105 replies to this topic

[Cranked]

Fat chicks..... Prices..... Wha!

[dakiller]

I don't keep good records of these things, I don't like to know how much I've really spent. The engine would have been about 3.5-4k in parts, 2.5k in machining. The gearbox was nearly 7k in the end. Turbo, manifold and exhaust were around 4k. There is also all the other misc things that you accumulate over time as well. I remember one order from JNZTuning for just random odds and sods being $700+ at some point, I don't remember what was in that order...

 

I had some fun on Monday night. Too it out for a quick spin, going along fine and then bam, engine stops, dash went blank except the speedo. Blew one of the 30a fuses, nothing from the ecu. Couldn't get it going on the side of the road, so I called my father for a tow home. Yet to look at it and diagnose it though.

[evo-gsr]

That sux. ^

[CLuTZ]

Bugger! I am keen to come check this car out sometime- where you located?

[BYBY5L]

+1 Dre, keen to see this one
At least ya finished ya reno's... how I envy you, lol,
Probably be a simple short or split wire ay, so hopefully a simple fix man, awesome build too

[dakiller]

I'm down Gippsland way, between Warragul where my folks are and where I got the shed space to work on the car (where my job happens to be too) and Traralgon where I live.

[dakiller]

Well that was a lot of fun to diagnose. I at least now know in intimate detail how the ECU gets its signals from the car and ignition and starts the engine.

 

First issue, was that while the IGN fuse blew first, once I replaced that it didn't blow again and there was zero ECU response. Tracking back the power through the MPI relay and ignition, was my after market immobiliser.

 

Fixed that, just soldered in a wire to fixed the blown trace that was acting as a fuse.

 

 

 

Well the IGN fuse kept blowing because there was a short that did all this in the first place. Googled around and there is tonnes of people who had similar issues and all of them had different faults. Some going to the extent of pulling the entire car apart to fix it. O2 wiring, capacitor on the intake manifold and fuel pump were the most common. I'd already rewired all those things myself, and they still checked out good. 

 

You would never guess the problem. 

 

I was checking the cap on the intake manifold, and I noticed a loose bolt sitting between the leads on the coilpack, being lazy I only had one bolt holding the coilpack on and it had worked loose and the bottom of the coil pack was shorting underneath. The thing looked 100% normal just sitting there and it was only the bolt that twigged me.

 

All fixed and more enlightened from the experience.

[jack be nimble]

Good work finding that little chestnut

[Cranked]

Oh how the smallest things catch us out

[evo-gsr]

Indeed..indeed ^

[speedy]

Just got vr4 engine thinking of stock or build like this one . Dont know why people don't like being asked price ??

[jack be nimble]

Because if the mrs sees we spent 10k on a motor. They will want holidays and lounges and uncool stuff.

[dakiller]

Been getting stuck into tuning the VR4 the last few weekends.

 

Has had high oil pressure, so that required porting out the oil relief in the oil filter housing.

 

Drained the tank and filled it with E85. I've had a flex sensor in there ever since doing the build, I've just never used it yet. Ecmlink makes it so easy, I literally just filled it up and ran the fuel pump for a minute before starting to circulate it and it just started and ran with the flex sensor without having to change anything.

 

I've been experiencing very slow spool, and it took me a while to think that maybe it is the butterfly valve in the Varex muffler that has been causing too much back pressure on the turbo. I got plans to operate the butterfly valve pnumatically switching it by ECU control, but I haven't got any of that hooked up yet. The muffler has been closed the whole time as I've been wanting to keep the car discrete and not be going BRAP everywhere in it, so I got a stick and shoved the valve manually to open it up.

 

Went to go down the road to do a pull and see how the tune did with the muffler open. Turned off boost control in the ECU to just run off wastegate to start with.

 

Pull out and mash it to WOT in 2nd gear, it hits 5000rpm and 39psi that I only know from the log and I nearly shit my pants. Turns out when you disable the boost controller in ecmlink that it closes off the boost source completely and you have no control at all. I think i'm lucky that I didn't blow the motor.

 

Went out for a few more go's, but there is still no boost control at all, and it is hitting 30 psi pretty hard.

 

 

Turns out I'd blown a vac line off the turbo feeding the wastegate's boost source. I guess 39 PSI will do that.

 

 

Put the lines back on, now with the boost only from the wastegate springs, and I got this.

 

 

Need to dial in the AFRatioEst closer to the wideband, it is a bit rich there. Then need to lean it out even more, probably closer to 12 for E85

[EV0300]

Mmm 39psi would be so fun

[bazeng]

Looking forward to seeing it!

[dakiller]

Cleaned, Claybared, polished and waxed.

 

Got E85 running in it real nice now, runs smoother than pulp ever did

 

Got the boost dialed up to 26-28PSI and no nasty surprises with it either now.

 

Ready for the dyno day next weekend.

 

Now I'm in need of advice, Brakes, mine are just terrible and I want to overhaul the whole lot - pads, rotors, lines, fluid, calipers? and want some guidance on the direction to take. Anyone want to give me a shopping list?

[evo-gsr]

5 stud conversion and Brembos FTW.

[dakiller]

5 stud conversion and Brembos FTW.

 

I don't want to go 5 stud, I want to keep my wheels.

[bazeng]

Nice progress! What wheels do got currently have?

[evo-gsr]

Then go GTO calipers with dog bone adaptors.