Paul Booth

Funny you should mention that. My cruise does something it's *absolutely* impossible for it to do. It tops out at 70MPH whether I feed the odo output signal with 1:1 speed data or 8:5 speed data. This *has* to mean someone's f****d about with the feed to the cruise but there are other symptoms which imply that maybe they haven't. I exchanged views on this with Pete and we are in total agreement, it's impossible, but it does it. The dashboard comes off (again) this weekend for me to fit the RL TC, prior to popping up to Pete's. I'm gonna give the cruise ECU a very thick coat of looking at and prove once and for all that it hasn't been modded. If I'm right, it hasn't, then the moment Pete's finished with his poking about, I'm gonna prove it's doing the impossible with a witness. As to feeding the cruise with an 8:5 signal to increase your cruise speed, I would strongly recommend fitting Pete's new speed convertor, *especially* if you have an automatic gearbox, at the same time. Apart from the 8:5 signal for the speedo, you'll get a capped 1:1 signal output and other useful features of the HKS SLD too.

Start a list, of things I want to talk about in the flesh some time. That's something I'd like to understand, but not urgently.

Ash, On a slight tangent, I thought batch firing was considered old fashioned and only to be found on older fuel injection systems. I thought all modern systems were sequential injection.

Paul if you talk to Pete he will talk you through adjustment of the two adjusters on his unit. No s**t Sherlock! You should see my inbox/sent folders for today alone. He's offered to fit it while he's under my dashboard with his scope - well, he's under there anyway, might as well make himself useful). I've said I want my safety limit set to 17 psi (ok, call me over-protective http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/naughty.gif).

Oh No! Not that one, Pfzzzt! too late. :biggrin:

Ash, I sat here for 5 minutes trying to think of another market sector which has the same problem but I can't think of one, everything else I could think of failed to pass the key test; that being, the customer makes up more hype than the salesman did in the first place. It used to be the cigarette-smoker's siren song, "come on in, the water's lovely". (Edited by Paul Booth at 9:51 pm on Sep. 24, 2001)

But doesn't Pete's FCD trap that with it's 18psi safety limit?

Mein Gott, are they *still* running pipes to the back of gauges? OK, I'm sold, electronic gauges it is then. Many thanks, in fact thanks to everyone for being so helpful (I'm having a warm fuzzy moment over how helpful and knowledgeable the people on this BBS are). OK, I also got home early too, which helps with the mood. Just time to start measuring up for a discrete air intake from the radiator 'hole' into the airbox intake. Life just doesn't get any better.

:biggrin: let you off this time, it's relevent to the assembly. I don't care if the exhaust front pipe doesn't look pretty but the dashboard doesn't want to look like a floor pan either. Eric had his mounted on the main instrument bulge. Leon supplied a mounting pod which fitted there, I believe.

Don't stop there man. How much, where from, the usual Q's?

That's exactly what I want.

Quote: from Ash on 10:10 am on Sep. 24, 2001[br] What you need to do is junk the cats, fit an HKS Super Drager exhaust together with PB's FCD. This will give you a useful and safe increase in power and the turbos will spool quicker too. If you are not into noise then it's not worth playing with the intake. Cats are already on the way out. I've arranged the cat-removal pipes and Pete's FCD (both from Pete as it happens - he has a set of used downpipes he's letting me buy). I'm not going to fit the Super Drager *yet*, until I've seen what's going on with the boost (not breaking my beloved engine). I will fit it, later, but for now 'softly softly catchee monkey'. I was only going to fit the HKS filter element to the stock airbox. Other than that, I really don't like the 2 intake ports into the airbox. One is restricted by the headlight and the other sucks air over a hot radiator from a semi-sealed chamber behind the front bumper. I'd like to see that arrangement improved with a small amount of bodywork. Quote: from Ash on 10:10 am on Sep. 24, 2001[br] Boost controllers are a bit gimmicky on a stock turbo'd car. They only really come into their own when bigger turbos are fitted. The ECU will only map to 1 bar (14.5 psi) anyway and you can get in this region without a boost controller with the cats are removed and a straight-through exhaust. OK, I can buy that. What about boost limitation, or as I see it, 'damage limitation'? I guess this could be achieved with the FCD, nes pas? Quote: from Ash on 10:10 am on Sep. 24, 2001[br] People fit boost controllers and talk about running 1.2/1.4 bar with the stock turbo setup. But as long as it's not MY engine................. Nor mine, back to boost limitation. Quote: from Ash on 10:10 am on Sep. 24, 2001[br] BTW... I'm now beginning to get a steady stream of people who have had all kinds of weird and wonderful things fitted to their MKIVs by various tuning companies and none of which work properly. Latest was a MKIV that had a boost controller fitted and the tuning company concerned piped the new Apexi boost control-valve in series with the stock wastegate VSV. Upshot of which, no matter what boost pressure was set on the Apexi unit, the car would still run stock boost. Why, after seeing what I have on my speed conversion, am I not the teeniest weeniest bit surprised? Quote: from Ash on 10:10 am on Sep. 24, 2001[br] The HKS electronic 60mm gauges are very good. They have peak hold and warning zone alert. I would suggest the fist gauge you fit is an EGT gauge followed by oil temp. Greddy do a RH-drive pillar pod but it sucks IMO. I've heard about the nice electronic HKS instruments but do they retain an analogue display. Human perception is relative and digital data has to be converted to a scalar value in your mind's eye before it's meaningful, a slow way to absorb information. I couldn't decide whether the EGT or oil temp was more important but I'm surprised you don't list the boost gauge. I'd heard that about the A-piller pod but what's the alternative? Alex, I really appreciate your input but a bit too aggressive for my short term goals. Ash has captured the flavour perfectly and something like the Super Drager is destined, just not immediately, i.e., before I've got the cats out, cleaned up the airbox generally and it's all being measured/controlled/limited and *safe*.

Are bleed valves adjustable/preset'able? How accurate are they?

Damn, I knew there was something I was forgetting. I had an unanswered question on the thread which died, that being, "the issues around fuel-cut, what are they, why are they, and what does the FCD do?"

Well thats that sorted then. We can close this thread now as well. I decided to use one of those indoor-outdoor battery powered temperature gauges for measuring the air temperature in my airbox. Any comments from anyone (i.e. a better solution)? Chris just told me he charges £280 for both cats (£140 each).

This is the kind of truly excellent response which keeps me hooked on this BBS. The only thing about my car which *really* pisses me off is the turbo lag. What, if any, would be the arguments for going with a larger bore de-cat pipe ('none' is a valid answer)? I don't think I could stand even more lag so I need a solution to the FMIC. I'm going to try increasing the air-flow into the standard air-box. I could do with suggestions as to a portable air-temperature measuring kit so's I can measure it before and after. So, I think my next step is confirmed: de-cat pipe, stock exhaust, HKS air-filter for stock air-box, boost controller and boost gauge. I'll also test my modded air intake on the car as-is, before I add the pipework. What boost controller? Where from? How much? What boost gauge? Where from? How much? Any idea what Cris Wilson charges for his de-cat pipery? Oh yeah! Where can I get an A-pillar instrument pod from? How much?

From Eric: Paul, I would say that the first modification you should look at is ditching both cats. Chris Wilsons are made with the J spec in mind, and are 2.5 inch in diameter to sepcifically prevent overboost. The added bonus with ditching the cats is a drop in EGT's. Spool up time for the turbos is significantly quicker as well. That was my main gripe with the car in stock form, once on full boost it was quick, but waiting for the turbos to spool seemed to take forever. If you still have the stock exhaust, you may still find that boost does not increase to the expected 18psi or so, as the Toyota system is still very restrictive. I know that Pete Betts was boosting to 14psi or so with decat pipes and the standard exhaust. I think the boost controllers are not really necessary on a J spec with decat pipes and exhaust, you should be able to hit 18psi. The UK specs have difficulty in getting above 15psi with this configuration, and need either a boost controller or bleed valve. FMIC?? Hmmmm..... I think everyone agrees that 1.2bar (perhaps slightly less) is the max you want to go to with the stock IC, so again, with just the decat and exhaust I think you wouldn't really need to go that route, unless you wish to give yourself extra insurance. With a FMIC you are going to introduce more turbo lag. Water injection personally I didn't like the sound of, as there were too many stories of failures with the system. That's only a personal opinion though. As Gavin says, a boost gauge is essential. It was amazing how much the boost varied from day to day with my car. On the hot summer days, I could set up my DSBC to hit 1.1 bar, come the evening when it was cooler, I was hitting 1.3 on the same setting, so definitely an essential piece of kit. Air intakes?? I think that falls into both your categories of a)looks nice and b)sounds nice! If I did it all over again, I would have kept the standard Toyota airbox, then when I got a FMIC fitted, have the Ash solution of putting a HKS unit in the front air intake where the stock IC sits.

Sorry to all those who didn't get to read the thread that disappeared and which has the background level-setting in it. I'll just *summarise* my goals/plans. NB As before, if someone suggests something because it sounds/looks nice, I'm gonna be quite rude. Now my 120MPH barrier has gone away I want to plan to move on. I have no intention (and previously stated as much) of sticking everything in the catalogue on my car to 'see how it goes'. I'm going to add little bits and get everything around that right and future proofed before adding the next 'bit'. My next-steps plan was to fit a cat-removal down-pipe (NOT a full system yet) and something like the HKS air filter. I want to see what impact that has and what I can do to optimise that before changing to a 'boxed' induction system, FMIC and full exhaust system. Questions so far: What is the difference between Chris Wilsons de-cat and Shop!'s? Should I fit a boost gauge if I'm only swapping out the cats? If so, which one and where from? When does the FMIC become *mandatory* and not just *nice idea*? When does the induction kit become *mandatory* (careful about talking about nice sounds here or I'm gonna get pissed off)? Eric mentioned a low-cost mod which made a big difference. Eric, what was it and what peripherals are needed to be in place too? I think I've remembered everything but if you think of a good point I forgot, slip it in. I'm gonna start copying posts on here into a Word doc for the next time the thread disappears.

Groan! Mr Branigan or Mr Barrett, are you able to recover the thread?

Bottled out at 140 'cos the rear wheel vibration was getting too much for my mechanical sensitivity to bear. It wasn't pulling like a train at that speed, but it *was*pulling. A big difference was the re-mapped gear timings and consequent power spread, but I'll say no more on that as Pete wants to leverage that and I would like someone other than HKS (who sell a product into the UK and can't produce an English manual) get some benefit.

Oh bugger! my wheels need balancing for speeds in excess of 130 MPH.... YEEEESSSSSSS! So *that's* why HKS intercept Solenoid 2..... (Bwuhahahaaaaaa!) HKS rule! Now for the RL TC. I think this thread is now dead. Yeehaaaaaaa!. Oh yeah! almost forgot. Rock-ape had been cutting into the harness around the Engine ECU speed circuit too. Now I *know* I'm going to find his footprints around the cruise ECU.

BTW, while it's common knowledge of my love of playing with the PIC chip, there used to be an 8051 derivative which is far better suited to this type of work. I think the 'external ROM' part number is 83C552 and I think the programmable device is 87C552. It's totally fabulous for low res. pulse and analogue signal mapping. It has ADC input ports, DAC output ports, timer ports (clocked or gated by external inputs - perfect for either frequency or width measurements) and PWM outputs. It's a bit expensive for single signal applications and is really better if you need to deal with the whole of the vehicle's sensory data and display (it's what I used on the back of the XJ220 dashboard, nothing else). You *could* measure, convert and display 8 or more different sensory channels. For just dealing with the speed sensor no 1 data, the PIC chips are the most cost effective, ask Mr Betts. Incidentally, his new improved KPH/MPH convertor is working now, complete with 8:5 *AND* a 1:1 outputs for those people who want their gearchange and PPS to behave correctly. He's also looking at proving a simple SLD function by capping the sensor no 1 frequency which works x1,000,000 better than the manner it's done by everyone else; the argument being, by the time you hit the 112 barrier, you're in top anyway so why bother with HKS solenoid interference. It seems to be working fine on his car.

Yup! Exactly my fear. It would mean that 'auto-electrician-rock-ape' has been fiddling with the harness where he shouldn't have been. This is what I feared/suspected all along. My nightmare is that he's tried to be clever (oxymoron) and has either tapped sensor no 1 elsewhere or (please God no) he's tapped sensor no 2. I'm doing the SLD today (not touching the RL TC until the SLD works 100%) but when I come to fit the control for the TC I'll check over the harness to the Cruise ECU.

What am I psychic? You've kept all your details in 'profile' a secret.

KPH-MPH conversion, by changing the data from speed sensor number 1 requires you divide the data by 1.6 (or 8 [km] divided by 5 [miles]), i.e., map the input signal in km to an output signal in miles. Obviously, you can't have 0.6 of a pulse and if you output 1 pulse for every 2 you get in (/2) and then output an extra one on the 8th input pulse, it 'could' cause a tremble in the Speedo needle at low speeds. What I used to do for sensor/instrument mapping, for example on the Jaguar XJ200, was to actually measure the pulse 'width' of the input signal and map that to an output pulse width (assuming an output square wave, of course), i.e., you're converting wavelength rather than frequency. This method is *extremely* accurate at low speeds. More information than you asked for I know, but someone else might be a hobbiest and might want to have some fun.