Quick update for everyone following the build!
Progress took a bit of a back seat lately while I was out enjoying the sun with the family but let's be honest, trying to work on the FD has been brutal lately. The weather went from cold and miserable to "insanely hot," like someone's cracked open the gates of hell. It's been way too hot for any serious PB runs, and attempting them was pretty much pointless since I knew I had a vacuum leak after installing the new UIM.
Luckily, a mate brought his smoke tester over last week and we got to work. Sure enough, it sniffed out two separate leaks: one at the new IACV blanking plate, and the second right at the Throttle Body gasket. Let's just say both were the original paper type gaskets and had definitely seen better days. The IACV one was completely perished and in terrible condition (sadly forgot to grab a pic before throwing it out).
I was able to get the new metal type gaskets so these should seal better and last longer as they are meant to be reuseable.
After running the smoke tester again there were no more leaks. I'm so glad the new gaksets fixed it but what I did not expect was the instant buttery smooth idle and night and day low RPM driveability. I thought the choppy low idle driveability would remain because of the UIM but kinda glad its not the case.
With the engine finally happy, it was time to get my AEM WMI system finally talking to the Link ECU. In hindsight, I should have done this ages ago, but better late than never!
Previously, I was just using a lean out failsafe strategy and praying to the rotary gods. Luckily, the AEM never skipped a beat, but relying on luck with a WMI system is a ticking time bomb. I sacrificed two digital Inputs on the Link to make them talk to each other, and it is a total game-changer.
The Spice: When the AEM system arms and sprays, the Link immediately activates my 4D Meth fuel and ignition maps.
The Shield: If the system detects a fault (low fluid, clog, pump issue), the Link instantly stalls the engine with a hard 4k rpm limit. No delay, no hesitation just instant engine protection before things go boom.
This basic integration gives me massive peace of mind as I really like the AEM controller and decided against deleting it. It feels awesome to have it all integrated, and it’s one less thing to worry about when the boost hits.
I did some tests with the wmi integration and it went really well as expected. I did a low boost pull from 100-150km/h and it ran a 2.96 without a shift.
With wmi spraying and a granny shift the performance dropped off loads.
For 16psi wmi is really not needed but I will run a few more tests to see if I can continue to improve the 100-150km/h at 16psi.
In a few days i'll get a couple more runs in high boost to see if the 13b/G35 combo can do better as all leaks/issues are fixed and traction is also no longer an issue. It's now or never!