Razor2001

bttt

RT

Ray, I was skeptical of WI at first, worrying about long term reliability with the engine.. But I did run it on a daily basis for some time with no issues. It may be a sensible solution to hot days plus "poor" fuel. Certainly more sensible than pouring in bottles of octane booster with each tank.

The 1s kit does not require mapping. Just set the pressure switch to activate at 0.5bar boost. It gives you a bigger safety buffer.

Razor2001

Hi RT,

I don't want to start any arguments between gurus on this board and I am by no means an expert but I don't think my gas is that bad at 98 RON and although our climate is hot it never really gets above 90 degrees F and humidity is usually very very high which can help counter the heat a bit......there are many running on 98 RON gas in Florida USA which has a climate similar to ours and achieving very high BHP ratings on standard USA spec WRX's with turbo upgrades about the same size as a stock JDM STI7 and maintaining their TMIC etc.....imho I can run a det free engine in this climate on 98 RON gas and only asking for 1.25 bar boost in 4th gear and running about 320 - 330 bhp.....I am sure it is possible....if I am wrong then there are lots of others out there that are either lying about their cars specs or their engines are about to blow up.....there is a problem with my car but I am sure it can be fixed and I can keep the slighty higher than stock boost levels and run a safe engine.....we shall see....I am still open for help and to be prooved wrong



Cheers,
Ray

BretMan

What temperatures do you see most days over there Ray? - The main difference between your car and mine is the ambient temps.

At the moment, the temperatures here in NZ run from 5 deg C to 15 deg C. I just went for a blast in my car and at 1.3 bar, full on, I could only light up one green. Our worst case in mid summer is 15 to 30 degrees C during the day.

Scoobysport did mention to me that they had a bit more leeway for extra power with my map compared with yours in the hotter climate, so I'd read that to mean that yours is comparatively conservative?

The other thing to mention is that my Knocklink is noticably LESS active with the remap than with the stock ECU.

I think Pat is still floating around on the board somewhere and that he may be mapping independently now... may be able to help.

BretMan

When you mention Florida, also, the US measurement of Octane is apparently different from ours. I believe that the fuel quality over there is fairly poor.

Our BP Ultimate is rated at "a minimum of 97.5 RON". Our Mobil 8000 is quoted as 98.

BretMan

Also for what its worth, I suggest checking again when you have relocated the sensor. I'd guess that stacking the sensors would tend to amplify any knock vibrations?

Putting it back on the block as indicated might well put you back to 2 greens? (he says hopefully)

Razor2001

Hi guys,

Hi Bretman,

Yes we do have slightly higher temps during winter than you but summer temps are similar....we may be slightly higher but probably a more humid heat here...they did map more conservatively for me as I was only getting max 1.20 - 1.25 bar max boost in any gear vs. your 1.30 - 1.35.

OK the good news (so I think)......I took your advice and opened the adjustable flow valve (similar to putting in a bigger restrictor for those not aware of the adjustable flow valve mod) and limited my boost to about .9 bar in 4th gear max boost.....the ambient temp tonight was 25 degrees C and guess what...still had amber lights coming on even in 2nd gear which only hit about .7 bar boost, oh yeah lets not forget I also added 5 degrees of retard last night on the DD so the car is currently running ultra conservative even well below original ecu settings.....I am hoping that it is the bosch stacked sensor location and not some other problem.....

Question: I assume that the car will not be running waaaaaay rich with current valve restricting boost ?....Will the ecu compensate to run correct fueling even though I have restricted it to run at a lower boost and the computer is mapped for higher boost ?

I will relocate the sensor, go back to full boost and see what I get......

My worry is still the 11 advance multiplier vs. normal 16 for a healthy running engine.....so something may still be wrong

Well I feel like I may be getting closer to an answer soon !

Cheers,
Ray

PS: Mr. J Banks, what do you make of current low boost etc and still amber lights on knock link ? bad sensor location ? any thoughts what else could be causing 11 advance multiplier ? are we / you sure that the DD 5 degree retard adjustment I made does not reduce that actual mulitplier by 5 as it seems to coincidental for it to go from 16 down to 11 (16 - 11 = 5) ....if you know what I mean

Cheers,
Ray

PS: I would love to hear from my mapper Pat

john banks

It shouldn't run too rich at lower boost.

5 degrees and 16-11 is indeed a coincidence.

It is not impossible that both knocklink and ECU are picking up a vibration since the retard and far lower boost don't help.

Razor2001

Thanks John,

So I assume I still need to get the advance multiplier sorted ?

I was reading somewhere that not all engines will run at 16 and that it can vary. It said something like 16 was perfect 8 was neutral 0 not good obviously, so is 11 really that bad ?

Anyone else out there with a MY01 or MY02 STI (JDM would be better but I will take anything at this stage ) know what their advance multiplier is ?

Cheers,
Ray

dowser

AM of 11 is bad (IMHO) Why did you buy the knocklink after having the new ecu so long? Did you start to have cencerns about det, or did you always have concerns? If you only recently started to suspect a problem, what were the last 5 times you did work on your car...and what did you do?

Maybe time to get some det cans on it (make your own if necessary) and confirm what you're seeing on the display is what you think it is. It may not be.

Do you still have your stock ECU? If so, fit that to rule out the mail order one.

After that, you also need a wideband really to do further investigations - assuming it's not the ECU, it is actually detting, and that it wasn't previously on the mail-order ECU;

I guess you have an air leak pre turbo but after the MAF somewhere (allowing unmetered air in when the turbo starts sucking). This should show up as too low a MAF voltage when comparing earlier (pre-problem) logfiles for the same given boost pressure.

Another potential suspect would be an issue with a piston or ring - does the engine smoke or smell any different to normal?

Good luck - Richard

Edited to add: reset the ecu and the AM will start learning again from a value of 8 (assuming that was the IAM written into the rom), it should fairly quickly move up to 16 (within 100 miles or less).

Razor2001

Thanks Dowser I will try your above advice.

Other comments, thoughts welcome guys.

Pat are you still out there ?

Cheers,
Ray

Razor2001

bttt

Deep Singh

Hi Ray. Long time, sorry to hear about your problem

RT

Ray,
I find it indeed very odd, that 0.9bar boost and -5deg timing would still give ambers.
Very strange. Tried unstacking the sensors?

Have you ever HEARD the det or had the car momentarily lose power (small jerk like a misfire).. If det was genuine and as bad as the KL makes it out to be, I would have thought either of these would have happened at least once.

Razor2001

HI Deep I hope it gets sorted as well....

I think I have heard det before and I have felt a sudden loss in power before but not recently....I don't know what to think anymore....I am gonna try unstacking the sensors, stick in the old ecu, do a reset via deltadash and then run a few logs and DD dyno runs to see if numbers look ok.....this really sucks....

Thanks for all the continued help guys

Cheers,
Ray

EMS

Ray,

In addition on what I E-mailed you after looking into your DD log:

I don't think the amber lights you see on the Knock Link mean that your engine is detonating. If you remove 5 deg of timing you should be able to see some kind of difference! What does the KL shows when you rev the engine in 2nd gear with very light throttle?

I don't think that you have a leak somewhere between the MAF and the turbo, because your engine load values are O.K. for the boost you are running. Looking at the injector duty and the boost you are running, it has to be quite lean! That whould explain why it runs with the Advance Multiplier on 11. Your knock correction drops to very low values in some areas, not very good either.........

P.S. Your car could run well in 30deg C outside temperatures, last summer I mapped quite a few STi's (eurospec) while it was 30 - 35 dec C. A bit less power, but no trouble at all!

Mark.

RT

Ray, I think putting back the std ECU is a good idea. Mark has a point about the lean-ness. I have not meddled with fuel mapping at all, but I would think that if you were running lean and in high ambient temps, that could very well be the problem (as opposed to ign timing which we were focused on previously).

I know my pseudo-broadband sensor gives me well off-range rich (10.8 or something) on WOT, so if you were running in the high 11s or even 12s, thats a major difference.

Razor2001

Hi Mark,

OK thanks again for the email.....I will respond to some of your questions by return email.

Couple of things:

I obviously am not the expert here but why do you say my car is very lean when the rear O2 sensor is showing nothing less than 0.995 volts from low rpms to redline at WOT ? I was looking at a standard UK STI7 on the ecutek website and the rear O2 sensor readings were less than that !! ??

Another major problem I am having is finding out where to mount the darn bosch sensor for the Knock Link on my car. Some have posted pics but no one has posted a pic of where to mount it on a JDM STI7. I have looked all over the place through various sites and can't find a picture. I read somewhere that they have been mounting the sensor on top of the TMIC bracket for the JDM STI7....does this sound correct ? I would think that the bracket mount is too close to the where the block joins to the gear box ?

To answer your question if I rev the car in second gear light throttle I easily get the first green on and sometimes the second one pops on....that seems a little crazy to me for it to be semi-detting under that low of throttle etc....

AS a final question.....I am getting a fair amount of oil in my I/C and want to either do a catch can mod or just vent the three tubes to the atmosphere and plug the one valve. Do you have any idea how the best way to go about eliminating this oil in the I/C is without installing a true catch can as I have heard its better to vent to atmosphere...?? My mechanic was reading the post on here concerning that and is a little confused becuase of all the diff methods....which on is best or should I say which one is the safest while emilinating oil build up ?

Should I worry about cleaning all that oil out of the I/C, tubes etc after I setup the catch can etc or will it clear itself out once the catch can is setup and no more oil comes in ?

Thanks again guys for all your help

RT thank you as well, I think I am going to go back to standard ecu until this all gets sorted....thinking about sending my 2nd mapped ecu into Mark for remmaping

Cheers all
Ray

BretMan

Hey, Ray...

The location of the threaded hole is as follows:

Look into the engine bay. On the right hand side of the intercooler, you can see the blow off valve. If you look directly under that (maybe a bit to the right and back) on the block you can see a threaded hole.

The pictures on the previous page were a bit hard to see as they were from the other direction.

Hope this helps...

Razor2001

Thanks Bret I will have a look to see if I can find it The mounting hole you speak of is not on top of the I/C mounting bracket then ? There is just an open theaded hole sitting there no brackets, no plugs in it etc ?

Cheers,
Ray

Razor2001

bttt

marklemac

Razor,

I take it you haven't fitted the knocklink yet then.

Just to help a bit more with the instructions, when I ordered mine, I sent the picture I posted here to BR Developments (the UK supplier) and they sent me this bit of text.

"If I understood the large picture at the bottom of the thread, it could be our favourite place to put the sensor. I will describe as best as I can - if you stand in front of your car, focus on the FRONT RIGHT hand corner of the intercooler, you should like straight down towards the engine/gearbox joint. There is a bolt on the engine just before it connects to the gearbox which is what we use as the knock sensor position. You need to obtain the same type of bolt but longer to allow for the height (thickness) of the knock sensor. Tighten the sensor firmly, but not too much as it is a bakellite housing which can break."

Cheers,

Mark.

Razor2001

Hi Mark,

Thank you again. My only concern is that the setup is diff for a JDM vs. a UK ? When I showed that pic to my technician he said that he did not recognize blank spot and said that the I/C mount bracket was probably mounted to that ?

Cheers,
Ray

marklemac

I honestly can't see how if could be different.

Whip the intercooler out (ok, so its not that quick a job), and then you should certainly see the threaded hole near where the factory knock sensor is situated.

A nice job for the weekend sir

Razor2001

ok, well I will have a look over the weekend if possible.

Thanks again for your help and patience

Cheers,
Ray

LoFi

I am not expert but oil contamination and KL activity could mean the car is over filled with oil. has the oil been changed recently? I suffered from slight oiling of the IC, this went away after an oil change done by someone who knows how to fill scoobs. It also seems clear that some cars take more ign advance than others and that difference in engine compression ratio can be a factor, some engines are just different from other. Sounds like it needs proper mapping with det cans.

I am no expert but this is what I have picked up as I have a car that dets far ealier than many others. It is mapped around very successfully though.

LoFi

Razor2001

Hi LoFi,

I supervise every oil change and make sure that all the procedures that I have read on numerous oil threads in here are followed. I make sure that 4.5 litres max go in and that the filter is filled first topping up etc etc

No one down here maps and I don't even know if anyone down here has det cans.

I am beginning to wonder if I have not done damage already. I can't see after an ecu reset and driving slowly my Advance Multiplier goes from 8 after reset to 16 BUT as soon as I do one hard run it drops down to 8.........not to mention that the boost has been restricted to .9 bar max by an adjustable flow valve. No way in hell the car should not be able to run 16 Advance Multiplier at only .9 bar boost unless there was something major wrong....no ??

I am beginning to feel more and more lost

All advice and thoughts welcome guys and gals.

Big thanks again to all those trying to help

Cheers,
Ray

Razor2001

Anyone else have thoughts on my potential problem as the weekend is coming and gives me time to do DD runs, inspections etc

Cheers,
Ray