GBruce

Hi,

I have bought myself a 3 port solenoid after having problems with ECU holding boost high up the rev range. The car is MY98. Does it just plug in with no alterations to the wiring?

What size boost restrictor should I be using? What is the standard size?

Where should the pipe from the extra port be fitted?

My Gems ecu needs a remap, car is running rich, only 170 miles to tank of optimax. The exhaust is all black and sooty at the end and when following the car it smells of unburnt fuel and there is a bit of black/brown smoke too.
The car would not hold boost at top end and solenoid duty was on 100% it only managed 1.28 bar on the rollers. But I have seen as much as 1.8 bar recently and it holds about 1.5/1.6 which cant be good for the standard engine.

I have tried to contact Pat for remapping but as yet have had no luck, who else can map Gems and is good at it? I am in the south east area.

Had a quote from xtreme scoobies which use Pat for £528.75 which I thought was a bit expensive? does that sound right?

Thanks

George

john banks

You'll need to encourage the connectors together with a bit of filing if it is like 99/00.

Usually no restrictor is used with a 3 port.

Your boost will need to be recalibrated to suit the 3 port.

Bottom hose to inlet. Side hose to actuator. Top hose to compressor outlet.

Bob Rawle and Steve Simpson do GEMS also.

If it makes too much boost, for now just use part throttle.

Pavlo

It sounds like you have have introduced a vacuum leak and this is why the car is running rich (unless you can tell is what, if anything else you changed).

I am a little confused over this:
DO you mean you had 1.28 bar with 2 port and now 1.8 on 3 port? That is quite beleivable. If you want to 'play' with it (appetite for destruction) then you could try a small restrictor on the vent to atmosphere port of the 3 port.

I would also eliminate the boost control altogether by running a pipe directly from the turbo compressor to the wastegate actuator. As it occurs to me you could just be running rich from getting to a very rich portion of the map (possibly mapped for safety by steve) on the higher boost levels you weren't seeing before.

Paul

dowser

What Paul said - use a Dawes to fix boost at something sensible (less than what it was originally mapped for) and log again.

Johnny50

George,
I'm also an MY98, "was" running Gems before putting it back to standard.

However, i had planned to move to a 3-port solenoid, and was told it would need a remap,
but in the meantime, just to run it off boost, or as Paul said, just run it off the actuator, that way you'll not be making any (much) boost.

GBruce

Hi,

The 3 port solenoid is not fitted yet, it is still as it was. car is getting worse, sometimes stalls now at junctions etc.It runs better when it is cold.I thought I would fit the 3 port and hope it would improve things before i get remapped. It was mapped by Steve simpson when i bought it but i would like to try someone else.

George

Pavlo

What exactly is getting worse?

So have you tried linking the port on the turbo compressor to the turbo actuator?

Doing this will eliminate a host of variables from the equation, I suggest you do it before you engine takes exception.

Scott Lawson had problem where the Gems ECU itself failed. too, but his car wouldn't even start.

Paul

GBruce

Hi,

Its the fuel consumption and idle and general low speed running thats getting worse. It seems like it is choking up and then a blast down the road clears it for a bit.

Do you think the £528.00 xtreme scoobies quoted for remap using pat is too much? Although I suppose I would only be spending it on petrol :-(

George

GBruce

ok,

have emailed BRD
and Tried pat again

George

GBruce

Top

Pavlo

so it runs rich all the time?

Excuse me for being so rude, but you really don't seem to get the point. Did you ever have it mapped? Or did you just plonk it on after buying it from someone else? If it was mapped on your car, then something has changed, but I don't see the bit where you say "it's suddenly start doing this" just that it does it.

So to help those of us that are trying to help you get your car sorted, please answer the following.

Did you buy the GEMS new?
Was it mapped by Steve Simpson on install?
Was it ever good?
Have you changed ANYTHING since getting it fitted?
Have you had any work dont that may have left something not plugged back in?
DO you have the GEMS software and dongle?
Have you connected the turbo direct to the actuator to prevent the boost going sky high?

If you don't get it sorted, you could be slowly but surely ruining your engine from too much or not enough fuel. Too much fuel will wash away the lubricant that resides on the cylinder bores, causing the pistons and rings to get shafted.

If the car isn't running right, then perhaps the inlet temp compensation is up the creek, or some other oddity that Steve Simpson may be responsible for.

Paul

Johnny50

George..As Paul says, Scott Lawson did have an issue, and it turned out to be a faulty ecu.

I too, had a problem on install with Gems.
Bit of a long story, but when Steve Simpson was installing it, we just couldn't get the car to run right at all...
It would stall...eventually not restart, and when it did run, if there was any load put on, the car would misfire badly, basically undriveable.

Luckily, this all happened under the initial mapping/fitting session.

At first it was thought my car had a fault, as Steve had tried the same ECU, in a MY98 and it was fine.

But, it turned out to be an import car, and they managed to reproduce the same problem as mine, on a 98UK car.

Turns out, the MY98 uk cars were sending excessive noise through the cam sensor (if i remember correctly) causing the car to run terrible.

Gems altered the software on the ecu, and Steve then refitted/mapped my car, with excellent results.

From then on, i never had a problem.

Apologies for the long winded reply

GBruce

Hi,

Was bought new, mapped by steve. suggested 3 port solenoid and there was an ignition fault like plug blowing out at 6000rpm. And bigger diameter exhaust system.

Managed 350bhp which I thought should have been more and would cut out at anything above that. 1.28 boost on rollers

When driving boost would frequently go to 1.4 but car didn't feel brilliant

In order what i done

Had headers off and wrapped them after mapping, boost now went to 1.5 a couple of times. It holds at about 1.4 and then as revs increase it goes up further.

Changed the PFR7b plugs to NGK R 7436-8 and ignition problem was fixed

Tried a few different exhaust set ups
SS 2.5" system
SS downpipe with fujitsubo centre and back
Now on Aps 3.5" System

Changed fuel regulator from FSE to SX but still at same pressure

It does go well but doesn't have the get up and go I was expecting, accelerates better on part throttle than if you floor it.

George

GBruce

Forgot to say, when trying exhausts it didn't seem to make any difference to the boost at all, it still goes up with the increasing revs. It wouldn't make the boost on rolling road and that's why the solenoid was set high and now its through the roof.

Got a 3 port now waiting to go on and I am thinking of going to recirc d/v and getting rid of the bailey VTA one.

George

powercrazed

Hi George,

Abbey Motorsport (01883732331) can map gems. I phoned about having mine remapped and they recon about 5hrs, £100 per hr +vat. They are very good at what they do. Had my apexi stuff mapped by them (pre gems) and was well impressed with them.

Nathan (riceboy) see you at the rr day

GBruce

Hi,

Spoken to pat today and it seems I may have caused the problem myself by changing fuel regulators, the FSE may not have been able to keep up and then changing to one that could makes it go rich.

Nathan,

It don't look like I will be going on this time, but i will see you there anyway

Thanks

Pavlo

For crying out loud.

3 days ago I asked this:
. After all that we find you've changed just about everything since mapping the car!

You can't go changing your exhausts, FRP, boost solenoid and stuff with a MAP only ECU. You really should have asked about doing any of that stuff. You can get away with it on a factory ECU or a PowerFC because they read the changes in airflow caused by these 'upgrades'. But even the stock ECU will not like you complete changing the fuel system.

From the looks of it you have spent a lot of money trying to sort a problem you never had, rather that fix the actual problems and work on a logical upgrade path combined with mapping.

My advice is to put a standard ECU in the car and run the actuator boost level until such time as you can get the thing properly mapped, and I would suggest Pat or Bob.

Paul

steve rally

YHM