I put a timing light on it today and it was significantly retarded. After setting the crank angle sensor I reset the idle control system in the ECU and now it idles very solidly at 850 with far less noise and loping. It's not as stable right after a cold or a hot start, but it never cuts off on me.

6/11/2009 11:55:07 PM

I got the wastegate routed into the downpipe today. We used mandrel bent 1.75" sections and merged the wastegate dump pipe at the smoothest angle possible to reduce backpressure and potential horsepower loss.

[Edited on June 13, 2009 at 1:08 AM. Reason : .]

6/13/2009 1:07:23 AM

Didn't read the whole thread, how much power you expecting once it is all said and done?

6/13/2009 9:41:27 AM

looks pretty nice job!

6/13/2009 10:00:13 AM

Nice exhaust work. I wouldn't mind checking out this car at some point -don't people do cook out meetings or something anymore? Nice keeping up w/the progress also.

BTW, LOL at the painted HKS picture a few posts up.

6/13/2009 12:03:19 PM

Quote :

"how much power you expecting once it is all said and done?"

We'll find out.

6/14/2009 1:26:21 AM

bad wastegate flow = more power


maybe you should have gone for crush bent 3/4 inch plumbing pipe. you dont want to waste anything right!!!!!!!!!!?

6/14/2009 7:57:12 AM

^ humph... please tell me you are kidding.....

I really hope you aren't insinuating that poor WG flow means boost creep and more boost and more power .....

6/14/2009 12:39:02 PM

have you seen the size of his intercooler. i think he could cool lava with that thing.

boost creep for the win!

6/14/2009 12:46:33 PM

i think we cheesin heeuh.

beautiful exhaust, once again.

6/14/2009 2:22:18 PM

Quote :

"how much power you expecting"

6/14/2009 3:33:56 PM

yeah but you still get really high exhaust temps and pressure...

6/14/2009 4:52:26 PM

Quinn is kidding, dont get it twisted.

6/14/2009 8:24:09 PM

^^^ It makes what it makes, when I'm done tuning it to what I feel are acceptable tolerances for air fuel ratio, exhaust temps, and knock readings [from the noisy stock sensor]. That being said, I would like to see high 300s on straight pump fuel, which isn't asking that much from that turbo.

I cruised in the thing for a few hours today. I've got 300 miles on it now and have been part-throttle boosting up to wastegate spring pressure of about 13psi. It still needs a lot of tuning. One of the tricky things about tuning a speed-density based engine management system is that you have to empirically determine the engine's volumetric efficiency curve if you have enough mods. My peak VE (right around peak torque) changes with each boost level, so at 3psi I might need max fuel delivered at 4500rpm and at 7psi it could be 5000rpm. Otherwise it'll go super rich in certain spots or even a tad lean.

I have to tediously figure all this out through repeated logging down some low-traffic roads. A loading dyno would be very helpful but I just can't afford 5 or 6 hours on it. On my last setup it took me 20-30 hours to get it dialed in, I expect the same. I have most of the cruising map and accelerator pump functions figured out while the idle is also decent now. I built a pretty conservative timing map that I may adjust based on EGT. So far I am seeing 1500-1600 degrees pre turbo at part throttle once boost gets over 10psi or so.

6/14/2009 11:54:40 PM

Geez. That's damn close to meltdown temps. On a recip engine, that would equate with "on the verge of holing a piston"...unless you had some ceramic coated pistons.

6/16/2009 3:47:30 PM

^ if you want to see the 1600 degrees in action, you're more than welcome to come by... it happens to be parked right next to a certain cough*non-functional*cough mower

[Edited on June 16, 2009 at 4:09 PM. Reason : we have beer]

6/16/2009 4:05:12 PM

So I laid down a base tune yesterday for higher load driving. I haven't dropped the hammer but I've put the throttle down about 2/3 of the way and revved up to 6500 mostly. I'm hitting about 13.5psi now and it's starting to move pretty good. Since I decided to go with a map scaled all the way up to 3 bar (instead of custom higher resolution scaling for lower boost) I get less resolution under load than before. Interpolation between cells is more important now and a bit trickier. I have to approximate a difference in volumetric efficiency for each .2 bar pressure breakpoint. So it seems as I increase by each .2 bar row in the map I am using about 13-15% more fuel.

So right now at 2/3 throttle I am running about 10.8-11.0:1 , leading timing advance 15 degrees BTDC and trailing right at 0 (TDC). Rear rotor is running about 1600-1650 degrees and the front is maybe 1480-1520 degrees. This temperature difference seems unavoidable, although I have attempted to mitigate it by trimming a bit more fuel to the secondary rear fuel injector.

The boost control settings have been tricky. The boost control algorithm is like a less adjustable version of the Apex'i AVC-R electronic boost controller if anyone here has ever heard of it. After much testing I have settled on a basic solenoid duty cycle setting of 55%, and the closed loop control in the ECU seems to be adjusting within a range of 4% of that. Boost seems to oscillate about 5% from the peak value reached. I am hoping further tuning can bring it down to a 2-3% tolerance, but I may be limited by the lack of directly-adjustable gain control in the ECU.

6/19/2009 6:27:21 PM

you need a leaf blower intake

6/21/2009 2:26:04 PM

I'm still working on a bunch of little things for this car. I have ditched most of my external gauges because the hand programmer for my standalone can display most of that stuff. I was tired of all the clutter. I replaced the driver side A-pillar trim piece with a new one from the dealer (they were luckily still available) because the old one was cracked and had a bunch of holes in it for a gauge pod. There are still a bunch of annoying rattles I am trying to figure out.

I finally went wide open throttle on the car. It is running 15psi on pump gas with conservative timing. In 1st and 2nd it feels about as fast it was on the old turbo at 18psi with race gas. It only spins in 1st gear if I floor it, so I just give it half throttle and it's fine. In 3rd gear I can definitely feel that I've picked up some power over the old setup. I have less gas leakage, larger exhaust ports, and a more efficient turbo compressor wheel. So it's pulling harder over about 5500 rpm. It's kind of like an AP2 s2000 powerband but with boost.

The car can't be all that much faster than it was a year ago on the 18psi setup, but it is way better to drive. It's less cluttered inside, it's quieter, it idles somewhat better, it spools easier, and it doesn't require race gas.

7/6/2009 6:16:01 PM

thanks for the help and thanks for the ride.

i was an injector seal away from 50$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7/7/2009 10:27:01 PM

I don't think I've ever seen a custom turbo project that didn't have at least one small boost leak show up on a pressure tester

7/7/2009 11:41:36 PM

think i should patent the quinn racing intake?

7/8/2009 12:22:48 AM

I thought electrical tape has already been patented?

7/8/2009 8:55:48 AM

you're a tough sell ray......

7/8/2009 12:17:22 PM

unless you have skills

7/13/2009 10:21:03 AM

Quote :

"I have ditched most of my external gauges because the hand programmer for my standalone can display most of that stuff. I was tired of all the clutter."

yeah, but that's just what the computer is outputting, correct? there's no substitute for mechanical gauges if you want to be 100% safe, especially for the more critical things like boost/egt/afr...

7/13/2009 8:20:58 PM

Quote :

"there's no substitute for mechanical gauges if you want to be 100% safe, especially for the more critical things like boost/egt/afr..."

well here's the thing. I'm not comfortable running oil or coolant directly into my cabin for mechanical gauges, so that's out. I had Autometer Phantoms (the cheap, ugly whiteface ones) in there before which a previous owner had installed. Autometers are such shit. The sending units fail frequently. I've had two oil pressure senders fail and one water temp, plus a friend has had his auto meter water temp sender fail. I still have the factory water temp gauge which actually reads accurately (linear sweep, not a "dummy" gauge), plus I have the separate and brand new OEM water temp sensor that goes to the ECU. My cooling fan is switched by the ECU so I was always looking at the ECU display anyway.

My factory oil pressure gauge doesn't work but rotaries almost never have oil pressure problems if the motor was assembled correctly. I still have the gauge and the sender in case I need to plug it back in and troubleshoot. My oil and coolant idiot lights have been confirmed to work.

The boost gauge was still working, but the autometers tend to read too high. I have my ECU controlling boost, and so I have to set target pressure and solenoid duty values to the MAP sensor reading anyway. And you can't really evaluate a closed-loop boost control system as weather changes if you never look at the peak MAP sensor readings. I am using a GM 3 bar MAP sensor on the ECU that I have calibrated to my altitude. The sensor has a 3/16" barb on it that is very secure. I am using 3/16" neoprene fuel hose that has been krazy glued on the manifold side, so it is essentially fused to the hose barb.

My wideband display is mounted on the steering column surround, below the stock tach. Every time I get on it my AFR is right there. If I have a fuel pressure problem I'm going to see it, and I have a mechanical fuel pressure gauge on the pressure regulator. My original autometer EGT was useless because they read very slow and max out at only 1600 F. So I've got a digital gauge that goes to my laptop during tuning. I guess if I had the money I would install a few Defi gauges. but what money I do have now is going toward OEM interior parts before they are no longer available (23 year old parts).

this programmer displays (with a peak hold function)

rpm
water temp
intake air temp
ignition advance (leading and trailing plugs)
knock (stock sensor is noisy though unless I relocate it)
boost/vacuum
battery voltage
vehicle speed (don't have that hooked up right now)
injector duty cycle
all engine sensor voltages (TPS etc) as well as ECU input and output switches

and it can display 1, 2, 4, or 8 parameters at a time. most people don't use it as much as I do, but I like having one computer and one set of dependable sensors, instead of a bunch of gauges that don't agree and and a bunch of boxes that don't talk to each other controlling things.

[Edited on July 13, 2009 at 9:51 PM. Reason : .]

7/13/2009 9:34:13 PM

This boost gauge reads high?!?!! Sounds like I need to turn up the boost!!!!

7/13/2009 10:47:24 PM

Quote :

"This boost gauge reads high?!?!! Sounds like I need to turn up the boost!!!!"

I don't think it reads any higher than any other autometer mechanical gauge. I have seen some data on testing between autometer mechanical gauges and calibrated electronic gauges and the autometer tended to read maybe 1 psi higher depending on how high the boost gauge gets.

you need to bring that thing by one of these days and I can look at your fuel trims and your IAT correction table

7/14/2009 12:31:19 PM

1 psi error!!


3% in my case!

7/14/2009 2:06:41 PM

Quote :

"you need to bring that thing by one of these days and I can look at your fuel trims and your IAT correction table"

throw in a bottle of merlot and some massage oil and i'm in

7/16/2009 7:26:08 PM

hahahahhaahah nice work

7/16/2009 7:35:11 PM

7/18/2009 7:45:20 PM

yeah so i've been giving this thing hell lately. it's got over 600 miles on it now, boost is up slightly to 15.5 psi, and I'm taching it out fully to 7500 rpm where the power seems to start falling off. Also the rotating assembly probably isn't balanced for above 7500-8000 anyway, so I've set my rev limiter at 8200 and try to shift at 7500

7/21/2009 12:57:59 PM

some pics a friend took:








my other friend's cars First his Rx-7:






and his new project, a 2005 Subaru Legacy GT:

7/22/2009 11:45:12 AM

did jeremy finally inherit the FD from his dad? what do you guys pay to work on your car in that storage garage?

7/22/2009 12:37:49 PM

ray that intercooler is so damn ricer.

beyond that.....two thumbs up!

7/22/2009 12:46:12 PM

^^ it's technically still his dad's, but his Dad travels all the time for work now (and has been for the past 2 years) so Jeremy's the one who maintains it and drives it mostly. the Subaru is Jeremy's 100%.

rent is a bit over $300 a month total for a 20x20

7/22/2009 2:35:40 PM

^ i totally remember seeing that car at chargrill as well as jeremy's maroon 3g eclipse. good times!

idk if you remember the guy that used to drive the black civic to all the meets (he posted as FD3Autobot on RX-7 club, name was Ryan) but he finally got his FD. i thought that was neat.

either way your car is looking good!

7/22/2009 2:49:43 PM

rich parents ftwwwwwwwwwww

7/22/2009 2:58:51 PM

7/22/2009 6:42:00 PM

nothing screams rich like a 1987 mazda and a 300$ rent garage.

hahahhaahahha

7/22/2009 6:47:57 PM

jesus christ, $300? is it air conditioned for that price?

7/23/2009 2:54:37 AM

No, but it has a bunch of 120v and a 220v outlet and two bay doors. Have you ever priced large storage spaces?

[Edited on July 23, 2009 at 3:03 AM. Reason : the rent is split]

7/23/2009 3:01:21 AM

no, but if electricity isn't metered I could just setup a window unit on full blast

7/23/2009 10:30:11 AM

i was referring to the other guy, not arghx

7/23/2009 10:32:21 AM

still niggardly

8/6/2009 9:13:04 PM

my middle name

8/6/2009 9:14:58 PM

I reused a heater hose that I should not have reused, and now it's leaking. So i'm going to order the part from the dealer hopefully within the next week.

8/7/2009 1:35:29 AM

just hose clamp another hose over it

8/9/2009 4:46:14 PM