Engine build progress
- Thread starter TTM
- Start date
Great stuff! Despite the fact that I just don't quite understand why LINK even created Vipec and let it run in opposition, I think that Vic seems like a good guy to deal with. I asked about the position of the coils as I'm a bit concerned with the heat coming off the headers. ps I like the Black and Gold homage to JPS. Looks very tidy and professionally installed up to your normal standards.[
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TTM
Well-known member
Thanks Patrick. Next step is to get rid of the pink camber plates and go back to standard strut mounts. The roads are so bad where I live now I need to soften the suspension and freshen all bushings! Vic has been very helpful since the beginning. I like the way he explains things, I have found him very educational without making me feel like a knob [8|] I am not too worried about the position of the coils, I am sure they can stand a lot of heat. Wrapped headers should help prevent excessive heat damaging them. Well, we will see!
TTM
Well-known member
Pleased to say the car has been running pretty well though I only had to do basic adjustments, namely add fuel on the main fuel table and in the cold start up table. The QuickTune function for the fuel map is neat. It's a bit difficult to use on the road as it would require left foot braking + opening the throttle to keep a constant load so that the cursor in the fuel table is held in a given RPM/MAP cell until target AFR is reached then locked - a video showing the process can found here : [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jel2P1slIag]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jel2P1slIag[/link] On a dyno I would expect less than an hour getting the fueling right. I haven't risked any wide open throttle yet as I must check the timing calibration of the cam angle sensor with a timing light and adjust the J&S noise sensitivity with headphones to make sure it will be active when it detects real knock. However, even with a restrained driving attitude the car is already faster than needed for getting from A to B. The stronger spark provided by the individual coil set up seems to add a fair amount of low down torque - I often find myself cruising in 4th at 40mph from where the engine doesn't have the slightest difficulty building revs. Ok it's not V8-like grunt but considering how the usual 944/S2/968 pulls from low revs, it's remarkable. Throttle response seems to be slightly better than with the MAF too, acceleration is slightly smoother, revs fall quicker between gearchanges, altogether the engine seems to be "processed" quicker, making the car a bit more difficult to drive slowly than it already was, all in good fun. I can now monitor/log in real time ECT (engine coolant temperature), which suggests the dash temp gauge is completely out of order and IAT (intake air temperature) in addition to EGT (exhaust gas temperature) and things like injector duty cycle, etc etc etc etc... It's endless [] I have found the Vi-PEC help files to be very useful as they have helped me understand many aspects of engine tuning that went way above my head before. I'm not quite at the bottom end of the learning curve anymore and things are progressing quicker than I expected []
] I have found the Vi-PEC help files to be very useful as they have helped me understand many aspects of engine tuning that went way above my head before. I'm not quite at the bottom end of the learning curve anymore and things are progressing quicker than I expected []
TTM
Well-known member
The whole sytem cost me about twice what I spent for the Vitesse + Zeitronix, shipping + taxes included. It's a lot of money, I know, but things of life are catching up after me quickly so if I hadn't done it now I couldn't have done it in the future. I decided that upgrading the ECU made more point than keeping "upgrading" hardware (intercooler, exhaust, etc) blindly without knowing how important variables evolved, it wasn't just a case of fixing an issue with knock, it's been also an opportunity to get better engine control and monitoring. I'm not sure but at this point I think it would be quite difficult to adjust timing on the road, because of the necessity to hold the engine into a given load (RPMxMAP) cell. If I understand correctly the tuning process the engine has to be held into a given load cell then ignition must be progressivly advanced until knock is being detected. By then the given load cell can be considered done. I don't quite imagine doing that on the road. But again, I don't think it would take an awful lot of time on a dyno to get it all right. PS : the wasted spark system is more cost effective than the full sequential I went for, also I added many PLX boxes which aren't really necessary. It's all up to the end user if he wants a complete wiring harness out of the box or if he will add wiring later.
TTM
Well-known member
It would be tempting to diss the Vitesse stuff after what I've been through, but it would also be dishonest as I have never been 100% sure what caused the problem. Even though I'm not using it anymore I still feel somewhat frustrated it worked fine only once in my car, some weeks ago. The problem was probably caused by a fault in the wiring and/or in the DME/KLR boxes. I ordered the Vitesse kit after tuning Sly's car, which to this day is still running strong at 20psi with no knock on his engine, and on the map with the highest timing advance, so yes, I think it's a good set up considering how much it costs.
Sly
New member
@Tom : the ecu sensor is the blue on the channel before the 1 cylinder, the coolant is extracted from the cylinder head at this point. The dash sensor is directly in the cylinder chamber between cylinder 1 & 2 near fresh coolant intake so it's probably colder on dash sensor. @Barks : the 3.0 water pump can be a good upgrade for the 2.5L (I've do that on mine), the turbine is bigger on 3.0L pump. You just need to do a little machining (see the picture) on the 2.5 because of the larger turbine []
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