Penguin Tech Racing flex fuel kit - didn't fit right

Ok, some good, some bad, and some still to be determined (wait and see).

Drove from the San Gabriel Valley down to Long Beach on Friday night, about 30 miles, on Friday early evening (around 5pm). I had topped off the tank the night before - 1/2 91 and 1/2 E85 and the Hondata app was registering an Ethanol content of 39/40. Got there no problem, car seemed to be running fine - felt pretty good actually, more pep than normal, seemed like slightly less RPMs while going about 80mph.

Problems started once I got to Long Beach. Found a parking spot and as I was shutting off the engine, I saw something unusual out of the corner of my eye in the left side/tach display. Had to turn the car ON again to see what it was - error/warning message saying the car was overheating and to let it cool down before driving. Looked at the Temp gauge and it was all the way to the top. Huge concern right there because neither of those things has ever happened before!

I turned off the car and opened the hood. Everything seemed to be in place. I could hear boiling/bubbling sounds and saw a little bit of coolant coming out of the coolant overflow reservoir (which also has never happened before). Walked my wife to a restaurant around the corner and dropped her off with two couples (friends we were meeting for dinner and a comedy show). Went back to the car about 5 minutes later (I had to move it because I had stopped in a 30 min max parking spot) and tried to start the car - no go.

All the warning lights came on and it began cycling through all the error messages/types (similar to what you would see when flashing/reflashing with the Hondata Flashpro). The first few tries - car would turn over but not catch. After another minute or two, the car would catch but only stay running for 2-3 seconds (and feathering the gas pedal didn't do anything). After a few minutes, the car finally started and kept running, but idling seemed a little rough.

At that point I either forgot to look or don't remember what I saw if I looked, regarding the overheating and temp gauge. I managed to drive a few blocks to a longer term parking lot and then shut it down.

Went back to the car around 11:20pm. Luckily it started with the remote but all the warning lights/error messages were still doing their thing. That was kind of weird because while I was installing the FF kit and reflashing via Hondata Flashpro (stage 2, +6psi, + flex fuel enabled) the remote start would not work while there were error messages/check engine light on (and now it worked even though the warning lights were still on).

Car drove home OK. Shut if off in the driveway and went inside for a minute or two to drop off stuff. Came back out to the car (expecting to have to fiddle with stuff and/or reflash) and now all the warning lights were Off. Put it in the garage and left it alone.

Next afternoon, drove down to Palos Verdes around 2pm. No warning lights. The car felt pretty strong BUT it kinda felt like the power delivery wasn't smooth, like it was surging or spiking while accelerating (this was anywhere between 60-110). Same thing driving home after midnight, had power but didn't feel smooth. I had my wife and one of my kids in the car so I'm not sure if that little bit of added weight was throwing off my butt dyno.

I'll be driving to work solo tomorrow morning, most likely on my usual route so I'm hoping to be able to make a better/clearer comparison... I guess I'll be taking my laptop and Flashpro with me for a couple of weeks, just in case... So annoying to have to worry about crap like out of the blue overheating/dying out!!

Car wouldn't start remotely this morning (it's kept inside a separate garage) - but, like the other times, it started fine with the interior starter button. Emissions system problem warning message came back on. Plugged in the Flashpro and opened the Hondata app and it said P2183 - (after googling = Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor #2). Tried to clear the code via the app but it didn't work.



So, it makes sense that I would get an error like that since the PTR kit (and all the other kits I've seen) connects into the ECT2 circuit (and the OEM ECT2 sensor at the back of the radiator - down low, driver's side - is no longer connected to anything afterwards). And that would kind of explain, maybe, why my car overheated that one time. (But what doesn't make sense to me is how intermittent the warning/problem is - seems to me that once I disconnect the OEM sensor, bam, there should be an error code/warning that doesn't go away?)

Anyway, after a little more googling, I found out that there is a Hondata/Flashpro option to "uncheck" the ECT2 sensor (basically telling the ECU to ignore it being disconnected). Since I brought my laptop with me today, I unchecked the ECT2 box and reflashed the car a few hours ago. Went out to run an errand a little bit ago and the car still wouldn't remote start and all the error messages were still cycling through (although the car ran OK). Will check again in another hour or two when I leave work for the day. Sorry for the crappy pictures ahead!



Btw, I did spend like a half hour on the phone a few days ago (before the overheat) with Hondata and the rep patiently helped me troubleshoot/reflash. At 0:34 of Hondata's youtube video , they say choose the "flex fuel enabled stage 2 +6 psi" but my Hondata manager doesn't have that choice:



3rd choice down has "flexfuel enabled" but not stage 2 and +6 psi. The Hondata rep told me to choose the option 2nd from the bottom (which is the one I had been running - my Flashpro is a race only model) and inside that, check the ethanol enabled box under Ethanol:



Oh and btw, if you have a catless downpipe like me, you'll have to uncheck the secondary oxygen sensor enabled box under Closed Loop:



Unfortunately, the Hondata rep I was talking to, never mentioned anything about unchecking the second ECT sensor enabled box under Misc (revisit the second picture from the top) even after I had told him that I had installed a flex fuel kit... Hopefully, this will solve my problems - keeping my fingers crossed!