The BRZ is fifty horses shy of being a fun car

so, i have a guilty confession.... regarding a check engine light.....

the land rover has been throwing a P0420 (yes, 420) code, meaning that the catalytic converter on bank one is below efficiency. of course, this can mean that the O2 sensors are bad. so, i replace the O2 sensors, which were very old and, visually, hammered. reset the computer and start driving. i drive and drive and drive and drive. it finally throws the same P0420 code, but pending, after about 50 miles of 50MPH driving (the book says it should only take 5 miles). so, i take the truck to midas. because it is saturday. they quote me $825 to change out the catalytic converter.

here comes the confession:

i happen to know that pepboys has a bottle of 'catalytic converter cleaner' http://exhaustsystemsguide.com/wp-content/uploads/mr_gasket_cataclean-300x300.jpg for $25. i decide that $25 is a hell of a lot less than $825, so i go buy some and put it in the tank. at this point, i am nearly certain that i have lit $25 on fire.

i drive away from pepboys and set the trip odometer. 7 miles down the road, at 50MPH, i check the OBDII reader and everything is online, no codes, no self checks incomplete. truthfully, i am amazed. anyway, i drive it straight to jiffy lube and have the damn thing inspected/emissions.

phew.... i am glad i got that off my chest....

agreed. i need to take one for spin.

BRZ - 200 hp, 2800 lbs, meh

my 951 is running about 250 to 260 HP and weighs about 2800 lbs (about half of the interior is gone, along with some other stuff, like the electric driver's seat).

Dynoed my old 88 951S with Weltmeister chips and wastegate shim and it pulled 278rwhp. It was really hilarious. Just as the dyno guy let off the gas on the pull the car dropped a CV boot. The boot plopped straight down onto the dyno and looked exactly like a pile of black dog poop. It looked like the car spun up the dyno then pooped.

Did however do, 31mm torsion bars, 180-410 progressive front springs, Weltmeister adj sway bars front and rear. Lowered enough that those little plastic dodads on the side skirts right in front of the rear wheels were flat spotted from rubbing the ground on hard turns, especially if there was a bump. Had to drive it up on 2x4s to fit a low profile jack under it.

Kept the interior stock. In fact, even quit removing the spare and tools to autocross. After I got the setup dialed in I set FTD at an autocross and was the first one to give someone a ride on the fun runs. The ax timer had been left on and someone noticed that with the 300lb. passenger I had matched my FTD exactly.

When I described this to the racer guys on the 928 board they claimed there is no way my FTD was as fast as the car would lap I got the same lap time with and additional 300 lbs.

A couple of things to check;

Run a rootkit scan,

Check your connection settings for a fixed DNS server address - it should be set to automatic,

Look in the windows 'hosts' file for a redirect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file) .

There may also be some BS Yahoo thing install itself into your IE add-ins.

You're looking for a 'redirect' problem, plenty of info out there.

Cheers

huh.... i really should get my car on a dyno. i have the autothority chips for the 951S and the banjo bolt. it builds 15PSI of boost and holds it pretty good. i usually run a race exhaust in the summer (which makes a good difference with the lag.

i am going to replace the waste gate this spring. i am pretty sure the one i have is not working properly. i will probably put a shim in there, just for grins.

Went with Weltmeister chips and shim instead of Autothority Chips and banjo because a couple of cars in the area at that time with Autothority setup lost head gaskets.

Didn't really get into hp upgrades until I got the 90 944 Turbo. It was already hopped up quite a bit when I got it and scalded dog quick too. It had lightened knife edge crank, aluminum flywheel, lightened balanced K27 turbo, Oringed heads, pauter rods, nikasiled block, wrapped headers, Autothority MAF and chips custom for the K27 turbo, Manual Boost controller, and a wideband 02 with EGR temps. Disconnected the manual boost controller and it didn't make over 17psi of boost and dynoed 330 rwhp. But that wasn't the good part, with the lightened balanced turbo it would start making big power by 2500 rpm! That's what made it scalded dog quick. However, didn't get the lean on partial throttle issue fixed until it was too late and pre-detonation had already bent wrist pins and ovaled the girdle, it was starting to get rod knock so attempted to rebuild it. Picked the wrong builder, was not happy with it and sold "as is" for the cost of the rebuild parts when started falling apart after only 4500 miles.

i installed a boost guage and an AFR gauge before i changed out the chips. i didn't want too much boost or too lean a mixture. things are pretty good, in my car. it also has an O-ringed head and i think it had work done on the bottom end, too, but i don't know because i haven't had that part of the engine apart. at full boost, ~14.5 to 15.5 lbs, the wideband AFR reads 10.8 to 11.2. i don't know what the guys were doing to lose their head gaskets with the autothority stuff, but i think they may have been doing it wrong. just saying.

Whoo! Gonna murder some more of those paper bastards on Wednesday. Pew pew pew!!!

OK, so I can't believe I'm saying this.....but Thank you Iran.....Thank you for being so ridiculous that this beautiful woman's parents fled to the US...

http://cdn.hitfix.com/photos/5538470...of_Mulaney.jpg

She's big.

"lifelike" is the word that comes to my mind.

That's one huge ............... ;)

Hey Jeff, how was Monday? I'm trying to decide if I should face it or skip it. :)

Give it a miss Jim, the day was knacked. I spent the whole day balancing fiber chanel track delays on a new design :(

Good Monday morning folks.

Hey Jim, just look at this Monday and realize it is a real short week. Tomorrow is Humpday and Wednesday is Friday. Then a 4 day weekend. At least for me. ;)

I get Thursday off. :rolleyes:

Too late, Jeff...I showed up at the office. Shoulder to the grindstone, nose to the wheel.

Tomorrow is even more exciting, I get to sit on a committee and debate confined work spaces. :(