So I started poking around the engine bay and found the intake coupler had a nice hole in it. Luckily a friend had a pristine dualcam coupler that I was able to make work.
I ordered a new coolant temp sensor, but it turned out to be too large in diameter and was hitting the inside of the coolant passage in the intake manifold. I went to 3 parts stores and tried to find one that was the same diameter as the stock one, but had no luck.
I remembered I had pillaged all the sensors off the trashed motor that came in the couple originally. I had to dig through a handful of boxes of random shit I've been hoarding at the shop and managed to find it and swapped them out.
I couldn't replicate the issue I was having at the track, so I packed a box of spare shit and signed up for another track day so I could try to diagnose it... but first, I decided I should buy another pair of heatmaker knuckles so I won't be thrown off switching between cars (if both ever run at the same time)
I also did some science and figured out
precisely how low I could make the car and still get on a U-Haul trailer because I was tired of looking at the fender gap
At the track, the car was still acting up, but less sporadically. I was able to drift the first half of the course (3 turns), but as soon as I shallowed up to link a straight section before the second half it would cut out every single time.
Throughout the day I ended up changing:
• MAF
• Spark plugs
• Distributor cap
• Ignition coil
• TPS
And checked the:
• Fuel pump
• Fuel filter
• Fuel lines
• FPR
• CTS ohms
But none of the changes and none of the things I checked gave me any answers.
When I got home, I checked the ECU for codes and it said speed sensor an engine temp so I guess I missed something when I was poking around. I've found a few threads about both causing cars to not rev above 3500, but the fact I was able to take it to redline and drift a few turns before it cutting out seems suspicious. Guess I've got some more probing and prodding to do. You'd think I'd be better at diagnosing shit after all the issues I've ran into the last 5 years lol