Winter maintenance to custom turbo project

[burgandy81]

Hi All,

It has been a couple of years since I have been around FS.com as I got distracted by an old Jaguar ('78 XJ6).

The FIAT has been safely tucked away and it is time for some winter maintenance and a chance to correct all those little things that are never quite right on a rolling project car.

By way of introduction, I will offer some perspective on how I approach work on this car.

Concept - It is a science-fair-project/performance-driving machine. I have owned the car for at least 15 years and it is extensively modified.
- 15" Wheels - Big Brakes - Tires - Sway cars - Springs - Shocks

Aesthetically - I am drawn to what I imagine and rogueish Italian James Bond would have driven in the late sixties. Recent picture below, somewhere on this site must be an older picture but I cannot find it.
- Early bumper conversion - BMW Fijord Blue paint - hood and trunk badge delete - door mirror delete - leather Del-Sol seats - roll bar - sound deadening - too many small changes to remember







Under the hood - Fire-breathing monster with inspiration from the tuner crowd and particularly turbo Miata builds.
- Lancia 8V Turbo and manifold - Lanica Dedra intake manifold - intercooler - custom injection (Megasquirt) - aluminum rad - Coil-on-plug ignition - many little things to make all this work

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AD ... authuser=0




As we sit now in the garage, hood off, and ready to work



The car has been in this mechanical configuration for almost 10 years. It is great fun to drive although it has been temperamental lately. The worst symptom is occasionally dying for no obvious reason and then magically restarting when it feels like it. My best guess is that the issue relates to a combination of my bad wiring, an old DIY ECU, and 10 years of Frankenstein-like modifications undertaken because I watched one too many YouTube shows.


On to our current event. As I mentioned, I have a list of items to address and wanted a chronicle and some advice from the team as I progress.

Megasquirt
Issues - The auto-tune is no longer working, Firmware updates fail, and sporadic failures.

Items to address
- Dissamble ECU, clean board, re-install firmware, bench test
- Review and update circuit board modifications to meet modern specs for running Coil-on-Plug
- Remove and rebuild the wiring harness to eliminate splices and low-quality connectors
- Add boost solenoid and wiring to allow for programable boost control
- Instal dedicated MS fuse box in the engine bay as per MS manual best practices
- Add fused fuel pump power wire from MS fuse box directly to pump to abandon original chassis pump power wire.
- Remove idle air control as it leaks boost and is a PIA

Engine
Issues - some oil in the coolant leads me to think I did not get a good seal when I installed my last head gasket. Some annoying oil leaks

Items to addres
- Install new head gasket
- install new turbo oil supply line
- Re-seal oil manifold on oil-filter housing. This screws into the original oil pressure sender and provides multiple ports for turbo oil supply, oil temp gauge, oil pressure gauge, and original oil light.
- Check turbo oil drain pick-up on oil pan for leaks (again), possibly remove pan (again), try another amateur weld (again) to seal it up and stop the oil weeping.

Other
- Eliminate electric exhaust cut-out that is slow to react and never seals well. permanent exhaust leak.
- Explore some kind of performance exhaust


I hope to get one or two evenings a week to putter around on this and have it ready for spring driving.

Feel free to chime in with any recent modifications or customizations that you think may be fitting. Is there some way to mount FIAT 500 rear brakes now? I am out of the loop....

Kind regards,
Jordan

[ORFORD2004]

Is there some way to mount FIAT 500 rear brakes now? I am out of the loo

Yes

[burgandy81]

Hey Orford! Nice to see you still hanging around here! How is the car?

The starting point. Lots of room to improve! In retrospect, I am impressed it ran as long as it did.


Here is the MS board itself.




It took a while to figure out what I had done here. To summarize, these are the board modifications as per the MS manual with manual reference #.

13.6 - Low Z injector PWM mod. This is very rarely needed. I happened to be using old DSM injectors as they were the cheapest high-volume (450cc) junkyard injectors I could find at the time.

5.3.1.4 - Logic level spark outputs. This is used to trigger the coil-on-plug units. Junkyard Yaris.

3.5.4.2 - 2-wire PWM idle air valve mod. This works OK but I will not use an idle valve and will try to use this circuit to run the Boost Solenoid.

3.4.9.2 - Clutch ground switch. This is grounded through a FIAT brake light switch that is mounted to my clutch pedal. When the clutch is depressed, the switch grounds. MS uses this for Flat Shift. I have had this for a while and could never make it work. It seems I missed a wire on the prototype board!!!!

Internally everything is in better shape than I expected.

I am having a very hard time connecting to the MS with an old Mac Book which is a known issue related to drivers.

I hope to find another computer to try this with as plan to update the firmware next and do some bench testing.

[ORFORD2004]

Hey Orford! Nice to see you still hanging around here! How is the car?

Nice, i just rebuilt it and went to the dyno. 212 HP 216 lbs torque at 15 PSI and we stop there but he was still happy.
Small winding sound from the rear end and i think i have to much backlash because it's only on coasting. I will have to put my gear closer.
131 transmission with shorter remote.

[burgandy81]

212 HP 216 lbs torque at 15 PSI and we stop there ....

131 transmission with shorter remote.

Huge numbers!! That must be fun to drive.
Where did you find a 131 transmission? What is the 5th gear ratio?
What are you doing for exhaust?


Minor update on my end.

I FINALLY got the firmware updated. It was a pain as my Macbook Air was causing some communication errors and would not support the Firmware update. I now believe this issue has been causing some of my issues. To get it done, I needed to dig out a Raspberry pi and use that to update the Firmware.

Note to anyone else using Megasquirt, try to avoid Mac OS and stick to a Windows laptop.

Up next, wiring harness!

[gonepunch]

Your project sounds like an incredible labor of love. It's impressive to see the extensive modifications you've made to your FIAT. As you delve into the winter maintenance, your systematic approach to addressing the Megasquirt issues and engine concerns shows your dedication to keeping this machine in top shape.

Your plan to disassemble the ECU, clean the board, and address wiring issues seems thorough. The addition of a boost solenoid for programmable boost control and a dedicated MS fuse box in the engine bay reflects attention to detail.

Dealing with oil leaks and potential head gasket issues requires patience, but it's great that you're tackling these issues head-on. The quest for a well-sealed turbo oil supply line and addressing the electric exhaust cut-out shows your commitment to perfection.

Wishing you smooth progress in your winter maintenance, and looking forward to updates on your journey. Feel free to reach out if you need any advice or share your insights with the community.

[ORFORD2004]

Huge numbers!! That must be fun to drive. Yes
Where did you find a 131 transmission? What is the 5th gear ratio? Near New York couple years ago
What are you doing for exhaust?

2.5 SS all around

[burgandy81]

2.5 SS all around

How did you clear the front cross member/steering rack and rear axle? I tried a homemade 2.5 and it banged and rattled.


So I got a little sidetracked with the computer.

Part of my problem over the last couple of years was tuning. If I used a laptop, I was forever running out of battery when I was ready to tune and if I had battery, it would not sync!

Since I needed the Raspberry Pi to connect to the ecu for the firmware update, I decided that I would build a little in-car computer that could be hardwired to the ecu for tuning.

This was assembled from the parts bin - I recommend a cheap windows laptop and power adapter for anyone starting from scratch.



7" Rpi touchscreen, Rpi3B+, DC-DC power converter, shutdown button, and an old router box from the recycling pile. The mount is a sheet metal bracket to slip into my phone holder. Power is direct from the battery, independent from chassis harness or key position.

This will allow for handsfree monitoring and tuning with no concern about bluetooth or battery.

I am hoping this is it for peripherals and I can get to the actual car soon. 

[ORFORD2004]

I don't know why you try tune it yourself. That's what i did before and it ended with piston #4 broken between the compression rings. It cost me $700 for the dyno but if you compare both tuning,he remove gaz on 95% of the table and retard my advance and he was able to tune my knock sensor. Now, no more computer just premium gaz. For the exhaust i will take a picture later.

[burgandy81]

Harness is removed. Several poor decisions and 'temporary' connections have been unearthed and will be corrected as it goes back together.

The fuse panel has been moved from the passenger footwell to the passenger inner fender as shown in the photo. All other hardware will stay in the existing location.

I have ordered and await
-fabric harness wrap tape
-new die for my wire crimper
-replacement connectors for Denso COP
-additional connectors to rewire the fuse panel

This is definitely one of the projects I should have done years ago.

[burgandy81]

We're getting there.



Harness
- New ends for the Coil on Plug
- New boots for injectors
- Shortened all wires
- Bundled and wrapped wires in cloth harness wrap

The ECU is mounted again with all terminals cleaned.

The fuse box is mostly complete. I need to stop by the marine store and get some 10awg wire to run from the alternator to the fuse box as the primary power supply.

During this process I found several poor-quality crimped joints, a couple of frayed wires, and a few loose quick connects. Once again, I am glad I made it home from my adventures with some of these issues.

All connections are now well-crimped and integrated into multi-pin connectors by function.

Once I get the power wire for the fuse box I will test all the circuits and possibly start up to make sure I have the wiring correct.

After the wiring, we get to the head gasket and associated leak fixes.

[burgandy81]

Hi all,

The electrical portion of our adventure is mostly complete. I reinstalled the harness and static-checked all of the terminals. The ECU allows me to read all of the sensors with a stationary motor and trigger all of the outputs (fuel pump, injectors, coils) which I can check with a meter. All is well.

I moved on to some mechanical maintenance thinking I would pull the head. Before I did so, I did a quick dry compression check and found 123,124,125,125 on a motor that has not turned in over a year. This seems good for a stock '83 bottom end and a recent 2L head.

My original motivation to pull the head was some oil in the coolant. I had assumed I had a head gasket issue. With the above compression numbers, I am no longer convinced about the head gasket.

Is there some other way to get oil in the coolant that I should explore before major surgery?