Roman

Someones got a steady hand alright!

Repost/spam from the photography thread, but thought this was interesting / slightly relevant to thread. Macro photo I took of the end of a 6 hole Toyota Altezza injector.

My car's wiring is a good analogy here. I have always hated doing wiring, so I outsourced a lot of the wiring to get relays, fuses, etc etc all setup to convert the car from carb to EFI many years ago. (Thanks Dad) The problem is, for a long time I didnt have a bloody clue what any of it did, or even where some of it was. It always terrified me that I'd get to a trackday, or be on a road trip a long way from home and have some issues with the wiring. And then not have the first clue on how to resolve the issue. Since then, even though I hated every minute of it, I persisted and learned more about it and now I understand where it all goes and what it all does. Unfortunately a lot of people are in this exact same situation with their EFI / tune. They ship their car away, and get back a little box full of smoke and mirrors that makes their car go. Then when their car doesnt go anymore, or they get to Taupo where the elevation affects their tune and it runs like shit. They cant do anything but shrug their shoulders. There's no need for anyone here to be one of these people, when the only barrier to understanding something is spending the time to learn about it.

Ran some tests on injector timing this afternoon. So looking for the setting that gives the richest AFR. As that means more of the fuel is actually going into the cylinder and burning properly. Surprsingly/not surprisingly looks like theres a clear trend there. Only thing I dont understand is why it wants LESS advance as RPM increases? I would have thought because RPM increases and there's less time between events, you'd want to start spraying earlier. Anyway... So looks like ~400 deg BTDC combustion (end of injection), then up to 450, then eventually down to 250 for high rpm. Disregarding the 8025rpm one will just set to 250. So looking at this graph from the Link documentation: It looks at though before 5500rpm it finishes spraying its fuel BEFORE the intake valves open. Then after 7000rpm it's mainly spraying fuel while valves are already open.

I prefer AFR to Lambda, just because that's what I'm used to. But yeah if using flex fuel then Lambda is the way to do it.

Hahahaha good lord this is going to be epic. I think I've learned that for all of the fucking around and wasting money that I've done with replacing second hand junk with more second hand junk. I could have just bought everything brand new instead and had zero headaches. Love your work pie man.

New coilpacks and plugs fitted, awesome. Old coilpacks on the left, new coilpacks on the right: The top of the coilpacks are filled with a cooling fluid (which frigging stinks if you ever cut one open) So the new design has more cooling fluid in the top by the looks, and flatter plug design which is a bit of a pain. However near the bottom of the coilpack the new one is also ribbed for my blocks pleasure, I think this is so if you have an oil leak down into a spark plug well, it holds the oil up instead of falling down around the spark plug. Good idea I guess. So new coilpacks fitted, idle seems nicer and car's running well but the bloody ticking/knocking noise is still there! With some help once more from the DIYEFI thread, found it seems to be happening on the verge of VVTI starting to engage. Then, thinking about it, the VVTI pulley is whats probably been making that rattle at idle thats been driving me nuts for god knows how long! Decided to bit the bullet and buy a brand new pulley, no point in mucking around with second hand stuff that's gonna do the same thing. I got the pulley installed, and then also found that my previous pulley was jamming at a minimum of 12 degrees advance, this new one now goes right down to zero. Which could possibly mean a little extra top end power, awesome. It's been a crazy expensive last few months though, the new tires were exciting but the rest has been on replacements or consumables or fixups, rather than fun stuff. I bought a brass bush for the gearbox shifter as well, I think the plastic one in mine is starting to wear a bit. Hopefully this might help a bit to prevent accidentally shifting out of the gate when trying to get 2nd gear (Going into the void where reverse exists!) Not too long till some Taupo trackdays, hopefully some of this effort pays off and I have some fun and reliable days at the track.

More VVTI related WTFs. Today I replaced the VVTI pulley with a brand new one. Now it follows orders perfectly and drops to zero degrees as it should. So it wasnt a problem with cam offset, and it wasnt a problem with minimum duty cycle on the solenoid. The problem was some crud stuck inside the old VVTI pulley or something like that. Soooooo this is interesting news as gaining 12 degrees more cam angle retard should help with top end power. If it makes more power, it should run a little leaner... Previously it has been +- 13:1 all the way to redline. Results: wtf! Mega lean now. Either I've just unlocked a shitload more power (skeptical) or this 12 degrees difference has now made injector timing critical at that sort of RPM range. Or maybe a bit of both. Interesting results anyway though, look forward to fixing up the fuel tomorrow and then seeing how it goes by comparison. Would be awesome to have unlocked some more doorts for trackday at that rpm.

I think I've managed to bodge it. I think the trick here though, is to never undo the pulley ever again, ever.

Does cross threading the thread in the end of your crankshaft, for the pulley, count as a form of masturbation? Because I think I just fucked myself

If you look to the right of the yellow vertical line on the time plot. When it applies 5% dc cam angle does drop to zero instead of 12 deg.

Thanks Dwlee, no I havent considered a custom PID as I've considered it beyond the scope of my abilities (especially since theres a VVTI preset already there) I think the high derivative gain is on account of that the pulley naturally tries to pull itself back to the most retarded position when the cambelt pulls on it? However, the plot thickens! Check this out: When my RPM drops below the minimum threshold that VVTI operates at, the cam angle does drop to zero. But when it comes to the VVTI operation rpm range, if I look at custom PID settings. The minimum duty cycle for the oil solenoid is currently set to 20%. Which causes... 12 degrees advance. Mind blown, have been driving the car for years like this and never bothered to check, just assumed 12 degrees was zero haha. It likely means more power up top by retarding the cam that extra 12 degrees. Will be interesting to see if my fuel map changes by much. Tomorrow I will reduce the minimum DC for the oil solenoid and see how it goes.

Oh god how have I managed to miss that cam angle offset haha. Thanks I'll get that done.

"Zero" degrees on that map is actually 12 degrees. Because I'm using the PID for VVTI control from an Altezza that has a different offset on the cam angle sensor I think (12 degrees different I'd imagine...) So it's maybe not as sharper transition as it would seem. However yes this is a good suggestion, thanks. Thinking about it, I've had a rattle at idle for frigging ages, and I've always thought it relates to valve clearances even though I've checked several times and they're all within spec. So I might have a good listen and see if it sounds like its coming from the pulley. If so I'll just replace it.

Phil is now one of those blokes, Who's quite sick of my mitsi jokes. He saw no potential, in fully sequential, As fuel isnt why his car smokes.

Went for a drive Previously my VVTI map looked like this: So I tried setting it all to zero between 2000 and 4000rpm except for full load area.... Seemed to sound the same once car had warmed up. So I went the other way, and set it all to 25 degrees including the low down areas where I'd always had zero. It looks as though this may have sorted it. Maybe the time that it clatters, is when its just coming off its base position, or is just above it. So set to stay well above it and so far so good. Will need to go for a longer drive to confirm though. Maybe this type of oil is contributing, recently started using a Penrite 5w30 when I've previously been using magnatec 5w30. I've noticed that oil pressure goes a fair bit lower at idle now, possibly running hotter oil temps or something. Sheesh I think I owe you a few beers by now Downtrail! And a few others here too. Thanks for the point in the right direction

Hmmm yep this could be it. 12 degrees is the position when there's no advance applied. Then its bumping a few degrees ahead, just as rpm and throttle goes up that slight amount.

Hmmm okay thanks... Yes it's happening just around the rpm region where VVTI first turns on, so it could be a rattly pulley. I've tried adjusting the angles but I dont think I've tried shutting it off completely. Unfortunately I cant listen directly with my knock sensor anymore as it's wired into the ECU and there's no audio output from it. But I can definitely hear knock (or something knocking!)

The earlier versions of these engines were very much prone to BEB failure. But these ones not so much. It's still a possibility though. I think it's definitely engine knock rather than gearbox/engine mounts etc. As its very repeatable, it's only in that specific rpm and load region. Maybe I just need to go back to basics a bit and do a compression test, check for manifold leaks, etc etc.

Well, it wouldnt exactly be a precedent for a 3SGE to have big end bearing issues haha!

Got a bit of a head scratcher guys. I've found that my engine is knocking, between say 2500rpm and 3500rpm at motorway cruising sort of load. At the region it's knocking it's currently running ~20-25 deg timing, and has done for quite some time without issues. In fact I even advanced it a shitload further than this a bit prior, without any issues. I recently found a problem with one of my coilpacks and fixed that, and changed the plugs as well. But it's still knocking in that region, if I let the knock control pull timing it out pulls timing right back to almost nothing. Yet at the rpms just above and below that range, it doesnt knock with the normal amount of timing. Any thoughts? I'm thinking it sounds like I've probably got some physical problems with the motor. But I cant think what it could be, or why it would only knock around that rpm range. A partially blocked injector perhaps? Or hopefully not a broken ringland or something from a few over revs haha. This is around the rpm range that VVTI turns on, I've normally had it set to roughly 20 degrees advance at that load/rpm combo. But I've tried adjusting it up and down and doesnt seem to help. Maybe I should get a compression test done. The car otherwise runs fine. I will pull plugs again after work today and see if there's any evidence of anything weird going on, maybe double check valve clearances. Any other suggestions?

Haha oh man, what a read! http://www.formulapacific.nz/?p=44 I would just rip that old piece of crap out. (unless racing rules dictated otherwise of course... Which they probably do)

That little carb tuning board thingy is awesome! Top work.

Yeah you stop to take a piss and you've just "lost" all of the advantage of driving like a fucken moron overtaking on blind corners etc. Drives me insane seeing some of the crazy driving around Coromandel etc. The ignition timing strategy at cruise on my engine from factory is to advance the bejesus out of the timing until it knocks, then dial it back a tad. So I reckon maxxing out timing as much as possible around cruise region is probably pretty good for economy too.