8000 rpm/300 bhp 3.2 rebuild

[christaylorsound]

Graham, I'm so sorry you are having frustrating issues.... I can empathise, I've been through something similar. It will be one simple issue, be methodical, be patient and you'll sort it.
Good luck. Chris.

[911hillclimber]

Just in from Clewett.
How depressing is this?

With both wire harnesses to the coils disconnected, there should be no noise generated from the ignition system. The starter is far enough away that it should be OK. That said it still could. The battery voltage should stay above 10 Volts during cranking. So yes that would be correct I would expect to see the light alternate red/green. If there is no signal, try pulling one plug from each cylinder so the engine can spin freely. this will take the load off the starter and keep the cranking voltage up. If still no signal, It would be worth sending the unit to Electromotive to be checked out.

[chris68]

Well done, admire your tenacity. Hope you see better results with the new layout. Wolverhampton not too far so if problems persist can throw some test kit and screening materials in the car and drive over. Good luck!

[911hillclimber]

Thank you Chris, I do hope not to have to call you!
If the ecu is duff then I will be livid.
Even is duff, I bet Electromotion will claim it is something I've done and want to charge me. They then have my unit so I'm over a barrel.

I must have some recourse on Clewett for compensation, don't see why I should have to pay in money and time.
I am very suspicious of specialists.
Their tech guy works just one day a week at Electromotion!

[911hillclimber]

Just been discussing all this with a very long standing petrol head mate.
If the ecu is duff I need to be sure Clewett will pick up the bill.
I doubt that will happen, no faith left in USA customer service.
Plan B
Ditch the ecu and run the system on a UK supported ecu like Emerald.
Needs a laptop but many in the uk can cope with it.

Any thoughts?

[Jonny Hart]

Holding the sensor to about 1 mm gap gave 194.6 Hz. The sensor would be counting 19 teeth /rev, the other 1 'tooth' a rev. Lathe speed the same.

I think this shows the sensor is responding, i tried these two conditions several times, and the results were the same give or take a few revs/sec.

Agree, sensor is ok. At that point I would have connected the sensor wire back into the ECU, run it from your lathe and looked for a spark. That would take the starter motor out of the equation. Perhaps you can still get back to this point even though you've pulled it all apart?

[Nine One One]

If the lathe is too far away, can you not use a drill with the wheel trigger in it, and the sensor on the end of the bench secured with a wire running to the ECU??

[911hillclimber]

These are all good suggestions, thank you.
The engine is naked, I hope to get things back together over the next few days.
I see on the Elecro web site they are not taking any repairs.
So, if theecu is faulty I have no comeback, I'm stuffed.

I think Clewett have a duty to sort me out but I am sure at 3000 miles away emails will soon stop.

What a situation. £2400and I have nothing, just crap.

Plan B isto find another way to drive this engine, an ecu that is UK and understood.
More money, more specialists more crap.

[911hillclimber]

Clewett have emailed back, they will sort it there end if I send it back to them.
goodness knows about the costs and time.

Plan is to try the 'lathe trick'.
I think I can stretch the sensor leads to the ecu from my lathe with the spinning bolt head.
I hope to fasten the sensor to the lathe cross slide to maintain an air gap, get it running and switch everything on and see if the ecu flashes.
If not, I think that proves the ecu is duff.
In the meantime I'l rewire the coils etc and see if that comes alive.

If not...
It goes back.
In all fairness, Clewett seems as determined as me to resolve this, but $$$$ have not been discussed, a true test.

Mrs MC reminded me that we used VISA to but this box of bits and could make a refund claim through them.

[RobFrost]

The solution I'd be looking at here, to avoid ripping everything out, is whether I can install something to carry the signal more reliably. The perfect solution already exists, which is the balanced microphone cable. It carries two copies of the signal in both positive and negative and then subtracts one from the other upon arrival, with the result that any interference on the positive and negative signals cancel each other out. Microphones generate extremely weak signals, which often need to be carried hundreds of metres past masses of electronics and still reproduced with perfect clarity up to as high as 20khz. The device you would use is an active DI box at the sensor end like this one https://cpc.farnell.com/pulse/di-50/di- ... dp/DP32088 and you would wire your sensor to the jack input. They usually take a 9v battery but I'm sure would work off 12v car supply. Standard balanced XLR cable would take signal to the ECU. I'm not totally sure how you wire the ECU end. This seems configurable to go both ways so two of these plus a standard microphone cable would probably do it: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274873865098 It looks like it has a jumper on it so you simply set one end to balanced to unbalanced and the other to unbalanced to balanced and I'd bet my bottom dollar you'd be in business.

The downside is that you have another piece of complexity and an additional failure point. If you wanted to give this a try I'd be happy to attempt to guide you through it.

EDIT: Sorry, I should quality that with... If you attempt this route I'd strongly recommend getting a scope on the signal at both ends, and making sure the final signal is attenuated to an amplitude which matches the original signal, to avoid overloading the ECU.

[911hillclimber]

Thank you Rob, but I have to keep this simple!

Plan is to re-wire the engine.
The sensor cable is totally away from any noise.

I hope it will spring into life. I say this because the layout is then very much like the installation in a 911, coils by the bell housing, sensor by the crank pulley, ecu even further away.

If this fails, even Clewett says the ecu must be faulty, but to drive the system by the lathe is a good one and will be the final step.
If all that fails then the unit goes back (or at least the ECU bit) but only once i understand who is footing the bill.

Plan B is to claim a refund direct to Clewett, and if that is a blank to claim via VISA and move on.

I would like to run the engine via an Emerald ecu using the coils i have (and installed) and the sensor i have and installed.
It would mean a laptop is involved, but Ben can do that bit on the ignition.

Emerald ecu is £1000.....

[wadsworthi]

Sorry to hear about your issues, hope they can be resolved without having to return your ignition system back. If not then I can confirm that the Emerald ecu does seem to work well on a 3.2. Apart from loading the software onto an elderly laptop mine was set up entirely on the rolling road. Emerald themselves are also very helpful. Mine has a Hall effect crank sensor, and apart from needing resistor plugs all worked well.

[Bruce M]

Remember the ecu is looking for a certain pattern of teeth and needs the gap to find TDC. If you show it a pattern of 1 tooth, it will not be able to find TDC & may throw error or ignore the signal (solid Green status). To be a true test you will need to feed it the correct pattern.

[911hillclimber]

Thanks to all!
Ian, what about twin plugs and Emerald?

Also on the list is the hillclimbers fav, DTA

Coil packs now on the chassis, mount all painted and the first looms on also.Tomorrow will be going from the coil pack to the plugs neatly.
Good game as someone once said, but he wasn't doing this.

[Gary71]

Is be tempted just to lash it in for now and see if you get a spark or two rather than laying everything out neatly?

Hope it springs to life!