FJ Land speed racer

[fj1289]

Here are the highlights of the Colorado Mile posted recently.  We have the notoriety of being the fastest vehicle that didn't make 200 mph.   

If my name was Christina or something we would have gotten a mention as the fastest woman....

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102467289892&ca=c7ea5020-b343-460b-ac85-c504bf200d50

[fj1289]

Dates for 2017 are 8-10 Sept.  That's the weekend after Labor Day weekend this time around.  Work continues - replacement parts are being sourced and improvements are being made with the intentions of getting more speed out of her for next year!

[Firehawk068]

Dates for 2017 are 8-10 Sept.  That's the weekend after Labor Day weekend this time around.  Work continues - replacement parts are being sourced and improvements are being made with the intentions of getting more speed out of her for next year!

I'm in for any crew duties you may need. At least for Saturday and Sunday.

[fj1289]

Dates for 2017 are 8-10 Sept.  That's the weekend after Labor Day weekend this time around.  Work continues - replacement parts are being sourced and improvements are being made with the intentions of getting more speed out of her for next year!

I'm in for any crew duties you may need. At least for Saturday and Sunday.

Sounds good Alan!  I'm sure we'll have plenty of jobs to assign to willing volunteers. 

[fj1289]

What do you do with your weekends when your company sends you to a 4 week long training course between Thanksgiving and Christmas?  Work on the bike!  First weekend drove to a junk yard to find a couple of 40 amp solid state relays for $5 a piece!  Then found a computer recycling place and picked up an old tough book for $30.  No operating system though.  It took a few days to get a Linux distro loaded up that I could get to run TunerStudio and MegaLogViewer.  (I know just enough about Linux to google a problem, then copy and paste the commands that someone posts that are supposed to solve the problem - if it works or doesn't I don't really understand why -- then google my way through the next issue!).  



Last weekend (after finishing the classroom work and passing the written exam) I returned to the junk yard and pull some sensors (and other parts) to do some basic testing when I get finished with the ECU.  Spent the rest of the weekend finishing the input and output circuits for the ECU.  Then added the MS3 daughter card to upgrade the MegaSquirt 1 ECU to a MegaSquirt 3.  Ordered the daughter card the first week here and got it last week. This upgrade to the ECU is the equivalent of upgrading from a daily driver to a full on race car!

New MS3 daughter card and DIY I/O card installed on the modified MS1 mother board



Completed ECU with firmware uploaded.  Connected some junk yard sensors tonight to test the most basic functions of the ECU. The TPS, coolant sensor, and intake air temp sensor work as expected.   This week I'll try to get the basic tune loaded - need to see if there are any tricks to importing an MS2 tune to the new MS3 (the microsquirt we've run the last 3 years runs the MS2 software).  



This is a major upgrade for the race effort and will simplify the shift kill and control for the air shifter AND have complete control over the nitrous system -- two of the critical improvements needed from last years effort.  

[FJmonkey]

Looks like rocket scientist magic stuff.

[copper]

Did you remove the hair dryer from the wall?

[fj1289]

Did you remove the hair dryer from the wall?

You know it!  Just a simple little wall bracket - sure beat trying to move the whole setup to the bathroom!

Come on Mark - I figured with your CNC and 3D printer programming skills this would be cave man level work...
Worked this evening to import an old tune from the microsquirt to the MS3.  Stated with 220 errors - clean now.  Simply resetting the basic engine info and adjusting a couple parameters cleared up the first 216!  The last four were related to the nitrous settings.  All cleared.  Now just trying to tidy up the rest of the settings so it can be put on the shelf and be ready when it comes time to reassemble the race bike and start tuning the new setup.  

[fj1289]

Finished up the MegaSquirt 3 this weekend.  This was built on a MegaSquirt 1 I bought a couple years ago on craigslist.  This was a "custom" MS 1 built by a specialty shop in Canada called EFI4Tuning.  When I first purchased it, the owner was very responsive.  However, a few months ago when I asked for the price of a competed, ready to run MS3X he had listed on his site, I got no response.  Tried a couple times with the same result.  This is sadly the exact same story I faced after buying a custom MS 2 (directly from the builder) that was Hayabusa specific that had been highly recommended to me.  It seems this is not an unusual occurrence unfortunately in the megasquirt/microsquirt world.  There are many "specialty builders" that decide to make some money from their expertise in their hobby.  Despite their best intentions, life events overcome the "hobby job" and you are left to your own devices for any future tech support!

What I liked about the EFI4Tuning MegaSquirt (and why I stuck with it) is the Molex connectors in place of the DB37 printer cable style connector on standard boards.  The board is also built to fit in a more compact case than the standard MS 1 or 2.  I was able to take advantage of this and fit the MS 3 build inside the smaller MS 2 sized case.  You can see the size difference compared to the normal MS 3 case:
   


Upgrading to the MS 3 solves a few problems we faced last year:
1.   On board datalogging to an SD card.  No more fighting with a Bluetooth adaptor or specialized cable and a cell phone or tablet to record the data.  This caused several issues last time out and left a couple runs without run data to analyze – not good with large loads of nitrous!
2.  Air shifter control – both shift kill settings and auto shift settings – both can be varied by gear.  No more having to cobble up a system based on hijacking the shift light signal and swapping polarity thru an additional relay – all self-contained now.  This could have prevented the missed shift and resulting blown engine last time out. 
3. Built in progressive nitrous control.  This alone eliminates two additional electronic boxes (nitrous controller and a shift controller used to trigger the nitrous in second gear).  This is huge – eliminating the nitrous controller eliminates the fuel control/nitrous control mis-match that ultimately caused the engine failure this year.  It does look like I will have to go to a wet system to make full use of the capabilities.  (A wet system uses a fuel solenoid and nozzles to add the required fuel vice using the ECU to add fuel through the fuel injectors).  This system will allow the nitrous to be started at a lower percentage so the nitrous can be used sooner and ramped up quicker without upsetting the suspension.   

Another feature this ECU upgrade gives is a couple different methods of nitrous progression.  Time based progression is a typical method.  The option I want to try is based on vehicle speed (using a VSS – vehicle speed sensor).  The plan is to setup the VSS on the front wheel.  If the back wheel spins and the accelerations slows, so will the nitrous progression.  If the front wheel lifts, it will slow and the nitrous will decrease with it until it comes down again. 

Next improvements to start on will be some aero mods (while keeping the FJ "look" and "character"). 

[jnimbostratus]

I want to upgrade to ms3 after my rebuild but the physical size is a concern for placement but i really want that pitlane rev limiter (rolling antilag) to build boost. Decisions decisions. I look forward to your feedback on the ms3 upgrade.

[fj1289]

Good news for the MS3 upgrade - new Beta firmware has been released that fixes the mismatched fueling side for progressive dry nitrous!      I don't have to go to a wet nitrous system now!

Looking over the race bike last night and it's crazy how much space will be cleared up by removing the three electronic boxes that were all interconnected in an attempt to get all the functions this ECU will have all in one box.  I think this will be the fourth complete rewire of this bike - I should to be able to make a pretty clean wiring harness by now!

[fj1289]

Ordered some new nitrous pieces this past week.  Actually, everything from the bottle valves forward! 

The nitrous setup from last year was pieced together with various pieces and parts I had picked up over the years.  It worked well, but could be improved on.  The goal with a nitrous system is to get the nitrous from the bottle to the engine in dense liquid form and equally distributed to each cylinder.  The more dense the nitrous is at the injection point the more power you will make AND the more charge cooling you will have that will help reduce the chance of detonation.  This can cool the intake temps 70 degrees or more! 

The new system will be able to start at a lower percentage than we used last year so it can be brought in sooner and smoother (easier on the engine!).  It will also be able to be pulsed at a higher rate which will also make things smoother and easier on the engine.

The improved nitrous controls in the upgraded ECU will let the fuel curve (and ignition retard) match the nitrous curve as it is progressed vice having to "dump" the fuel in two fixed stages and let the nitrous "catch up" with the over rich condition - and the overly retarded ignition. 

Randy has come up with some good ideas based on what we've seen inside the engine to further improve things - some piston mods and head mods that should be even more nitrous friendly. 

Bottom line the new system should give more power at the same nitrous levels, and be able to deliver more nitrous (if needed!) than the old system while being smoother and easier on parts at the same time.  Combine this with some aero mods and better nitrous / fuel control from the upgraded ECU...hoping to put up some very good numbers this year!

[jnimbostratus]

Exciting stuff man more and smoother power plus better aero I can't wait to see the results compared to your previous setup. I wish I was closer to landspeed stuff I think I would really enjoy getting into that stuff. This year I'm hoping to get to the drag strip a few times.

[fj1289]

One of these:


A bunch of these:


A lot of this:





And it's time to start rewiring the beast!  Rather than try to salvage any of the existing ECU wiring, I've decided to re wire it all - again!  Think this will be the fourth wiring harness from scratch for this bike.  Hopefully it'll go quicker and smoother than previous attempts - and come out a bit neater too!

I've also salvaged some very nice shielded wiring harness sleeve from a scrap bin at work.  It should make for a very nice harness if I plan it all out properly...

[FJ120086]

someone posted this link over on FB earlier today.

WOW. it is disappointing the photos are not able to be viewed. Hopefully they can be reposted because it would be neat to see it all. Is 200mph the goal this year or even more?