NicT's Trueno Notch (AE85)

[NicT]

[NicT]

Been tuning this sack of rusty crap for a couple of weeks before i left for the south island.

I have played with tunes before but never really understood what i was doing.

KPR was kind enough to give me a base tune of his motor which the cams/head came from, but seeing as my headers, intake manifold and compression ratio where nothing like his it wasnt even in the same ballpark of where i needed it to be.

So i started off on my tuning adventure learning bit by bit the ins and outs of tuning.

For my quest i chose a nice big hill right outside where the car is being stored/worked on. Easy enough.

So my first few runs were just trying to trim up the base value of my setup to see if i could get my AFR close to what it needed to be using the VE table that was in the ECU. The numbers were getting a llittle crazy, and i still had a afr of 8.9 as my leanest so i decided to start changing the VE values instead.

This ended badly, i took the car out on the road and it could barely move under its own power. I was getting AFR's as low as 6.5/7 and flames shooting out through the intake. The car made it to the bottom of the hill to do its run up it, and it was so underpowered i could have walked faster up the hill under full throttle in 1st then the car was moving.

So changed the map back to what it was before and pretty much threw my keys in the bin and left it for that day.

Next hack at it i decided to look at a AFR table, which is what is recomended to make peak torque at specific rpm bands, i learnt that under light load ~10% throttle and up to 3400rpm, i could have values as lean as 15 - 17 AFR, and then decrease in a cloud around it depending on throttle position and rpm. So i plotted out a table in Excel with the AFR values i wish to have at specific RPM bands that my VE table was incremented in.

I then took the car for a logged load run with varying TPS conditions up the hill (important to load up the motor) then tried to push the motor into as high of the RPM range i could (after 4800rpm the car bogged down so much even at full throttle it wouldnt go any higher). With these logs i was able to plot out various TPS vs RPM positions current AFR values.

I then divided the AFR of what i had by what i wanted then multiplied the result by my current VE value.

This gave me a new VE table which i anxiously fed into the ecu, warmed the car up out of warm-up enrichment then took it for a run.

And it WORKED!!

I was getting the AFR values i wanted within reason (maybe a little trim here or there) up to the RPM band where it bogged down and wouldnt rev over.

I got home chuffed as, the car was feeling a lot more responsive and had a bridgeport chop that i really wanted. Unfortunately a member of the local community also followed me back and threatened me in the driveway of where i was storing the car, accusing me of doing doughnuts, skids and being a boy racer. He obviously wasnt happy about how loud my exhaust was. I let him know 'nicely' that there was no way that my car could do any of those things, as it was barely able to make it up the hill only 10 minutes earlier. He left in a huff, and i decided to roll the car away.

This went further and a letter from the police also turned up the day before i left for the south island saying that they too will be keeping an eye on me and that if anything further cam from it i maybe getting a visit from them.

Great...

Anyone know where they will let me dyno my own car?

[NicT]

Third page again before update, not good.

Havent done much been down in the south island for a few weeks, come back to find out there is no more flat where i live so had to move last weekend back in to the inlaws. Good times.

This has been my first free weekend in 2 months so i did some work on the car.

Mark II manifold

Got some new trumpets

The remains of the mark 1

My new linisher, expensive but with the amount i chop shit up this is an awesome investment. grinding tungsten, grinding tube, grinding flanges ahh the awesomeness.

ceramic coated my headers (just the steel part)

My poor neglected car.

Also Roman turned up today and i handed him a lot of parts for his soarer, picked up a new daily driver this morning (toyota exiv) which is more reliable, smoother, faster and cheaper to run then the stagea...

Next on the list is to finish this update, cook dinner, eat it, then drill and tap mounts for itbs and remount everything, fire her up and see how she runs.

Also at the moment (no photos yet) ive cut open and started to baffle my mufflers hoping to knock the noise level from obnoxious, to tolerable.

[NicT]

'Only one B word that woman should be called, beautiful, bitches love being called beautiful'

I celerbrated by shuffling

[NicT]

So ive battled the Megasquirt for a bit now trying to get the ecu to play nicely with my Distributor.

I have decided to keep the old distributor at first for ease (well i thought) of setup rather then trying to wire in 2 coils etc.

However the onboard VR Conditioning of the microsquirt is terrible. After much hunting through the internet i noticed a common theme.

1. VR input, go Ford EDIS

2. Use onboard MS VR, expect sync loss at high rpm

My ecu wouldnt detect RPM under 350rpm, so i had to have a very full battery to even get the engine to start, then around 5000rpm id get a lovely little miss. I was hoping that i could dyno out the problem (talk to someone who knows more then me) and everything would be peachy.

Then my dad was reading about the issues i had and noticed the RX7 guys were having terrible issues with there 24 + 1 dual VR CAS setups (identicle nippon-denso setup to my 4age) He saw they were using external VR conditioning.

One of these jbperf Duel VR conditioning circuits.

This can detect 30mv crossovers from noise and can handle up to 100,000 volts at 100,000hz.

It can detect really slow rpm, like real slow.

Pretty unheard of from a VR system seeing such low rpm.

Blue is input, pink output.

I fitted this in the weekend to my car, and last night i finally reassembled everything and fired it up.

Had to change the rising/fall edge detection and bypass VR input using opto input and she works.

She Purrs like a kitten now with the miss dissapearing.

http://jbperf.com/dual_VR/v2_0.html

Pretty impressive stuff.

Just making exhaust Mark III then will road test the car again ready for dyno

[NicT]

Bit of a rubbish update, have been working on my car bit by bit over the last couple of weeks, but really ive been working on other peoples cars to make some money to pay for dyno tuning.

I made these for a 2003 M3 BMW, that will see the track some time.

sort of chopped up and modded a set of rb26 headers, but they are getting so modified now it may have been easier to make them from scratch.

Wired a 3tgte into this

Turned some spanners on the crown and my wifes new Exiv (camry in disguise)

Sorta fallen off the path though with what is priority with the trueno. Got a new guard from Keisuke and painted it up, i thought it would be an idea to lower my car, then i decided to get 8kgmm front springs. It was then apparent it was cheaper to buy a whole ground control sleeve kit with springs as the ID of my old setup was not the common 65mm.

Several hundred dollars later i now have new NCRCA's, 8kgmm front jamex springs, keeper springs, sleeves, vented GX71 rotors and twin piston calipers, some struts i need to mod for my sleeves, and AE92 TRD adjustable dampening inserts. The NRCA's will bump my front track 25mm a side, i will have to adjust my camber and caster settings so i dont have to battle too much scrub.

Hopefully i can have some pictures later in the week when i get me sleeve kit. At the moment i only have boring plain front struts, and NRCA's. Hopefully i can sort myself out and have them all made and assembled by the end of the week.

Also getting rear guards rolled to fit my wheels ive been running on the front in the rear.

Track day on the 21st too, so easter weekend may be a long weekend in the garage and out on the road tuning.

[NicT]

Actual pictures of my car with progress? Yes

full droop which is good, so struts droop 35mm from where i want the car to sit, and they are captive without keeper springs.

Also had andy come over and pickup the trd springs for his silver rocket.

[NicT]

So while i wait on some small parts to get in so i can rebuild my calipers and assemble my hubs, i decided to finally fix the drivers side LCA.

What a nightmare.

Someone who owned the car before me decided to put the LCA bolt in from the steering rack side, obviously when there wasnt a steering rack in the car, and i had to loosen the rack to get it out. It did cross my mind to cut the bolt out but gave up.

As pictures will show a lot more things had to come out with the LCA.

One step forward two steps back...

[NicT]

A Friend came over last night to pick some stuff up, and we decided to take the car out for a blat. Now with its new ride height the mark III exhaust couldnt even get out of the garage. So at 8pm i started making a tighter hugging exhaust.

I finished at 11pm last night, got up again at 7am this morning straight back into it. Got to take it for a lunch-time drive. Stoked as but car needs a tune. 90% of the noise now comes from the doorting intake and 10% from the rear so less obnoxious/jail bait.

So now she waits for me to have money to dyno.

[NicT]

Took my misses for a thrash around the block and she bought her D90 and took some legit photos, now shitty cellphone ones

[NicT]

The cars tuned you say?

[NicT]

Current Car Specs

Engine: 4age

Smallport Head

Kelford 316 Intake cam, 308 Exhaust

Kelford Valve springs

Underbucket shims

TRD Headgasket

Factory Bigport bottom end

NicT Stainless intake

Blacktop 20v ITBs

Toms Racing Trumpets

Green Trumpet socks

Wolf/NicT Semi-Stainless exhaust manifold

Microsquirt MS-II ECU

Innovate LM-2 Controller

295cc Injectors 4efte

Stainless 2 1/2" exchaust with chase mufflers and reso

Suspension and brakes:

Jamex 8kgmm Front springs and plateforms

TRD AE92 front Shocks

AA63 Carina Front calipers

GX71 front rotors

NRCA's

Nolethane sway bar lin and D, caster arm, LCA Bushes

Craftz 6kgmm rear springs

Hilux front shocks (in the back)

AE92 Rear calipers

Mystery rear rotors

Bendix pads all round

Driveline:

4agze flywheel

Clutchpro Xtreme Clutch (organic with high pressure plate)

NiteB Bellhousing

W55 with sticky second gear

Custom 2 Piece driveshaft

Hilux rear diff

Hilux G series LSD with new clutchs and higher spring rate centre spring

Misc:

Wilwood clutch pedal

Wilwood clutch master (this thing is a pain in the ass)

Factory interior

Speed holes in the boot for ventilation

Black drives guard for extra pizzaz

Factory toyota rust

Tried to take it for a warrant today but the workshop i go to was closed. Owner has food poisoning. Was a pretty hairy drive for me to go there as i was getting a lot of looks from people, so was crossing my fingers i didnt happen upon a check point.

Gave the car some shit too and she lights up the tires easy as. Even straight lining in the wet shes creeping around in the rear at 80kmh. Diff feels tight and power is smooth. Hopefully next weekend i can get it a warrant.

[NicT]

Equal length runners

mmm they look pretty fucked up

[NicT]

Mmm, i was going to cut them up, but i continued on. Just got to finish it then its time to fire it up and see what it sounds like.

This is all to reduce reversion issues im having

[NicT]

More work on the headers this weekend.

Just need o2 bung and flexi on exhaust.

A technique i am perfecting i like to call bridging, sometimes the gap between 2 pieces of metal is so obscure in shape you cant cut a piece to fit, or it is so small there is no point but if you were to straight weld it you would burn all the metal away, so i bridge the gap on a low heat. Then go back over the area from the start and weld it like you would any gap. I have gotten so good at it now i get no burn through (where metal patrodes into the pipe and u can see these little "droplets" hanging inside it)

the welds go this colour when you use mild steel as filler on stainless. Does not make the welds any weaker, they just dont look "nice"

dogg

[NicT]

Havent updated for a while.

Since building the headers, i took the car for a drive and it just bogged down and went all crazy on me. I thought i had stuffed the wiring to the coil after relocating it away from the headers (as they get pretty close to the firewall).

Thankfully on the day i got it sorted a couple of mates rocked up, one of whom had extensive megasquirt/4age powers. he asked to go for a blat with me and i warned him of its boggy crappiness. We pulled out of the driveway and straight away something was up, the tune was reading 2 points lean from where i had originally tuned it, across the board. It coughed spluttered and was a right pig. Only made it 20 metres down the road when we pulled over and changed the req_fuel so the car wouldnt die when idling.

This indicated that the engine was flowing a shitload more air then it had before and i think i had solved the reversion issue i was having at 6000rpm.

After a good thrash around the mean streets of the eastern suburbs we dialed the tune down to a good AFR and man what a difference. The car drives like a demon spawn. Fastest NA i have ever been in. After some skids, screaming back home there was some ripples in the road and the exhaust bottomed out on it at some excessive speed (dont know how fast as i was busy watching the road) and it tore the bastard off.

I have since repaired it but there is still a hole somewhere in my flexi bend so that will need to be replaced.

The car now drives amazingly and i have a Meremere drift day with KPR on the 22nd of July (next weekend). So this weekend i got her out and did some maintenance, oil change, fluids, and tightened everything up that seems to have come loose.

Heres from photos from today in the sun.

Not pretty, but does the job

Future plan is to dump this bumper and get a factory facelift one with chin spoiler. Hopefully ill still be able to get one from toyota NZ before they sell out.

One day after ive had my fun doing skids in it, i will pull everything off and do panel and paint. But not anytime soon. So this annoying crooked light will have to taunt me.

Another annoying point of the car is the drilled holes in the boot under the rear bumper that the old owned used to zip tie the old kit on with.

Also me and the old boy sused out a tow bar for the mighty crown. This is a bolt on bar that fits to the chassi rails. It was custom made by Aro Bars. They did an amazing job, i informed them that i wanted to be able to tow a 1250kg car (old boys gt4) to the track on a hirepool trailer (660kg braked) and that i would like a factor of safety in there too. This thing is certified to 2000kg, with a 2500kg tow ball. I can not recomend them enough.

So next weekend i will finally be back at the track. About bloody time.

[NicT]

[NicT]

Bye bye car

**END PROJECT THREAD**