I spent a great day yesterday with Dale at Bailey Performance my turbo buggy mapped with megasquirt.
My buggy is a autograss class 8 frame
1998 Kawasaki ZX9 engine all standard except barnett HD clutch springs
TD04-HL 13T turbo
Landrover 90 intercooler
I had been there about a fortnight before but some problems showed themselves when we got going, one was due to me using some nice flexible radiator
hose that I found, looked really good and got rid of a lot of jubilee clips, but when hot it went all floppy and leaked. Luckily Dale had some hose I
could use and we continued with the mapping.
The second issue that finished the mapping for that day was one of the exhaust seals blowing out under a full throttle run. This was due to another
fault on my part in the design of the manifold but that ended the mapping for that day.
After fitting a larger radiator, correct radiator hose/pipes and fixing the manifold so that it would seal, I booked another day.
After getting it strapped down, and engine warmed up, Dale started to work his magic.
On one of the runs there was suddenly no clutch and pedal stayed down on the floor. We found out that the clutch cable had come out of its place
because of an obstruction that was easily fixed, on went the mapping.
Once the fuel map was sorted, dale started to graph the power of the engine and then add more timing into the igition map, looking at the power
increase against the amount of timing he put back in so that he could find what amount of timing was 'enough' and not how far he could
push it.
The engine started out with 141bhp from the factory, it now makes 181.6bhp at 7ish psi of boost. Here is the dyno graphs, top one is HP, bottom one is
torque and also a few videos from the mapping (before timing was put back in)
I got the road tyres (needed for the dyno) changed over to my rally tyres by the tyre place just down the road from Dale and we let it loose in the
fields.... just getting used to the new power, also no brakes at the moment due to pinching a brake line in a bit of an 'accident'
Friend is driving and I am filming WARNING: a gear is missed and rev limiter is tested, prepare to wince
All in all excellent outcome, Dale is a great guy to deal with and knows a wealth of informaiton.
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Building: Fisher Fury 4.3 V8 with Speeduino
posted on 7/9/13 at 08:41 AM
quote:Originally posted by dave_424
quote:Originally posted by scudderfish
I'll probably be heading up there once I've tracked down whatever is causing my ECU to reset every minute or so
Isn't ECU resetting usually down to low battery voltage? ECU grounds should all be separate and on the engine block also
I've got a solid power supply to the ECU with no unusual variance either side of a reset. All my ECU related earths are to the block, I'm
running high impedance injectors, and I have the Ford suppressors fitted to my coil packs (driven by EDIS 8). My idle valve is disconnected.
I've got resistive spark plugs fitted. Noise is generally taken as the cause for resets, but I can't fathom where it might be coming
from.
quote:Originally posted by scudderfish
I'll probably be heading up there once I've tracked down whatever is causing my ECU to reset every minute or so
Let me know if you need help in sitting your reset problems, we are engine management and electronic specialists always happy to offer free advise.
If it helps we can sort your reset problems and map for £250, most cars we see require some sort of wiring change before we dyno, normally we can sort
wiring and map in 1 day.
NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
As he might want to look at developing his "housekeeping" skills in-line with his obvious mechanical/electronic skills...
The chair to set the lap top on made me blow my coffee over the screen.
Some people can never handle the truth and always try to shoot the messenger instead of taking an honest look in the mirror (its always easier to
blame another than to face reality), but secretly they wish they could grow a pair and be the messenger !!!
quote:Originally posted by dave_424
One thing Dale, after looking at the rev limiter settings, they may be slightly too low.
I currently have
Retard to 10 degrees
Soft limit at 11500
Hard limit at 11800
Cutting 7 from 7 sparks.
Stock engine red line is 12000
Is it worth increasing this to like 12000 soft, 12200 hard and keep an eye on what's going on? or just leave is as it is?
Dave
Hi Dave,
The max power was made at a lower RPM than the soft limiter, so you wont gain anything by increasing the limit but raising to 12000 will do no harm,
as you say the stock engine will rev to over 12000 anyway.
Does it stay nice and cool blasting around the field?
NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
quote:Originally posted by PhillipM
That seems very peaky for only 7psi, have you used a decompression plate or something? Log manifold maybe?
Humm, thats not a bad power curve really, the same sort of power (and curve) as produced by a stock 1300 hayabusa
the last thing you want in a buggy is the typical turbo kick, thsi just spins the wheels, the turbo came in alittle late but thats to be expected with
that size of turbo on a 900cc engine.
If Dave decided to turn the boost up to 10PSI it would make 200+BHP, i think thats good for a stock 900cc.
NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
Manifold isn't log, but two runners run into near enough one, also had to squeeze a bend in there for the wastegate so exhaust flow into the
turbo isn't really optimal. Manifold is mild steel and turbo is very close to oil level so it does smoke when going down a steep hill. Planning
on making a stainless manifold for next year, using butt weld bends to sit the turbo higher.
Power is about right for 7psi, maybe on the lower side but I'm happy with where it is. I know that a turbo is pretty pointless with wheel spin
but it was bad before, as a Motorsport engineering student I did it for the engineering challenge more than anything.
Got a set of forged pistons that might go into it next year and see where we can go.
One thing to note is that the boost seems to climb, stick around 5-6psi and then jump up to 7, so that might be why it is a bit peaky.
I'm also glad that it isn't making gobs of torque which is keeping my clutch happy and power seems to come on fairly smooth. Although it
still spins a huge amount
I didn't have my laptop out while I was riding round, I need to get a cheap bash around laptop for that stuff and not a macbook pro. But the
radiator stayed cool enough for me to hold my hand on it so all seems good.
Ask away, I am an engineering student so it is pretty much the cheapest of the cheap but it works so far. The original engine was around £400 and
managed to sell carbs and fuel pump off it for around £120
All of the hot side e.g. manifold,turbo,exhaust bends, wastegate etc. came to about £150-200
I got a set of ZX10 throttle bodies with 440cc injectors - £60
All the cold side e.g. boost pipes, silicone bends, intercooler, plenum etc. was about £80-100
Plenum was from a 3.9 rover v8, just the top portion, bolted down to a plate that bolted to my throttle bodies, saved me fabricating a plenum and
getting that all welded up.
Fuel side e.g. fuel pump, FPR, fuel lines etc. about £100
Megasquirt £300 second hand.
All in about £700 when I add the other small things
All done in about 5 months
Pretty much all the parts are there now if I want to go bigger power, I scored a set of forged pistons off someone for £50, a better manifold might
cost me £100
Taking it out tomorrow for a bit of hooning, got a go-pro mounted on the cage and if I am doing a datalog at the same time I can do gauge overlays on
the video and you guys can see what the engine is doing whilst driving.
Yes, it's the late spool I was more commenting on than anything, not so much the power, although I guess there's probably another 10-15bhp
in there with some inlet and exhaust optimisations if that's what you've had to do with the manifold.
It just seems to be very poor low down, it jumps from about 40lbft to 90lbft in ~2krpm or so?
Yes, certainly seems to struggle a lot with traction, what are the tyres?
Maybe too much weight up front?
quote:Originally posted by PhillipM
Yes, it's the late spool I was more commenting on than anything, not so much the power, although I guess there's probably another 10-15bhp
in there with some inlet and exhaust optimisations if that's what you've had to do with the manifold.
It just seems to be very poor low down, it jumps from about 40lbft to 90lbft in ~2krpm or so?
Yes, certainly seems to struggle a lot with traction, what are the tyres?
Maybe too much weight up front?
[Edited on 7/9/13 by PhillipM]
You are correct, I was expecting full boost by around 7k with this turbo, guess it's down to the manifold, new all 304 stainless manifold will
be built over my christmas holiday
I'm sure that maybe more ignition timing could be put in the lower part of the map, but I don't exactly need the torque and will be
changing the manifold so don't want to spend a load of time and money tuning for this one. The buggy gets driven within an inch of its life so I
would much rather it be on the more gentle side.
Onto the traction issue, they are rally tyres, about the most aggressive tread I can get for my 13" wheels. There isn't really much weight
up at the front, just the drivers legs, a brake master cylinder and a steering rack, I do have steel wheels on the front, don't know if that
would make a difference. But I think the main fix will be to shorten the rear arms, as you see the wheels stick out the back a fair bit and would
really like to tuck them more underneath the engine.... like this, maybe not that far but as much as I can get away with my CV's
Yeah, wheels might not make much difference, in fact our steel wheels were lighter than anything we could get as an alloy in the right pattern for the
buggy
I'd probably try some taller rear tyres unless you're size limited for some reason?
That's the plan, I want to change to 15" wheels on the back and get some more rally tyres.
Took it out today and went well, my clutch switch is jamming my clutch pedal on the floor which is less than ideal and have to adjust the gear shift
linkage to stop me missing shifts. Fuel is sloshing to one side and my fuel pressure drops, so we can't run it lower than half a tank. Got a
more elongated upright tank from dale that will go on at some point.
Friend is driving and I am filming WARNING: a gear is missed and rev limiter is tested, prepare to wince 
