PS13 Project – It works!

Oh boy! It works…..

Prepare for the best, expect the worst…….. That’s pretty much how I operate, I have been around motorsport long enough to know that things almost never go to plan, I dont expect them to either, that always leaves me suprised when things actually go to plan.

In preparation for the startup I removed all of the inlet side and made sure everything was ready to go, I had a few reservations about the TPS I was running as it was an old unit off the older engine combination (thats now in the Hilux)

After talking to the guys at LINK ECU I also decided to wire in an O2 Sensor, I have the LINK Fury ECU and it has a host of great features that I would be silly not to take advantage of, one of those advantages was the onboard oxygen sensor capability, wired into the B side loom with a separate ignition source (im really glad I had 3 spare ignition pins in my new wiring loom) the oxygen sensor is a really good onboard tuning tool. Because my tune only relies on TPS, air temp, coolant temp and engine speed the ability to track air fuel ratios makes it a pretty comnprehensive system.

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without Aaron from DTM Transmissions help, Aaron came over with the laptop to set the auxiliary outputs, parameters for the sensors and an overall check of the systems. It saved me towing the car to his dyno and it also allowed me some time to repair anything if we needed it. As it turns out the TPS was all over the place, apon the throttle cracking it would momentarily jump back and forth which would give Aaron a hell of a time trying to tune the initial throttle opening stage which is a huge part of this cars character.

The very next morning I jumped onto NZ EFI and ordered a contact less TPS to solve the issues we were having with the old one. With that in the post Aaron came over the very next night to again run over a few things, he had written down the combination of everything and worked out a calibration that should see the car fire.

With all systems working we hooked up the timing light and set the ignition timing, with the 24 tooth crank trigger measuring engine RPM and the single cam trigger giving a synchronization signal we turned the engine over on the starter and simply added timing until my timing mark on the crank lined up. Once it did we connected the injectors and turned the engine over again. Not knowing if it was on the right stroke we gave it a go anyway, it popped out the exhaust to signal we were 360 degrees out, with that sorted we cranked the engine over again and BOOM, it was alive.

For anyone that builds engines they will understand the relief when the engine runs smoothly, the oil pressure sits where it should and all the fluids stay where they need to be. For me I was also checking the charging system and general health of everything attached. It was the first time all these parts have moved in a while so it’s always a great feeling when everything works as it should.

I can’t thank Aaron enough for lending me his time over the past week and now it’s up to me to get the car dyno ready.

I have a few jobs to complete while I wait for the TPS to arrive from NZ, but I am relieved and so happy that this project is finally alive, I can’t remember a time when everything in my garage actually worked, I also never expected this project to turn out as good as it has, that dream of lapping Phillip Island throttles wide open down the straight, shifting into 6th gear and flowing into the first corner just got that little bit closer!

Stay tuned, good things (and noises) to come!

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