'79 CIS TO EFI

[PeterK]

Thx all

I have sailed right through the winter before (last yacht out in December and first out finishing that course in January), but this winter has been very quiet. Yachts have heating and I have lots of warm clothes

Could have done with borrowing some of those on Thursday

Hey, not only did I fetch two heaters, I even let you have them briefly turned on

[PeterK]

It’s been a couple of days since my last update, and sorry that it is taking me an age to do such a simple thing as convert CIS to Efi. Anyway, I’m back with a few bits of update, starting with the breather hose adapter / reducer piece.

I needed to join the 25mm ID breather hose with a 16mm hose to the oil catch can, so I started with a 25mm OD round aluminium bar. I started turning it down for about 30mm in length


Then thought that I ought to start my centre hole first, so I counter-sunk a centre


Then drilled it out in stages, ending with 12mm ID. I could show lots of photos of me making aluminium swarf, but you’ll have to make do with only this one


The CIS system has a restrictor in the crankcase breather / oil vent hose, just where the final hose attaches to the CIS to rubber boot.


Initially I didn’t drill right through, but left a 6mm orifice in the middle, on the grounds that it is easier to drill that out, rather than try to weld up the inside of a tube later (well beyond my welding skills). I asked a question on both DDK and IB, and the responses (thanks guys) suggested the orifice was unnecessary, so I went back and drilled it out.

The finished reduced fitted quite nicely


And this is what it looks like in the car


With the outlet of the catch can going out the right rear corner, as I mentioned previously.



There’s no rhyme or reason, but I addressed the inlet air temp (IAT) sensor next. It needed mounting between the trumpets as I’m running individual filter pods, rather than a filter box, so I made a small aluminium bracket to come off a fuel rail mount.




Having run out of distractions, it was time for wiring all the engine sensor connectors. These are the coil on plug connectors


Wires were prepared, with a small section of clear shrink wrap, followed by a boot (where appropriate, but not for the CoPs)


Grommets and terminals/contacts were added



Plugs went on next, loom was wrapped, plugs slid down to the plug (Where fitted), and a label added and the clear tube shrunk over the top


I did find another distraction, and secured the crank trigger sensor, including setting the airgap.


Before finishing all the coils and injectors. Not quite as tidy as in my dreams, but at least it’s not all red wire and cable ties.



Then over the next two days (I’m slow and keep being given chores), it was the other connectors – cylinder heat temp (CLT), inlet air temp (IAT), throttle position (TPS), the Bosch combined oil pressure and temperature sensor, the standard Porsche oil pressure and temp senders, the lambda sensors (one internal WBO2 and one CANbus WBO2).

So, all wiring now completed. I turned the battery isolator switch back on, and in celebration of no escaping smoke, I filled all fuse holders with 5A fuses. Still no escaping smoke, plus my engine cover light worked for the first time since I installed it (actually getting around to wiring it in clearly helped here)


I then gave the garage area a sweep up to remove all the wire ends, masking tape labels, etc and before coming in for a well-deserved cup of tea, I unbolted the O2 sensors, ready for fresh air calibration



Next up will be connecting my Macbook to the ECU and downloading my config files and initial maps. Then there’s the inevitable calibration of O2 sensors & TPS, setting of the trigger angle and fuel pressure before getting the fire extinguishers ready …..


Thought for the day – should I change to resistor plugs ??

[impmad2000]

When I ran mine initially, I switched to resistor plugs to reduce the potential for interference as I was chasing a problem. Turned out the problem was just a setting, but have continued to use R plugs since.
Try with what you have… if you get misfires switch to resistor plugs and retry .

[PeterK]

Cheers Tim

[Gary71]

Impressive stuff, mastering all that spaghetti is such a challenge.

Can’t wait for the first startup video!

[PeterK]

Just been configuring the MaxxECU files, ready to download.

I had a momentary panic when trying to work out the trigger angle (how far ahead of TDC is the missing tooth). I went to the car to count the teeth between the missing tooth and the sensor and realised that the engine wasn't at TDC, but at another crank pulley mark instead. There followed a period of panic, thinking that I had set the cam sensor position way out. After I pondered ways to check how far out I was, it dawned on me that the engine was deliberately set to 120 BTDC to fit the cam sensor, so all is (hopefully) well in the world. Phew.

[Bruce M]

Couple of observations.

I can see you are using the ZF “GS” sensor. The wiring colour coding on it is not intuitive. The brown wire is the power feed if I remember correctly. I wired one up incorrectly & fried it. That took a while to figure out (and an oscilloscope!)

When you have a rough base tune, it is typically rich for safety. If you end up doing some miles like that you can soot up the WBO2 sensors. The reading from the sensor basically freezes at some value & doesn’t change. In that situation the sensor is not dead! You just use a blowtorch to very carefully heat up the sensing end & burn off the carbon (clearing the small holes). The metal will glow slightly at the right temp. But don’t overcook it or it will be dead.

[PeterK]

Thx Bruce

You mentioned the wire colours previously, so I made sure to triple-check. Hopefully triple-checking was enough

[Bruce M]

lol.

[PeterK]

Configuring & checking has commenced.
I started by hot-wiring the fuel pump relay and checking for leaks. Unfortunately, as well as a couple of weeps (quickly resolved by tightening the crimps), there was a more significant leak from where I had an 8mm ID fuel pipe crimped onto the 7mm leg of the original return tee-piece. I now have a very short section of the original Triumph fuel pipe joining the 7mm to a 6/8mm reducer, which in turn is nicely crimped to the 8mm ID return hose. All dry now.

I fired up the MacBook with a Windows emulator (Parallels for anyone interested in the detail), linked up the ECU, and downloaded my configuration. Next up was setting the trigger angle – letting the ECU know where TDC was relative to the missing tooth on the trigger wheel. I guessed at 70’, span the engine over (with fuel inhibited) and was a smidgen out. I adjusted the setting to 75’ and it was spot on.
As part of doing this I had to rebuild the plug lead clamp on my timing light, and work out that having a 5A fuse still on the fusebox would explain the blown fuse.

Running diagnostics, I could see the trigger was in sync, then out of sync, then in sync, etc. This was quickly identified (by Aaron of HT Racing at Brands Hatch, who supplied my MaxxECU) as a simple config error by me. The config needed to know how many teeth on the trigger wheel then how many gaps. I had entered 35 teeth & 1 gap, whereas I should have entered 36 & 1. The ECU was seeing 35 teeth without a gap, so erroring, then saw a gap within the next 35 teeth and went in-sync, then didn’t see a gap in the next 35 teeth, etc.

I had set the air gap to 1.5mm, as per the data sheet of the sensor, rather than 0.8 as specified by Clewett for their trigger wheel. Aaron also suggested I use 0.75mm.

On other matters, running the Ctek charger while cranking the engine confuses it. I left the garage believing that the battery was ¾ charged and being recharged. The following day, ready to change the air gap and trigger teeth setting, I discovered a completely flat Odyssey 925 battery. Resetting the Ctek saw a pulsing low battery light, which normally means the battery has an issue and is being de-sulphated, which can take up to 8 hours.

So all I managed to do was to reset the air gap, although it did seem to vary around the trigger wheel. I also noticed a ridge on the back edge (small file to clean that up). I removed the trigger wheel (pulley bolt loose, alternator belt off, pulley off) and stuck it in the lathe (needed to swap out the external jaws for the internal jaws, as they gave me the ability to grip the pulley). The pulley itself showed 0.1mm run out and the trigger wheel 0.15mm. I refitted the trigger wheel onto the car.

Another new day, and the Ctek was now showing an error. I connected a ‘normal’ battery charger, and it immediately tripped it’s over protection. I dug out the battery I swapped out of SMBO’s F-type and topped it up with the Ctek while I went to friends for croissant & coffee. On our return the Jag battery was fully charged, and my plan was to connect the Jag battery to the Odyssey and see whether I could trick the Ctek into charging the Odyssey. Surprisingly, before adding the Jag battery, the Ctek decided that the Odyssey was now OK albeit quite flat, and proceeded to charge it as normal. No idea what changed, other than maybe the Odyssey had cooled down while I was enjoying my croissant (not real breakfast, but it’s always good to talk).

Anyhow, time to proceed. Having a fully charged Jag battery next to the car, why not connect it as a booster. Good plan. What was less of a good plan was killing the isolator switch while I changed some wiring to the starter relay in the engine bay. Well, killing the isolator was a good plan in itself (safety first), except when I accidentally touched a power lead with the starter lead, the starter span. My mistake was connecting the booster battery to the output terminal on the isolator. The result was the Jag battery spinning the starter, but also the Jag battery was connected directly to ground via a 30A lead with the ceramic resistor (to ground out the alternator if you isolate while the engine is running). The resistor was not happy, and some smoke escaped. Luckily the wiring is unharmed, but the same can’t be said for the resistor. New resistor ordered.

With all smoke captured and put back in the wires, I connected the MacBook, made my config changes. The good news is that I now have good sync, although unfortunately no spark ! I have suffered from an intermittent spark, but now nothing.
I can pulse each output independently with the MaxxECU. What I observed (heard) was only coils 2 & 4 working. I could swap connectors, whereupon outputs 1 & 5 worked (still using the 2&4 coils). This suggests to me that I have 4 duff coils already. I have a set of VAG coils, as used by others. They are longer, and therefore protrude more than the Nissan 370Z coils, plus will require the CoP connectors to be swapped out. I have emailed Aaron to see whether there might be another explanation, but swapping coils may well be in my near future (followed by trying to get a refund on the NGK coils).

[PeterK]

What a difference a day makes – it lives, but we’ll get to that in due course.

I started the day by pulling out the coils, and tested them with a spark plug resting on the cylinder head. Not too sure about cylinder 3, so I pulled the connector pins out and reseated them. All coils worked. I refitted them, and only 2 worked.
I had a chat with Aaron at HT Racing, who was stumped. He did however, throw away the remark that sometimes you couldn’t hear them if the valves were closed.

As I was contemplating my next move, I saw a straw and grasped at it. Have you worked out that I’m clever enough to run a test cycle with the ECU software, but too stoooopid to realise that the clicking sound is from the spark jumping in the spark plug, and if the valves are closed, I couldn’t hear the spark jump. Thank you for not pointing out the obvious (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing)

So, all coils refitted. To ensure that the coils were actually on the plugs, I used an inspection camera to see the sparkplug top and to guide the coil down.




I turned on the fuel, turned the key and it started (in wasted spark mode) ! It was rough and needed a little throttle initially, but soon settled to tick over on its own. Feeling brave I then changed it to fully sequential, and it has regularly started on the button since (tempting fate or what).

Initially I had O2 readings of 1.4-ish on the left bank and 14-ish on the right. I did have a warning about a lambda sensor though. Something to look at in due course.

I was so happy, that I let SWMBO get me to prune a climbing thing, and three trees, then chainsaw a pile of logs that I promised to do about 4 months ago.

Next steps are to balance the ITBs, which are fairly close along each bank, but not so close left to right. Once that it done, Aaron can tweak my fueling enough that I can safely drive to Brands Hatch for a Dyno tune


So, if it works, here is that first start

[The Garage Bitch]

Brilliant

[Nine One One]

Excellent you must be well pleased!

[Gary71]

This is awesome!
That first fire must feel like victory

[impmad2000]

No better feeling than when it comes alive. I remember all of these steps when getting mine going initially. Well done