Tom M'Guinn

My car is running like a champ again (knock on wood) so I thought I'd start in on some of my long-neglected little issues -- starting with the windshild washers.

I have good water pressure leading up to the hood (after some effort), and I've cleaned out my nozzles with a little wire, yet I only get a dribble out the passenger side and nothing out the drivers side.

Anyone have any suggestions/tips for getting them to work?

Are there check valves and/or filters hiding in the hood?

What are the wires for on the nozzles -- a heater?

Tom M'Guinn

Well, I tried squirting a little compressed air in the line leading to the hood, and it forced fluid out the nozzles with nice healthy sprays of fluid. I thought that was going to do it, but when I hooked the pump hose back up, I still get nothing out the nozzles. If I activate the pump with hose disconnected before the hood, the hose squirts fluid a couple feet -- like a little garden hose. So the fluid is getting up to the hood, but either its pressure is too low or there are clogs/problems under the hood that's keeping the fluid from spraying. All thoughts welcome...

onspeed

there's a plastic cylinder thing that leads to the nozzle. if there's gunk in the washer fluid tank or if the lines are dirty/crumbling, it'll get clogged there and voila, no water out the nozzles.

edit - this is what i'm referring to.

Tom M'Guinn

Yep, it's a check valve. I cut it out and removed the nozzle and blew a lot of compressed air and simple green through it -- and it finally sprays. Virtually every part of the system was broken. The motor wasn't working to start. Once I got that going, the hose to the hood had a big leak. Once I fixed that, the nozzle was clogged. Once I fixed that, the check valve was stuck. Once I fixed that, it finally sprays! Yipee. Now I have to do the driver side, and fix all my cut/patched hoses...

David Floyd

Good to hear your car is running great again, do you have the washer boost hose hooked up at the turbo ?

Tom M'Guinn

Yes, after several head gaskets, I think I've now got it (knock on wood). I ended up pulling quite a bit of timing while on boost, and it still feels very strong -- so that may have been the issue. After all the head skimming, my car is almost 9:1 compression, higher than originally tuned for. However, I also shortened the locating dowel pin after noticing it was making a ridge in the hole in the head -- so it's possible the head was hanging up a bit on that pin. I also torqued the raceware studs to 100 ft lbs. My plan is to take it to a dyno fairly soon, to better dial in the timing. Fingers crossed till then. I forgot how strong it feels at 18psi...!!