- Hey team, Andre from High Performance Academy, welcome along to another one
of our webinars and today we're going to be looking into the setup and configuration
and validation for that matter of a pit limiter or for that matter any kind of
vehicle speed limiter.
We're going to be working through this using our MoTeC M1 that's fitted to our SR20 powered
Toyota 86 but essentially a lot of what you're going to learn today will be applicable
irrespective of what ECU you're personally interested in.
Before we do that though, I just want to cover off a few things that have been going on and
we'll start with the current giveaway that we have got running.
We have partnered with Racetech, a race seat manufacturer from right here in
New Zealand, we exclusively use Racetech's seats in our own vehicles and Racetech
are also a really big name across the world.
Being fitted to the likes of the Australian Supercars Series as well as several GT3
manufacturer built race cars.
So you can be assured that this is an absolute quality piece.
Not only are you getting a Racetech seat, you will be getting specifically their 4100HR
which is their head restraint seat so it's a nice feature that a lot of race seat
manufacturers are coming out with now which is where you've got some restraints
around the side of the driver's helmet.
And this particularly helps limit the potential for damage to your head and neck in a sideways
impact.
So that particular seat, we're also pairing with a set of 6 point harnesses, make sure you
stay snug in that seat and we're also giving away our race driver training courses as well.
Total package deal is worth over $2000 USD.
It's only just recently got going so you've got about 20 days left to get your name into the
draw, it is absolutely free to enter, there are a few little tasks you can also complete that
will give you more entries into the draw and give you a few more chances to win.
So we'll drop a link into the comments that you can follow that you can get your name
into that draw, we wish you the best of luck.
Now we've recently come back from World Time Attack over in Sydney and this is great
because we've been stuck in little old New Zealand for the last 2 years thanks
to COVID, mostly the same for everyone around the world but while New Zealand
is not a bad place to get stuck, we were starting to really get a bit itchy about
getting out and seeing some of our friends from across the channel over there in Australia
as well as the rest of the world but that'll be coming later this year.
This was another great event in the books for Ian Baker and the World Time Attack team.
And while we've also managed to restock our video files, we'll be adding to our YouTube channel
over the coming weeks and months with all of the content that we shot over there, I did want
to give you maybe just a quick taster of some of the aspects that I found interesting
over there so we'll jump across to my laptop screen and we'll start with an engine, not a car
but this is something that has come up recently a couple of times and I just wanted to address
it here.
So this was Deshele Performance's stand in the trade stand area.
Deshele specialises in Subaru EJ and FA series builds.
But the specific focus of this is we can see here, this is fitted with a set of ARP
main studs or main case bolts as they're often referred to in the Subaru world.
And this simply holds the two halves of the crank case together.
The boxer engine obviously is a little unique because we've got a horizontally
opposed engine configuration.
One of the problems with this or not really necessarily a problem, one of the
aspects that comes about from this configuration is that the engine's
essentially trying to force itself apart.
So what we'll find on any performance EJ series engine, when we pull it apart,
these little areas here which is where they contact the other sides of the case, you'll
often see what are referred to as fret marks and that simply means that the cases have
been pulling apart enough to allow a little bit of relative movement.
Now that's pretty normal even in lightly modified or even stock engines to a degree
but in high performance applications, that fretting can become so bad that it actually
wears away and then micro welds parts of the case to the other half so not great
and as an aspect, an upshot of that, you also end up with basically a path of oil
pressure loss so this can result in reduced oil pressure at high load, high boost, high
RPM, nothing that we want.
So obviously one of the options is to go to these ARP studs or case bolts in order
to combat that.
The bit that's really easy to overlook and this doesn't just go for EJ series engines,
it's really an aspect of just about every engine but definitely ones that use an
alloy block.
These aftermarket studs or bolts produce so much additional clamping force that
generally what they're going to do is distort the main bearing tunnel where
the crankshaft sits.
If you do not correct this, it's going to mess with your bearing clearances royally
to the point where it's likely you won't actually be able to turn the crankshaft,
obviously this is no good.
So this is a normal machining process that we go through where the machinist
that we use line hones the block and that basically gets everything back so that that
main bearing tunnel is on size, perfectly concentric, perfectly round.
Now the reason I bring this up is I have been hearing from a few people, and I
do know about this technique, not that I can recommend it, where they have
basically bought and aftermarket stud kit and then ignored the manufacturer's
instructions and instead only torqued the studs down to the point where they
start measuring distortion in the block.
Now while I know that this is a technique that many people are using and many people
are probably getting away with, I definitely can't recommend that.
If you're under torquing the fastener, you risk them loosening in operation,
they're definitely not achieving the clamp that the fastener was designed for or
intended to produce.
Essentially you're not getting the benefits of the product you've purchased so why bother?
If you're not prepared to have the block line honed, then you're not getting the proper
use of those fasteners, you may as well stick to using factory fasteners if that is going
to be the case so something I feel reasonably strongly about, it just doesn't make any sense
to me so there you go, just a little pointer for that if you are fitting aftermarket studs.
Next one was on Plazmaman's stand and intercoolers, I know it's pretty hard to get
excited about, I'm only going to briefly deal with this but this is something that I
saw a number of times while I was running my own performance workshop and this
is where people had bought cheap Chinese intercooler cores and the problem is that
on the outside they actually look quite good and some of them even were for a
long period of time.
I got to a situation where we were tuning a car and the intake air temperatures were
absolutely through the roof, even at relatively low boost and it just wasn't making any power.
After a bit of fact finding, fault finding I should say, we ended up pulling the intercooler
off the car and this shot here where we're looking through the inside of the intercooler,
so this is obviously the airflow path, we can see that the internal passes through the intercooler
actually have internal fins in then and this is really really important.
It gives a surface area that the air's going to flow over and it's important because this
is where we get that heat transfer, the heat gets drawn out of the air and transferred
into the aluminium fins of that intercooler.
So in the application I was just mentioning where we had that car on the dyno, when we
pulled the intercooler off, that pass that we're looking at there was essentially almost
completely open.
So it seems like whoever the Chinese supplier was, decided it was cheaper and easier to make
these cores with no internal fins.
Really destroyed the intercooler's usefullness, it just wasn't working.
Visually from the outside, looked like any other intercooler but it just wasn't able
to do an adequate job of getting the heat out of the air and transferring it into the
aluminium where it can then transfer it out into the ambient air.
So just understand there, not all intercoolers are created equal.
We swapped to another brand that had internal fins while the car was on the dyno
because it was a standardised 600 x 300 x 76 mm core and I think off the top of my head we gained
around about 40 kW at the wheels and air temperatures were immediately under control
again so just wanted to bring your attention to that, if you're shopping for intercoolers.
Another one, we know there's a lot of debate around drive by wire throttle bodies and
regardless whether you believe in them or don't, you're going to find there's not a lot
of professional motorsport now that isn't using drive by wire, the advantages simply
massively outweigh any perceived disadvantages.
Let you in on a little secret, those perceived disadvantages just don't exist, lag, it is not
an issue with modern drive by wire systems.
However they aren't infallible, they aren't completely bulletproof and we are seeing
some issues with an occasional race car, particularly those where the engine is solid
mounted or very stiffly mounted in the chassis and this comes down to transmission
of vibration harshness into the throttle body.
And we saw a few years ago, Under Suzuki in the Scorch Racing S15 had issues with this.
Basically the throttle body was occassionally dropping out and going into a limp home mode.
We had a similar issue with our own SR20 when the main bearing caps cracked, creating
a vibration and the throttle just wasn't doing exactly what it should do, it was closing when I
didn't want it to and obviously that's not a fast way around the track irrespective.
Solution for this, which we're seeing a lot of the top cars at World Time Attack now incorporate here
is that they are isolating the throttle body from the inlet manifold.
So in this case it's a second V band style clamp there, both sides of the throttle body,
it's pretty normal to have this one here where we're adapting using in this case I
think it's an EFI Solutions or TAARKS V band style clamp or wiggins style clamp I should say
really, allows some radial displacement as well as minimising the transfer of
vibration through these components.
But yeah using one on the plenum side is not so typical so we're seeing a lot of
that so if you are seeing some weirdness from your drive by wire throttle body
and you've got a very specific application there, again not needed for a road car,
this really comes down to these situations where the engine is either solid mounted or
very stiffly mounted in the chassis.
Now I just wanted to go through one of the standouts.
Obviously there were a lot and again we've got some great content coming out
over the coming weeks but just one of the standouts for me, because I'm a 4G63 fanatic,
was Chris Alexander's R32 GTR.
And unfortunately for some reason I don't actually have an external shot of this.
It's a full carbon fibre R32 GTR or the external bodywork is.
This is an existing car, it's run at World Time Attack before but of course being a GTR,
it was powered by a Nissan RB inline 6 cylinder.
For this year, Chris has partnered up with TRP Performance and we spoke to
Dom Rigoli about this.
It's obviously running a 4G63 Mitsubishi engine which on face value might seem
like an odd choice.
Now speaking to Dom about this, the aim was to get the weight of the car down but
also to get the mass closer to the centreline of the car.
Now the RB is a long motor, being an inline 6 so that puts a lot of the mass forward
of the front axle line and what you can see here is that essentially if we draw a line
between the strut towers there, the engine is actually behind that strut tower so it's
obviously been moved back as well, there's limits in terms of firewall
modifications that mean that you can't move the engine back too far, that
firewall needs to remain uncut from memory.
But yeah 4G63 instead of the venerable RB26, 28, RB30, whichever you prefer.
So this engine is making about 1030 wheel horsepower running a Borgwarner
EFR 9280 so it's a big turbo for a relatively small capacity engine.
This one is 2.2, it is still using the Evo 9 MIVEC.
So that's one interesting element there and obviously a bit of an eye opener for
any Nissan R23 GTR.
The other aspect that goes hand in hand with the engine's change from the last
time the car ran is it's now running an Albins ST6 transaxle.
So that's mounted at the rear of the car.
Sort of a little bit like the R35 GTR concept where instead of a conventional gearbox and
transfer case mounted straight off the back of the engine, a prop shaft runs off the
engine all the way to the rear of the car and then the gearbox, the clutch assembly
and the differential are all mounted at the rear of the car.
So that again just helps get that weight distribution a little bit closer to what the
team are hoping for, whether that's 50/50, I'm not privy to that information but yeah
gets the weight off the front axle line to a degree and obviously the aim there
is to improve the handling.
Speaking of handling, this car also has a fairly dramatic upgrade in terms of the
suspension, so you can see from this shot here, some custom suspension
pick ups, double wishbone suspension arrangement, if we just go back as well
you can see quite an elaborate push rod damper configuration and also the
anti roll bar is a blade style anti roll bar, nothing particularly unusual about blade
anti roll bars because they are easy to adjust in terms of anti roll bar stiffness.
The location however is relatively unique being that it's mounted in the scuttle panel
there at the base of the windscreen so not a lot of stock R32 left.
Part of the rules state that the front strut towers need to remain so that's
exactly what we can see here, we've got strut towers.
They're not doing anything but they are there so the rules are all kept happy.
Not in shot but also this is now fitted with a Bosch Motorsport ABS unit.
We can also see in this shot here, same arrangement that I was mentioning
where the drive by wire throttle body is isolated pre and post throttle body
from the plenum chamber.
Last little note on this one as well and we've done a tech feature on this
specific technology but you can see this tiny little drive by wire throttle
body that's mounted on the charge plumbing running up to the actual
throttle body.
So this serves two purposes, the first of which is that it's a blow off valve,
electronic blow off valve so obviously when the driver gets off the throttle,
that can open.
More importantly though and the real reason for this is it acts as an anti surge
device so that 9280 turbo, it's a big turbo for a small capacity engine and
we can get into situations, particularly when we're targeting higher boost pressures
at part throttle where we're getting dangerously close to running the
compressor into surge.
And when we do run into surge, it's not great for the turbocharger,
it also can upset the balance of the car and you sort of get into a situation
where the car becomes a little bit jerky and erratic, that can then set
the driver's foot up on the throttle, oscillating which kind of makes the
whole thing worse obviously, not a situation you want when you're trying
to balance the car on the edge of traction so this coupled with some
clever programming in the ECU can allow that blow off valve,
drive by wire throttle body I should say to open when the turbo is approaching
the surge line to prevent that surge situation occurring so just allowing
a more aggressive boost strategy and a larger turbo to be operated
safely and reliably on a small capacity engine.
Alright so only a few little titbits there from World Time Attack but as I've said,
we've got heaps of great content coming so keep an eye on our social media for that.
Now just give me a second, I'll head back across to my laptop here and we'll get our
next little segment loaded up.
So if you haven't already been listening to our podcast, it you're not aware that
we've got one, well we do, it's the HPA Tuned In podcast.
I'd love it if you could go and subscribe to that and have a listen.
If you are an automotive fanatic and you do listen to podcasts at the moment,
this is going to be a great way of absorbing some excellent content.
We've had some really great people on the podcast already, some really
exciting names coming up as well so jumping over to my laptop screen,
our latest release is our interview with Mike Burroughs from Stanceworks and
if you haven't heard that name before, Mike's kind of best known for doing things
a little bit unusual such as this Ferrari 308 GTB which he has shoehorned a
1200 horsepower K20 turbo engine into the back of.
He's obviously going to annoy a few Ferrari purists but I think that's actually
part of the fun for him.
He's also a really well known BMW specialist and he's really well known
for one of his old builds which was called Rusty Slammington.
I've been following Stanceworks' blog for a really long time so it was great to
actually be able to sit down and have a chance to chat with Mike.
And Mike's really multi faceted in what he can do and he's essentially completely
self taught so right down to fabrication, computer aided design, using Fusion 360,
his TIG welding, his MIG welding, basically there's not a lot that Mike can't do so there's
some really good information in there on basically how to get those skills, how to
upskill yourself, how to get your mind into the right space where nothing is impossible.
Also some great tips because Mike specialises in project car builds, some great tips on how
to manage your project, how to make sure that you actually see it through to the end
and don't get sidetracked or disillusioned which unfortunately probably my guess
happens in 7 or 8 out of 10 project cars that get started, they just never get finished
and I'm guilty of that myself so check that out on HPA Tuned In.
You can listen to that anywhere you currently listen to podcasts or head to hpa-tunedin.com.
Alright we'll finish up there but just one more reminder for that Racetech seat,
harness and course giveaway, $2000 USD worth of value there, get your name into the
draw, there's only 20 days left for that to run.
So please don't miss out, it really is a great giveaway, particularly if you are
considering getting out on a race track any time soon.
Make sure you do it in comfort, style and most importantly in safety.
Alright thanks for watching, give me a moment here and we'll get started with
today's lesson.
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