Stock ports, 550/1680 injectors, 2 MDS DIS-4 for leading and trailings, E11V2, GT42R and all supporting mods....

PFS tuned and dynoed it at 470 rph at 12 psi and it ran beautifully.
I upgraded the software to v1.89 (from V1.71) and it ran just as before.
Then gradually, the idle started to fluctuate. I made adjustments and idle got better. Two days ago, it started to act up again and worse this time. It would start, run for 3 seconds and stall out.

I realized that I was still running build 32 firmware with v1.89, stupid me.
So I upgraded to firmware 35 and the update was successful. Started the car and the same damn thing happened; ran for about 3 seconds and then cut out.

I went back to firmware 32 and v1.71 and the same thing happened. So, I reloaded firmware 35 and v1.89. Same thing.

The only way I can get it to idle is to crack the secondary b-valves and it idled at 2000 rpm. The idle control valve does not work with the secondary b-valves cracked, i.e. when throttle % is > 0. When throttle position is 0%, the BAC valve does operate but the engine won't idle no matter what changes I make to the BAC values. I use PMW2 for BAC.

There has been no changes to any hardware prior to the car acting up. Any idea what might have happened? Here are two vids of my car when it ran normal. I can send you my map to look at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSkgZOoGEJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVrLhYwplGk

 

The ambient temps are warmer now than when you had it tuned and the temp compensation map is not setup properly?

 

It was tunned in November 08 about the same temp now.
I did play with post start enrichment values, no change.

 

Have you tried taking off the valve, or blocking off the air ports to see if the problem persist, if it was gradually i am willing to bet there may be a vacuum leak somewhere, from either a busted or loose hose, or something along those lines.

Otherwise you might want to consider a different valve maybe, or a stepper motor from haltech?

 

I guess I assumed it's a fuel mixture issue. The BAC shouldn't be asked to raise the idle off the throttle stop more than maybe 100 rpm or so such that, even if it fails, the engine should still idle.

So, is it a mixture issue or is it the BAC being asked to do too much?

Have you tried opening the air bleed instead of the secondary throttle stop to raise the idle slightly? You can do that to raise the idle speed and it does not effect the TPS calibration. If you do need to crack the throttle stop open a bit simply recalibrate the TPS before starting the engine again. It would seem that if it were simply a matter of the BAC failing that, if the mixture and timing were correct, you could crack the idle air bleed a little more and restore a mostly proper idle. You should not have to raise the idle to 2000 rpm to keep it running BAC working or not.

 

I will investigate leak(s) this weekend.

 

I tried opening the air bleed to the max. It does not flow enough air to keep my engine running.
I did recalibrate the TPS; no change.
I've played with different BAC frequencies from 10-100 hz. I can hear how the BAC make noises at difference frequencies. It idled best at about 20 hz in this current state. When it was running fine before, BAC frequency was 33 hz.


If I can't find any vacuum leaks, what do you think about me doing this:
Un-crack the secondary b-valves.
Crack the primary b-valve just until it runs right.
Recal the TPS with the primary b-valve cracked.
when off throttle, throttle % will be 0 and maybe the BAC will work right?

 

Have you made sure that the Integral, Derivative, and Proportional values for the BAC are all correct? I thought those values moved around when changing firm ware.

 

I did when it ran good. Now, it does not make a difference.

 

I had some time to play with the car tonight and here's what I found:

There are no vacuum leaks. If there were any leakes behind the TB, the engine would just idle higher. I had to crack the TB valve for it to idle; i.e it needed that much of a "leak" to run.

I checked the idle speed control (ISC) valve. It operated when +12v is applied. Resistance of the valve is 12.4 ohms (per FD manual, 20b and FD ISC are the same).

I recalibrated the MAP sensor; no change to engine operation. Changing of sensors filtering made no difference. Wideband does not indicate extremely rich conditions; 11.5-13. Fuel pressure is steady.

Here is something new that is's doing now; it would die after a while even with the TB valve cracked open! I can hear what sounds like a rotor or 2 dropping out just before it dies. But then it'll restart right back up with no problems, run for 2 seconds and die. I can repeat this until the battery dies.

Before all this stuff went down, I did rewire the fuel pumps (I use 2 walbros). I used 2 stock FD resistors to run the pumps at low loads and rpm and use the aux fuel pump output in the E11 to feed the pumps +12v at 3000 rpm and 0 load and up. This is similar to the set-up of the OEM FD pump circuit.

Everytime I turn the key on, the ecu would monentarily feed +12v to the pumps and switch off. In other words, the ecu aux fuel pump output grounds out momentarily. It didn't do that before. No problems because the pumps run at <12v through the resistors.

I think there might be something wrong with the ecu, either hardware, firmware, or software?

Feedback?

 

Any chance the battery or alternator has taken a crap on you?

When you are updating the firmware are you loading the proper default map after the firmware update before loading the actual map for your car?

Is it possible the map you have for your car is not the most current one that Ray finished with?

 

I talked to Eric at Haltech today. He thinks my map is corrupted since it was developed in 1.71 and I saved it in 1.89. I do not have the original copy. My mistake.

So what I am going to do this weekend is to manually copy the map that Ray made for me into the default map of 1.89 line by line.

It's gonna take a while, but it's the best bet right now. I'll let y'all know if it works!

 

That's possible.

Do not make your new map the default map per se. The "default map" that is referred to that needs to be loaded into the ECU immediately after doing a firmware update can't be substituted for. That map should be part of the software package that corresponds to the firmware you are using. So the process is to update the firmware, load the Haltech default map, cycle power, then load your map, cycle power.

Did Ray save the map by any chance? I always save the last map from any car I tune in case the customer ever needs it. I'm sure Ray moves a lot more cars that I do and might not feel like keeping track of such things but he may do the same thing.

 

I transferred data from my current map over to a brand new map based on the default map. The idle control valve works better, but stalling issue persists.

I am fighting a multi-faceted problem here.

FUel pressure comes up very slow now; I have an aeromotive adjustable FPR. I adjusted the set screw on the FPR to the max just to get 38 psi. SOmething is wrong.

I tried to depressurize the fuel lines by cranking the engine with the fuel pumps disconected, yet fuel pressure stays the same. Does this indicate the injectors are not opening?

My fuel system is simple; 2 walbros each feeding the primary/secondary rail, the output of the rails meet at the FPR and one return line back to the tank. I began to disassemble the fuel pumps assembly (in tank). One of the lines remained pressurized even by this time the fuel pressure gauge reads zero.

I think one of the pumps is bad. Will investigate further this weekend.

 

problems solved!

1. fuel pumps connectors inside the tank were loose. They are secured now.

2. TPS dead band was set too low; .5%. The ecu ignored all TPS noises below .5%. However, my TPS noise was as high as 1.6% so the ecu freaked out when it saw noise levels above .5% I reset TPS dead band to 2% and everything is peachy!



I don't have my GT42R 20b FD w/ E11v2 anymore; at least for now.