769 replies to this topic

[Dave H]

An update!

 

The car covered several thousand miles last year with just one irritation, that being that on the "High Boost" setting it would pressurise the water system slightly. As an interim measure I changed the cylinder head "stretch" bolts to  ARP studs as I suspected the head was lifting. This made things better but the gasket had already been compromised so I lived with the problem and made the most of the good weather.

 

Over Christmas I took the cylinder head off. While apart I gas flowed the head and "Lapped' the face to ensure a flat surface. I replaced the 1.9mm gasket with a standard OEM VXR gasket which also meant enlarging the combustion chambers. A "burette" was used to measure the combustion chamber volumes before and after. I couldn't quite enlarge the chambers enough to retain the same CR so I have just backed the ignition off by a degree and will do a quick Dyno session at "EFI Parts" in the future to optimise the settings.

 

The car has been back on the road since the beginning of Feb and I'm pleased to say the problem seems to have been cured. Having been driving a Sprinter van over the winter you forget the performance!!!

 

 

Enlarged chambers.

 

Cyl head after lapping and ready for assembly.

 

I put the car on the corner weight scales, at the time it had about 3/4 tank of fuel and weighed 915KG (445BHP/Tonne)

 

I have also upgraded to the Adaptronic 440 ECU which has some added features, of particular interest is the Traction Control. This is proving a little more difficult to implement than I hoped,

the problem has been the "noisy" signal in the ABS circuit, I have built filters but they are not working below about 6mph where I'm getting speed readings of around Mach 1..... These readings confuse the ECU somewhat and make pulling away difficult. Electronics is not my strong point but some people I know have given me some pointers of other circuits I can try, I'm just waiting now for RS to obtain stock of some integrated circuits that  on back order so I can see if I can overcome the problem and then start to get to grips with setting up the T/C parameters.

 

Another small mod is a new smoother tubular top hat as the inside radius on the one fitted has a nasty square edge.

 

 

 

I have also checked the noise levels with the db meter which are still as in the above post.

 

Dave.

[Bumblebee]

Sounds good Dave! Hopefully this year il make it to a meet near to you and you can sure me how good it is

Edited by Bumblebee, 18 March 2014 - 09:29 PM.

[cressey]

Still my favourite VX out there I think. Hope to see this on a Peaks meet again this year.

[Nev]

Lapped head, that's a serious amount of arm work! Good on you Dave, you are by far the most practical engineer on here

[haggi961]

Is that a standard air box you have fitted? Could something like that be modified for a supercharged vx?

[Dave H]

I have made an enclosure for the traction control on/off switch and % slip adjustment pot'. 

 

 

The integrated circuit I need (LM1815) for the VR trigger circuit is not in stock till the middle of next month. (This will hopefully clean up the noisy sine wave from the ABS sensors when they are connected to the ABS controller and give a clean square wave out). I'm going to try another circuit in the mean time and see what results I get. 

 

 

The Airbox is a modified standard one using the OE air filter with 100mm air in and 83mm air out. I don't know if it would fit a S/C setup.

 

Hopefully at the Peaks meet again tomorrow with my lad if the weather isn't too bad.

 

Dave.

 

[Gedi]

Dave, what did you do with your old top hat? (the one jaylin original put onto the car)

Would you be interested n selling it?

[Duncan VXR]

My old one I got made :B

 

I know Dave still has the bits and the CC modded bits and would sell job lot - give him a shout

 

DG

[Gedi]

I already have a modded TMS chargecooler, but I'd be interested to know what extra mods might be lurking in this setup

 

 

[Duncan VXR]

Other than the custom pipe work between the I/C to TB its the enlarged inlet & oulet pipes to the core. Sure the I/C is an uprated one also iirc

 

DG

[Gedi]

oh, he's taken the whole lot out? I thought he'd kept parts of it in place from the pics I saw. Interesting

 

Yeah, I seem to remember Simon put in an uprated MMG intercooler to compliment the TMS charge cooler

[Duncan VXR]

Yes Pro alloy setup there now along with his revised intake pipe

 

DG

[Dave H]

A year since I have updated this thread, where has that gone!

 

I spent days last year trying to get the TC to work, the ECU requires a signal from the ABS, if the earth wire is connected to the ECU then the ABS throws up a fault so only the signal wire can be used. A simple filter as used with the Race logic TC doesn't work as below about 6 MPH the outputs are somewhat erratic and the Adaptronic was showing wheel speeds in excess of Mach 2!!!! (On an oscilloscope it can be seen there is all sorts of noise which is giving these readings). This instantly cuts the engine as the ECU thinks a wheel is spinning out of control, it all works fine above 10 MPH you just can't get there!

 

I wasted days building loads of different circuits the one I found to work used an LM1815 chip, this is a surface mount device and is near impossible to solder to a board and I just didn't have any faith in my soldering having had one of the boards fail so i gave up. I even broke the cover off an ABS unit and tried to find a suitable signal with the scope but failed there too. So I just drove the car....

 

Towards the end of last year I found a device that works so four of these have been wired to the ABS signal wires and they give readings from stationary upwards so the ECU is happy  

 

I just need the time now to adjust all the parameters in the TC. This isn't going to be a ten minute job.

 

Apart from that the car has run without fault.

 

Dave

 

 

[Pooh Bear]

Can't believe where the times gone since I owned / sold this vx 

Shame MrSimba lost the will to carry on but so glad its in good hands and still 'out there'.

Gosh I miss owning a vx! 

 

Oh and a big hello to all the old members I knew on here. And hello to the new  

[Pooh Bear]

Oh my username on here used to be 'Penny'....if anyone is thinking wtf is Pooh Bear....

 

[denno]

This thread is seriously lacking some detailed pictures, get some up Dave!!

[Exmantaa]

And some more details on your latest TC noise filterings would be nice.

[Nev]

And some more details on your latest TC noise filterings would be nice.

Ditto Dave (pretty please). I know you put loads of personal time and effort into researching this, I (and a couple of others) would be really grateful if you could share you findings with us. I myself am hoping to make this mod by installing the GM modules between the hub sensors and ECU on my own car this winter. Ideally I would like to get the gear dependent boost control working on the ECU, as 1st and 2nd gear can't cope with the torque.

Edited by Nev, 26 August 2015 - 05:32 AM.

[Gedi]

Shiit, all Simon's pictures have disappeared. I was using this thread to assist with my build

[Dave H]

Just a quick reply. I have changed a few parameters on the TC and now run with it enabled for most of the time, no problems with the hardware now it just needs fine tuning when I get some time. After all the days and money I spent with the scope and components the answer is an off the shelf Vauxhall part but there are two types. I will post all the details when I'm next at my computer. Infuriating now when I realise I spent over a working week trying to find a solution! With the butchered ABS controller I'm going to see if I can sort a way of bleeding the ABS unit so I could do with a second hand unit if anyone reading this has one spare. I've found a few schematics on the web so this should be achievable. Nev you can use the speed sensor wire that feeds the speedo to set up boost in gear as a temporary fix, I use wastegate threshold in 1st and then a percentage of full boost in second that just gives wheelspin. As said I will add some more detail after the weekend when I will take some photos. Dave