attachment.

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Playing with Cameras and Urban District

How cool! My March is a super model :D

Me and C-Rock had a bit fool time together :D It all started with agony against the things we should do. Supporting each other, we made a decision to head for Pasila’s underground hideout to clean my March. The results are here to be seen. Pls enjoy and leave a comment.

ps. It’s all taken with my phone cam, and only for fun :)

 

 

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Oil Service

I was driving around and got an urge to change the oils. The engine sound was so awful, that I was afraid it will brake down on me. So, I visited our local car part shop and spotted some interesting oils in there.

Valvoline MAX LIFE! Engine oil for old engines :D

My first thought was "yeah right..." and I passed the oil cans. But then my interests started to tickle me and I walked back. I red the little prints, which were rather stimulating :) It promised to be good oil for old seals etc etc, so I thought "why not". I bought it and new cheap oil filter and changed them under warm spring sun.

I also changed the oil filter. Cheap basic filter, probably much poorer than the Nissan OEM :/ Didn't have any better at hand and other bad excuses. Kids, never do as I do, do as i tell you! And I tell you to use proper parts on your vehicles! :D

I must say that I was happily surprised! It seemed to run smoother, it was more quiet (which is normal after oil change) and it has kept that way ever after the oil change. So my conclusion is, it was good stuff for my engine :) I hope I haven't flooded it with fuel already, cause today it smelled kinda stinging, like it does after excessive flooding of fuel in the cylinders.

I left the DSG rather late, and for my surprise, it was snowing! Fook!

Don't you just love Finnish weather?

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Services and things.

March, march, forward MARCH!

I've been toying with the March for some time now. Have made this and that plus educated my self with it's anatomy. It is still broken, more than ever, but runs nicely. The reason was also found out, MAF, which I did not even know to own. Bloody hell that is one doomsday invention. Fails on every car :D

And how I found it out? Well... There came a day when I was kinda racing through an exit and the engine stalled. I thought it was a lack of fuel, but it obviously wasn't. Later that day, MIL came on and the running of the engine went from horrible to terrible. Within next few days the light turned off and on again, so I figured out some sensor is giving up soon. And it did... I was heading to the DSG and once again the MIL turned off and March run smoooothly :) But later that night I started the engine and it died immediately! FOOK! I managed to get it idling, barely, so I could check which sensor or coil was causing me head ache and finally found one coil to not change the idling. So I removed the plugs and checked them. Equally black, every one. Conclusion, something else is wrong and the plugs are just bad because of that.

I got it running again, but it still put black smoke, or Black ghost (like C-Rock named it) through Reinhart Titanium muffler. At this point I started to loose my temper as the clock was way too much and I needed to be somewhere else already. So I started my diagnosing again in  frustration without any good results until I remembered the bloody MAF again! I unplugged it and TADAA, the March started to run like a little angle again.

Now, after I've been running around few days without MAF and on "emergence program", I noticed that the engine is actually rather good compared to driving it with broken MAF :)

And what may have caused this? Well, there is two reasons that I can see, and both are oil-related. 1st, the engine breaths heavily making the throttle body assembly all oily, thus oiling the MAF. 2nd, I have a K&N oiled air filter, which is known to cause problems to MAFs. Personally I have hard times in believing that the K&N has caused any problems at all. It could cause, if the re-oiling after washing was done with excess amounts of that red oil, but it was not. Second reason why I do not believe that is, that I met the same problem long long ago before that K&N was even installed on the March. And when I installed it, I noticed that the OEM air filter box was full of oil.

So my conclusion is, the March have had wrong type of oils or it has not had regular oil changes at some point of it life. Both theories will lead to excessive mechanical wearing, thus the engine is not able to hold combustion pressures on top of the piston as the tolerances are not anymore what were supposed to be. After it started to leak the pressures, the oiling of the intake started, thus oiling the MAF. Once the got oiled, the ECU used more fuel than needed. Excessive amounts of fuel got into the engine oil (this can be easily smelled from the oils), thus making it too "lean" which lowers the oil pressure and oils lubricating capabilities.

More of these in the next posts in which I'll tell what I have been doing :D ... exciting ...