"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/08/2015 at 15:05 • Filed to: 240z, project car
6
10|
"StudyStudyStudy" (jesterjin)
05/08/2015 at 15:05 • Filed to: 240z, project car | 6
| 10 |
Now a simple engine swap at this point just consists of connecting the plumbing and getting power to the ECU and to the injector/spark, and a custom driveshaft and you are on your way. The PO had cut up all the wiring to run VEMS in his car which he wasn’t including. With limited options, and a distinct lack of faith in what VEMS seemed to sell, I decided to go with the tried and proven megasquirt configuration. As he had fried the factory coil packs, I decided to run some coil on plugs for a better controlled spark. Bought two sets of coils off of a toyota matrix and on my way. A few e-mails back and forth to DIY auto tune and I had a custom built MS2 pcb 3.57 in my hands along with the wiring harness.
Despite looking like this...
It wasn’t all that complicated. You had to find a home for less then 20 wires, many of which would plug into the sensors and the wiring was complete.
Unfortunately here is where the trouble started. After setting up the harness, I fired up the laptop to take a look and was greeted with...
Yea I don’t think the car is revving at 65000 + RPM.
Some helpful folk directed me towards a list pointing out an error the number 27 is the specific error and the 65000 is the indicator an error is present. After resolving that the quest continued to try and get an RPM signal. I’m not sure if it was due to the age, but no matter how long I tweaked every parameter I could not get a decent signal from the toyota CAS. After a few weeks of battling that, I threw in the towel and decided to go with a trigger wheel and a hall effect sensor.
Added some studs to the crank
And bolted on the trigger wheel
Added my flimsy trigger wheel mount
After having everything setup, filled with fluid, and ready to crank, the car refused to fire. I could get it to inject and to spark, but it seemed like during cranking it wanted to kill itself just to top it off it was blowing the fuse for the coil. I went on the internet and some people suggested I run some continuity tests, others suggested I lacked grounding, after many weeks I think even months of head pounding and exasperation, even a couple preliminary calls to some megasquirt specialty shops for space availability, I eventually came to the sheepish conclusion that I was off by one plug. Instead of the three out puts for the spark of A B C, I plumbed it A C B. Yup another slap in the face.
The car fired with the new engine and immediately idled at 3000RPM. Even with the throttle body completely closed. After some thinking it was obvious the engine was getting air and a rather large portion of it without any help from the throttle body. After replacing the gasket and making sure all the vacuum ports were plugged I took the intake manifold to the local machine shop. To quote the machinist “where did you buy this piece of shit” was what he greeted me with when I came to pick it up. The mating surface was apparently a wave. I told him thailand, and he guessed that they didn’t even have the car in question, just a jig to get the spacing and no real method of controlling warp. Slapped the newly machined intake manifold on and idle came back down to a nice 1100 or so RPM.
With the car running it was time to get it road worthy.
Threw on the intercooler and went to the drive shaft shop to have a unit made to combine my driveline.
Then decided to address the rear brake contraption which didn’t really work and went with a hydraulic setup for ease of install.
Also addressed the rear brake line which had torn from the u-joint with a new SS and coated unit.
Then I added an aerocatch as my hatch lock had a key that didn’t work and I had been covering the hole with electrical tape.
Sharing a garage was an interesting experience, we had both gone to the same university and had the same cars, but had very different philosophies in building cars. He wanted to build his car for 7-800 hp, having become quite intimate with the chassis I knew realistically quite a bit of work has to go into the chassis to reach such levels and as I could see through parts of his car I was not sure he had his priorities straight as the first thing he bought with the motor money I gave him was a turbo. In the end, I regasketed, upgraded and swapped in a motor in 6 months, and he disassembled his and bought a few parts. I think for him the project was a talking point an eventuality, for me it was something to drive and enjoy immediatel. I enjoyed working on my car to blow off stress, he found working on his car stressful. We ran into some other traditional problems, asking each other where the tools went, cleanliness problems, etc, maybe a separate post on the topic.
Lessons learned:
Go with hall effect if you can, VR is real finicky to setup.
Convert the pinout to something you can read and understand, there are several diagrams online, but translating the diagram into a language you understand will make your life easier.
Invest in some decent tools and crimps.
Costs:
500 - Megasquirt
80 - 10 ft harness
100 - misc electrical fittings/relay
200 - ancor crimper, nice wire stripper, heavy duty soldering iron
70 - aerocach with locks
100 - rear SS brake lines
Subtotal: 1050
Total spent: 16185
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uofime
> StudyStudyStudy
05/08/2015 at 15:17 |
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Megasquirt never ends well. godspeed.
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StudyStudyStudy
> uofime
05/08/2015 at 15:21 |
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Been working fine for over a year now.
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StudyStudyStudy
> uofime
05/08/2015 at 15:30 |
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Actually just helped a friend install his into his E30, seems like that is working well too.
Birddog
> StudyStudyStudy
05/08/2015 at 15:37 |
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I’m watching the totals add up and getting flashbacks.
My first build was a 73 Laguna. Three years and close to $30k went into that thing..
If I had the chance I’d do it all over again too.
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uofime
> StudyStudyStudy
05/08/2015 at 15:39 |
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I don't have a lot of personal experience with them a friend of my who does engine tuning says they are a complete pain to work with. nothing but trouble to set up and their lack of noise isolation has a tendency to cause bad sensor readings with turbo engines that cab to lead to detonation and death.
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StudyStudyStudy
> uofime
05/08/2015 at 16:12 |
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Hmm, the local installers seem to like it very much, and the interface is real nice. I can agree with some of the noise isolation, but it seems they come jacketed now from the factory. I know the originals rubbed a lot of people the wrong way because they expected more from it, the resolution of the map used to be terrible, but the newer versions have quite a bit more definition and seem to be a lot more stable. I don’t think I’ve gotten any sync loss since my initial problems.
I have a lot of the safety settings turned on, so even if the timing went out of whack, the AFR is set to cut if it goes too lean. I do have detonation sensors on motor that I might try and revive at some point and feed into the megasquirt so it can monitor for those as well.
I agree it isn’t as stable as factory computers, but for what it has to do I think it is ok for now. If anything I’d like to upgrade to the pro version at some point, those look real nice.
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StudyStudyStudy
> Birddog
05/08/2015 at 17:05 |
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Yea, making the tally (which isn’t perfect) makes me wonder if it really was worth it. Then I turn the key and play with the throttle and I can convince myself it was. I don’t know if I would do it again exactly the same knowing what I know now, but I know I would do it again in a heartbeat.
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> StudyStudyStudy
05/09/2015 at 21:26 |
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Hey mate! Just found your series, VERY enjoyable - just read through all your posts from start to finish! :)
Your series actually hit home and really resonates with me in a few ways - like you, I was always an “awkward, nerdy” kid in high school and it took a lot for me to come out of my shell in university, so I feel you there.....never got in trouble, never (and still don’t) drink, nor smoke. I’m a huge car guy as well, although I have some very quirky tastes (French and Italian rides are my favorites, although I’m a big fan of classic J-tin and modern Kei cars!).
The major difference in our experiences is you actually dived in and have done something about it! I haven’t had the chance to yet. I’ve got a BA and a BEd and graduated uni in 2011, but still haven’t found reliable full-time work yet...until that time comes, I can’t/won’t risk such an investment as I don’t even have my own place yet (no point signing an apartment lease/mortgage if your income is random to the point you can’t guarantee you’ll be able to make the payments!) I feel guilty as many car guys dive in and go for it as you’ve done regardless, but I guess my conscience forces me to play it the most safe that I can...
My current DD is a luckily-fully-paid-off (everybody can now make the requisite “econoshitbox” jokes and say how crappy it is) ‘09 Hyundai Accent affectionately called “Humdrum” with NO power ANYTHING (or Cruise...or ABS even...). Against what many like to say, it’s a good little car....no, not a powerhouse, nor a performance ride in any way as it’s 100% bone-stock, but I’ve come to love it. Economical and reliable, it’s suits my daily grind just fine, as did the 2002 Subaru Impreza 2.5TS wagon I had did before it.
However, I want to pick up a classic (1957-1975) FIAT 500 or non-BIS FIAT 126 or Citroën 2CV as my “weekend”/project car. All three can be had for a relatively reasonable price of $6-9K-ish for a fairly-decent-but-not-perfect example that I could then fix up a bit myself (although preferably not one that requires QUITE as much work as your Z originally did!).
Like you, I’m not in it for power/speed or bragging rights, just something to be able to drive and enjoy and give other people as many smiles per gallon as I pass by as I would get behind the wheel...you and I both know it’s about the journey as well as the destination, as you are showing through all your Z updates. If I had a classic 500, I’d swap in a later 126 engine/trans a they have more power/synchromesh and I’ll probably tinker with some performance parts, but I like my classic rides in mostly stock or “modernized” form. All three would be incredibly easy to learn on/work on (all air-cooled, so even simpler with no cooling systems but a fan and some ducting!), and I already have many, many User and Repair Manuals for all three in digital form. When that time comes for me, I will ALSO have ZERO practical mechanical experience and will have ALSO have to dive in (although I do have some tools [no power tools though!]...preparatory gifts from parents growing up through the years!).
Long rambling stream-of-consciousness story short - hoping I can follow in your footsteps when that time comes...keep up the awesome posts and thanks for letting us come on the trip with you!
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StudyStudyStudy
> RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
05/10/2015 at 18:36 |
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Thanks I’ve really enjoyed the chance to share this and organize my thoughts on the process.
No worries, seems like you have the right mentality and aspirations. I do advise not jumping in right away, just take time to learn the skills first and putting the car together will be real easy. It is surprising how easy problems can be solved if you have the time and money to tackle them correctly rather then trying to struggle.
I do have a soft spot for the little fiat’s as well. Although I’m on the very first step of the car guys road at the moment, but that’s a thought for another day.
Unfortunately it will be coming to a close pretty soon, glad to have had you along and I hope it wasn’t too much of a drab to sit through.
Cheers and good luck on your future project
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uofime
> StudyStudyStudy
05/11/2015 at 09:32 |
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I didn't now they'd improved it so much over the years, that's good to know.