Lachstock and Four Turbo Charged Cylinders ['04 NB SE]

[The American]

That's good news indeed!

I was half expecting to have boost creep problems with mine, given how many other people seem to, but there was no issue on the dyno, and the system was happy to hold a low and high boost (98 and E85) position all the way to redline (phew!).

Turbosmart sent me (for free) three brass bushings and seals for the rod end of the IWG75. If you get yours apart and find that is the issue, let me know.

[Nevyn72]

Isn't it great when you finally find the source of the problem!

[Lokiel]

Great to hear you've got it sorted - MUCH easier to figure out a solution on a high-mount than low-mount turbo.

You must have belted the crap out of the EFR bracket to get it to bend - I stopped when the bench that my vice is mounted to started jumping about.

After chatting about the new TurboSmart wastegate actuator, Gen V, I ordered one.
It now has a short shaft ending with a ball joint and comes with 3x shafts of different lengths that screw into it:

With the new design, the 2* alignment limitation of the EFR6258's wastegate actuator's shaft should be eliminated - not sure why it took TurboSmart so long to come up with but I suspect there's a patent on it now.

[ManiacLachy]

That's good news indeed!

I was half expecting to have boost creep problems with mine, given how many other people seem to, but there was no issue on the dyno, and the system was happy to hold a low and high boost (98 and E85) position all the way to redline (phew!).

Turbosmart sent me (for free) three brass bushings and seals for the rod end of the IWG75. If you get yours apart and find that is the issue, let me know.

Thanks for the offer. I don't think that's the issue, boost shouldn't be getting to that side of the cannister at all. I thing the issue is the rubber membrane inside, there must be a tiny crack in it. I'll have a better look when I have time, but for now the low boost can is doing everything I need and should be good to give me the boost I'm chasing.

Isn't it great when you finally find the source of the problem!

The "ah-hah" moment!

Great to hear you've got it sorted - MUCH easier to figure out a solution on a high-mount than low-mount turbo.

You must have belted the crap out of the EFR bracket to get it to bend - I stopped when the bench that my vice is mounted to started jumping about.

After chatting about the new TurboSmart wastegate actuator, Gen V, I ordered one.
It now has a short shaft ending with a ball joint and comes with 3x shafts of different lengths that screw into it:
[img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTGZrv0u_BhrhBGCGss8YMyk2NfA6f13hiNXg&usqp=CAU[img]
With the new design, the 2* alignment limitation of the EFR6258's wastegate actuator's shaft should be eliminated - not sure why it took TurboSmart so long to come up with but I suspect there's a patent on it now.

It didn't need to angle down much! Just a degree or so, a few whacks did the trick, I couldn't spot it with the eye until the rod was fitted through to the arm.

BTW, the low wastegate bracket couldn't fit at all, it interferes with the oil feed fitting, but it was worth a shot, so thank you.

[The American]

Belated happy birthday for the 27th!

I also left my 30’s behind this year.

[ManiacLachy]

I guess the upside of lockdown is time to do the jobs on the car that I've been meaning to get to, right? Except I just felt so frustrated by the whole thing that any little issue felt so irritable! I really feel for everyone in Sydney and Melbourne, we've had it very easy here in Brisbane in comparison.

Anyway, on Sunday I finally got a few small things done. I decided to re-fit the steering wheel spacer, even with the smaller wheel my knees are still directly under the rim, I want the wheel closer to me, more room for heal-toe and a better grip. The spacer is deeper than I find ideal, but I don't think it can be made smaller while ensuring the spline engagement is solid so this is what it has to be.


Top view - ignore the dirty windshield


Inside. The reach to the stalks is increased by no biggie

While doing this I decided to re-examine the self cancelling mechanism on the steering wheel, something wasn't right, it triggered at a feathers touch when I would indicate right and as I don't drive a BMW I feel functioning indicators are important! Under the clock spring I had a black plastic sleeve, with this in place the nubs for cancellation were too active, maybe I had it in the wrong place? But I couldn't figure out where else it went. I looked at parts diagrams and searched the internet for pictures showing the assembly but they weren't useful.

In my searches I found something interesting, it seems the UK, Europe and the US all got the indicator stalks switched around, with wipers on the right, indicators on the left. I assume Japan is the same as us, but they don't post to ebay.

Anyway, in the end I left out the black plastic sleeve to see how things felt without it, and everything feels great. Indicators are solid, the cancellation is perfect. I'm not sure where this thing goes. I'm going to label and bag it so I don't loose it, and carry on as I have it for now.

Another thing that has been bothering me slightly for a while is the mirror switch. It used to work but not well, instead of up, down, left, right movements, it would tilt the mirror on diagonals. But recently it hasn't been working at all. So I pulled it out and apart, cleaned it up with some contact cleaner, applied a fresh coat of dielectric grease and re-assembled. It now works on the diagonals again lol! I noticed a few plastic tabs were broken that hold the metal rocker contacts in place, I think I need a whole new switch

And finally I did a little bench testing of the EFR boost solenoid. In Megasquirt you should set the min and max effective duty cycle of the solenoid, this helps in closed-loop boost control because the algorithm doesn't waste time in ineffective duties and can achieve the desired result faster. It's also useful to know while doing your setup so you don't waste time in ineffective duties as well.

So I got a new hose for my air compressor - one that doesn't leak! and hooked it up to the solenoid's input hose. I tested the throw of the wastegate arm here as well, everything looks good. Then using test mode in Tuner Studio (the software for managing Megasquirt), I set the solenoid to pulse at a duty and applied the air, I manipulated the duty until I could find where it was effective in keeping the wastegate shut and where it was effective at keeping it fully open to derive my min and max duties.


Solenoid and wastegate testing with compressed air

Then it was Sunday afternoon, lockdown was about to lift! So the car got a quick wash, and then a quick fun blast around the neighbourhood

I'm hoping to get a co-pilot this weekend and tune the boost to some initial closed-loop settings, I need someone to drive the car while I drive the laptop. I was meant to do this the day we got locked down, hoping for a better outcome this time!

[ManiacLachy]

I really need to update more frequently than wait build up a huge backlog!

Weekend before last I went to a new Saturday morning Cars and Coffee up the road from me in Geebung, there was an interesting mix of cars and was a bit different from the others I'd been to. While I was far from being any sort of star there, I managed to find a few photos of my car in the FB posts afterwards.






They're a little small in size, but it's always nice when someone who knows how to use a camera takes a few photos!

After the C&C I went for a cruise up the highway to attempt to tune my EBC a little bit - I keep hitting overboost protection when running closed-loop. Still hitting the overboost, I pulled over to refuel and go back to the start and begin again with my tuning, first step was to confirm wastegate so I disabled EBC. After filling up, the car wouldn't start! The engine would turnover, then immediately die. I thought maybe too much fuel on crank? I tried a few different things but no luck. I was at a loss, eventually I pushed the car into the parking area and let it cool but after 15 minutes it still wouldn't run.


Stranded at 7-Eleven

I finally decided to revert the tune and boom! It started. To test a theory I made no changes except to disable and enable boost control, EBC on the car would start, EBC off it won't. Weird! I know it used to start with EBC off, that was how I had the tune when I picked the car up from the turbo install and my initial run in. I wonder what it could be?

I did a little bit of tuning with different duty values to find what boost would result and headed home. To be continued.

Last weekend I began work on my next interior mod, which was to install an Android headunit, to have Nav, Bluetooth, etc, but also so I could see ECU vitals readily via MSDroid or ShadowDash. I picked up a Joying double din headunit, an ISO cable adapter and a Metra double din install kit.

All was going pretty well, except when it came time to install the double din kit. The Joying comes with a bezel/facia, but it doesn't have any adapter brackets, it's meant to use a cage that some cars come with. The Metra kit is designed for the Mazda and clips into the hole top and bottom, it is designed for mainstream double dinn head units, your Pioneer/Kenwood/Sony headunits that confrom to ISO double din standards. But it turns out the Joying screen is about 2mm taller and wider than them, so the facia doesn't fit over. So, one facia fits, but won't hold the headunit, the other will hold it but wont fit!

I tried to fit the OEM unit's clips to the Joying, but that didn't work either. In the end I had to dremel out the Metra facia to fit the head unit. It's not pretty but it works!


Old vs new - they Joying is much lighter, having no CD player


Transfered the OEM brackets over, but this didn't work


In place. I also replaced the AC panel with a spare black one for a matched look


Up close you can see it's not quite as pretty as you might want, but it's in!

The headunit has a 4G sim card slot and GPS, I routed the wires under the dash with a 4G antenna on each side, and the GPS on the drivers side. I'm still working out the functions and setting it up to my liking, I'll report back on how it is to use after a few weeks.

After the headunit install I decided to put the car in the air and check on things, I've been on a few drives lately it was time to check if any issues had arisen.

I found the downpipe was resting against the transmission, and figured I better fix that sooner than later. I had a friend come give me a hand because V-bands are a little tricky. We had to keep disconnecting down stream points then setting each piece and work our way back, checking for exhaust leaks as we went, but in the end we had it sorted. I wish I had a hoist!

I also noticed some oil on the transmission, I suspect either the rear main seal, or possibly the oil drain line. It's not a massive leak, I left it for now, but I'll need to dig deeper soon.

And then it was back to EBC tuning. I found a nice stretch of road and did some pulls aiming for 10psi adjusting my Boost Bias Table. This is a set up table that closed-loop boost will use as a reference when running, but for now I'm using setup mode, which will only use the bias table. Essentially the solenoid will operate at the frequency I have set in the table, basically Open-Loop EBC. I managed to get 10psi nicely and called it a day. I need to find out how much power and torque 10psi is actually generating before taking this much further. Though I do want to get closed-loop EBC running soon, I just need more time, and a suitable road to do pulls on

This coming weekend I'm doing a track day of sorts with my friend and his turbo NB. It's the DTC track at Lakeside, more like an Autocross than a Track Day, it's a short blast from start line to finish line around a handling track. I don't think I'll even get into 4th gear. But it should be a lot of fun. The idea is to be consistent in your times from run to run, but I'm going to treat it as an excuse to use the car like I can't on the street and have a bit of a hoon. I think I'll turn the boost down for this, maybe even just run wastegate. Should be fun!

If you managed to read all of that, I'm impressed! I'll try to post smaller more frequent posts rather than brain dumps like this in future

[Roadrunner]

I enjoyed the read. It's hard to do small posts when you've done so much.

[greenMachine]

I really need to update more frequently than wait build up a huge backlog!

...

If you managed to read all of that, I'm impressed! I'll try to post smaller more frequent posts rather than brain dumps like this in future

Don't be! We in the Premier State of Covid have little do but read! Your posts and Lokiel's, and a certain epic purchasing saga, are vital part of maintaining our mental health ...

Looking forward to futher updates!

[ManiacLachy]

Thanks guys, I'm glad to hear it's of interest to others.

Seeing as I'm currently fumbling my way through Electronic Boost Control, I was thinking I might start discussing it in more detail. I think it would help me get my thoughts straight, hopefully be informative to others, and be a discussion point to help solve issues. Do you think this would be worthy of a new topic, or contained here?

[rascal]

A new topic makes it easier to find...?

[ManiacLachy]

On Sunday I took part in the Yokohama Tarmac Challenge Series at Lakeside DTC.



It's a series that started earlier in the year, it's a short course sprint from start line to finish line though a handling track (I heard someone describe it as a horizontal hill climb ), and points are awarded for consistency from run to run.



I wasn't concerned with scoring points though, I wanted to improve lap to lap, and started off quite gentle. That being said, I did spin on my first lap! But no damage done, and this is the place to explore the limits. I did get faster with practice and learned to lean on the car more and more. To be safe I was only running wastegate boost pressure, ~6.5psi, but the car felt strong.

The day was a lot of fun and the car ran without issue. The only bit of bad news from the day was when the gazebo we setup behind us got caught in a change of wind direction and took flight, landing on my bonnet, and also banged the boot lid of my friend's NB. I now have 2 small dents right below the power bulge in the bonnet. But if that's the worst that happens on a track day I guess I can't be too upset. Hopefully some PDR will fix it.



On the ride home I was hearing a noise, at first I thought it was a wheel bearing, but now I think it's a pulley under the hood, I suspect the alternator, but I will investigate further. This weekend I'm going to change the oil and investigate the pulley, maybe clean up a few loose ends. Then hopefully get back to boost tuning in the coming weeks.

[Roadrunner]

SE's are known to throw power steering belts and/or boil PS fluid during motokhana style events. Could've moved out of line slighty.

[ManiacLachy]

SE's are known to throw power steering belts and/or boil PS fluid during motokhana style events. Could've moved out of line slighty.

I'm going to start there, it's the easier belt to disconnect and the car can still start without it It's not a belt squeal noise, but it's rotational in frequency and it's from the front of the engine.

[ManiacLachy]

Throwing a question out there for people who might know.

I'm not satisfied with how I wired my wideband originally, I used examples from forums and took the easy path of power and ground from the window switch in the center console. But I notice a slight variation in the digital reading direct from the wideband, and what MS says. It's got me running 0.5-1 point rich, so it's on the safe side but I would like to fix it. I know I can adjust offsets in Tuner Studio, but I think the biggest contributor to the issue is the grounding point. I plan to leave power as it is, and re-ground the sensor.

My question to the brains-trust, is where to ground to on the NB/SE? My reading tells me it should be ground to the block where the ECU grounds. But where is that? Options I'm looking at are ground points behind the exhaust cam on the head, and the grounding point next to the dipstick. I know there's also grounds on the throttle body, but that seems a bit far away.

Where should I ground and/or where did you ground the wideband?

(FWIW, this is an Innovate LC-2, it only has a single ground wire for the heater, no sensor ground)