After some bad luck, finally got some progress done. After 3 long days of dyno pulls, finally reached a peak power of 415 rwHP @ 18 PSi ON PUMP GAS. My head still hurts from the fumes and engine noise!

Big thanks to Dave from Mazdee's for his awesome porting work which I know he spent many many hours on and for his great motor. Also, thanks to Johnny for taking his special care in putting it all together with everything working right off the bat and the single turbo conversion as well as Michael for doing some of the wiring. And thanks to Jo from Dynowerks Dyno for enduring the 3 day tuning frame and assisting in diagnosing issue's and redoing my pump wiring and soldering it fixing my weird fuel problem.

On the first day, tuning started at 14 PSi and worked our way through there. The day progressed pretty much trouble free as we slowly upped the boost. Towards the end of the day however I noticed I was adding more and more fuel and that the AFR's kept getting leaner. I mentioned this to Jo and he thought that my fuel pressure dropping might be a cause. So the next run Jo watched my fuel pressure gauge and I watched my AFR meter so I could let off as soon as it got too lean. Well, Jo did notice the pressure would drop to almost 40 PSi from 48-50 PSi it should have been. We were at 16 pounds of boost. At this point Dave and Jo thought it might be the fuel filter. So we called it a day.

Ok, day 2 of tuning. Johnny decided to bypass the fuel filter instead of replacing it so we could completely eliminate that out of the equation. We warmed the car up and did a pull with settings unchanged from the day before. The car ran much richer at almost 11 AFR compared to the 12+ AFR from the day before. So we assumed the fuel filter caused the problem and all was good. Most of the day was spent playing with timing starting at stock wastegate boost of 14 PSi and eventually working our way up again. Towards the end of the day once we started getting close to 17 pounds of boost once again we started to notice the AFR's getting lean even though fuel was being added. We checked the fuel pressure and it was similiar to the day before. We called it a day once more.

Day 3, we do a pull once more without any settings changed and like last time it goes richer again. So we start going through the system and seeing what could cause it. We noticed the splicing was using crimps and that the wiring was a little old so Jo decided to get rid of the crimps and solder the wires together. Everything was put back together and we continued tuning. The day went problem free and I was able to reach my target of 18 PSi and made a wooping 415 RWHP

Now, I just have to wait for my 550cc top-feed injectors to come in so I can change my primary injectors back to 550cc. The 850cc's run a rich idle which can't properly be leaned out and just don't run right and it can't be fully fixed by tuning. I don't need that much fuel anyway but I figured I'd get them in case I ever did. It's too bad I can't take the car out to see how it feels. Also, since I still didn't receive my EGT converter box from FJO, I was only relying on the rear rotor EGT's for tuning. Once I get that I can equalize the EGT's on both rotors and possibly get a few more safe ponies without changing anything except for injector timing.

Will 500 RWHP be reached this winter? Stay tuned for my methanol adventures!

Progress throughout the tuning sessions...

DAY 1 (lean run due to fuel pressure):


DAY 2:


DAY 3:


thewird

 

nice numbers dude.

 

So what kind of porting do you have?

 

Nice man! Cant wait to see what will happen when you add the meth

 

It's a special street port by Dave from Mazdee's. The goal was to get some more top-end without taking away much low-end. I'm very happy with the results.

I'm curious to see what happens with meth too. I just have to get all the parts together and figure out some failsafe's since I plan to replace 20% of my fuel with 100% methanol. So if the meth system fails, it goes boom without a failsafe. I've been talking with Michael at Mazdee's about it and he has some good ideas. We will see.

thewird

 

Ah, here's some pics of my new setup taken by Dominic at night...

thewird

 

Good job marco!! I'm very impressed!

I'll bet with meth or water the numbers, most importantly torque, would come wayyy up. My car on water/washer fluid put out 330ft/lbs @380 hp vs your 296 @ 377hp.

Thats nearing the 450whp mark on a dynojet though! Should be a riot. Now dial it up to 25!!

 

Well the dyno graph from day one was when the car went lean (12.5-13 AFR) due to fuel pressure problems so I think that affected the torque a bit but since it was the most power we made on that day, I posted that one.

However, I didn't know the methanol increased torque? I actually thought it lowered power output a tad but because it lowers the intake charge and allows you to run higher boost with more advanced timing, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Anyway, I can't wait to reach 25 PSi either

thewird

 

I think meth would allow for more torque because it allows you to advance the timing significantly more compared to straight pump, plus I guess a colder, denser charge would result in more torque...

Any ideas for fail-safes? I'm starting to think the same things, I'll only be running 750cc's worth of 75/25 meth/water, but I'm thinking it would be nice to have some sort of back up. My thoughts are first off a J&S knock box, retard the timing almost instantly, pressure or flow switches to your Boost Controller (but that still relies on mechanical parts, which take too long).

I think the best failsafes to have would be the J&S SafeGuard, and possibly an electronically controlled solenoid relief valve, similar to a QRV for air-brakes, that grounds out if a lack of flow/pressure is present and eliminates manifold pressure. I think if you went with those two, you could have pretty good peace of mind.

 

The nubers I quoted (and graphs I posted in my various threads) were the same. I had a fuel pressure problem emerge during that run, and power went up a couple HP, but it was the highest of the day so I posted it. I can't recall if my TQ was up or down on that run though.........IIRC it went up, but Jo has the graphs somewhere and could say for sure.

Honestly, I'm not 100% on it, but going by my TQ and HP numbers running water (and washer fluid at the time.....was cold and I worried about straight water freezing) my TQ is much higher then most. There's 4-5 recent dyno sheets in the 2nd gen section and guys on pump gas making 400whp on a dyno jet are barley breaking 300ft/lbs. One fella at around 450rwhp only made 310. I'm at 330 with 380hp and terrible boost response/limited RPM/fuel pressure issues

yeah!!

Take this for what its worth, but there'll never be enough safe gaurds while at the same time...I think its easy to over do. At the level these car's are at (nearly 4 times their intended output of power) the associated risk is very high. Some preventative measures should be taken, sure, but in my opinion if something is going to go wrong chances are there'll be squat you can do to save the engine. Might get lucky and it may not blow like when my fuel pump fuse blew on the dyno at 5500RPM @ 9psi and the engine just shut off at WOT. Or you might not. Playing the 400+hp game there's only so much you can do before you're better off taking the safe gaurd money and pooling it into an engine fund.

Food for thought: What failsafes exist in the standard fuel system to save your engine if it fails?

 

I see what you're saying, but I think for the most part a standard fuel system is much more thoroughly tested and reliable then an aftermarket, auxiliary 100+psi fuel pump with nozzles. Looking at HC's FJO meth system with return lines, regulator, etc., I don't think he should have too much to worry about, it's nearly bulletproof. But an aquamist/snowperformance/devil's own kit, I'm a little more cautious about. Also, there are differences in risks in running straight meth, a mix, or straight water. With methanol into the mix, you've got to account for it being a part of your fuel supply, whereas water (or weak mixtures like your own) if the system fails, you dont have AFR's to worry about as much(unless you've tuned for it accordingly), but too advanced timing/high EGT's to cause pre-ignition.

It's true though, how far will you go to monitor one aspect of your engine's performance, just to have something else cause failure and have to rebuild anyways? (Note: Comitatus's engine failures)

 

I was planning to copy Howard Coleman's FJO meth system since it seems to be really robust as he treats it as a complete fuel system. I was reading about the J&S knock box but I have also read some stories where the unit itself has failed causing an engine to go. Anyway, FJO doesn't directly support what Howard's doing however like him, I believe it is the best route to go with methanol.

thewird

 

Yeah, it definitely provides the most precise control of methanol injection for us.

Now, how can a Safeguard cause an engine to fail? My main concern was that it retards up to 10 degrees, and only acts on leading ignition. So you`d have to maintain a 12+ degree split on your timing in order to not have the trailing fire before the leading under boost (boom). I plan on running 14-15 degree split across the board.

More importantly, how many engines has a J&S box saved vs. how many it has caused to fail?

 

I have the same problem with the 850s (rich idle) but other than that, the car runs fine...I like having the injector sizes closer together

I also had the same problem with the fuel filter (running lean, out of the blue)...I run an Aeromotive 10 micron, and found out they have to be changed at least every 10k miles

 

Congrats. Lets compare dyno logs and ignition curves. Obviously yours will be different due to porting but will be interesting to compare.

 

Nice numbers!!

 

Congrats ... i expect you to beat Jim next year

 

I'll be lucky if I can keep up with him lol. If I happen to get faster at some point, its all thanks to him teaching me how to drive fast confidently. It's all in good fun though, we're out there to have fun . I'm more interested in showing up them v8's

On another note, I'm reconsidering the methanol for this year. Might focus on other things I need instead like the long awaited unknown coil-overs and a V-mount so I can create a sort of cold air intake with a nice big air filter and some custom ducting .

thewird

 

This year is the key word. Don't worry you have all of next year to get it.

 

Nice numbers!


Maybe we will make it to the gap a little faster this year after all.

 

bump

 

Nothing to report yet lol. I'm waiting for Bell Intercoolers to get back to me so I can order my custom sized intercooler for my v-mount and FJO 2nd gen. methanol injection system is supposed to be released tomorrow.

thewird

 

I'm bumping to let you know I want to drive the GTR. Unless you are pulling my legs.. Therefore if you are, I'm going to remove that 99 spec wing of yours

 

Told you I can't let you drive it lol.

thewird

 

you bought a GTR?