vrtigo's 4AGTE AW11

[vrtigo]

Oh yea, now I remember - I was going to power the entire front end of the car through the main relay, also, but no longer doing that. So might be able to downsize a bit.

[vrtigo]

Ok, a new problem has reared its ugly head.

The distributor that I modified, well I have been running it without the cap on, and I had removed the heat shield a long time ago, for reasons unknown. Well, now that the engine is working really nicely, Ive been doing some spirited test runs, and thats probably been generating a lot of heat. On one of those runs today, the tach dropped to zero and stayed there. The ECU was still online, but not responding the the engine turning over. With my o-scope, I found that the VR sensor was not generating a signal. Much debug later, it began responding again, and got the car home, but the next test run it happened again. Suspecting heat by this point, I let it sit and cool down, and it did eventually let my start the engine again.

So now Im thinking the VR sensor is probably damaged. The o-scope shows a peak-to-trough voltage delta of about 1.3v at idle, which seems much lower than it used to be. Ill replace that, and in addition fit the heat shield and distributor cap.

The other thing I should probably do is wire up the side vent fan computer to the engine bay temp sensor and the fan, both of which are still in place. Not having this in place is not doing the exhaust side of the engine bay any favours at all. Does mean more wiring, though, which I had hoped I was done with!

[Malcolm]

1.3V peak to peak sounds like a pretty weak signal, but I have no idea what would be normal on a 4AGE VR. Have you considered using a proper crank angle sensor, and just using the cam for sync? It would be quite nice to completely get rid of the distributor I would've thought.

I wouldn't bother with the engine bay fan computer, but I would definitely connect it and just have it triggered by an output on the megasquirt (via a relay) to come on once coolant temp is above about 50 degrees.

[vrtigo]

Yes, I originally had a CAS, just like the distributor I had modified it with one missing tooth, and then two missing teeth. Neither mods really ran very well. The Megasquirt can do dual triggers, but my board is not set up to do that, so Im making do with a single trigger wheel with one missing tooth. It works very well.

I do have another unmolested CAS, but I intend that to remain unmolested At some stage I may swap out to a Link ECU, and when I do, I would like to use that CAS.

For now, the modified distributor works for me.

I have spent this weekend re-implementing the engine cooling fan computer circuit. Its fairly straight forward - power and ground, sensor send and return, fan motor ground, and relay switching ground. There is also a speed sensor signal, and a ground for the warning light, but I didnt hook these up. It didnt really work. The fan would run if the relay switching pin was disconnected, as it should - its a normally closed relay, so that the fan will run if anything is faulty. The fan was not running with the relay wire connected, but doing so even with the sensor disconnected (a fault condition). So at that stage I decided I cant rely on the fan to come on when it is hot, and ended up hard wiring the fan to the fuse panel through a 20A fuse. It comes on now with key on, and stays on. Better than the alternative, and Ill figure out the computer another day.

In a test run just now, the engine remained chooching, so it must be doing something. I mean, the engineers obviously realized the problem and added that vent fan for a reason! Its pointing directly at the distributor and exhaust manifold for gods sake, lol, and pushes a good amount of air.

Also only a minor thing, but noticed that one of the coolant lines in the intercooler water circuit was kinked, and no water flow was occurring. Oops. Only realized because I felt the top of the intercooler (and intake piping) and it was getting warm.

[vrtigo]

Nothing really that interesting this weekend. Just tidied up the relay panel wiring, and then did the final wrapping of the loom. I need to buy another Link compatible socket and plug for the relay panel side of the loom, so as to help with removing and installing. Aliexpress will deliver

[Malcolm]

When you say Link compatible, do you mean the Link G4+ ECU connectors? Genuine superseals are pretty cheap, I wouldn't bother with Aliexpress ripoffs
https://nz.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchT ... erseal+1.0

[vrtigo]

Yea, the only reason I used Aliexpress was because I couldnt find the socket type with pins straight out the end - everything else I could find was PCB angle mount, which just wouldnt do.

[Malcolm]

Did you find crimp on male terminals and housing on Aliexpress? I think Tyco only do the superseal 34pin with straight or 90deg PCB contacts. That's often the annoying thing with a lot of connectors, they only design them to be used built onto a component so the pin side is only available in PCB mount (or not at all, and is assumed to be moulded directly into a sensor housing), leaving no good options for using them inline.

[vrtigo]

Only thing I could find was the straight PCB mount, so I soldered wires directly on to the pins. Not ideal, but it works. Id give anything for the same part but crimped.

[vrtigo]

Since last update, shit has hit the fan personally, but now coming right again. Been a rough couple of months, so yea, havent had much time to do project car things.

I decided rather than trying to source another distributor or CAS, that would end up being modified or stripped, Id just modify the Megasquirt to use dual tach inputs, and use my unmodified CAS. Got a JBPerf dual VR conditioner board and went about wiring it up, but then the above shit started to happen, and I didnt make progress after that. Could get the square wave outputs from the conditioner board, but the Megasquirt did not want to read them. Have sent it off to be fixed, as I dont have a lot of time these days to debug this stuff. By all accounts, it should be working.

Also, the battery decided to die. It was only a $30 Trademe jobbie, so no drama. Got a good one through mates rates, and shes all good again, though it took out both headlights in the process due to overcharging from the alternator while it was run.

[vrtigo]

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[vrtigo]

[Statek]

Ahaha that's brilliant! Love it!

[vrtigo]

So the yelladub has for a while now had a strange overcharging issue, with running voltage as high as 19v, and draining the battery when left off. Thought I had fixed it by swapping batteries to a brand new unit, but no.. It's returned.

This weekend I traced it all the way to the alternator itself - a 5 amp short to ground on the positive terminal! Luckily I had a spare alternator sitting around for years that I replaced it with, and now the car runs better than it ever has before. Actually picked up noticeable power! Must have been quite a drag on the engine all this time.

[vrtigo]

Got my Megasquirt back, and rewired the loom to use two cam angle sensor inputs. Got it reading RPM and firing spark, but ran out of time to actually get it running decently... well, it did run once, but really badly. Then I realized that the vac line was unplugged from the MS, oops.