vrtigo's 4AGTE AW11

[vrtigo]

Finally made a couple of videos. Might do another one today driving and getting into boost, but still testing and working out kinks in the cam angle sensor dual input setup so dont want to push it too much.

[vrtigo]

[vrtigo]

I took the plunge and splashed out for an MS2 daughterboard to replace the MS1 CPU in the Megasquirt. Installed it, flashed the latest firmware, and it promptly disintegrated one of my spark drivers! Magic smoke was released... Still, the Megasquirt responds fine, and reads RPM perfectly, so its mostly a success. But back it goes to be repaired.

[vrtigo]

MS2 came back repaired, and I got it running just fine. Runs as well as it ever did on the MS1, but well worth having the upgrade for it's larger VE table and tach signal input noise filtering. Oh, and all the new loggers! And the increased data update rate.

There is nothing left to do. So in it goes into the yellow car.

First, removal.













A shot of the oil filter relocation stuff.



Heres the turbo and manifold, shown with the angle that it sits on to clear the gearbox.



One of the flywheel bolts rounded - [Expletive Deleted]! After not convinced it to come out, we ended up employing the angle grinder, and sourced a new set of bolts.



Sump off, to check the bearing play and seal up the sump properly. Found some metallic filings in the oil, but I think this was from the rebuilt turbo wearing in.



With the wiring out, I decided to finish it up with some tape wrap.



Time for the Silvertop to come out of the yelladub. Thanks for your service.





Turbo engine goes in.



View of the other end of the oil filter relocation, mounted on the side of the engine bay.



Had clutch issues, due to a very thin lightweight flywheel (22mm), which I solved by making a longer slave rod and proper [Expletive Deleted] bleeding of the lines. Dont use vacuum bleeders :/



And here it is running.



Taken it for a drive, its mint. And no oil leaks!

Intercooler is mounted since this, and in the process of running the radiator hoses. The radiator itself needs mounting still. Also kind of weird is that the intake pipe off the turbo sits a bit lower now in relation to the intercooler inlet pipe, so is making putting a joiner over them difficult. Not sure why this is.

[vrtigo]

Since the last post, all the loose ends were tidied up and it was given a couple of really good runs across the city. Beauty!

The car has been pretty good since the swap. Its not really a daily any longer, as I use an e-scooter to commute, but it is my primary transport outside of commute, so it needs to run well. Id like it to be in a reliable daily drive state anyway, just in case.

Only a few things still to sort out.

Doesnt boost well, hard time getting above 5psi. Found a few boost leak spots, including one crack in the welds on the turbo up-pipe, so will get that repaired soon. Also that pipe and the intercooler pipe no longer line up well, so Ill have it lengthened a bit to fix a potential leak there, too. Another one is around the blow-off valve flange. One thing that I noticed while testing is that boost is leaking past the turbo seals and pushing oil back into the sump. Ive read that this could well just be normal, and does sound like a benefit tbh - forced drain evacuation! Ill keep an eye on it. One of the few times its been *really* handy to have a transparent oil return hose - could literally watch the oil being pushed out of the turbo.

The temperature and tach gauges dont work right now. Tach will be easy, as I just need to wire and configure the MS to send it again. Temp is trickier - Kris, what do you recommend here? With the Silvertop, it seemed to only start reading as it approached overheating. What was done to the gauge to make it less sensitive?

Oh, the other annoying issue is that the TPS connector has gone a bit wonky, leading to accell enrichment triggering max for no reason, leading to dumping of fuel. Really bad! It happened because the loom wasnt supported properly, so all the weight was on the connector. I will fix this properly with a new one.

Only other thing to work on is properly finishing the wiring in the boot and securing the battery. Then getting the cert.

But for now its all good enough to drive around! When Im ha

[mknz]

Your new ride slows the rusting

You probably already know this, but use some soapy water to create bubbles which will find some leaks for you and tell you if they're worth fixing.

[Statek]

Temp is trickier - Kris, what do you recommend here? With the Silvertop, it seemed to only start reading as it approached overheating. What was done to the gauge to make it less sensitive?

The reason the cluster temp gauge started reading once it warmed up is because of the way the radiator hoses have been re-routed - the temp gauge sensor found itself on the wrong side of the thermostat. This meant that the reading only started when the thermostat opened. This is why I installed a second temp gauge with a sensor more inline (let's ignore the fact that the gauge was reading wrong due to the wrong sensor being used )

[vrtigo]

Cool, ok. You mean the pipe you made to route the water pump to the exhaust rear of the head on the Silvertop? Now that the new engine is in, thats all more or less back to factory, but is there something beyond the engine bay I should be looking at? Weird that the gauge isnt doing anything, if its using factory style wiring (more or less), factory coolant lines, and factory sensor. Sounds like just a signal routing issue then...

[Statek]

I honestly don't fully remember the story, but if I had to guess it was either:
a) the thread for the AW11 temp gauge sender was bigger on the 16v than the 20v and I had to mount the sender on the wrong side of the thermostat; or
b) I screwed up.

Here's a pic of the 20v setup (I assume the cluster-gauge sender was in the red circled position, and the additional-gauge sender was in the blue circled position):


Sorry for the poor quality image, I stole it from the interwebs

[mickeyduck]

Looking forward to seeing the wee beastie Cameron.

[vrtigo]

Alright, solved the water temp gauge, it was me being dumb - Id cut the wire in half. Its working like factory now. Tach also works again now.

Boost leaks sorted. Up-pipe was rewelded - however, they [Expletive Deleted] up and warped the flange. I ground it back into line, more or less, and finished it up with a belt sander as best I could, then sealed the flange with RTV and a metal gasket. Found ANOTHER hole in the pipe, but managed to just gum it up with RTV for now! I may reinforce it with a T-bolt clamp if I have to, until I take it off again and get it properly welded. Intake holds pressure now. Havent driven it yet, but cant imagine it wouldnt boost to 10psi and beyond now.

My attachment of the oil filter to the side of the engine bay was a bit ghetto - the bolts were not grabbing the threads in the bolt holes (probably because I didnt bother to tap them). So I drilled them out and affixed some rivnuts and is now WAAAAAAAY better and not prone to falling to off now. Imagine if it had while driving O_O. At some stage I will insert the oil cooler to the loop, but cant be arsed right now, and not required for cert, so...

On that topic. All I really need to do now is clean up the wiring a bit, mount the relay board and ECU better, and strap down the battery (for now, using a bunch of bungy ties, ahaha - hey, it aint going anywhere!). Oh - and the exhaust has shat its pants again, so looking to replace it, as its had too many chances.

Cars running beaut otherwise. Im trying to finish it as quickly as I can. Baby ETA 3 months!

[mknz]

Nice, but where're the pictures? Ivor has competition now

[vrtigo]

[GDII]

That's some sweet boost control you got there!

[vrtigo]

After giving it more pre load, and forgetting to reattach the control line to the wastegate, boost shot up to 20psi in no time, lol. Too much.. Line back on. Now it caps at about 14 psi, which is more than it ever has had before. Fixing the intakes leaks really did wonders. But the source of the low boost was the flapper. Great that it's fixed and don't need a new turbo!

That said.. The flapper is really sloppy. Will eventually need to source a rebuild kit for it (Mamba sells them), or a new turbine housing.