Just took my first test drive with the Procharger slapped on and let me say this.....hoooooly crap! Earlier posts were right when they said the car seems to have a Honda VTECH...power comes on VERY strong after 4K RPM and just doesnt let up...simply amazing! The unit is extremely noisy but I kinda like it. I ran into 3 ptoblems during my test run.....

1. Car was running VERY hot (hot to the point that it might overheat after less than 5 minutes)....now I was told to bleed the coolant lines ...HOW DO I DO IT???? Please help with this one.

2. Power steering pully still has some squeel in it even after I revolved it in reverse per ATI instruction

3. Felt like I was hitting a rev limiter at about 4K then it jump forward with power (I think because it hasnt been tuned yet...please help on this one too)....

All in all I am happy ......so far. Antone in Cincinnati is welcome to check out myt system so let me know if you are on the fence about buying one of these contraptions.

Dan

 

Hey Dan,
Glad you got it on there and running. Are you going to get it tuned with a wideband o2 sensor? Be careful until you do, you're flying blind right now. Based on what I have seen, the hesitation you're experiencing could be from too much fuel, but it could also be way too lean.

You should not be overheating at all. Did you mess with your cooling system at all? Are you saying that it will overheat just idling or driving under light throttle?

Belt squeal is going to be hard to get rid of. I thought I had mine fixed, but it did it today when I started it after work. I think it could be from a little more belt stretch, so I'll check it and readjust the tension again. Its recommended to recheck the tension after 100 miles anyway.

 

be VERY careful, that overheating could be running extremely lean, run too much like that and your going to fry your rings and pistons, do you at least have an EGT or A/F gauge hooked up? get yourself a good ET gauge, that will be your best friend(besides a wideband O2, but far less $$$)

you shouldnt have to bleed your coolant lines, sounds pretty hokey to me, just sounds like poor tuning, but glad you got it installed! good luck with it

 

If you took off your water pipes you HAVE to bleed the coolant, otherwise you're going to overheat.

No "hokey" at all.

There is a bleeder screw in the bay, loosen it and have someone hold an idle. Keep your overflow tank full and watch the engine suck it down.

 

Where is the bleeder screw fot the coolant lines...I have been looking but cant seem to find it


Dan

 

Gary, I will have to tuned on a dyno here in Cincinnati hopefully in the next few days.......and the car is running hot due to the coolant lines not being blead...i know because the heat is blowing cold....so as soon as I find the bleeding screw then I should be ok in that sense.

 

I think the bleeder is in the heater hose next to the firewall on the passenger side, and air will cause it to overheat. The best way to bleed it is to unscrew the bleeder screw and take the radiator cap off and pour 50/50 mix of antifreeze and distilled water into the filler cap till it comes out of the bleeder. (Do this with engine off) then tighten bleeder and put cap on radiator and run engine with heater set at 90 and high blower. You may have to accelerate the engine to around 3000 rpms on occasion to force the air pocket out. Just quick blips of the throttle and don't open the bleeder with the engine running it will actually suck more air in. If it fails to bleed all the air out like that then let the engine get to a little over half way on the gauge and cut the engine off, don't open the radiator cap but just barely open the bleeder and you will should hear a hissing sound and let it hiss till it stops then shut the bleeder and open cap and fill it if necessary. Put cap back on and run engine if it heater puts out really good at an idle then your system is bled. If not repeat steps above till it does.

Your heater hoses are nearly as high as the filler cap on radiator or maybe higher. That is the reason the air goes to the heater it's the highest place in the cooling system and has small passages so that makes it hard to bleed.

 

DAMN!

 

Here's an portion from the service manual......i tried to edit out the stuff about the drain plugs on the block and stuff.....thats why it starts at #5.....hope this helps


REFILLING ENGINE COOLANT
5. Warm up engine to normal operating temperature with radiator cap installed.
6. Run engine at 3,000 rpm for 10 seconds and return to idle speed.

Repeat two or three times.
7. Stop engine and cool down to less than approximately 50°C (122°F).

Cool down using a fan to reduce the time.

If necessary, refill radiator up to filler neck with coolant.
8. Refill reservoir tank to MAX level line with coolant.
9. Repeat steps 5 through 8 two or more times with radiator cap installed until coolant level no longer drops.
10. Check cooling system for leaks with engine running.
11. Warm up engine, and check for sound of coolant flow while running engine from idle up to 3,000 rpm with
heater temperature controller set at several position between COOL and WARM.

Sound may be noticeable at heater unit.
12. Repeat step 10 three times.
13. If sound is heard, bleed air from cooling system by repeating step 5 through 8 until coolant level no longer
drops.

Clean excess coolant from engine.
Engine coolant capacity
(with reservoir tank at MAX level)
: Approximately 8.7 (9-1/4 US qt, 7-5/8 lmp qt) SMA182B
Reservoir tank capacity (at MAX level)
: 0.8 (7/8 US qt, 3/4 lmp qt)
Air relief plug:
: 0.78 - 1.6 N·m (0.08 - 0.15 kg-m, 7 - 13 ft-lb)
SMA412B

 

what part of cincy do yo live in? I'm in cincy would love to check out your setup!

 

I'm in the Mason area...so let me know

Dan

 

Did you pull any hoses off? I didn't have to, so I'm wondering if I'll have the same problem. If no hoses were pulled off, I don't understand how you could have got an air pocket in there.

 

I'm wondering about your cooling problem as well Dan. You should not have air in the system unless you opened it up for some reason. This is not necessary for the ATI install....

 

well, if your required to drain the coolent, it could cause the same effects. Mos of the time, you can bleed the system so it doens't get vacume locked buy running the engine with the cap half tightenend. most radiator caps you turn, locks once, then you turn it again and it seals. If you turn it to the first locking point, it will allow the coolent to bleed. Run the car and le the fan come on so u know the coolent is cylcling. after the fan comes on and off. turn off the car, and top everything off. run the engine again untill the fan comes on again, and check the levels. You also need to have your heater turned on. That should do it, unless the z is unique inits set up.

 

I ran into a clearance issue so I removed the lower radiator hoses to remove the fan so I had more room to work with for the blower and belt mounting brackets.....what a pain in the butt...but seems to e resolved now....now, if only the racetrack were open on Tuesdays!!

Dan

 

Aha, that explains it! I did consider the same thing at a point in the install. I wanted to pull the fans for more room to work, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort at that point

 

ATI advertises a 50-55% increase in HP. 287*1.5 = 430.5!

It will be interesting to see dyno and 1/4 mi times.

 

Glad we could help!

Let us know how it goes!

 

There have been several dynos posted in other threads. Average seems to be around 355rwhp in 90+ degree heat and high humidity. Corrected, it's probably closer to 360-365rwhp.

If you consider most stock dynos are around 235rwhp, that equates to around 18% drivetrain loss (235/287). Run the ATI numbers backward through the same equation and you get 439HP at the crank for 360rwhp. Seems to me their marketing is pretty dead on.

And like you... I think everyone is waiting for a 1/4 mile time post!

 

My install is going on right now.........once i get past the first 500 mile break-in period for the Procharger head unit, i'll probably hit the track and toast what little tread is left on my rears