AtlantaZ

Yes, using Megasquirt II V3.0. Got your PM. Meanwhile... my beloved 280 is becoming impractical as a daily driver. She's now on Craigslist: http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/2535193421.html I will continue to work on it until it sells, but I'm about ready for a simple, boring, daily driver - like maybe a BMW M3

Fuel pressure's still dropping. Gonna pull the tank, blow out the lines, and see if I can't isolate the problem. Anyone got a good writeup for removing the fuel tank?

My coworkers didn't believe that I actually had my car running, so I made a short video of me starting, revving, and briefly driving the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyJcHxhZ150

I like the button idea. I actually have a pushbutton lying around, so I might try that. Maybe it would be cool to have a "Turbo Boost" button in the car, like an arcade game.

Today I will try hard-grounding the solenoid and seeing if I can get it to clear 8psi boost. Obviously I don't want to run it like that permanently because, assuming it's operating, I would be allowing for infinite (theoretical) boost.

Yep, I wired it per those instructions. Of course, the solenoid itself has no polarity, so as long as you have a good 12V+ switched source and the grounding logic (the transistor) wired correctly, the little sucker ought to be clicking away. My vacuum hoses are plumbed per DIYAutotune's instructions as well, so I'm not sure what's missing. I set the boost duty table to 100 in every cell, just to see if I could get the wastegate to hold closed beyond 7psi, but no luck.

Lunch is on me for anyone who feels like helping with my boost control issue! I can't get the solenoid to do anything yet. I wired it and plumbed vacuum lines per instructions, but the wastegate is still opening at 7psi.

Lifters reinstalled, tapping gone! Engine definitely runs smoother. Boost controller isn't working yet, as the wastegate is always open, but I'm making progress. Need to check my spark plug gapping too, as my local tuner recommends .035 for 10-15psi boost.

Just to check the cleaning process, I completely disassembled one of the hydraulic lifters that had been soaking in cleaner. There was still black sludge in the bottom. So I can confirm that there really is no substitute for completely disassembling the hydraulic lifters, hand cleaning, and reassembling. I hope to have them back together tomorrow and reinstalled in the car.

Currently soaking hydraulic lifters in B-12 Chemtool cleaner. Will pull them out tonight, soak in oil, and reinstall. I decided to try it without disassembling the lifters. During removal I noticed that two of my lifters were loose and four were overtight, so reinstalling (correctly this time) can only improve things.

I'll look into that. In the meantime, I'm now seeing a drop in fuel pressure (at all revs) and accompanying lean spikes after running the car for a while. Even at idle, my fuel pressure holds steady for a few seconds, then dips for a couple of seconds. Here is my list of potential candidates - anyone reading, please sound off on the likelihood of one of these items being the cause: 1) Failing fuel pressure regulator 2) Air seeping into the fuel feed (possibly at the tank or pump, as I hear a rather loud "whoosh" when I first prime the pump before cranking) 3) Failing or overheating fuel pump 4) Clogged pump feed When I turn off the engine and let the car sit for a while, the problem clears up. Any ideas? Here's a screenshot of the log file that generates during the oscillations:

Vacuum distributor block installed! I've decided to disconnect the Aeromotive FPR's vacuum reference so that Megasquirt can calculate VE tables based on a constant fuel pressure. I have plenty of available fuel at all operating conditions so far, so I don't think the increased pressure is necessary. I also begrudgingly read the directions for my Speedhut quad gauge (fuel, water temp, oil psi, voltage) and got everything calibrated. It's nice to know where my actual fuel level is! I still need to wire the gauge lighting circuit. I will probably use the green/white wire at the glove box light switch, as this is a very low load and shouldn't overburden the stock wiring. I also cut the inline plug-in style resistor out of the stock tachometer circuit, then connected it to pin #2 on the EDIS module. Tachometer reading is good, even at low revs. I installed the DIY Autotune boost control circuit on the board as well and mounted the boost control solenoid on the firewall, near the battery. I haven't figured out yet how to configure the boost control settings in Tunerstudio. I wired my circuit to JS2, which I think is IAC2, but I'm not sure if I need to just turn Boost Control to "ON" or if I also need to enable the IAC2 port output.

Yes, the issue was simple. My Megasquirt board was improperly jumpered for the ignition output, so EDIS wasn't receiving any ignition commands and was stuck in limp-home/10* BTDC mode. Once JS10 was wired to IGN per instructions, the engine properly responded to throttle inputs. It just goes to show you how important ignition advance really is! To see the full discussion, you can read my help request thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/99834-turbo-project-no-start-help/ Or my build thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/95992-another-s30-turbo-project/page__p__902552__fromsearch__1#entry902552 Now I'm down to sorting minor bugs, like overheating and valve train tapping. I'd still like to meet some of the other north Georgia Z-heads one of these days.

Got my vacuum distributor block today. I decided that four tees off the same vacuum line was getting ridiculous, and the reference line to my new boost control solenoid would make five. So I got a six-port vacuum block with six 1/8" hose barb fittings, so that each vacuum reference would be consistent. Devices needing vacuum: Blowoff valve Wastegate Boost control solenoid Megasquirt ECU Boost gauge Fuel pressure regulator I plan on buying about 10 feet of 5/32" vacuum line from Autozone and plumbing all this up on Saturday. I still feel like the car is missing a certain "oomph." It revs up fine, but throttle response is just not as quick as I would expect. Maybe I'm missing something in my tune...

Holding off on accel enrich tuning until I resolve ticking in the cylinder head. I strongly suspect issues with my hydraulic lifters. I think that at least one of them is collapsing and not properly holding the rocker against the cam. Which means my intake and exhaust valves aren't functioning properly. Which means my tune is definitely off, and I'm sure that I'm losing a bit of power. So I plan to disassemble and clean my lifters this weekend. Found a great writeup from cygnusx1 on cleaning hydro lifters: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/50067-p90a-head-ticking-what-to-do/page__st__20

As I tune, I'm a little confused by the VE numbers I'm getting in Tunerstudio. I expected my VE values at boost to be upwards of 100, since I expect more air/fuel to be forced into (and out of) the combustion chamber at boost than it could possibly hold at static conditions. VE is a percentage of actual charge volume vs. static volume, and boosting obviously force-feeds more air and fuel into the chamber than it would statically hold, so why at 7psi boost am I only seeing 90% VE?

Fixed my Speedhut oil gauge! It was just a loose pin in the connector. Still need help calibrating my fuel gauge. Since it's a quad gauge, it's a little different than calibrating the individual gauges.

Got my electronic boost control solenoid and Megasquirt mod kit from DIYAutotune. Hoping to wire that up this weekend.

Man, this car is fun to drive. But I may need to move to an automatic soon. As much as I love this car, I might have to trade it for an E46 BMW 3-series. So if you're reading this and interested in purchasing or trading, PM me...

Update on accel enrich: as other articles have pointed out, you really don't need much accel enrich if your base tables are good. I am definitely finding this to be the case. Right now my only real problem is that it runs out of boost too early! The wastegate dump tube is pretty much screaming at anything past 3500RPM and/or 50% throttle. I hope to install the DIYAutotune boost control kit soon and remedy that!

Close this thread - the car is now running!

Before I get the car tuned, I need to clean up my vacuum connections and install a boost controller. Does anyone have an experience with the HKS EVC-S electronic boost controller? Or I may get brave and just have Megasquirt control boost too. Might as well, since it's already built into MS2-Extra...

I need additional vacuum ports for my boost controller, wastegate, FPR, BOV, ECU, etc. etc. Does anyone have a good condition aluminum vacuum distributor he isn't using?

Ok, resistors are in place. I took it for a test drive today and it definitely feels smoother! My wastegate must be sprung for 5psi, because my manifold pressure pegs out at 144kpa. This is a good thing - keeps me from straining the engine too much during the break-in period. Once I get a few more miles under my belt, I will probably look into a good electronic boost controller. The 180 degree thermostat is definitely a good idea! The engine is much happier at <200 degrees. I also replumbed my oil feed to the turbo. I had bought one of those eBay turbo oil feed kits with the brass tee and NPT fittings, but the NPT threads definitely did not seat correctly in the engine block. I was tapping the stock oil pressure sender location as my source for the oil feed. I bought a 1/8 BSPT (male) to 1/8 NPT (female) adapter, AutoMeter part #2269, which fit perfectly. It's nice to have Summit Racing's Atlanta store nearby! Long story short, now I'm down to tuning accel enrichments. Basic driving tune is solid. Life is good! Time to start buttoning up the interior and cleaning up my mess.

So how do I adjust accel enrich to make the exhaust pipe belch flame on overrun, like a Pagani Zonda?