Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

Obviously a future bike trials rider, just like his Dad. Then (Obviously) onto race cars. Just like his Dad.

I have a 140 bhp Mini race car ready for him. In storage at mo.

I will get it on the road again shortly . Lovely little car. Fast as -----!
 
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Who would not want one of those. ???

A lot of history associated with that little car. (And money)
 
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Fun times in the Mini many happy memories.

Tyres have arrived for Combe

First up the fronts:



240/640/18 Hankook F200s in C51 compound:



C51 being the medium compound. A decent amount of life left in them too. I'll have the camber wear (right) mounted on the outside edge to get best life from these:



Interestingly, they measure up small, which probably suits me in this instance:



About 235mm for the whole tyre, just a shade under 230mm of tread width. Should be perfect on my 8J rims and not cause any bodywork issues.

And for the rears:



Some Seat Sport stamped dunlop 316 softs in 210/650/18.



Plenty of life left in these as rears, and soft compound should suit the backs well. These measure up at 210mm tread with, and 220 over all, so not actually as much of a stagger as I expected, which is nice.

Dropping these off with the tyre man this evening

Also found time to drive it again, which is nice!



early logs yesterday after some minor tweaks on the FID1000s:



A bit of a fuel wave on spool as I still had adaptive on low down, which I'm now working on, but once on boost running cleanly at about 11.6:1. 53% boost duty seeing 1.3 bar top end, and around 60% IDC.

A few more tweaks last night, and here's a sort pull from this morning.



I added a little more boost duty on map 3 and pressed the button at about 5000rpm to jump up to 58% duty. this saw a pleasing 1.5 bar at the top end, and injector DC still around the early 60%s which is promising.

So far it's looking like I should have plenty of head room in both boost solenoid duty cycle and injector duty. I really wanted to be able to make the boost I want to run with the 10psi gate spring, as I still have the option to turn it right down for wet conditions.

I've also upped the rev limit a little and I'm getting steadily closer to that magical 8k



Pulls like a train!
 
Reactions: scotty_24, StaceyS3, RobinJI and 7 others
I has too many boosts!



I let my old plugs in the car for firing up and running in. with a view to switching to new ones for mapping when the time came.

these have had a fair bit of abuse, and are probably sooted up a treat after all manner of rich running during testing, so it wasn't too big a surprise this morning when I encountered a plug type missfire at 1.6 bar of boost!

I didn't really mean to make 1.6 bar, it just kind of happened!

I'm finding it very interesting how AFR at spool effects turbine energy, and seemingly has an impact on the turbo for the rest of that pull through the revs, so a map that had previously given me 1.5 bar at the top end with rich spool region, when leaned out at spool went on to give 1.6 bar at the top end and felt really rather rapid indeed, before the missfire begun!

I'll pull some boost out for the drive home, just to confirm the engine is all good and happy still, then throw in some new BKR7eIX I've bought locally (Not @scotty_24 ebay specials!).

It could well be that the old faithful AGU dumb coils are not long for this earth. maybe I'll finally be forced to do the ICM delete I've been so scared of all these years?

Anyone who's done an ICM delete able to share any info? how involved a job is it really?
 
Reactions: scotty_24
I don't think it was a lean missfire, AFR was hover around 11.8:1 and timing a pretty sensible 18 degrees at that boost.

It felt like a missfire from a fouled plug, which is what I hope it was.

I've just been out for a drive with Andy now, and backed the boost down to 1.4 bar and it pulls cleanly and sweetly, so I'm happy there's nothing inherently wrong with it.

Going to do some reading into the ICM delete this evening. It's been on my radar for ages, but I didn't want to mess with TOO many things at once then be left wondering why the car wouldn't start and not knowing where to look. maybe I'll have to get it done now.
 
old coils dont go on forever.. how old are yours dude?
was out in goubo's earlier road testing logging.. No chance to explore its performance with traffic.. they just dont travel at the same speed as a stroker GT35 S3 on 1.5bar boost. funny that. (closed loop boost control)
 
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bigal 1 said:
View attachment 150909
Click to expand...

This mini so so much nicer than your million quid A3. Well not really but we all like to reminisce I had an 1100 special with walnut dash and wooden steering wheel, full length sunroof and 8J wella wheels.

There's a local lad racing his modified 1275gt bhp to kg it's much more powerful than a stage 2 S3
 
Last edited:
Reactions: scotty_24 and bigal 1
No closed loop boost control?

I can’t imagine why 20 year old coils aren’t producing a strong spark
 
antwan64og said:
No closed loop boost control?

I can’t imagine why 20 year old coils aren’t producing a strong spark
Click to expand...

It has closed loop, I just don't use it at this stage.

Theory being get the map as near perfect as possible on open loop, then I can turn on closed loop just to keep things in check if I want.

I'm trying to change 1 thing at a time and observe the results. A fraction less timing and spool region leaned out increased boost across the whole rev range. I've made more changes now and will run again today

Coils aren’t exactly new.
Not 20 years old, it far from new!

New agu coils are about £200, and an ICM delete the same or less, I'm just terrified of the wiring side of it!
 


Cold compression test done yesterday with around 400 miles on the engine now.

Pretty happy with that!

Didn't have time to do a warm one, not sure it's overly necessary as those cold results look absolutely fantastic.
 
Reactions: craigt1985, scotty_24, SamHendry and 2 others
I want to do away with the ICM and the dumb coils and convert to the later style Alex splicing in a repair loom.

@Erikn89nl has shown me a few diagrams and in theory it looks simple enough, I'm just terrified of a involving wires
 
I'm sure it's be less daunting when I pulled the loom tape off and stripped it back to a few wires.

As I understand it from Erik, it's 4 wires per coil, so 16 joints to make. Plus a few lives and grounds? Maybe 20 joints in total?

Has anyone ever used these?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/121214401768

They look like a handy solution for someone like me who isn't keen on wiring. Nice and neat too!

 
I've used those solder-shrink connectors on board submarines but only ever as relatively temporary solutions, as we'd always cut them out and redo them 'properly'.

Likely fine for small unimportant stuff, but with something like ignition I'd personally go for a more time consuming but generally better job.

If you really want to use them, I have a load you're welcome to. Seemed a little soft and not very hardy IMO.

When I pulled apart an old LCR loom, I believe there were 3 common lines between all plugs (live and 2 grounds perhaps, I can check) and a signal writ to each coil. I'll try and dig out my notes later before we fly. That's only the section of loom near the plugs themselves though, I assume the ICM delete is a tad more involved. Worth noting there's an OEM section of loom available for it. I may also have a spare you can have.

Edit: Better solution is to grab a brand new section: Part number is 1J0971658M for cars with oil level sensor IIRC. Different suffix without sensor.

Couple of bits I have on the phone:





 
Last edited:
Those solder splices generally don't work with automotive wiring, the insulation melts before the solder does...

Better solution is separate solder and shrink sleeve.
 
Erikn89nl said:
Those solder splices generally don't work with automotive wiring, the insulation melts before the solder does...

Better solution is separate solder and shrink sleeve.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I disagree. Don't work in automotive wiring. Rubbish

I've used them often. Very good connections. you need proper heat gun with guide and best results from making the solder joint first, tinned wires, joined/twist, solder flowed then slide the solder sleeve over it and shrink it down. Needs a lot of heat to flow the solder and some care to not singe surrounding things. Its an excellent joint once done.
 
Enquiry sent to parts man Mike for 4x OE red tfsi coils, 1 harness cover, 1 coilpack repair loom, and 4x push fit adatpers

If anyone wants part numbers or info let me know. Just don't ask me how to fit it yet!

I’ll do some more testing this week, but I think I’ll wait until after the Spring Action day before attempting this. Last thing I’d want to do it start something with a short deadline and find I’ve messed it up and can’t make the day. I've spoken to Emerald this morning and they have suggested that if the high boost missfire DOES continue now with new plugs (I'm sure it wont) I can up the dwell time slightly at high RPM / Load conditions.

Will definitely do the swap after Combe before heading up to Bills for some proper mapping though.

I don’t think I could live with the shame if I drove all the way up to @badger5 only to develop a misfire when we turned the boost up

Bill would never forgive me for being too tight to change them before hand and wasting his time

 
Prawn said:
New agu coils are about £200, and an ICM delete the same or less, I'm just terrified of the wiring side of it!
Click to expand...

The ZS016 coils seem reliable but you obviously need more if its blowing spark.

Since you are standalone and can configure the ignition output you can use any high ouput coils, not just the TFSI ones
 
The spark blowing out could well be down to the older plugs and nothing any more sinister than that. The old engines both used to ‘tire’ plugs after 4-5k which showed itself as high boost misfires. New plugs always cured it.


As Bill questioned though, I have no idea how old these coils are. AGU coils never fail, they simply seem to decline slowly.

The coil loom is also 20 years old, and given it’s life it’s probably past its best. If I can upgrade to something newer and potentially stronger cleaner spark using OE parts then I like the idea of that.
 

You could of just said you want new red coils in the bay and get the bonus of a new wiring harness, lol.
 
Reactions: Prawn
5x coils, loom, loom cover, and adapters all ordered from Mike.

Parts from Mike as usual cheaper than anywhere else by a mile, and all genuine dealer stuff too.

Happy with that. I won't push my luck and try to fit before Combe, but will definitely wire these up before mapping
 
Reactions: SHUk
what's in a "performance" ignition coil compared to standard? <-- I'm not doubting it just wonder if the wires are a bigger or heat shielding takes more? a spark is a spark right?
 
Stuart B said:
what's in a "performance" ignition coil compared to standard? <-- I'm not doubting it just wonder if the wires are a bigger or heat shielding takes more? a spark is a spark right?
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert in this topic by a long way, but as i understand it you can get varying strengths of spark, which effects it's ability to jump across a larger gap, or it's resistance to being blown out by high boost.

If a spark is weak it could potentially fail to jump across a larger plug gap as plugs age, or at higher boost the weaker spark can be blown out much more easily.

it's possible to increase the swell, or coil-on time in the ecu, which basically charges the coil for longer before firing, but then you can burn out coils by running too high a dwell.

The TFSI coils I'm upgrading to are said to produce a stronger spark and can work over a larger gap.

Having said all this, the car drove brilliantly this morning with the new plugs!

Here's a little log I took on the way in:

[/img]

21psi at 4400rpm without VVT, slight dip to work on, but then a nice 22psi at 7200ish rpm before I ran out of road.

AFR isn't too bad, and timing is at a nice safe 18.5 degrees here.

No Hint of knock, and no WMI turned out yet at all, so I think we're in a good place.

69% duty cycle on the FID1000's is seeming fairly consistent across all pulls, and from the calculators I've found suggests we're well into the 400's.

I also borrowed the works Noise meter today, after not realising we owned one!

It has 2 settings based on the background noise and expected result, so I tested it on both to be sure of the result and worst case sound level.

dBA Low is for 35-100dB levels, and recorded 90.8dB at 4500rpm, taken at 0.5m 45 degrees from the exhaust, exactly as they test on a track day:



dBA High is for 65-130dB, and this test gave me a result of 93.8dB



Very happy with those results. it means I'm perfectly safe for Castle Combe next month, and should continue to be fine for most UK tracks. It also means that a large centre silencer should EASILY bring it in under 90dB for places like Thruxton.

 
Reactions: hydro s3 and bigal 1
I would have got the vvt on and working dude.. it will totally change your afr's you're spending time on adjusting now..
 
I know you're completely right Mr. B, it's just time that's against me!

The only chance I get to drive it currently is to work and back, so I log it on the way to work. Look at the logs in my lunch break and make a few changes. Load them in before driving home, then log it on the way home and repeat the process!

I just need to find an hour or so in the garage to wire up the vvt

Aux out pin 17, switched ground to activate it, 12v feed, then the settings you sent me. (thanks for those @badger5)

Is it OK to take the 12v feed from the main ecu 12v in the ecu plug? Or would that cause issues? Or is a clean 12v feed from elsewhere preferable? I'm trying to avoid having wires running everywhere!
 
Reactions: SHUk
Cheers Alex.

I found 30 mins last night, so stripped out the ecu and agu loom adapter to add the new pins for the VVT.
I've added a negative terminal to pin 17 which is the user programmable PWM output which can be set up as a switched ground.

I've then taken one of the 12v feed pins out and made a small new section, using a single larger wire from the terminal, then splitting to both the ecu power and vvt power.

I just need to tape it up in some loom tape and fit the ecu and harness again and we're good to go!
 
Good progress here Nick. However reading more about dodgy spark plugs and coil pack harnesses still gives me shudders!

Croft next friday, I'm 99.9% Certain my under load miss was those copy NGK plugs alongside a cracked harness.

We shall see. If it still misses I'll park it in a field and forget about the damn thing ha ha ha

Out of interest where did you get your genuine plugs? I got mine from Opie.
 
scotty_24 said:
We shall see. If it still misses I'll park it in a field and forget about the damn thing ha ha ha

Out of interest where did you get your genuine plugs? I got mine from Opie.
Click to expand...

Good luck at Croft mate. Fingers crossed for you!

I went old school and bought my plugs at a local motor factor!

VVT hooked up this evening. Seems to be working exactly as intended. I loaded a map without a map with vvt on at idle. Switch the map switch over and it goes very lean instantly so it's clearly functioning.

Driving it to work tomorrow to see how things are
 
Reactions: scotty_24
Good news and bad news today!

Sadly, due to some insurance issues, Mission Motorsport are not able to do the Spring Action day at Castle Combe, so sadly I won’t be attending any more! It’s a real shame as I was really looking forward to it, but these things happen

As a result, there’s now nothing I’m really waiting for before calling Bill and getting a date booked for mapping, so I’ve done that today and will be on my (seemingly twice annual) pilgrimage to Stonehouse on April 20th to see if all this hard work has created something wonderful or something terrible

Just the ICM delete and coilpack wiring to sort before then, which shouldn’t be an issue
 
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