BLOZ UP

[BLOZ UP]

ATI Damper arrived. Came with complicated instructions. Luckily for my application you just install it, as far as I can tell.

 

 

I contacted speedhut about the temperature senders. The notch is for cutting if needed, as I thought. So, Dremel time:

 

 

After cutting:

 

 

Cleaned up and installed:

 

 

Now I can do the same for the coolant temperature sender (I'll need to drain a bit of coolant first, though), and install that. Then wire them all up.

[BLOZ UP]

Note that if I had read the instructions, I would have learned that the Speedhut temperature senders are trimmable without having to contact their email support. Whoops. Speaking of support, I contacted ATI since the instructions insist that all bolts must be installed, but the bolts that hold down my optional front pulley won't tighten completely (and I can't see what's in the way since it's half-way installed). Their response? "Find shorter bolts". Gee, thanks, I guess. Expected a little more sympathy since the damned thing cost more than my engine but I have a feeling they don't give two shits about imports...

 

The ATI Damper fits. Just so. About 0.5mm of clearance with the steering rack when installing, but when fully pressed on it should not be over the steering rack much at all. I managed to damage the first threads in the crank by being stupid when installing it on. So, I'm going to need a pulley installer to finish the job. My spacer, however, doesn't fit. It needs to be turned down a lot.

 

 

In other news, I installed the CTS and OTS. The CTS didn't appear to need to be shortened.

 

 

 

And I started working on installing the gauges, but didn't get far. I'm going to tie these gauges into the accessory circuit, since they aren't needed while cranking and I have issues with the other gauges when cranking sometimes.

 

 

I found my aluminum gauge panel I knew I had.

 

 

And I'm going to see if I can get some LED replacements for the center console/vent cover lights since the car's going to be down anyway for the crank spacer.

 

Edited April 21, 2015 by BLOZ UP

[BLOZ UP]

Installed!

 

 

Only took 5 hours or so.

 

I went by the auto parts store and got a crank pulley install/uninstall kit. None of it really fit. The threads on the crank are recessed, so none of the adapters were long enough. So I went to the hardware store with the intent that I would weld some long reach bolt and use the rest of the kit. Nope. Rest of the kit hits the turbo, it's too long. So, went back to the hardware store and got a nut and some washers...

 

 

And here you have the custom crank pulley installer for my car. This is v2.0, since the original didn't have enough heat in the weld and snapped apart. Luckily I was able to retrieve the end from the crank with my fingers. Very lucky.

 

I also installed the shorter bolts that ATI said to use, no problems there. I dropped of the crank spacer at the machine shop, and he said he could do it, so that and torquing the bolt back on and I can start the car up again.

 

An interesting side note. The crank pulley went on with about .5mm clearance with the steering rack. There's about .25" at least of clearance now that it's pressed on all the way, but the top of the intake has about .25" of clearance with the strut bar. When making the motor mounts I didn't intend for this tight of a fit, but it somehow just worked out. All I did was use a level to determine how high the mounts would be.

Edited April 27, 2015 by BLOZ UP

[BLOZ UP]

Got my crank spacer machined for a not so small fee.

 

 

And it's running again.

 

 

Timing marks on the crank appear to be way off. Then again, maybe my megasquirt has decided to change the base trigger angle again.

 

Also wired in the Oil Temp., Coolant Temp., and gas gauge, and they appear to work. I broke the rheostat wiring for the night illumination, but that's an easy fix. Also need to pull the console back to fix the gauges in place.

 

Also need to modify my seat bracket and install the harness. Then maybe and oil change and some transmission fluid. And I should be good for an autocross. Although I haven't solved my front RCA interference problem, so I can't run my slicks on the front.

[BLOZ UP]

Went to an autocross with my trailer and tires. Didn't get there early enough to put the tires on . Wasn't enough time between heats, either, and I forgot my breaker bar and torque wrench.

 

I got 4 runs in before something went wrong. I only recorded 3 however.

 

 

You can see in the second run the fuel pressure drop a few times:

Edited May 12, 2015 by BLOZ UP

[BLOZ UP]

 

The fourth run I noticed the power loss. Strangely, it would idle fine. It was just during acceleration that the fuel pressure dropped significantly. It stalled a few times in the grid, and was very hard to start again. It didn't occur to me until later that it was vapor lock. I just assumed my hot start cranking pulsewidths were way off. Anyway, I figured I would leave now and some airflow would cool everything off. The engine was sitting at 98 degrees C (100 CHTS). Once I started moving it dropped down to 180, then eventually 160 (thermostat temperature).

 

The symptoms seemed to get better so I thought I was golden to get home. Nope. Came back all at once and I pulled over immediately and called Hagerty. I thought the fuel pump had finally bit the bullet, but it started again this morning. Regardless, the pump is on its last legs and I've been eyeing a Fuelab replacement with built-in PWM speed controller.

 

The tow, while covered, was a complete racket. Companies bid for contracts on the NJ Turnpike (a private road). You can't call your buddy with a tow truck, you have to be towed by them. And they required another flatbed for my trailer (all 5' of it). Total cost? $700...

 

Yeah... no corruption there...

[BLOZ UP]

My little trailer with it's own flatbed...

[BLOZ UP]

I'm waiting for parts so I can hopefully autocross again. I ordered a Fuelab 41401 pump, the one with PWM/switched control. They give you many options, it's very nice. PWM continuously variable control, or ground it for slow, or give it ~12v for high speed. I plan on wiring it to a spare MS output (on of the IAC ports), and setting it to trigger on MAP sensor values >= 120 kPa or so. Could also combine it with throttle position, etc., but I think that will work just fine.

 

I noticed that Fuelab sells an electronic pressure regulator as well. You pair it with their PWM pumps and you can have the fuel system regulate pump speed itself. Cool! But since I have the ECU capabilities to control the pump I see no reason to replace my current (Fuelab) regulator.

 

I'm also waiting on a Nardi wheel and quick disconnect hardware. It's getting real annoying to get in and out with my seat and the stock wheel in the way. Can't wait to install it.

[TimZ]

I noticed that Fuelab sells an electronic pressure regulator as well. You pair it with their PWM pumps and you can have the fuel system regulate pump speed itself. Cool! But since I have the ECU capabilities to control the pump I see no reason to replace my current (Fuelab) regulator.

 

If your ecu can do the 500-1500Hz PWM signal that the pump needs for variable speed control then you're set.  

If you need to do the high/low switched method, you'll only be able to reduce speed by ~50% as I recall.  The PWM method allows much lower min pump speeds, like 20% or so.  The electronic FPR is pretty cool as it runs closed loop, but it does make the pump make some weird sounds as it rapidly adjusts speeds.

[BLOZ UP]

If your ecu can do the 500-1500Hz PWM signal that the pump needs for variable speed control then you're set.  

If you need to do the high/low switched method, you'll only be able to reduce speed by ~50% as I recall.  The PWM method allows much lower min pump speeds, like 20% or so.  The electronic FPR is pretty cool as it runs closed loop, but it does make the pump make some weird sounds as it rapidly adjusts speeds.

 

MS3 can (I think... it might be too low Hz software PWM), but I don't feel like upgrading my MS2 for it. I was just going to do the switched output, right off the IAC pin (as it can do ~1 A, and the pump says it used "much less than 1 A", whatever that means).

 

So, since now you have me worried, I looked over the instructions. It says to refer to the pump certification chart, which I don't have yet. Searching on line got me to this post on Fuelab's own forums, which says:

 

My FueLab Prodigy Fuel Pump (model 41401-1, serial # 211376) shows reduced speed on the certification paper as 70% of max speed when the constant low-speed terminals are connected

So, that's disappointing. 70% is still going to pump a lot of fuel very fast. All is not lost, though. I can try it for a bit and see if it's sufficient.

 

If that doesn't work I have a spare Arduino which can easily do 1KHz PWM output. So I can hook up my IAC output to it and use the Arduino to switch to a preset PWM value. The instructions say that 0-19% PWM is off, 20-89% is variable speed, and 90-100% is full power. So, I can set 30% PWM when my MAP is below 120kPa or whatever.

 

If that's not fancy enough I could use multiple IAC pins (although IIRC 2 is the maximum you can use for outputs) for multi-stage pump triggering. 30%/60%/100% or something like that.

 

And when I get tired of playing around with the Arduino I'll just get the variable speed pressure regulator.

[BLOZ UP]

Got rid of my DD Focus, and got a WRX. Fun.

 

[TimZ]

So, that's disappointing. 70% is still going to pump a lot of fuel very fast. All is not lost, though. I can try it for a bit and see if it's sufficient.

If that doesn't work I have a spare Arduino which can easily do 1KHz PWM output. So I can hook up my IAC output to it and use the Arduino to switch to a preset PWM value. The instructions say that 0-19% PWM is off, 20-89% is variable speed, and 90-100% is full power. So, I can set 30% PWM when my MAP is below 120kPa or whatever.

 

If I recall correctly they _might_ be able to set the low switched speed to a lower setting if you ask real nice and send it in to them.  These pumps work great, but don't live very long if they start cavitating due to inlet restriction or fuel vaporization.  Making sure that you have a good low restriction inlet and cool fuel is really important, so the lower you can keep the pump speed the better - the pump itself heats up less and the FPR is dumping less warm fuel back to the tank.  They state is their literature that you want to keep the fuel temp below ~130 degF, which is REALLY low, especially if you live in hot climate.

 

One other small annoying detail is that "0-19% PWM is off" part.  0% PWM looks an awful lot like the DC "low speed" switched setting (okay exactly like it).  Since they don't have another method of knowing which thing you are doing, it appears that they use the logic that if they see a PWM signal at all and it goes to 0% then they shut the pump off.  If they never see PWM then they assume that it's the low speed switched setting.

 

Sooo... if you get any noise on that line at startup, it shuts the pump off and you have to cycle the ignition to get it to come back on. 

 

Why exactly you'd ever want to kill the pump via the speed controller has never been clear to me.  This always seems to happen at the worst possible moment too, like when you are tuning low speed drivability and accidentally stall it out in traffic.  Engine stalls, pump stops and won't come back on.  Have to cycle the ignition switch until the pump fires back up before you can move again.  If this happened in an OEM car it would be grounds for a recall.

Edited May 22, 2015 by TimZ

[TimZ]

Got rid of my DD Focus, and got a WRX. Fun.

 

Dang - I coulda got you an employee discount on a Focus ST or RS (when it's available)...

 

That said the WRX is a great car - I've been a fan of those for some time!

[Sovereign Z]

+1 for the hatch!

[BLOZ UP]

One other small annoying detail is that "0-19% PWM is off" part.  0% PWM looks an awful lot like the DC "low speed" switched setting (okay exactly like it).  Since they don't have another method of knowing which thing you are doing, it appears that they use the logic that if they see a PWM signal at all and it goes to 0% then they shut the pump off.  If they never see PWM then they assume that it's the low speed switched setting.

 

Sooo... if you get any noise on that line at startup, it shuts the pump off and you have to cycle the ignition to get it to come back on. 

 

Why exactly you'd ever want to kill the pump via the speed controller has never been clear to me.  This always seems to happen at the worst possible moment too, like when you are tuning low speed drivability and accidentally stall it out in traffic.  Engine stalls, pump stops and won't come back on.  Have to cycle the ignition switch until the pump fires back up before you can move again.  If this happened in an OEM car it would be grounds for a recall.

 

Good point. You've had this problem with this pump? Where it shuts off if the PWM drops? What controller do you use (the fuelab digital FPR)? I can see how that would be annoying. PWM drops too low, engine stalls, then ECU switches pump off. Yeah, I can't see why they have a turn off threshold at all. It should just be 0-10% is 'slow', then variable, and then full power above 90%. If I want the pump off, I'll cut the 12v power to it...

 

We'll see. This is annoying, as I sumped my tank, ran these lines and got this overkill Aeromotive pump to never had fuel problems again, and pretty much all I've had since are fuel problems. Oops. Too little flow becomes too much. I guess you can't just keep throwing more fuel at your fuel problems...

[TimZ]

Good point. You've had this problem with this pump? Where it shuts off if the PWM drops? What controller do you use (the fuelab digital FPR)? I can see how that would be annoying. PWM drops too low, engine stalls, then ECU switches pump off. Yeah, I can't see why they have a turn off threshold at all. It should just be 0-10% is 'slow', then variable, and then full power above 90%. If I want the pump off, I'll cut the 12v power to it..

I'm currently using their digital FPR.  I don't see stallouts from the FPR trying to go too low, but I do still randomly have issues with the pump not spinning up at key-on.  As I recall the pump will sometimes stop running if the engine stalls out, which gets really annoying in traffic.  Usually cycling the ignition cures this but not something you want to be messing with when the light turns green.

 

I saw this behavior more often before when I was trying to use my ECU to switch from low to high, and it did stall out while running in this mode.

 

We'll see. This is annoying, as I sumped my tank, ran these lines and got this overkill Aeromotive pump to never had fuel problems again, and pretty much all I've had since are fuel problems. Oops. Too little flow becomes too much. I guess you can't just keep throwing more fuel at your fuel problems...

 

Tell me about it - I have the 42401, rated at 170gph.  Same as you I thought I was solving all my fuel problems by sumping the tank and going with a monster pump.  I just ended up creating a whole slew of new problems.  I had to pull the tank a couple of times and change the internal plumbing, but at least now it seems to be running pretty well.

Edited May 23, 2015 by TimZ

[BLOZ UP]

I'm currently using their digital FPR.  I don't see stallouts from the FPR trying to go too low, but I do still randomly have issues with the pump not spinning up at key-on.  As I recall the pump will sometimes stop running if the engine stalls out, which gets really annoying in traffic.  Usually cycling the ignition cures this but not something you want to be messing with when the light turns green.

 

I saw this behavior more often before when I was trying to use my ECU to switch from low to high, and it did stall out while running in this mode.

 

 

Tell me about it - I have the 42401, rated at 170gph.  Same as you I thought I was solving all my fuel problems by sumping the tank and going with a monster pump.  I just ended up creating a whole slew of new problems.  I had to pull the tank a couple of times and change the internal plumbing, but at least now it seems to be running pretty well.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I think I'll try using an Arduino with two output wires from my megasquirt to trigger preset PWM values. Mainly because I'm like tinkering with shit, especially when it involves flammable substances. As long as I can get two output wires from MS, the Arduino can do 30/60/100% or even 25/50/75/100% easily. Should be fun and really simple.

[BLOZ UP]

Got my Fuelab and Nardi/NRG stuff in.

 

 

The wheel's nice. They had to make it since they usually do red stitching. I considered red, but there's no other red trim in my interior (well, besides my fire extinguisher, launch control switch cover, and gauge back lighting). I'm glad I got black, it would have stuck out.

 

The NRG mounts were simple to install. There weren't any instructions but after watching a video of someone else doing it was straightforward. The horn button hookup was ... interesting though. In my infinite wisdom I decided tack welding a crimp connector to the inside of the Nardi button was the best option. Let's just say the horn works, and there's no visible damage and leave it at that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty satisfied. Finishes out my interior a lot better than the old 240Z wheel, IMO. Muuuuuch easier to get in and out. I opted to remove the release "lock" button but holding it in and using the set screw. Too annoying to get to.

[BLOZ UP]

So my car's been down while I replace the fuel pump. Aeromotive pump still works but sounds horrible and eventually vapor locks. Got my new Fuelab pump installed, but not wired up.

 

 

Turns out the pump I got from eBay ("unused") is a really older version of their 41401. Instead of having one terminal for speed control input it has 3 wires. 5v, GND, and 0-5v input. Ok, I can make this work. I got the older install instructions from Fuelab and inspected what I had...

 

 

It's sort of wired up correctly. The voltage divider and capacitor are alright, but that purple wire is connected to that resistor there and nothing else.

 

 

 

There it is installed.

 

 

And I connected the power and ground wires up and tested it. It turns "on"... but makes horrid noises. Might be just trying to prime, or it may be a bad pump. I need to finish wiring it and fill the tank up since it only has a couple gallons in it. As the speed control wiring sits right now it should provide about 4V, or 80% speed. I think.

 

So, of course I signed up for the next autocross fully expecting everything will work out! Actually, I plan on running my WRX if the Z isn't working.

Edited July 8, 2015 by BLOZ UP

[BLOZ UP]

Went to the AutoX! It was tons of fun, mainly because I took the WRX which didn't give me any shit.

 

 

Otherwise, I got the fuel pump wired in. Since it's brushless, it does not like anything less than 12 volts. So it cannot work during cranking, at least not with my small battery. So, my options were 1) replace the pump with a brushed one, 2) disable it during cranking and put in a check valve to hold pressure.

 

I opted for 2. The first check valve (Jeg's -6) I got was bad though, and I had to return it (for store credit, hrmph). This prevented me from making the autocross. I ordered a Russel one to replace it, and it seemed a lot better built anyway. Anyhoo, got that installed, and then had to configure the pump to not run during cranking. I added in another relay to disconnect the fuel pump relay signal wire.

 

Now there are 3 relays involved with my fuel pump. One is the original EFI/Pump relay under the dash, which then goes to the 40A relay (formerly a 30A that got a bit warm with this pump), which turns on dedicated 12 GA wires to the pump, but which is also disconnected via another relay connected to the accessory circuit to disable the pump during cranking.

 

 

The speed control is wired up more or less like the Fuelab instructions, but I added a pot to adjust the low speed setting as much as I want.

 

 

So this works, somehow. It takes a lot of cranking when cold, and my cranking PW% values have gone through the roof (150% to 1000%) to get it to start with only remnants of fuel pressure. Warm starts aren't so bad though. My battery hates it, so I picked up a jumper pack like I've been meaning to do anyway.

 

Also fixed my Speedhut gauge dimmer pot that I've been meaning to.

 

But.... my alternator died. Turns out I disconnected the charge light when installing the speed hut gauges, so I thought the field coil wasn't getting excited, but after fixing that (hooked it up to the low fuel light since I was out of options at the time--probably a bad idea) it still wouldn't output anything. So, I ordered a new alternator.

 

Also going to pick up a Bosch 044 pump since I'm tired of this shit and just want my car to work.