Roman

Some Virtual Dyno shenanigans: https://innovativetuning.wordpress.com/our-experiments-with-virtual-dyno/

I guess it's just the difficulty of explaining the idea in a binary context of vaccum and atmo pressure, without a great indication of velocity either. (Which is why it looks weird that it "fills up" from the valve end, if it showed the velocity better it would be clearer)

I can see why it's a bit of a rock and hard place for e-throttle support from ECU manufacturers. On one hand more and more cars have e-throttle from factory so the vendors need to cross that bridge at some stage. But on the other hand, incorrectly setup and it can be very dangerous and it's left to the end user to tinker with... I guess they dont want to provide people with suggested settings either, because if the settings are bad the consequences can be greater than just blowing a motor up. Which is generally the worst case scenario of most other variables you can tinker with. I think the instructions from Link about what proportional gain / derivative gain / integral gain do to throttle plate movement are intentionally obtuse. In order to put people off the idea of "Having a go" when they dont know what they are doing... Then stoving into a wall haha. Adjusting the settings one by one, with the TB in front of me in clear view it was pretty easy to see the effects of each though and get it setup nicely. But I'd be concerned if someone was trying to set this up "blind" or just using default settings which were way off the mark. It seems a lot of people have trouble at the calibration stage, it's very fussy. The first TPS that I tried gives a perfect signal on the primary TPS output but a very shaky looking secondary output. Second TPS I tried was perfect on both. On a non E-throttle car this TPS still would have been 100% fine when using primary output only.

Oh yep that makes sense.

Not sure what to think about that one. When the valve shuts, why does it show the runner gaining air density from the valve end? A reflected pressure wave is a bit different to gaining a mass of air out of nowhere.

Yep so you wire in the knock sensor as an input to laptop with headphone jack. Use the laptops amplifieer in the sound card to output it to headphones. Then works sweet.

yep, wideband 2 wire knock sensor like this: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GM-Knock-Sensor-Ignition-Knock-Detonation-Sensor-for-2013-Chevrolet-Malibu-12623095/1738801957.html /your factory knock senor migh be frequency filtered which might mean its hard to tell ifits working until you get knock. wideband one picks up all vibrations. wired into a headphone jack and then plugged into the laptop. In my case I had to turn off software processing on the output so that it was in realtime and not delayed by a second or so.

Yep I hear you, I've tossed it up a bit, pros and cons etc. It only takes a split second of the throttle running on, and then you're flying off the side of Takaka hill or Scenic Drive which is less than ideal! It's fairly robust with its safety features though... The TPS outputs two seperate signals, and so does the FPS (foot position sensor) So if one of them goes faulty, it sees that it doesnt match the 2nd signal anymore and shuts the system down. It also has a relay controlling power to it, and an electronic clutch to disengage it both as safety features if the TPS readings arent as expected etc. I guess another way to think about it is, a cable pull throttle can still jam open as well. And some people have had that happen too. The Atlezza TB has a cable pull system, that if the electronic junk shuts down you can still open the TB half way by cable. So can limp home if need be. There are zillions of Altezzas out there which all seem to be running fine with their factory fitted E-throttles... Lots of people moan about E-throttle being mushy and unresponsive, but I reckon it's all about how the factory ECU is controlling it, not a physical throttle lag. Looking at the datalogs the physical delay in throttle angle is near negligable, An interesting use of E-throttle that I heard of, is a guy who's in a race series where there's a "Breakout" laptime that you're not allowed to beat. He sets his E throttle to limit throttle opening so that when he's going full throttle, he goes just over that laptime every time. But then when he gets stuck in traffic, he flips a switch and it reverts to full throttle angle and he roars past everyone. Flips the switch again and goes back to "laptime" mode. Or the cars with big horsepower, having a "rain map" that makes the bulk of their pedal angle more usable in the wet. Most of these things dont apply when I've got a peaky motor with only 200hp, but will be fun to play around with anyway

Got my E-throttle setup today, which has been interesting. Basically there are a bunch of values you can adjust which determine how responsive/laggy it is. If you set these values too high, the throttle plate flutters because it overshoots the value and then overcompensates back the other way, and so on. So took about 1/2 an hour to fine tune the variables to give the best response without any flutter. It's a bit of a laugh seeing your throttle plate flap around crazily when nothing else is going on haha. Very dangerous if you drove on this setup without taking the time to fine tune for your individual motor, the suggested settings were way off what works on mine. I might need to end up fine tuning it a bit more later on when the motor is running, because at the moment its running at 12v supplied to the motor instead of 14 when the alternator is going.

A few random thoughts.... Lets say you've got an engine where each cylinder is 500cc When the intake valves open and it gulps in air, if the volume of your intake runner is greater than 500cc it's just sucking in the air that's already in the runner, rather than from atmosphere. Then when the intake valve closes it's got the whole rest of the cycle to "refill" which is where bellmouths etc help it fill back up more efficiently. I wonder if this is why people say that if you've got shorter runners they need to be wider, longer ones skinnier.... To make sure you have that minimum amount of volume in there so you're never sucking air from "atmosphere" during the induction period. So can think of it as two redbull cans stacked on top of each other for minimum size. Also, You see those evos that have vortex generators on the trailiing edge of the roof. Which makes the air swirl and stick to the rear window instead of detaching and causing turbulence/drag: Well this is exactly the same reason that just about every modern car now has its car aeriel mounted in about that position, centrally on the rear of roof. Because they use it as a vortex generator to reduce drag. They're not required across the whole top edge of the roof because air swirls around from the sides as well. (Look at streamers in the evo picture above, they bunch in towards the centre because of air coming around from C pillar) When you see a car with the aerial mounted centrally near the front of the windscreen on top of the roof, this is because airflow starts detaching from right up front already. (compensating for a shitty aero design?)

Same cant wait

Setting up some new fun bits at the moment: -A 6 switch panel for turning things off and on -proper knock sensing -ethrottle -Redoing the 8 injector thing (Although still waiting on better firmware to get it running properly) -clutch switch to ECU -brake switch to ECU -Cruise control switch -Second map sensor and IAT for datalogging stuff E throttle is so friggen greedy for inputs/outputs! For safety reasons there needs to be two TPS signals and two FPS signals. Plus the + and - for the E throttle motor. And a PWM output for an electric clutch that's in it. And an output to switch a relay to cut power to the system if there's a fault code. So 8 inputs/outputs hogged by just that haha. And then one more for a cruise control multiswitch, because why not Still got inputs and outputs to spare though which is cool Looking forward to experimenting with the e-throttle. The main thing I'm after will be having a non linear opening rate so that it's less jerky to drive around at very low throttle. And some launch control shenanigans for cheating at OS drags haha.

What's the goal here, to get a car certed? If so, you also need to consider the following issues at the same time. -Is modified wheel itself going to be certable? (Not sure on rules here) -Are you going to be able to acheive your goals within cert camber specs? (Ie little or no negative camber) -Is there a tire available which you can run on a 9" wheel, is it legal, and will it fit? Generally it seems the hard part is getting a decent sized wheel and tire combo up the front of the car. Even if you shorten the diff or whatever, and get some mega dish on the back. It might look weird if there's a much less dishy wheel up front because of space constraints.

The wheel has a different shape on the outside(?) edge, to allow the tire to get on and off. If you use two inner halves of a wheel, it's next to impossible to put tires on. It's been done before, but I think it required assembly of a three piece wheel around the tire lol. Not particularly convenient.

Yes you are allowed them, I've got exactly the same thing (Certed though) I think it falls under the threshold of needing to be certed if you've changed to rosejointed bits anywhere. Standard is rubber bushes.

What's the deal with Silica dessicants, do they dry out again after a while if left in a dry place? Or do they just fill up and then that's that.

Jason's Torana?

Any room to tip the motor slightly, or space it over to one side? Maybe just a shim between engine mount and chassis or something? Would be a pity for something as simple as this to be what ends up limiting the engine's potential when you've spend $$$ making it all fancy. Although, pics of problem or it didnt happen... Actually MSpaint will be fine too

Hey people, I'm redoing my wiring loom at the moment, as it's still had craploads of extra wires etc that are now redundant in it. Previously all of the wiring bunched up over the injectors area, to one side of the engine. and then ran individual wires to the top of the motor for the coilpacks. However now it would be desirable to move the bulk of that wiring to the top of the motor, so it's all under the plastic engine cover and just comes out the back as a single bunch. but it would be running over top of the hot motor and the Toyota individual coil on plug coilpacks. Is this likely to cause me issues, either from heat, or electric interference from the coils going into everything else? As it includes the crank trigger wire. (That's sheilded)

Yes so the problem with my triggering was a physical one, one of the teeth was damaged. I narrowed it down to this, by having preset triggers that I knew SHOULD work - And using the onboard trigger scope to check the waveform. If I was using an MS (which doesnt have a trigger scope?) at the same time as doubting my configuration of it, it would have been a lot harder to figure out. Especially since this interimittent trigger problem was probably a contributor to the issues I had with the standard ECU as well, but I just had no easy way of knowing. Yeah VR sensors do seem to be a pain in the balls, but my cam angle sensor is stuck in the head and there's no real way to swap it for something else. If/when I do an MS setup, (when my current to-do list is a bit shorter!) I'll definitely be using all of the triggers/sensors/etc reccomended by MS with it. Best way to go for sure.

I've ranted about it before, but just some numbers... I wanted to buy a (mostly) preassembled MS3 with all the extras. A preassembled one (not keen to do it myself) with an LC2 chucked in and some misc bits came to approx $1550 to my door. A lot more expensive than it first seemed. A G4+ Storm was only $330 or so extra, so didnt seem like much of a leap. (Although I ended up buying an Xtreme instead, which was more like $1000 more) Link had presets for all of the triggers, a basemap to use, etc which meant it started up pretty much first pop. No one had run megasquirt on my sort of engine before, which gave me cold feet about the idea. (VVTI etc which make things complicated) Incidentally since my purchase, someone else bought an MS3 to setup on a VVTI motor like mine. It needed custom code to get the VVTI working, which took time. The guy ended up having the cam "wander", it couldnt keep it at the desired angle well enough... Ended up making less power than with factory ECU, a few months and a few more dyno sessions down the track I dont think he's gotten any further with it. I dont have the patience or expertise to be a trail blazer with that sort of thing. From what I've seen MS seems to work most successfully when people are converting carb motors to EFI, so they are using all of the triggers, sensors etc that MS likes. Or EFI swaps done this way. And just using a basic setup instead of wanting all of the complicated stuff.uld not know how to resolve. Or VVTI issues etc. I think I'll whip together an MS project at some point, a carb > EFI conversion. I reckon it will be fun. In the yellow car perhaps.

You can buy them preassembled, some costs etc are listed here: https://www.diyautotune.com/ That would be the easiest Megasquirt related option for you, or if you assemble yourself it's obviously cheaper (by a fair bit!)

I'm using a Link G4+ Xtreme, the wire in version that does not have an internal MAP sensor. (Has baro sensor instead) So I can run MAP or MAF, or whatever. I put an initial tune together using MAP sensor, but wired in the MAF for datalogging purposes for setting up VVTI etc. Then for interest's sake I decided to put together a MAF only map, with limited success so flagged it. (My fault, I selected wrong type of temp compensation) However the IAT in the MAF was so terribly slow to respond so I replaced the whole thing with a fast response IAT. Which made a world of difference! With the MAF's IAT I could be sitting at staging at the drags heat soaking, and it wouldnt even start to register a temperature drop until I was half way down the return road. The new IAT changes value with a snap of the throttle, it's awesome. Hey wow, thanks! I've not heard it described in that way before, that's an interesting explanation and article. I've only really considered it from within the context of cold start, but it's never really made much sense to me why you needed to tip a bunch more fuel in to get the engine to run.

Oh hey yep cheers, sorry if it came across as I was trying to teach you how to suck eggs. I know you (and others) have done a lot more of this kind of thing than me! Regarding what you're saying about temperature stability. My plenum is thermally isolated from the head by a rubber spacer, the only way it really gets hot is from radiant engine bay heat. For sake of keeping temps downstream of the air temp sensor more consistent, I experimented with wrapping the manifold with foam / aluminium foil to reduce radiant heat increase. Which (according to the hand-ometer) seemed to keep the plenum cooler after a long run, presumably at a more stable temperature. Hopefully meaning the IAT readings are more consistent with what's happening closer to the motor. But either way, it never got to the point where it was too hot to touch. Maybe 30-40 degrees max. So even with evaporative cooling bringing the temps down a little it's not going to see big 80 degree swings or anything like that. I've still got a heap of spare inputs and outputs so I might chuck a surface mount temp sensor on one of the runners for curiosity's sake though. To see if those injectors are actually cooling the runner walls by any measurable amount. Situations like this are where a MAF sensor earns their keep! Because it automatically accounts for all of these variables which are difficult or impossible to build compensations for, into a MAP setup. Hopefully in another 2-3 weeks I'll have a clutch and can start putting the car back together.

I dont really live up to my namesake, sorry.