My VET Build

Nice one glad all the hard work has paid off

Over the moon guys. Get some remote tuning done Thursday to fix issues. Curious to see what power this thing makes on 98 @ 16psi. Will be awhile before dyno time tho

It's going to be on e85 in the future isn't it?

Yep. Need to sort out a base map and fit the dog box first. Was planning on running E85 full time but was advised to do a 98 tune before e85.

ah right, is there any reason for 98 first? you'll be running a flex fuel sensor no doubt?

Yeah I'm running a eflex sensor. Apparently when the fuel companies change the blends during different seasons or you get different ethanol readings it makes the tunning easier to calculate in the software.

Much progress in the last month mate?

Just a little between looking after my 8 week old bub.

Broke some bits too which was a pain in the ass. When I'm back on days off I'll do a decent update with pics.

Top work there sir, some serious time and dedication

Dash is now all back together with knock light and display mounted. Engine fan decided it didn't want to play the game and broke the drive pin. Dam cheap ass part meant i had to pull half the front of the car apart to get it out. Bought a high grade drill bit and cut that down as a replacement.

Went and saw on of the local dyno guys last week and he was happy to let me tune my car while he sat in the passenger side seat controlling the dyno and giving me some pointers. Hourly rate i thought was reasonable at $150 AU.

I sent my injectors out to get the dead times checked as i think the ones i were supplied were too low as the VE numbers were really high. So waiting on them and a fuel filter element as the one i have is 6 years old.





Hopefully tomorrow i get a chance to wire in all 4 wheel speed sensors into the ECU and modify the factory ABS wiring so it only works the front brakes.

Good stuff, didnt realise you were tuning it, should be good tuning your own car, cool learning experience and helpful to have someone next to you.

Yeah Chris should be some fun on the dyno, i have learnt a lot of theory so keen to test out a few things. I have sensors for almost everything possible so there will be a lot of fail safes and the ability to get the tune perfect if i spend the time on it.

Been also looking at getting the gear to test injectors for dead times and flow rates. Doesn't look that hard to do just time consuming.

Got a little done today. Spliced in the 8 wires from the ABS ecu. Have only dummy wired in one wheel speed until i know it right as im not sure if the ABS ecu is happy sharing the signals. This data will come in use with traction control and working out how well each LSD is working

wow nice stuff

Thanks. I'll do a update when on back off shift. Will be on the road very very soon

Caught up with Nigel and his family yesterday, was a good chat. Really knowledgeable guy and cant wait to see this on the dyno. Sounds like you have a lot planned for the future but we'll that keep a secret for now always good meeting aus members, we are so spread out that it doesn't happen all that often.

Thanks Chris. Yes still lots planned and will be one of a kind once completed. Dyno results will be interesting, not too fused what it lays down the first time as there will still be lots left in it.

Were about 1300 km apart which makes it hard.

Forgot to update this thread. Car has now passed engineering and roadworthy. I have done just over 100 km without anything breaking or falling off which is a bonus. Still a few things to sort out before i put it on the dyno so just doing a road tune in the mean time. Have the rev limit at 4500 rpm and a safe ignition map so unsure it potential just yet.

Just need to setup my Go-pro mount on the race seat once i get home and ill post some videos. Turbo spool is louder than from the exhaust which i wasn't expecting given that its a 3.5" system

Certainly is mate, your car has a heap of stuff which I have never since on an R before, good luck, coming to an end of a long road (well, kind of until you decide to change stuff, these cars are never finished remember )

Great thread and build and another rep for efforts

Been awhile since I've done some technical updates so here goes. Ill start with the big ass fan i fitted, 16" straight blade Spal. Dam it moves some air and cools the car down fast. But the current inrush is over 120 amps which loads up the alternator and a little 4 cylinder with light weight flywheel does not have enough torque so the idle speed drops. No matter how much extra ISCV duty cycle i added it still dropped but flared up afterwards. Adding extra base ignition timing or getting aggressive with ignition idle timing had no effect.

I did tried using PWM control with a solid state relay until i found out the frequency i was using was the cause of breaking the fan. I had the fan motor drive pin brake twice with the 2nd destroying the plastic fan to where it was not usable. After getting some info from a SPAL tech that particular fan needed a minimum of 7,000hz and i was only using 100hz Finding a PWM solid state relay that can control 30 amps was next to impossible to find and any i thought that would do the job was dam expensive. The only option was to soft start the fan, so the current inrush is spread out taking the load off the motor. Fitted this little sucker after some more wiring and the only way you know the fan has started is from the noise. One issue fixed then to the next.

Next Issue i had was poor battery voltage. Measuring the voltage at the alternator was what i expected, 14.2 volts at idle when cold and 13.8 volts when the hot. The voltage at the injectors, ECU and battery was .35 volts lower. Might not seam like a issue but im very picky, as volts push Amps though Ohms every bit helps. I suppose it like fitting extra earth kits to reduce resistance and improve operation.

As i have moved my battery to the boot, wired in new and extra relay/ fuses there are more connections each with its own small voltage drop. With most alternators there are 3 wires one big ass one that goes to the battery, another is used for the dash light and the 3rd being the sense wire. This sense wire is what the alternator uses as a signal to regulate the output voltage. Now because i have this connection without all the extra connections when i measure the voltage at the battery it always lower than the alternator output. Once i moved this wire input to the back of the car at the relay box the voltage at the battery was now reading 14.2-13.8 volts. After searching around i found guys had come up with a solution to trick the alternator to read less than what it was actually was. With high current draw at low RPM this increased the voltage back up to the 14.2-13.8 volts at the battery even tho the alternator was outputting 14.5 volts.

By using a 1000 volt 3A diode you can increase the voltage approx .3 volt https://www.jaycar.com.au/1n5408-3a-1000v-diode/p/ZR1018 There seem to be plenty of threads online about the mod some for some against. By moving my sense wire i didn't need to use a diode but i have one wired in the jumper plug ready to go if the alternator goes sad. Next issue latter

Another issue i encountered was that when the twin fans on the water to air radiator were on the engine temp would drop either to low once warn or take too long to get up to engine temp. After removing the side guide plates between the 2 radiators the temps were fine.

Now the biggest issue i had were with fuel control. Now these aren't cheap ass injectors either. There a base BOSCH motorsport 1650cc with the ASNU diffuser plate. They only supplied 3 Bar data which was no good to me as they only flow 1330cc at that pressure and would be too small for my needs latter on. @ 4 Bar the flow goes up to 1500cc which would work well. Also at the higher base pressure the spray pattern looked a lot better.

I started off checking the control of the fuel pressure regulator. From the below image you can see when the battery voltage moves, (hence the output volume) the pressure only moves 1.6 psi with the voltage dropping from 14v- 10.5v



Next up was to flow test my injectors. Using a digital power supply and the injector test feature of the LINK G4+ software i was able to test different flows and different voltages. By using the same same fuel rail, pressure regulator, sensor etc i can limit the error value from my results.






Results i got at full flow were close to even and what Motec supplied.



Next up was to work out injector dead time @ 4 Bar using the LINKG4+ software drivers.

From 2ms to 10ms the fuel flow from all injector was within range but under 2ms it was a different story. This was why i had issues with getting it to idle, after setting up a trim table idle was a lot smother. I still cannot idle at 14.7:1 as the injectors will not run at such low pulse widths consistently, at 14:1 there fine. Once i run E85 the pulse width will be around 30% more so i can go back to 14:7 idle and cruise.

It sounds very complex and way beyond my understanding but thanks for keeping this brilliant thread updated ...

Wow very technical and knowledgeable updates there. Good luck and looking forward to the results. Do you have the exhaust and intake cams kick in at the same rpm? Did I read you have set a rev limit at 4500 for now, so really you will see no effect of the VVL until you change the map after run in, as they usually come in at 5k ish upwards. Not sure what rpm you intend on your set up.
I am guessing your ecu controls the switching points without the need for an rpm switching device.