Since the age of about 6 or 7 I’d say, I’ve had glasses almost permanently attached to my face. The first thing I do in the morning is reach over and put them on, and the last thing I do at night before falling asleep is take them off. The only time I don’t wear [...]
Posts Tagged ‘cd9a’
ECMLink now Available for early Evos
Posted By Dave on November 11th, 2009
Some of you may remember that earlier this year I owned a 1992 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution: a car that, in the few times something wasn’t broken on it, was pretty swift. I took part in a few drag tournaments here in Okinawa with it, gaining a 2nd and 3rd place trophies. It was also pretty good in “unofficial” races, but that’s a subject for another time.
One of the final modifications I did to the car, and one I was probably the most excited about, was changing the ECU to a tuning/datalogging setup called ECMLink. Formerly this was known as DSMLink and had a sizable following in the States with the DSM folk. I had been asked by the makers at testing and reporting back on the system and how it worked on the early Evos before it hit the market. I did quite a bit of testing before my car met an untimely demise and now ECMLink has been released for Evo I, II and III owners around the world.
Before I chat a little about ECMLink, I’ll run through its main features, courtesy of the ECMLink website:
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Injector and deadtime compensation
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Fuel and timing adjustments using our extended tables
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Rev limit control (launch, NLTS, and full engine rev limit)
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Dash gauge control (on platforms where the ECU has control over a dash gauge)
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TPS dial-in, idle switch simulation
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Narrowband O2 simulation (so you can log A/F ratio from a wideband *and* run normal closed loop operation off the same signal)
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Anti-lag during launch and between shifts
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Knock sensor adjustments
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Solenoid tests, fan control, fuel pump control, and a variety of other miscellaneous functions
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DTCs – check and enable/disable various trouble codes
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Input manipulation (log aftermarket sensors on ECU inputs while disabling the factory use of those inputs)
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O2 feedback adjustment (so you can account for variations in feedback control caused by wideband sensors)
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Throttle tip-in adjustments
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Airflow smoothing
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Airflow compensation (to run other Mitsubishi MAF sensors)
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Adjustable long term fuel trim control points
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Open loop thresholds
- MAP sensor support
Although initially a little concerned about how ECMLink would compare to my older Ostrich/Tunerpro/Pocketlogger combination which I was very fond of, those fears were soon subdued by the sheer magnitude of what this hardware/software combination could do. Requiring just a couple of small soldering modifications to the ECU in order to add a socket for the new chip and move a jumper, everything fom then on was controlled through the OBDI socket next to the driver’s right foot.
While there is nothing wrong with the Ostrich/Tunepro setup, it was always a “best effort” solution to tuning for the people that didn’t want to go for something like a PocketFC or the Haltech/SDS standaone setups. What I mean by that is that the Tunerpro software and Pocketlogger was never made with the early Evos in mind. Tunepro had features on it that people wanted (e.g. the ability to log data on their Evo), but which wasn’t really possible. And Pocketlogger was made for DSM cars which meant that, while the important information was loggable, not all of the variables corresponded to what they should be.
In contrast, ECMLink (or ECMLink Lite in its current guise) was made for the early Evos. And I can say this as I was someone who used both systems and tested them out fully. You can take advantage of all the features the ECMLink software has to offer. This includes not only the usual things like setting up injector deadtimes, fuelling and ignition timing etc, but also supports the GM-MAF, and even a MAP sensor so you can get rid of the MAF sensor completely.
Personally, one of my favourite aspects of the setup was the datalogging ability. You could log almost any aspect of the car’s performance, for analysis later. From the logs you could se exactly what points on the fuelling and timing maps you were hitting at what rpm, so you can make minute adjustments to the car’s tuning to maximise performance. There was also wideband logging support through something called “narrowband simulation“, which I will leave the product’s owners to tell you about.
Lastly, although definitely not least, is the support available for this setup. DSMLink has been going for sometime and has a huge members forum where people can post their logs for support. While testing the software and hardware, I posted logs up and people pointed out number of issues with my car that I needed to iron out, and which I would have never known about otherwise. The knowledge there is invaluable and people are very keen to help analyse your logs and reach your car’s potential.
The only downside I noticed in the setup when I was doing initial testing is that fuelling and timing changes could not be done “on-the-fly” (i.e. with the engine running). In this aspect, the Ostrich setup was more favourable, although there was talk about adding this feature to the final release of ECMLink. Am not sure if that was done in the end though, and would only be the icing on a very tasty cake.
Am sure this sounds like sales spiel, but rest assured I am not getting any sort of kickback on this! I just like to make people aware of when I find something they may find beneficial to their cars, and this is certainly one of those cases. Thomas Dorris and the other folk at ECM Tuning have made a heck of a product in ECMLink, and at $345 it is very affordable too. If you want any other info about the setup, please get in touch with them at ECMlink. Tell them Dave Webb from Japan sent you – hopefully they won’t send you any abuse in response!
Posted in Cars
Best Reaction so far to my Wreck
Posted By Dave on August 18th, 2009
Well, since managing to wreck my car on Sunday, I’ve had a bunch of supporting emails and comments on here and on other online forums, and I thank you all for that. I am currently trying to organise a new set of wheels so I’m no longer a pedestrian, and hopefully I can do that very soon. My Evo will be deregistered and in a junkyard tomorrow, still unfortunately with a bunch of nice parts still attached to it. Unfortunately, I have neither the space nor time to pull them off.
I have had a few amusing responses, although none so much as the one I’m going to feature here, which comprised of just two pictures. Hope they raise a smile with you as much as they did with me!
Posted in Cars
Wrecked the Evo…
Posted By Dave on August 17th, 2009
Not a whole lot more to say about it really. All the quick driving I do and I wreck the car going at normal road speed on a daily drive home. Was close to my home on a normal drive. Doing about 45 and approached a 90 degree turn going left turn. the road was wet but not huge puddles or anything. Dabbed the brakes and turned as normal and the wheels turned, but the car didn’t. Slammed the brakes but car was already heading in a JDM-tyte style drift around the corner and into the other lane. Unfortunately, a Pajero Mini was coming the other way and my drivers side front wheel area slammed into hers.
Before I went into shock (having taught first aid I could feel myself getting the symptoms of it), I dashed over to the other car. She had painful ribs and I thought a couple of them were cracked or broken. She went to hospital in an ambulance but it turns out she’s perfectly fine and was discharged a few hours ago.
Am pretty my car’s chassis has been compromised and bent though and wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a complete write-off. The same for hers. Luckily though she’s not hurt and I walked away from it fine. Funny thing (if there is one here) is that when it got to the garage the flatbed truck guy got in my car, fired up the engine first time and then on 3 wheels drove the thing off the truck.
No excuses, I’ll put my hand up and I ‘fess up. I’m big enough to accept responsibility and despite the road condition and the fact that there was no centreline at all in the road, it was my fault. Wasn’t flying but just must have had too much momentum going into that turn. Just kind of happy I’m here to tell the tale, as well as the other person. Feel free to have jabs at my crap driving, although keep it down a little. Am still a little fragile with some neck stiffness.
Went to insurance today and am pretty sure I have to shoulder 100% of the blame. The good news is that even if I repair the car or buy another of the same make, my insurance would only go up $30! I was expecting it to go up 10 times that. Am thinking it might be a sign to get out of the game a little though and going for something a little slower and cheaper for a while. As my old man said though: 2 minutes later and it could have been a truck coming the other way, which would have just plowed through my car and me.
Posted in Cars
The Evo I Suffers from Fuel Pressure Regulator Overrun
Posted By Dave on August 14th, 2009
Found this out very recently and thought it was pretty interesting information and might be relevant to one or two of you. Have been doing some problem solving, trying to find out why my Evo was idling a little rich. I worked my way back to my Sard fuel pressure regulator and checked it out. Firstly, I made sure there were no cuts or tears in the vacuum lines going to the FPR but it looked fine. I then pulled the top vacuum line off it, blocked it with my thumb and checked the pressure with the engine idling. It was at 45psi so I went to take it down to the stock 43.5psi. But no matter what I did I couldn’t get it to go any further. I even had the top elbow unscrew completely but still pressure stayed there.
So I thought “what the hell” and thought I’d live with 45psi, but then when I put the vacuum line back on the top nipple the fuel pressure didn’t change at all. I know it should drop a few psi so I’m thinking my FPR has possibly died on me. But then I did a little research and found that the 2G AWD DSMs suffer from the exact same problem: fuel pressure regulator overrun.
What usually happens in this situation is that the fuel return line isn’t wide enough to take back enough fuel, and so the pressure stays high. But this wasn’t the case in the situation of the Evo I. What I think is causing it is the design of the fuel tank itself. Because of the driveshaft, the fuel tank is basically in 2 separate parts, with a siphon between them that draws fuel from one side of the tank to the other. This is the restriction in the Evo I system and not the fuel pressure regulator. I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure the Evo II and III have a different design of fuel tank (Mitsubishi have it listed with a different part number anyway) with a bigger siphon.
Now there are a number of solutions, the main one being to enlarge the siphon between the fuel tanks, but there is an easier one you can do with your tuning software and is the one that I adopted. I upped the fuel pressure at the FPR to 55psi, and then told my tuning software that my injectors were 840cc and not 750cc ones. Problem is then solved!
Hope this is helpful to someone out there, and is something to think about if you’re idling rich. Note that this problem does not occur when at full throttle; only at idle and light cruising.
Posted in Cars
Installing ECMLink for early Evos
Posted By Dave on August 8th, 2009
So you’ve heard about ECMLink for the early Evos and really want to try it out? Well one of the things to note with the early Evo version is that installation is slightly different from what you might initially expect. Not necessarily more difficult but just with an added step than normal.
The package will come with a EPROM chip that goes into your ECU, but you will need to do 2 small modifications to your existing ECU if it’s completely stock. The first one will be to remove the existing main chip on the ECU and install a socket in its place. If you have modified the ECU with chips before then it will most likely already be fitted with a socket, but if the ECU is completely stock then the modification will need carrying out. Anyone with electrical knowledge, steady hands and a soldering iron should be able to carry this out, but if you have any doubts then take it to a professional to have modified. The chip you need to remove will be at the bottom right if you open up the ECU and position it so that the connector is at the top. Below you can see the ECMLink chip installed in my ECU and the socket socket that it’s installed in.
Now if you look to the left of the chip on the image above you’ll see a “J1″ and “J2″ with a bit of makeshift soldering work. That is the second modification that is required for running ECMLink on early Evos. The ECU is normally made to handle 32k chips, but the amount of information held on the ECMLink system means that this is not enough, and a 64k chip is needed. From here there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Mitsubishi decided to make it possible to switch from 32k chip support to 64k chip support with the changing of a single jumper. The bad news is that they decided to solder the jumper to the board!
Once again, someone with steady hands and a soldering iron or 2 should be able to move this jumper with almost no problems. Even without flux, my buddy managed to move this jumper in about 5-10 minutes. You can a close-up of the switched jumper position below.
Once that jumper is switched you’re ready to drop the ECMlink chip in and perform final checks before firing the engine up into life. More information about this modification is given here on the ECMLink Wiki. I’ll be reporting much more on my experiences using ECMLink in the very near future so stay tuned and let me know if you have any questions about the setup.
Posted in Cars
DSMLink/ECMLink for Early Evos
Posted By Dave on August 5th, 2009
Life has been crazily hectic over the past few weeks so I sincerely apologize for the lack of updates. Ending one job, starting another and a few other personal bits going on so I haven’t had the time and energy to sit down and write on here, despite having plenty to talk about. But I have a few minutes now and an update that some of you might have an interest in.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a Mr Thomas Dorris of ECMTuning. ECMTuning is a company well known in the US within the DSM community. Their flagship product DSMLink (now ECMLink) is THE tuning solution for 1G and 2G DSMs if you don’t want to go all out on a standalone engine management system. The system uses the stock ECU and sensors, but replaces the main ECU chip with one of its own, and allows you to manipulate almost every part engine management, whether you’re just using the car as a daily driver, or running it into low 10s passes for the 1/4 mile and beyond, this syetm can handle it.
Anyway, as one of the few members on the DSM Forums site who actually owns an early Evo rather than a DSM, I had attracted his attention. This was in addition to the fact that I’d sent him an early Evo ECU through a friend a while ago for them to do testing on. He had read a few of my tuning threads and was enquiring as to whether I would be interested in beta testing the latest version of ECMLink for them, which would be the first version to support the early Evos. I didn’t need asking twice. I’d looked a few times before at DSMLink and had wished it was available for my Evo so I could compare it to the Ostrich chip emulator and Tunerpro RT software combination that I currently use. Now I had the chance to be involved in the testing of a full engine management and logging system.
I replied, giving my address here in Japan as well as a few details about my car and barely a day later a package was sent out to me in the mail. In future updates I’m going to explain more about ECMLink, its main features and how I have gone on with installation and testing. My car hasn’t blown up (yet) so I can report that early testing is going pretty well, and it’s actually fun for me learning a new system and having a hand in its development and, no pun intended, evolution. A new entry into the market for early Evo engine management is definitely a welcome sight though, and especially one with such a strong community support base behind it.
Finally, I want to note that even though I will be involved in the testing of this product and will be reporting back on it here, I’m going to call things as I see them. If I find a feature that’s great then I’ll go on about it; similarly, if there’s something I really don’t like about the software or hardware then it will get mentioned here in the interests of fairness and equality. Want to try and give people as unbiased a view on this setup as possible.
Posted in Cars
The Joys of Tuning a 1992 Evo
Posted By Dave on July 15th, 2009
I know this will probably only appeal to the car junkies out there, but maybe someone can learn from it so I’ll post it up. Am going to start reporting on the trials and tribulations of tuning my 1992 Mitsubishi Evo and the 4G63 engine inside, and what goes on with the moneypit I like to call my mode of transportation. In brief, I am using The Ostrich chip emulator connected to my stock ECU for tuning purposes, alongside the Tunerpro software. To log the data collected while tuning I am using the Pocketlogger software. And I get my chip code from the excellent and knowledgeable people at geekmapped.com. Prior to my engine blowing up I was running at about 1.65 bar of boost, giving me 1/4 mile times of 11.68s, which is pretty good, all things considered. That should give you an idea of my starting point
I only managed to do a couple of logs this weekend, but they were successful, and despite being a little down on power due to not doing any actual tuning during the session, I was getting almost zero knock (just 2 knock counts for 0.1s at around 6500rpm). Might just throw in a bit more fuel there to sort that out. I was hitting about 1.65 bar of boost and I think holding about 1.6bar right up to redline.
Note that this was with a degree of timing taken out of my current map (which you can also see below, so you know what I’m starting with) at the top end, to be a bit more conservative pre-tuning. Note that the fuel map below does look a little strange, but that’s mainly as I’m using methanol injection (a 75% methanol:water mix) which starts to come in at 1bar. Once I’ve got the fuel load mapping sorted out I can make sure that’s all working as it should. Have to say that even though my overall power figures were a little down as noted on my Rev/Speed Meter (391ps) it felt quick and there is still some boost and timing left to be put back in there. You can tell my power is a little down too, looking at my injector duty cycle.
Am also including a CSV file for Excel of my full run, for completion’s sake. As to whether the car is performing well, we’ll find out this coming Sunday as after work I managed to put my name down as a late entrant for the drag tournament. I think as long as my car is able to drive home under its own power at the end of the day I’ll be pretty happy. Anything more than that will be a bonus!
know this will probably only appeal to the car junkies out there, but maybe someone can learn from it so I’ll post it up.
Posted in Cars
Heat + Compressed Air + Car = Bad Combination
Posted By Dave on June 22nd, 2009
The car was left in the parking lot at work yesterday while I was at my school festival all day. I got out of work at 7pm and get to the car. Get in and there’s kitchen roll (which was in the back seat) everywhere. My box of wrenches and sockets open and all over the place, one wrench even sitting on my dashboard. I’m thinking “Someone’s got into my car while the festival’s been going on”… but all my doors were locked. And then I noticed the big tear in my rear seat and something sticking in it.
A can of compressed air I had in there for cleaning a few engine parts had exploded in the heat in my car, causing everything to fly all over and the can to rip a hole through the seat, through the foam below it and make a small dent in the fuel pump cover. That must have been some serious explosion in my car, and I’m lucky that no glass was smashed or anything else is damaged.
It is just another thing that needs repairing now (in addition to a new coat of clearcoat being needed on the damn thing). But it still runs I suppose, or it did until 6pm tonight. Who knows about now!
Posted in Cars
The Evo Lives!!!
Posted By Dave on June 15th, 2009
As Canned Heat famously sang many years ago, I’m “On the Road Again”, and boy does it feel good to be able to drive places in my own car. It took a pretty big effort and most of the weekend to get it up and running though, and wasn’t without incident, as you’ll see.
My weekend started early… at 5:30am on Saturday morning to be precise, when I got up and got the bus to Naha and then up to Chatan. Clouds were low and there was some drizzle in the air so I was hoping it would lift and we could have dry weather for the work. I picked up some mineral oil, some synthetic oil and a couple of oil filters and then headed to Starbucks for a coffee. Met up with one of the guys who was going to help me (Matt) and we headed back down to my place. I was pretty lucky as this guy is one of the most knowledgeable engine builders in Okinawa and really knows his stuff when it comes to what needs to be done. Another good buddy of mine, Chris, also came down and helped out.
We set to work doing a bit more cleaning of the engine block, and cleaning & covering in molylube the ARP head studs that were going to be holding the head and block together. The stock headgasket was put in place and the engine lifted on. Although this wasn’t done before Chris had his final chance to leave a mark on the engine, and he did, quite literally! See the photos below (and the “Skrappy” written on one of the pistons refers to the curse he has on me and my car, as discussed here).
Timing belt was a bit of a pain to fit, but that’s mainly due to Mitsubishi’s wonderful lack of ingenuity when it comes to this part of the car. I love the 4G63 engines, but some things about them just defy belief and logic. The marks were all lined up and so to check everything we but a breaker bar into the crankshaft socket and turned the engine over to make sure everything was nice and smooth. It wasn’t.
I fact, it wouldn’t budge an inch. To say my reaction wasn’t one of complete ecstasy would be a gross underestimate! And we’d got the head on, the head studs torqued right up and the timing belt off, and now the prospect of taking everything apart again. And just then, right on cue, the heavens opened and it started to rain. Straight away Matt had an idea of what it could be to cause the engine to seize completely like that, and he told me to drop the oil pan so he can take a look at the rods and crankshaft himself.
Oil pan was dropped as I started to resemble a drowned rat more and more and Matt dropped under. The rod caps nuts on rods 3 and 4 were loosened first and immediately the engine started to move freely. They were hand tightened again and the motor was stuck solid. With some turning of the engine and looking at faded markings he eventually realized that I’d mixed up caps 3 and 4. While you might not think this would make a big difference and there are only thousands of an inch difference, it is enough to turn a free motor into a completely seized one. The caps were swapped and tightened up, and all was well again. Was a little annoyed with myself as I thought I’d matched everything up right, but I hadn’t and at least nothing broke or blew up.
So with the motor running freely, all that was left to do was attach the bolt-on parts and make sure the engine has oil pressure before starting it up, all of which I left until Sunday. It would only take a couple of hours at most and then I would be up and running. The first part was easy; the latter not so much. Giving the engine oil pressure is also known as “priming” it. You don’t want the engine to start and for the oil pump not to be sending oil around the engine as you’ll very quickly ruin parts. And the way you do that is you turn the engine over with the starter but with no spark plugs connected and no fuel going into the cylinders. So I pulled off the cam angle sensor, filled the engine with 10w/40 mineral oil, and got some jumper cables going to my girlfriend’s car. I had to turn the key for 15 seconds or until I got a reading on the oil pressure gauge. If nothing happened after 15 seconds I was to wait for the starter to cool down for a minute and then try again.
So I tried… and tried… and tried. I even tried pulling off the oil filter and pumping oil directly into the engine and pump to try and get some pressure going. I was getting absolutely no oil pressure at all. What should have taken about 15 minutes to do I was doing for almost 3 hours. In the end I was just losing all will to live and the clouds were dropping again signifying rain was on its way. Turning the starter at that slow speed wasn’t enough to get oil pressure so the only thing I could do was to start the engine and watch the oil pressure gauge. If it didn’t register any pressure within the first 5 seconds the engine would be shut off and I would get even more depressed.
Nervously I put the spark plugs back in and finished plugging everything else back in, and then I turned the key. After turning for only about 2 seconds the engine fired up into life once more, and a huge feeling of relief came over me. This thing has been down for almost 2 months and I’ve done a rebuild, on the whole, by myself. I’ve messed things up along the way, but have got advice and have been able to fix my errors, but it’s the first time I’ve ever attempted anything like this and it has been successful. Have to say I did feel proud for a second or 2.
That feeling quickly subsided when I did notice that one of the hoses going to my fuel rail was leaking fuel onto an already very hot intake manifold! I ran to the driver’s side and turned off the ignition before tightening up the hoses and starting it up again, and all was well. I got some lifter tick at the start but once the oil was circulating the noise went away. Same with a bit of smoke that was coming out of the exhaust from any contaminants that had got into the engine. After it was warmed up I turned the engine off and changed out oil and the oil filter (as both would have picked up a lot of grime from the parts that had gone in.
Just got a couple of issues that need ironing out now. First is that the stock tachometer seemed a little dodgy while driving last night, but I think that is down to a dodgy connection somewhere, and it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The other might be a little more serious, although no huge problem. I think my excessive attempts to get oil pressure into the engine may have caused a little damage to the starter motor, and it’s now screeching for about half a second after the engine starts up. Fortunately I’ve got a spare starter motor on my spare engine, so I’ll put that in when I’ve got the time & inclination, and hopefully before it packs up altogether and I’ve got to resort to push starting it!
But I am running again and the car feels pretty nice actually. I’m on a breaking-in period now which means no really hard driving, but it is great to be in a car again, and one with a little power. I’ll write a little more about how I’m going to break-in the engine in a later post. Once again, many thanks to all those that helped me out. I really appreciate you folks. And hopefully I won’t have to see the sight below again for a very long time.
Posted in Cars
Engine Head Removed, Piston Damage Confirmed
Posted By Dave on May 18th, 2009
After what seems like an age (due to my lack of skills and lack of tools) we finally got the head off my dead engine today. Didn’t look in bad shape, and even piston 3 looked ok at a glance, but then we looked a little closer and found exactly what was causing the problem. Take a look for yourself:
Yup, it looks like the piston has melted or something to cause it to do that. Looks like there’s around 2-3mm between the piston and the cylinder wall. Am betting the ringlands have gone and that will be visible once the piston comes out. Don’t know what caused the piston to go like that; maybe detonation and I didn’t notice the CEL flashing in the Okinawan sunlight, or possibly running lean for a split second if the meth didn’t start up as planned.
There also looks to be a tiny bit of scoring on the cylinder wall as you can see below, but hopefully we’ll be able to get that out with a honing tool. It doesn’t seem too deep but will only find out when we start to hone.
So I’m going to order a new piston and rings (am going to try to just get rings for that piston but Mitsubishi only seem to want to sell a whole set of rings for 4 pistons and not for one individual piston). There are 3 standard Mitsu sizes for pistons but I believe it’s the A-type piston that I need. Need to do a bit more research into headgaskets as to whether I go MLS or just the standard one. You’re all probably screaming MLS but it depends what kind of finish I can get from my head after cleaning it with some parts cleaner and Scotchbrite. Due to the lack of machine shops on island if there are any significant marks I might even consider dropping back to a stock one for now. They’ve held a lot of power with DSMs and would cope with a non-mirrored finish. Plus once I’m on the road I need this to be as reliable as possible until I find out whether my future is in Japan or not.
Will report back when I’ve any more news but will probably be in a week or 2 when the transfer case is dropped and the piston pulled out.
Posted in Cars
