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Few more trips to the speed shop this week, just finishing off all the lines and properly cleaned with carby cleaner + brake cleaner, flushed through with water and compressed air. Pressure tested back on the car and absolutely no leaks first time! Coil leads have also been completed and the wiring has started
Radiator has been attacked yet again, bungs for heater, turbo return and electric water pump have all been done; after all plumbed up we ran the water pump with boiling water to clean out the gunk from the engine from horsepoo dark stuff to mudy rainwater tank, after 3 fills! Might still need one more with another dose of radiator flush.
Suspension has arrived as well so we are almost ready for for lift off
bosch sensors on order, and commence of the wiring underway... hope to have it more than cranking this coming week!
Good one! I see you took up my suggestion on switching the bottom radiator outlet - looks great and I think will offer better radiator performance (by encouraging flow across the entire core). EWP fitment looks great and is gravity fed as we discussed.
yeah that was a great suggestion! and after much playing around we found that it was the best location for it. considering we were already cutting holes into the $200 radiator still cant get over how much water that pump can flow! just used the boiling water trick to clean out the smoo !
not abandoning the thread, just on hold until its finished.
while opening up the ports on the gasket i nicked the bridge on the primaries so ill need to order a replacement for when the gear all gets sent off to be ceramic coated. threebond is going to have to do for now
plus i found this today after triple checking all the fuel lines, the o rings on the primary injectors have already failed! plenty of cracks and ive only had the fuel system primed for 2 days.... it always pays to spend again more and more time to check for hosese rubbing, proper tight, loose wiring - today was that day... anyway find it now instead of on the dyno right?
removed the turbo today as well to put the gaskget on, and figure out how to heat sheild this wiring, the heater hose runs under the turbo so im not sure if that will be ok either...attacked my thermo fan to make way for the boost lines on the EFR
started having a play with the suspension, and the bolts are M10 from the factory M8, plus they dont appear to line up completely with the holes, so im going to need to drill just a tad bigger, not sure if i have the tops in the right way, theres a gap to one side im assuming this is for camber?
next is to remove some carpet inside and make room for the Link ECU, planning on hiding it under the passenger floor plate, if the usb cable will reach to a laptop etc...
Very nice build Laggy7, nice pics and write up. On those camber plates, I think you want that small side (where the gap is showing) towards the engine bay side. Centered on the middle notch will be close to factory, and you'd only want to adjust in from there to increase your camber for more track-oriented handling. T3 is building me a custom set of front coilovers and while i haven't received them yet.... yours just look 180 backwards to me. Turn them around and as you adjust a few degrees in from the "center" mark on that plate, the gap will decrease.
thanks maxwedge - i have since fixed it as you suggested and it looks to be correct nice to add a little bit of color to the bay, and i cant wait to see how these will ride!
another significant update; have been doing alot of engine wiring, and going the full hog with 'milspec' tefzel wiring, lots of german plugs and rolls of heatshrink as well as fitment stuff.
started off with shifting the standard computers around to make the link ECU fit in its mount, im not sure what these computers do perhaps one is for the air con? can anyone identify - have been trying to remove all non essential wiring, cruise control, air con, emissions junk etc..
i also challenge any one here to tell me what car this came off its the throttle to pair up with the rx8 fly by wire, the pedal has a good feel. The retail for these is insane so we lifted it from the wreckers for $15usd
day and night, from plastic 35 yr old to reproduced shiny stuff, $40 usd for the pair!
As my wiring dude said, there's not really a photo you can take of it, it either looks like a mess when you doing it, or you cant see it once its all connected! all i can say is there's like a crazy method to his madness. All the plugs look and work fantastic; covered in heatshrink and properly labelled - and bent in the direction that promotes tidyness! This tefzel wire is around 1/3 the thickness of regular wire and it carries more amps and feels like pro space shuttle ****.
Also completed the first part of the thermal barriers, the inlet, intercooler pipes, turbo, dump and manifold are all due to get ceramic coated once the work is all complete. Will also give me time to paint and dress the engine bay properly. Started off with the main car wiring loom, its covered in heatshielding and then titanium wrapped. Same was done for the brake booster line, heater, brake and clutch fill.
Dump and turbo manifold had two wrapps on which amazingly took around 2hrs to get it all tight, using 100 cable ties to hold it while i progressed. Not sure how long this stuff will cope with a few heat cycles; it would of made more sense to get it coated first; but thats another 1-2 weeks and we are at a critical point where the car needs to be finished so the shop can still operate with my car hogging the hoist. Plus i also learnt how finished products after you've painted them simply don't last the constant in and out of the car to measure things; the inlet has so many dings on it now ill have to get it blasted again
The turbo beanie i have from my old t04b actually fits - in some way its pretty degraded but it keeps the heat in and away from the inlet. I am still quite conscience of the heat getting into the front rotor secondary port. I am hoping that with the coating it should really help. We may also need to look at some further sticky/rigid shielding but its getting damn tight, and we have actually got the turbo even closer since we clearanced the turbo flanges - something that i overlooked. If i could of made the turbo manifold again i would of, the problem with the efr is that its huge! the internal wastegate makes the turbo alot taller and wider; plus here in australia we have the issue of the bloody steering box to contend with too
after 2 really productive days with wiring we had to get the sensors working with the ECU and test the pumps and relays
im not sure what these computers do perhaps one is for the air con? can anyone identify - have been trying to remove all non essential wiring, cruise control, air con, emissions junk etc..
One of those definitely looks like the cruise control module. LHD cars have it mounted behind the driver's seat. No idea what that other box is.
Awesome work Nathan. The 2 boxes are the emissions control box (for various solenoids, relays etc) and the cruise control CPU.
so i take it i still need the emissions box for various relays? have been trying to find a post where i can remove as much junk as possible.
can you tell me which one is which?
i think i found two useless relays in the loom, air con and and choke relay - i really need the space as theres alot of bulk under the battery mount where i have located our new relays
choke relay (choke and hold?)
air con relay (i think)
lots of unused plugs in the loom id like to delete, also looking to replace the yee old fuseable link with a proper fuse.
Last edited by Laggy7; 03-23-19 at 07:35 PM.
Reason: more pics
after all this hard work from the last week we finally got it started, fresh dose of e85 with premix and lots of lanox for lubricant. smelt like a mix between burnt lamb and fruity corn!
Loom is long enough to sit comfortably outside the car beer in one hand throttle in the other
the gui for the link ecu, testing all the sensors: air temp, oil temp, oil pressure, coolant temp, map
first play with the electronic throttle! bits of calibration required but after a few tweaks its very responsive and is going to work fantastic (hopefully this link works) e-throttle
brand new turbo all gone purple from 5mins of idle
and here's the link you've been waiting for, my starter has always sounded strangely high pitched compared to other rotors; wish it was that standard throaty note - pretty sure its a rebuilt s4 starter on my s5 box. Another thing to note with e85 we needed alot of cranking to get the CAS located properly, fiddling around with the timing to get it going - this full river HC28 battery we bought was amazing (highly recommend for $180usd); gave it such a hard time and when it was back on the charger it had dropped to 12.4v
lots more work to do, another 300 cable ties and tidy up. tune and sort out this suspension and we should be ready to book it in for the local inspection.
bit more of a play, the ethrottle is simply amazing, makes tuning a snap and its really responsive - i don't think i can ever go back to a cable ever again.. starting to look at speed sensors for launch/traction/cruise control oh noes
Took another look at the engine loom and there's just more upon more stuff i want to remove, will need to browse on here and ausrotary to find a definitive guide on what to remove, ive got two huge workshop manuals and the f***king wire colors don't reflect whats in the car, so we are going off what plugs are where and what prong size they are... managed to find the IGN relay so the car can be started with a key which is nice touch
fixed up the gasket for the inlet and it doesn't appear to be leaking anymore, got the idle down to 800-900rpm, pumped all the lovely smoke and filled up the workshop to the point of where you couldn't see the roof fresh turbo seals, a butt ton of lanox, premix and stale oil stuck to the inside of the block - e85 and 3k rpm fixed her up nicely. However from the video you can see im not going to win any climate change awards!
smoky mcsmoky
let me know if these links dont work at all.
found some things that will need attention, 2x tiny holes need rewelding on the surge tank
sump gasket looks like it need some attention, residue around the base
turbo oil feed, requires some sealant
somehow just somehow ive managed to put the pulley on 180d upside down so the timing light is completely useless right now !!! :P
headlights will go up but wont come down.... need to do some reading i remember years ago there was a fix for this, as it was a very common problem
drivers side rear light has a bad connection, tap fixes it etc...
need to find a replacement water level sensor
thinking i should of put in an oil temp sensor, the cooler was like proper hot even just sitting on the hoist - could be overthinking it
Nice work!!! We're on the same schedule...only mine is missing a turbo. I was smart enough to connect some rubber hose to my exhaust and pipe it out of the garage though. Didn't totally help though, because it just made the garage smell like baking paint instead of fuel and exhaust.
I thought for sure I had my pulley on wrong too, turns out I had the wrong injector output on the ECU connected. I'm only running 2 ID1050x injectors and silly me, I connected outputs 1 and 2 when I should have connected 1 and 3. I'm jealous of the drive by wire setup. I need to look into that for mine, provided I can still have functional cruise control. Not sure that's supported by my ECU though.
chuyler - which turbo are you planning on using? my other option for my power range was the gtx 35/82 gen 2, or the s200e/s300 borg warner.
good thinking about the rubber hose, we need to invest in some proper ventilation; when working on lousy premium petrol; another fantastic thing about e85 is the fact it doesnt gas you completely!
the drive by wire setup can of course do cruise control!
another absolutely fantastic thing we found from further research on the drive by wire throttle is the fact that the throttle can do boost control! id even bank on the fact you could do it without a wastegate? - and by controlling it at the throttle its far more important to stop overboosting instead of waiting for a gate to open, this is in particulaly a problem with internal wastegates - and again in particular with these EFR turbos, people have been complaining about boost creep
well before i started this build list, i considered which computer could do all this for the budget i was planning, coming from a microtech LTX8, and hearing about all the refinements in new 'smart ecus' its a competitive market. Haltech by far have the most marketing and they have a big drive here in Australia. I turned to new Zealand as they have an unbelievable amount of rotories per capita and the Link ECU was for me. You get so much stuff included in such a small package and for half the price!
got the idleing down pat now, its not very lumpy and it shouldn't be with this stock un opened 35yr old engine, reading up on wiki these engines came out with 121kw @6000rpm at the crank, so i don't think we will be running much past 10psi on this engine as its made from duct tape re-enforced glass; even after the dyno i cant hope to expect much past 160rwkw, i really dont want an apex seal to fly through the $3500 turbo while my other engine is getting rebuilt. Was notified today that the side clearance and balancing is done still waiting on nitriding, studding and housings
when we were testing out the leads and i held the rubber sock in my hand i could feel the crazy power of these things, they are not to be fooled around with! designed for mercury outboard engines and used extensively in drag racing, i was almost going to go with toyota yaris coils!
playing around a bit more with the rear shocks, it appears that if the spring was on the bottom of the strut then it would clear the tunnel/brakes/arms/exhaust so i will be taking the rear coil overs back and hopefully exchange them for an inverted type.
i have yet to advertise more about this crazy battery; we discovered this s4 alternator was not charging.... and we have been playing around with the electronics and cold start for at least 30 starts and running for hours now.... the Link ecu was reporting the voltage was dropping rapidly after it hit 10.9v which then put us on high alert to find out what we missed and it was the alternator!
picked up a replacement today, however the bore of the shaft is bigger, and the unit is physically deeper, so its a bit tight as its next to the coils. And ill need to replace the pulley to suit.
its a 100amp unit which should run all the things as from the last setup i am now running an additional fuel pump, electric water pump and more amps/subs planned.
its a new replacement for a local ford sedan, and very similar to an FD rx7.
surge tank welded up again - will need a repaint as the leaking e85 stripped all the layers off it like melted butter
turbo feeds been threebonded - no more leaks
engine pulley sorted
i am still married, which is a good thing all these hours on the damn car!
chuyler - which turbo are you planning on using? my other option for my power range was the gtx 35/82 gen 2, or the s200e/s300 borg warner.
good thinking about the rubber hose, we need to invest in some proper ventilation; when working on lousy premium petrol; another fantastic thing about e85 is the fact it doesnt gas you completely! the drive by wire setup can of course do cruise control!
No turbo yet. Everything I did was done so if I want to boost later I just need to figure out the exhaust and intercooling side of things. I've got the fuel system that should support a decent amount of boost, and the ignition system. It's still a daily and I'll be doing track days with it. The big street port should keep me entertained for the next year or two. I'm at the same tuning phase though...but I already got a complaint from a neighbor so I have to limit my time spent on it to daylight hours. I may just hand the car off once I get the AFRs safe enough to drive to the shop.
Not sure if you are at this stage yet, but I'd recommend flipping the ECU upside down. Otherwise the cables coming out are going to make it hard to install the factory cover panel. Maybe this will be a race car, I don't know. But I'm just passing along the info because I just had to pull mine out and move it down another inch so I could put the carpet back in.
chuyler - i think thats pretty standard with neighbors my next used to own a boat with a huge v8 in it, spent more than enough weekends tuning it and i still think that was much louder than mine! a decent street port wont be much louder than standard bridgeports and non turbos are always going to be screamers.
had a good think about which way to put it, ended up going with the plugs at the top so the passenger doesn't accidentally kick it; the floor plate is long gone that was part of my stage 6 weight reduction Was a hard choice to put it out of the way and under the carpet; most people here put them in the glovebox; fortunately the usb cable reaches from the back so here should be good.
finished fuel system, the surge tank requires yet another coat of paint as it needed to be rewelded, used -6 lines for feed and return, and as mentioned i have a lift pump in the tank to fill the surge tank
more cold start tuning, filled up the workshop yet again. With this e85 i dont think its possible to get it to crank and start on the first go can only keep trying to fiddle. We also figured out why its so smoky - the crankcase was being pressurized.... after another trip to the wreckers it was sorted with a valve and boom the only smoke is the premix burning away.
spent the better part of 3hrs going through this wiring, loom, tape and tidy
currently i cant get:
dash oil pressure to work
dash coolant temp - replaced sensor will need to find another hole for it
tacho - will be wiring directly into the Link
fuel gauge is still only showing 1/3 full when its clearly pressed up
so in short the wiring is almost complete, we were ready for some carpark testing; however the brake master decided not to play ball so hopefully it will be here monday!
I'm still chasing my cold and hot starts as well. Basically I just floor the gas pedal, crank it, then slowly close until it catches. I'm sick of flooding it trying to figure it out, and I'm taking it to a dyno shop in a few weeks and they will likely start from scratch so I'm not too worried about it right now. I just need to decide whether to install an IACV/BPV or expect a certain amount of throttle input for cold starts.
Dash oil pressure should be pretty straight forward, I think it just connects directly to the gauge.
Dash coolant temp will probably only work right with the factory sensor in the factory location. I put my ECU coolant sensor in the water neck where the choke sensor used to go. Obviously you don't have that anymore. Perhaps using the drain plug on the bottom of the center housing would work with an adapter?
chuyler - what computer are you running? i wouldn't be able to suggest what you need as our climates are completely polar we often have to deal with very high and dry humid conditions where you might need to worry about snow
dash oil pressure gauge isnt working, defiantly found the right wire in the loom and it was working before - im thinking there could be something wrong with the actual dash cluster or it powered via a tacho feed etc.. will need to add it to the list of stuff for the auto electrician when they do my remote start etc...
Ill mention it to him about the resistor as well, the tuner said the Link ecu can be feed directly for the tacho.
As for the fuel gauge, when the tank is full, it read about 1/3 of capacity; when empty is just above the 0 line. So there's some movement there; i was hoping the e85 might have self cleaned all the gunk out of the tank together with what i did with the pressure washer; i've been told to earth the wire and see if it jumps to 1
great week of progress with progress but yet some let downs to suit:
brake master replacement parts arrived, and it was as simple as replacing the seals and all good.
organized insurance, permit for a couple of days, wheel alignment booked, dyno arranged, trip to the auto electricians and finally compliance paperwork at the rego office.
first trip was around the carpark, and the base workshop tune we had was enough to get it idling ok, but it kept stalling on low revs, coughing and poping; so it was limped 800m down the road to the wheel alignment shop.
unfortunately there we found that the front struts haven't been welded correctly and are miles out of alignment, must of been when the lower half of the struts were cut. Can see how much each side is out.
'Good side':
Bad side:
As you can see its very close to the rim, and the car handles like a shopping trolley; have spoken to the supplier and it will all be rectified; all i can say is nothing is 'bolt on' for a 35 yr old car!
More laptop tuning and got it so the thing would stop stalling and we then shifted it to the carpark; then while AT THE TYRE SHOP we received this token of appreciation
Going for an extremely conservative tune of 8psi with 5500rpm rev cut and ironing out all unknowns. after an hour on the dyno we found a big boost leak between the adapter plate and engine we managed 155kw/ 440nm @ 8psi for 6000rpm which is 10kw more than the old setup @ 18psi with 6500rpm and very happy with the result. The dynotuner also mentioned that he had thrown no additional timing as requested. We cant blow this engine up it will need to get through compliance as it is; for emissions.
This EFR 7670 is absolutely fantastic; it makes boost so effortlessly with the twin scroll; and she is dying for some more had a little play with 3 degree of timing and 10psi and the rears didn't stand much before they complained The power delivery is snappy and very streetable, with no lag observed - might need to change my plates!
We also observed that the injectors are getting close to their duty cycle and it appears that 1000/ 1650 will not be enough for anything above 200. Will be looking at going 1650/2200 at this stage, further research is needed.
Location of the boost leak, so tomorrow will be turbo, exhaust, upper inlet, lower inlet, adapter plate off - ah well
Took it out that night and did another 130km of street tuning, and to my surprise this car hasn't lost its namesake of the ridiculous flames it used to shoot on BP98, its defiantly running very rich which isn't a problem with e85 . The night was cut short as the clutch master gave way and pissed all the fluid out, have ordered another set of seals to suit. Got the car through emissions test today so we are yet another bit of paperwork closer to legality!
few more things arrived in the post:
stupidly expensive spark plugs R7420-10 - on change we didn't observe any difference? (running a colder plug due to e85)
Blackvue DR750S dashcam for events and cruises
Simmons FR17's (7" front, 8.5" rear)
Planning to run the 16's for track events, as the front brakes ordered will not clear the 3 piece 16's without spacers - which depending on whom you talk to are illegal in some states. I figured the best option was to go with 17s and then get them engineered for the street.
03-12-19, 07:09 AM
still cant get over how much water that pump can flow! just used the boiling water trick to clean out the smoo !
nice to add a little bit of color to the bay, and i cant wait to see how these will ride!
its the throttle to pair up with the rx8 fly by wire, the pedal has a good feel. The retail for these is insane so we lifted it from the wreckers for $15usd
after another trip to the wreckers it was sorted with a valve and boom the only smoke is the premix burning away.
The power delivery is snappy and very streetable, with no lag observed 
