What did you do to your X1/9 today ?
- Thread starter Eastep
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Dr.Jeff
True Classic
And a very nice looking curve as well. Not extremely "peaky" like a built NA engine would be.After replacing the fuel pump and the regulator the car ran much too rich so I had Berta on the Dyno today to get everything adjusted. We found another 4 horses as well. 209 whp/272 wNm. Probably close to 250 hp on the crank and that's max what the injectors and turbo can deliver.
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I'm guessing the new pump and regulator delivered higher volume and pressure? What components did you end up using?
86X
True Classic
Between work and working on my other car that has a problem I can’t find I had enough and took the X out for a ride to Shelby Forest and lunch at the general store. It was a great day to blow off some steam. I forgot how well these cars handle! On top of that the suspension really handles bumps well. My other car I have to watch the road surface, it is very harsh. I kind of think the X could give it a run for it’s money, in the corners at least.
I am so glad to have a X1/9 agin!
Ok I have to admit I played my old 80’s music the whole time
I am so glad to have a X1/9 agin!
Ok I have to admit I played my old 80’s music the whole time
Bjorn Nilson
True Classic
At the end of last season I changed to the taller UT gearing and replaced the cheap no name fuel regulator/gauge and pump. The car didn't perform on track so I blamed the new gearing, but later I noticed very low Lambda readings during hard accelerations. I am now running a SPD regulator and the new gen Bosch 044 pump. The old pressure gauge was broken but the new system is also set to 3 bar.And a very nice looking curve as well. Not extremely "peaky" like a built NA engine would be.
I'm guessing the new pump and regulator delivered higher volume and pressure? What components did you end up using?
Yesterday I had the car on Dyno for three hours and I am happy with the result. I hope the flat torque curve 4-7000 rpm together with the taller gearing will result in good performance. -I will find out tomorrow when on track.
Nick Bygrave
Nick at Midwest-Bayless Italian Auto
Going through the brakes again after cooking them thoroughly by treating this car to a life of hoonery (Tail of the Dragon was the last coffin nail). Car is also getting some new Toyo R888r's and an aluminum rad installed as prep for a track day at Club Motorsports next month for Freakout.
I think you could say i got my money's worth of the stock pads
I think you could say i got my money's worth of the stock pads
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Went to the CnC this morning and was pleased to meet @Bryce-o-rama who was visiting from Kansas City. That was a pleasant surprise.
Bryce-o-rama
True Classic
It was fun meeting you. Thanks for taking the time to show me your K-swapped X, it is incredible.Went to the CnC this morning and was pleased to meet @Bryce-o-rama who was visiting from Kansas City. That was a pleasant surprise.
KBabcock
True Classic
Wife went on a girls weekend with friends and I was left alone with the X, highly productive weekend.
Cleaned, media blasted, rebuilt and painted rear brake calipers. Really liked the Excellent rebuild write up in the Wiki section, very complete and nothing I could add. Kudos! Used G2 Paint on the calipers.
Next up was removal of the rear struts to correct doming of the rear strut tower, done by stacking the two reinforcing plates together and bolting it down till metal is pulled flat again. Once I removed them I could see the upper strut mounts where deformed and Rubber was shot so waiting on new upper strut mounts from the UK to arrive. Thanks to Doug for the reinforcing plates on guidance here.
Found the sources of my Oil leak and it is an easily fixed, Transmission Detent plate was the cause, small plate with two bolts. I was envisioning a main seal or something so was very happy to find this.
Started the cleaning and repaint of the rear brake splash shields but saw one of the bolt eras was tore off so will need to repair that first. All and all a great weekend. Love working on the X, Truly half the fun of owning her.
Cleaned, media blasted, rebuilt and painted rear brake calipers. Really liked the Excellent rebuild write up in the Wiki section, very complete and nothing I could add. Kudos! Used G2 Paint on the calipers.
Next up was removal of the rear struts to correct doming of the rear strut tower, done by stacking the two reinforcing plates together and bolting it down till metal is pulled flat again. Once I removed them I could see the upper strut mounts where deformed and Rubber was shot so waiting on new upper strut mounts from the UK to arrive. Thanks to Doug for the reinforcing plates on guidance here.
Found the sources of my Oil leak and it is an easily fixed, Transmission Detent plate was the cause, small plate with two bolts. I was envisioning a main seal or something so was very happy to find this.
Started the cleaning and repaint of the rear brake splash shields but saw one of the bolt eras was tore off so will need to repair that first. All and all a great weekend. Love working on the X, Truly half the fun of owning her.
Bjorn Nilson
True Classic
I had a very busy weekend. The car was on Dyno last Thursday and I got very good results from it. As the car was running rich previously, I checked the spark plugs on Friday evening. This takes some time as a lot of pipes, cables etc must be removed to access them. All plugs were grey in color and in good condition. I replaced them anyway with colder NGK's.
Left home at 4 AM to be at the "Gelleråsen" Track at 7:30. I drove way too fast the two first hours as the road was completely empty. Refueled close to the track and noticed that fuel consumption is much less after the ECU remapping. Checked in to the event arranged by Club Alfa Romeo Svezia and BMW Club Schweden, and joined the "B" Trackday group which is fast but with a friendly "gentleman" approach. I was the only X1/9 (as expected) among expensive BMW M cars, AR Giulia, 4c etc. But also a Lotus Exige and a couple of AR 15x.
The car was performing very well and I kept up with the modern cars. The modern cars were faster at the corners but the X accelerated faster out from the corners. And the speed of Berta at straights is scary so I am glad for the new bored EBC discs/Yellow Stuff pads. At the 3rd pass the heat stroke in several ways. I lost grip at the front and the car was understeering and it became worse. Suddenly intake temp rose to 82⁰C. A hose at the pump feeding the water2air IC slid off its barb so I lost all intake water cooling. Repairing/refilling/bleeding took me some time.
Lessons learned:
Bigger/wider wheels than 185/60 R13 (Semi Slicks) are needed to be competitive
An LSD is needed if going serious with the amount of power I have in my car
Use good hose clamps even if the hose isn't pressurized. -No Zip ties.
The driver may also need some more practice
(especially true if not driving the track before)
Found a track taxi movie if you would like to see the track:
Left the track in the afternoon for a 4-hour drive back home. Once at home, I washed the car from insects, dirt, and sticky rubber.
Absolutely exhausted, I went to bed and had a very good night's sleep. The alarm clock woke me at 6:45 AM to drive to the annual "Tjolöholm Classic Motor meet. I drove Berta together with my neighbor in his nice TR6. Tjolöholm is the biggest classic car meeting in Sweden with 1300 cars. The sun was shining, people were happy, and many interesting cars on the show. But only three X1/9. They are really rare here.
Left home at 4 AM to be at the "Gelleråsen" Track at 7:30. I drove way too fast the two first hours as the road was completely empty. Refueled close to the track and noticed that fuel consumption is much less after the ECU remapping. Checked in to the event arranged by Club Alfa Romeo Svezia and BMW Club Schweden, and joined the "B" Trackday group which is fast but with a friendly "gentleman" approach. I was the only X1/9 (as expected) among expensive BMW M cars, AR Giulia, 4c etc. But also a Lotus Exige and a couple of AR 15x.
The car was performing very well and I kept up with the modern cars. The modern cars were faster at the corners but the X accelerated faster out from the corners. And the speed of Berta at straights is scary so I am glad for the new bored EBC discs/Yellow Stuff pads. At the 3rd pass the heat stroke in several ways. I lost grip at the front and the car was understeering and it became worse. Suddenly intake temp rose to 82⁰C. A hose at the pump feeding the water2air IC slid off its barb so I lost all intake water cooling. Repairing/refilling/bleeding took me some time.
Lessons learned:
Bigger/wider wheels than 185/60 R13 (Semi Slicks) are needed to be competitive
An LSD is needed if going serious with the amount of power I have in my car
Use good hose clamps even if the hose isn't pressurized. -No Zip ties.
The driver may also need some more practice
(especially true if not driving the track before)Found a track taxi movie if you would like to see the track:
Absolutely exhausted, I went to bed and had a very good night's sleep. The alarm clock woke me at 6:45 AM to drive to the annual "Tjolöholm Classic Motor meet. I drove Berta together with my neighbor in his nice TR6. Tjolöholm is the biggest classic car meeting in Sweden with 1300 cars. The sun was shining, people were happy, and many interesting cars on the show. But only three X1/9. They are really rare here.
Getting ready to bring her home so I can start working on her. I bought this car as the third owner in 1985. Drove it until 1992 when I put it storage because the time belt broke. Has sat in this location for 15 years. Outside of the engine, which I mentioned the rest is in good shape. Has a small dent in the front and typical rust by fenders especially the back fenders. Outside of that the, rust is minimal for a car of this age.
I got a first start today on my ‘82 that I acquired this year after it had been parked up for somewhere around 20-30 years. Took a full rebuild of the motor, a lotta rust removal, way more Midwest Bayless orders than I care to tally…. But she’s running and sounds fantastic.
I freshened up the leather steering wheel in the 85X. It was getting crusty and chalky. It turned out pretty good, well, better than it was previously anyway. I used the Colourlock Steering Wheel Kit on Amazon. It was a little pricey, but took the experimentation out of the process.
Before
After
Before
After
Jonohhh
True Classic
Checking back in after some time away. I see a bunch of new names around here...welcome folks!
Summer break is here, and so is progress on the X1/9 again!
Tonight I finished relocating the water pump to what is hopefully its final position...fingers crossed that there are no priming/trapped air issues which I experienced previously.
I also finished up and installed a new attempt at a water pump block off plate. The last one sealed fine...I actually couldn't get it off for the life of me...but it was constantly in the back of my head. The new part is much nicer
Ignore the crap on everything. The engine bay wasn't clean before the school year and well, the humidity didn't do it any favors.
Summer break is here, and so is progress on the X1/9 again!
Tonight I finished relocating the water pump to what is hopefully its final position...fingers crossed that there are no priming/trapped air issues which I experienced previously.
I also finished up and installed a new attempt at a water pump block off plate. The last one sealed fine...I actually couldn't get it off for the life of me...but it was constantly in the back of my head. The new part is much nicer
Ignore the crap on everything. The engine bay wasn't clean before the school year and well, the humidity didn't do it any favors.
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kmead
Old enough to know better
Congrats. How did you resolve the routing of the belts?Checking back in after some time away. I see a bunch of new names around here...welcome folks!
Summer break is here, and so is progress on the X1/9 again!
Tonight I finished relocating the water pump to what is hopefully its final position...fingers crossed that there are no priming/trapped air issues which I experienced previously.
I also finished up and installed a new attempt at a water pump block off plate. The last one sealed fine...I actually couldn't get it off for the life of me...but it was constantly in the back of my head. The new part is much nicer
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Ignore the crap on everything. The engine bay wasn't clean before the school year and well, the humidity didn't do it any favors.
Tom Ginefra
True Classic
Installed the 2nd wrist pin clip in my new pistons. What a bitch! Would never have guessed it would have taken me as long as it did.
I've seen these cool little tube like gadgets that make it a 2 minute job, but I wasn't spending close to a $100.oo for a tool I would "hopefully" have to use only once. Didn't have the time or materials to fab up anything that would have helped. It sucked... but it's done!
I've seen these cool little tube like gadgets that make it a 2 minute job, but I wasn't spending close to a $100.oo for a tool I would "hopefully" have to use only once. Didn't have the time or materials to fab up anything that would have helped. It sucked... but it's done!
Dr.Jeff
True Classic
Those clips are a bitch. It's too late now, but there was a discussion about that $100 tool. In it I described how I made my own version of the tool from a scrap piece of pipe. Let me know if you ever need to do this job again.
Jonohhh
True Classic
The belt configuration ended up being 3 total pulleys - crank, AC compressor, alternator. The adjustment range of the alternator isn't ideal for the angle the belt wraps around it, so the adjustment now works backwards and has a smaller range. The AC compressor adjustment offers probably 80% of the available adjustment range.
Belt wise, for the above configuration I ended up using a gates 6840. A little tight to get on, but that's needed given the adjustment range issue.
No squeaks or notable wear issues in the 15-30 miles I've driven it on the electric water pump setup. Of course, the temperature gauge doesn't budge either
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Jonohhh
True Classic
Tonight I installed new brake and clutch reservoir hoses. I was able to find some quality (Good Year) 1/4in EPDM rubber hose at Tractor Supply Co, which fit perfectly.
The pedal box sure is a pain to work with, especially given the sharp edges, but it ended up going fairly smoothly.
The pedal box sure is a pain to work with, especially given the sharp edges, but it ended up going fairly smoothly.
JNewm
True Classic
(Finally) replaced the decklid after it was damaged during transport. 
Here's the before:
And the after:
Then took it out for a drive and noticed the left headlight wasn't working (neither low nor high). The electric diagnostic manual suggested only one troubleshooting step: check the ground. Sure enough, a couple of the male leads sticking out of G1 were badly corroded. Cleaned them all, then cleaned the RH headlight ground as well for good measure. No longer The Wallflowers' biggest hit:
Took it out for another drive and discovered the radiator fans weren't working. First thought: I forgot to attach a ground wire when I was cleaning. Checked that--nope, all plugged together. Checked the manual dashboard fan switch I installed, checked the relay, checked for power to the fans--all looked good. Has to be a ground. Sure enough one of the wires was connected but loose. I crimped down the female leads, plugged it in, and all worked just fine. May all our electrical demons be this easy to exorcise...
Here's the before:And the after:
Then took it out for a drive and noticed the left headlight wasn't working (neither low nor high). The electric diagnostic manual suggested only one troubleshooting step: check the ground. Sure enough, a couple of the male leads sticking out of G1 were badly corroded. Cleaned them all, then cleaned the RH headlight ground as well for good measure. No longer The Wallflowers' biggest hit:
Took it out for another drive and discovered the radiator fans weren't working. First thought: I forgot to attach a ground wire when I was cleaning. Checked that--nope, all plugged together. Checked the manual dashboard fan switch I installed, checked the relay, checked for power to the fans--all looked good. Has to be a ground. Sure enough one of the wires was connected but loose. I crimped down the female leads, plugged it in, and all worked just fine. May all our electrical demons be this easy to exorcise...