The Project Pad

loxxrider wrote:Car was acting up slightly today. It was around 92 degrees out and I attempted to get on it a bit in third gear. Car just didnt want to pull when it hit full boost. (like 8-10 psi)

It was kinda a high frequency stutter.

On the way back from work, it as about 78 degrees out because it had been raining the whole time, and it felt "normal" again.

I want to send you in a different direction since your only running that much boost. You noted that heat (intense heat, anything over 80F I'd say) had a affect on things, well at least that what your guessing.
Go check all your intake hoses and vac lines, anything that still rubber, check to see if they are sticky, and kind of rub off on your hands when you touch them. You need new hoses if that's the case.

Next do a vacuum test. Make sure everything is in order. Manifold pressure, etc.

Check those plug wires and plugs. Good arc and strong spark.

Check to see when you last changed the fuel filter. Heat brings the worst out in cars. Simple thing, but hey you never know.

What tune are you running on the ECU, is the gasoline good and the right octane?

These are simple and common heat symptoms that a older car faces when in comes in contact with intense Florida heat and humidity. After you check these things you can dig deeper.
BTW check those fault codes to see if anything comes up :wink:

Thanks man, I'll check into those things. I definitely feel like changing the fuel filter is a good idea regardless.

I'm pretty sure the car doesn't have a vac or boost leak. I've replaced nearly all of the vac lines. I do want to rig up a boost tester tho. Ill see what I can do about that. Its always nice to know for sure there are no vac leaks.

I'll also check the plug wires etc.

tune is stock on stock ecu, and I ALWAYS run 93 octane.

thanks again!

NP; be happy its a stock ECU and your only running 10psi~ boost. Try CIS madness with 18psi boost and a hole bunch of other mod going on. Make you want to pull your hair out. But hey you've got EFI so the pain is lesser on the mind and body.

Good luck and keep us posted. the more info you give us the more we can help.

Cheers

Boost leaks are everywhere on these cars. You can replace every piece of offending rubber you can think of and still miss something. It costs all of 5 bucks to make a pressure tester - get an NPT fitting, an appropriately sized tap, and a PVC cap. The only one I could find was threaded so I had to sand the threads off to use it, but no biggie.

If you have a boost leak, the car will stumble all over the place and run like crap at high boost, but run pretty normally if its not under load. Worth making sure you're 100% leak free for sure.

Seems like I'll have to do it on the end of the turbo itself though instead of on the end of the inlet pipe because I dont have a check valve on my catch can setup which pulls vacuum from the inlet boot.

Im not sure how to get constant pressure on it either without getting a check valve of some sort to work with my boost leak tester. Im sure I can rig something up.

loxxrider wrote:Seems like I'll have to do it on the end of the turbo itself though instead of on the end of the inlet pipe because I dont have a check valve on my catch can setup which pulls vacuum from the inlet boot.

Im not sure how to get constant pressure on it either without getting a check valve of some sort to work with my boost leak tester. Im sure I can rig something up.

You don't need to worry about leaks before the turbo, so hooking it up to the turbo inlet will be fine.

Well, just as I feared the v8 in the junkyard wasn't there when I went today :(

BUT

I did find an M50 manifold for my dad's E36!!!!!! wooooo should be a nice little upgrade.

People generally see 30whp with the manifold. Badasssssness I think.

In other car news, we are doing the final tune on my buddy's D16 tomorrow. Its pretty fun on 14 psi actually. Rides the eff out in 3rd gear. Probably 300whp...but in a 2500lb car. 30psi coming soon

Haven't touched mine at all this week. I need to make a boost leak tester this weekend. Maybe tomorrow.

- Chris, you mentioned an open dump wastegate. Is the WG dump anywhere close to the turbo air inlet? There's been a lot of cases where the turbo sucks in dirty exhaust gas and the car runs like poo-poo.

ahh bummer on the V8... i hope the V8 in the junkyard back home is still there tomorrow when i go... i need that rear bumper now!!

WOMBAT wrote:ahh bummer on the V8... i hope the V8 in the junkyard back home is still there tomorrow when i go... i need that rear bumper now!!

can you check to see if it has a rear dif? i need one and can get up there :thanks:

my2000apb wrote:

WOMBAT wrote:ahh bummer on the V8... i hope the V8 in the junkyard back home is still there tomorrow when i go... i need that rear bumper now!!

can you check to see if it has a rear dif? i need one and can get up there :thanks:

bet you $50 it's there! I'll let you know for sure though - no one is looking for V8 parts up here. the 4.2 is still in it too

/end hijack :wink:

WOMBAT wrote:

my2000apb wrote:

WOMBAT wrote:ahh bummer on the V8... i hope the V8 in the junkyard back home is still there tomorrow when i go... i need that rear bumper now!!

can you check to see if it has a rear dif? i need one and can get up there :thanks:

bet you $50 it's there! I'll let you know for sure though - no one is looking for V8 parts up here. the 4.2 is still in it too

/end hijack :wink:

you gots pm

Hey chris, when i went to junkyard to look for e30's (i found 3) this week, I saw an audi 100. It didn't look like it was in too bad of condition. Let me know if you want me to pull anything off of it for you. That's good you found a manifold, i've yet to see an e36 in a yard yet.

I can't believe all the problems you've still been having with VEMS. I was thinking about doing it on my car, but now i think i'm going to go with megasquirt with wasted spark. As soon as i get some parts in, I'm going to start working on my motor trying to fix that hesitation and smoke out the back. if only i was as rich as my car is running right now...

-Justin

justrack wrote:I can't believe all the problems you've still been having with VEMS. I was thinking about doing it on my car, but now i think i'm going to go with megasquirt with wasted spark.

-Justin

dont bother, do it right

fwiw the VEMS issues that lox is having arent common, its a very good system as is the 034 EFI, do it right, not over and over again

:stupid: my 200 will be receiving the VEMS treatment 8) good stuff with a good guy (marc) to help you out

I'm a very hands-on kind of person, If i do go with MS then i will probably end up soldering it together myself. I like the fact that you can take the MS box apart diagnose/fix/mod it yourself, unlike the VEMS, which was more or less glued shut (which is understandable for reliablity reasons). I dont, by any means expect it to go smoothly or problem free, but i still enjoy working with that stuff and making it work right. I think the key is just installing such that at any point you can switch back to stock ecu, like Chris has done, if you do run in to lots of problems. The way i see it, even if i do end up tossing it all for something else in the long run, it will still be somewhat worth it for the learning experience.

Chris, how are those brake adapters going? did you get them made yet? or are we going to have to make them in the machine lab this next semester, lol

justrack wrote:I'm a very hands-on kind of person, If i do go with MS then i will probably end up soldering it together myself. I like the fact that you can take the MS box apart diagnose/fix/mod it yourself, unlike the VEMS, which was more or less glued shut (which is understandable for reliablity reasons). I dont, by any means expect it to go smoothly or problem free, but i still enjoy working with that stuff and making it work right. I think the key is just installing such that at any point you can switch back to stock ecu, like Chris has done, if you do run in to lots of problems. The way i see it, even if i do end up tossing it all for something else in the long run, it will still be somewhat worth it for the learning experience.

Chris, how are those brake adapters going? did you get them made yet? or are we going to have to make them in the machine lab this next semester, lol

Right on :-)

Hey guys,

got a pretty good update. Its small, but good.

Kevin sent me some e-mails this morning that gave me a little glimmer of hope. Apparently there were some ignition output numbers that were wrong at the end of my config dump. Looking into this issue now. Would be greatttt if that was it.

kevin, no the wastegate tube is actually routed way back from the turbo. It goes directly to the ground at least a foot back from the turbo. Good idea though. That was definitely causing some power loss on my friend's single cam Honda.

justrack wrote:Hey chris, when i went to junkyard to look for e30's (i found 3) this week, I saw an audi 100. It didn't look like it was in too bad of condition. Let me know if you want me to pull anything off of it for you. That's good you found a manifold, i've yet to see an e36 in a yard yet.

I can't believe all the problems you've still been having with VEMS. I was thinking about doing it on my car, but now i think i'm going to go with megasquirt with wasted spark. As soon as i get some parts in, I'm going to start working on my motor trying to fix that hesitation and smoke out the back. if only i was as rich as my car is running right now...

-Justin

Justin!!!!! Glad you finally made an account here. Maybe you can make yourself a thread I'm sure the guys here wouldn't mind following an E30 with Holset (or whatever we end up using) build!!

There is actually a 100 in the yard near me too. There really isn't much I can use off of it so no worries. Thanks though! I see E30's all the time at the yards around here. I must have seen 10 or 12 in the past month.

The VEMS really is a good system...I have confidence in that. There has just been a lot of confusion floating around mine for some reason. I think you should just wait for mine to be sorted out. For what its worth, all of the problems have dealt with the configuration...not the actual unit itself (besides us burning out the launch control chip lol). I'd also like to say that none of this is Kevin's fault. He has done the best he can with the info he's been given. Thanks a lot for everything you have done so far broski. I have a little more confidence that we will get it all sorted now.

^^^which would be great because then I can start thinking about big turbos and such again!!!



Just so you guys know, justrack up there is one of my roommates. Our apartment is going to be so awesome haha. We have my audi, his E30, and my friends Holset Hy35 d16 car which we hope to make 500whp on haha.

so whats the collective WHP under the roof?

Yes, Justin is a pretty smart fella and he actually likes messing with electrical bs...so I'm confident he wouldn't really have problems with a MS setup...and if he did, he'd be able to figure them out easily because he'd know it like the back of his hand.

justrack wrote:I'm a very hands-on kind of person, If i do go with MS then i will probably end up soldering it together myself. I like the fact that you can take the MS box apart diagnose/fix/mod it yourself, unlike the VEMS, which was more or less glued shut (which is understandable for reliablity reasons). I dont, by any means expect it to go smoothly or problem free, but i still enjoy working with that stuff and making it work right. I think the key is just installing such that at any point you can switch back to stock ecu, like Chris has done, if you do run in to lots of problems. The way i see it, even if i do end up tossing it all for something else in the long run, it will still be somewhat worth it for the learning experience.

Chris, how are those brake adapters going? did you get them made yet? or are we going to have to make them in the machine lab this next semester, lol

Definitely a good idea to keep it easy to go back lol.

Brake adapterssss hmm. Well I am waiting for a good reason to take my wheels off again because my jack took a poop. All I need to really do is get the measurements for the strut tube hole spacing. If anyone has a set of struts off of the car and wants to measure, please let me know. Then I need specs for the holes in the porsche caliper, but I think Apikol has that spec. Which reminds me that I need to call them. Once I have those dimensions I can re-draw it in CAD and then we can do some stress analysis and then we can finally make it.

Someone mentioned they'd be able to do a rapid prototype for me. That would be awesome.

hmm lets seeee collective WHP right now?

500fwhp + what 150awhp for my car? + 130 or 140rwhp for the E30?

lol 780frawhp hhahah

Now lets see what it might be by the time I graduate.

I'd hope for

500fwhp, 600awhp, 500rwhp

so 1600frawhp bahahaa

and woohoooooooo!! just got an e-mail from kevin telling me that we have fixed the problem! That means I'm going outside NOW to get the VEMS back on

:woowoo: :woowoo:

WOW thats awesome! I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that that fixes everything.

I just realized from your post that we will have every type of wheel drive in the apartment next year, fwd, awd, rwd. sweet.

that would be cool if you could get a rapid prototype of your brake adapter. this makes me want to put big brakes on my car now

justrack wrote:WOW thats awesome! I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that that fixes everything.

I just realized from your post that we will have every type of wheel drive in the apartment next year, fwd, awd, rwd. sweet.

that would be cool if you could get a rapid prototype of your brake adapter. this makes me want to put big brakes on my car now

whos going to step up and get a mid - rear or / rear - rear
you dang front engine owners!!

SWD - side wheel drive....just let that sink in for a moment....