Project Is200tt Is (finally) Making Headway

[SpOcK]

Hello world! (no, I'm not a codeweaver, just happy... ;) )

Once again it's been too long since last time. A lot has happened almost in every other field in my life, except anything related to my car project, so maybe that's kept me away...

Someone may still remember my somewhat long and rocky road with my project. I had my twin-turbo setup installed (I cannot even remember anymore, but maybe like) four years ago, then suffered from an engine failure (due to too much boost w/ std internals), had the engine rebuild (block bored, forged pistons, H-profile cams, the whole lot...), only to learn that I wasn't going to pass the (very strict Finnish) emission regulations and thus not getting my car MOT'd.

Even that was like 2 years ago, so from there on I only drove when I 'had to', and tried to stay 'under the radar' and avoid police or other officials. Ever since I've been trying to figure out how to A) keep my turbo setup (there's never too much power, eh?) AND B ) meet the emission regulations AND C) maintain the OBD-II system (required in Finland) AND D) get the car through MOT AND E) have a fully mappable aftermarket ECU.

Since there wasn't an off-the-shelf solution, it had to be made...

My car has now been a good while in a garage who came up with a solution. And yesterday, I finally got good news... Almost all the work is now done (still something with the std rev-limiter and the CEL, but it'll be sorted out soon), and they managed to get the first dyno run w/ the new ECU. And the result? 310 hp / 378 Nm @ 1 bar.

Not bad, I would say, since my car is/will be the first (and/or only) in the world to have the following (at least, as far I know..):

- 1G-FE w/ twin-turbo setup

and

- pass the Euro3 emission regulations

and

- a working OBD-II system

and

- put out 300+ hp (hopefully 400+ hp in the near future, I have bigger turbos already on the way...)

and

- fully mappable ECU (developed and manufactured in Finland, meets and even exceeds specifications of many 'well-known brands'!)

As soon as the garage is done and I have all the 'official stuff' cleared (emission tests, MOT, etc) and the turbos upgraded, I'll post more info and maybe a dyno sheet.

Cheers,

Sami

[sparkystav]

sounds very exciting mate, we need some pics!

[Dimitris Papamichail]

That is a very good and interesting project. Must definetely post some pics.

[Bazza]

sounds like there is light at the end of the tunnel !

pics and more info would be great :D

[SpOcK]

Unfortunately the garage carrying out this ecu install is ~200 km away, so I haven't seen the car even myself yet. And since it's an ecu install, there's probably not so much 'visible' changes done. Everything looks still the same as in the pictures I have posted earlier (you can do a search of my old posts). But when I get the car back and the new turbos are installed, I'll post some more piccies.

Cheers,

Sami

[Dimitris Papamichail]

Any updates? Pics?

[SpOcK]

Any updates? Pics?

Tomorrow is The Day...

[Dimitris Papamichail]

[200red]

Ooooooh! feeling giddy and my mouth is watering. Some pic`s PLEASE :D

[Asi]

pics please

[SpOcK]

Tomorrow is The Day...

Unfortunately, I do not have any good news. That day turned out NOT to be The Day... :tsktsk:

I travelled for two hours by train to get to the garage to pick up my car. When I got there, there still were some unfinished stuff going on with the car. For example the ecu was not fastened at all, but it was dangling at the end of its wiring loom. It seems that there'd been some misunderstanding between the two mechanics. The other was in belief that the other had finished the installation, and vice versa, so neither had actually done it.

The mechanic who was supposed to hand over the car insisted for us to go for a test drive before I got on my way. And I'm happy he did...

The installation in itself was a-ok, but the mapping on the other hand was not. The car wouldn't start as easily as it normally should and it wouldn't idle normally until it had warmed up.

When driving the car, it wouldn't pull as I remember it pulling with the old eManage ecu installed. They said they'd had to make some compromises with the mapping contrary to being able to go "all out" on the performance side of things, because of the upcoming emission tests. So that was ok with me.

Lexus' electronic throttle body was also giving a hard time, and it still being controlled by the original ecu, it made the car to shut down when coming to a stop on a crossing after driving. Also driving the car to the rev limiter caused the original ecu to go to a "limp mode" and having the the CEL and TRC lights flashing wildly.

So I decided not to accept the car yet, as it clearly was not finished, but told them to finish the adjustments before I come again and pick up the car.

Hopefully they get it sorted as soon as possible, and I'll get my vehicle back at last...

[MacRS200]

Very disappointing for you. I would have been raging mad having travelled all that way.

Seems a bit strange that they mapped it without even fixing the ECU in the engine bay. Sounds like the install was not complete and the mapping probably not done.

Hope for better news soon :-)

[liquidlazer]

Hey spock very interesting project u got there. cant wait to see the final results. :)

Tell me something how much hp and boost you were running before the stock engine gave up? I am looking at doing a custom turbo for my 1g-fe also.

[Dimitris Papamichail]

Sorry to hear about your engine mods mate. I hope everything will clear up soon

[SpOcK]

Seems a bit strange that they mapped it without even fixing the ECU in the engine bay.

Since I wanted (=had) to maintain the std ecu for the OBD-II system to still remain operational, the new ecu is not located in the engine bay, but in the glove compartment instead. So the ecu was dangling from its wiring in the front passenger's foot well, not in the engine bay.

[SpOcK]

Tell me something how much hp and boost you were running before the stock engine gave up?

Always nice to see someone else taking the (hard) turbo road. ;) As per my experience, I would advice doing the "internals" while you're at it, but if your budget won't allow that, I'd say you'd better stay under .4 bar to be on a safe side /w stock internals. Mine gave up @ .7 bar. The standard con rods are like matches compared to the forged H-profile rods I now have (which are rated 200 hp / each -> 6 x 200 = 1200hp). Std pistons will also crumble like cookies under (any higher) boost. I think that if you do a search for my posts, you'll find pics comparing std and after market rods. There's a difference...

On the contrary to the many suggestions here, the "fuel line upgrade" is NOT one of the first things you should (must) do. Just upgrade the injectors, and be sure you have something to tell them what to do (i.e. after market ecu).

It depends on your car's year model and/or where you live, whether you have to worry about things like emissions and/or the OBD-system (I did have to worry about those). But if you don't, the project will be much more easier (and cheaper)!

But having owned and driven both supercharged and turbo'ed IS200, I'd say that you cannot even mention both on the same day. There's a world of difference... So, if money is not an issue, you'll know what to do. Of course there's also always the satisfaction factor of doing something that only few have done before. And because we all know there's no "off-the-shelf" option for turboing an IS200, you have to manufacture it urself - or have someone do it for you - instead, it's all the more satisfying when you get there! B)

[SpOcK]

For those of you who may have some interest in my project's progression, here's an update.

I have bot good and bad news (but the bad news are still sort of good... ;) )

First a little foreword, then I'll start with the bad news.

The new bigger KKK K04 turbos I've had coming for already awhile now, finally arrived on Monday. In order to try saving some money, I asked the garage that has my car because of the new ecu being fitted and mapped, if I could come and fit the new turbos myself, and it was ok with them. So, I've now spent two days in their garage taking out the old ones and replacing them with the new turbos.

Because these turbos are not designed for 1G-FE (but for Audi B5 RS4 2.7 L Bi-Turbo), for the water and oil cooling inlets and outlets to be positioned correctly, the turbos are installed "upside-down" in my car. And because of that, the "body" (the part between compressor and turbine housings) had to be rotated 180°, and the compressor housing a few degrees for the turbos to fit.

Now the bad news are, that there were a few ruptures and leaks in the oil and water lines for the turbos, because of they've "aged" and become "crispy" due to those extreme temperature changes within the engine bay. There was also a plastic (white colored) T-junction used in the pressure line going from the boost controller solenoid to those two turbos, which had melted down to a brownish piece of goo. The other end of the "T" had melted shut, the other still had a little opening through it. That meaning the other turbo was only boosting against its wastegate actuator's spring tension, and thus seizing to boost @ 0.4 bar when the spring tension was over-powered, while the other turbo was boosting all the way up to 1.1 bar. Both turbos are run by three cylinders only, which means that while the boost between the turbos was asymmetrical, so was the back-pressure for the three first and the three last cylinders, and THAT meaning that the "filling" of the cylinder and the AFR between the cylinders was not constant, leading into heavy knocking when the car was floored.

The good part of the bad news is, that now that these problems have been acknowledged and addressed, I may have been able to prevent a disastrous near-future from happening.

The good news is, that now the old turbos are out and the new turbos are in. Everything else is also fixed, except one waterline, for which I didn't have a replacement and all the stores were already closed, but the garage will replace it for me. After that the car just has to be mapped (almost) from square one, as all the fuel adjustments and spark timings are for the old "asymmetric" turbo setup. After the car has been correctly re-mapped, I'm looking for figures starting with the digit "4"...

Wish me luck, and I'll let you know when there's some more progress.

Here are some pictures of the old and the new turbos. Guess which one is which...

[Dimitris Papamichail]

Very interesting. Looking forward to see the next step!!!

[Ellz]

Nice to see you back dude, car sounds like its going to be good.

If I were you, I would contact SPC Horsham as they seem to have cracked most of the issues with the mapping of the 1G-FE engine, there running over 300hp on STANDARD engine. I believe that they have also cured the stalling/idling problem with the Lexus throttle body. As your far far away they might let you in on a few of there secrets and its worth a try.

Now I've been around a dyno cell for the past year I've realised the map in my car was very poor indeed, my EGT would get to over 900 degrees C when really going for it, a sure sign of poor map and massive over fuelling along with a few other problems.

Good luck with the car get us some pics soon

[jeffrosie]

Hi Spock, any further news om your car???????