Project "independence day"IRS and 3500 swap

[unchained01]

Very nice work !!!
I do have a question
Whats going to happen to the front sway bar?
I noticed it was just hanging there

The dual BOV's look sick !!!!

[Driver_10]

Very nice work !!!
I do have a question
Whats going to happen to the front sway bar?
I noticed it was just hanging there

The dual BOV's look sick !!!!

Im swapping in a hellwig "adjustable" unit later; This one is TOO stiff for the car.
Ill be removing it and selling it soon, but I need it place to check clearances for the turbo system.

By the way, the dual BOV's will be recirculated later. The whole thing will operate nice an quiet. No loud snorting from open dumps.

[Purple pit]

Still watching......still wide eyed. Every now and then there is a "wow".

[Driver_10]

Its been the greater part of 5 months since I touched this project. A lot of work (and fun) related stuff kept me out of the states for a while, so now that Ive been back home for the last 2 weeks, its time to get back down to business.

I went ahead and started doing the tin work (or should I say aluminum work) to cover everything up everything in the back. I started out with some sheets of chloroplastic to make the basic templates around the wheel-wells. Chlororplastic works well since its so rigid that it doesnt deform when crammed around tight spots and jagged corners. A bit of trial and error and I had my templates ready. (A little tip: A high speed pneumatic cut-off wheel works a lot easier than sissors)




Then the top trim panels were made. It helped to square up the interior quite a bit and make the rest of the tin work easier by eliminating all the oblong structures to cover up.


One the shapes were established, I cut the pieces out of aluminum sheeting and gave them a final test fitting before punching the holes for the rivets. BTW... this is a handy tool to have. Its a pneumatic puncher that I was lucky enough to find for sale cheap on a matco truck that was being sold for cheap since no-one else would buy it. ($100! )








The next piece that was cut out was the floor pan. It was one of the more difficult pieces to do. I even had to correct an incorrectly place bend. Aluminum does NOT like to be straightened out after having a 90 bend put in it.


After the floor pan cut out, a space was cut out of the pan to gain access to the cell. This will future make removal a LOT easier.

[Driver_10]

With that much of the interior panels complete, I started to turn my attention towards the exhaust (which didnt get very far since I didnt order enough tight 90 bends to complete the routing )

[Driver_10]

With more exhaust pieces ordered and on the way, I went ahead and invested myself in fabricating the new dash pod. Since my engine management system has CAN capabilities, I would be able to use a host of "off the shelf" digital displays which would help to reduce wiring effort (4-6 wires instead of 30 or more wires for the instruments).

It was an easy decision to abandon the analog gauges, and after selling my old console to Larry, I used the core he sent me to fabricate the new digital panel.


After taking the panel apart, the module enclosure was gutted, and a plate was cut out of aluminum.










The bezel for the stock gauges were sliced to make room for the plate, and the holes were bossed out for the display. Aftyerwards, the mxL was mounted to help find the places the boost and AFR meters.






After a bit of slight notching (which cant be seen here) to make the display fit without slight intereference, the display was test fit into the car. Very clean and simplified. Best of all, I DONT have to drill a hole for a mechanical speed now!




Ill have some more stuff to post up before the next two weeks is up!

[Driver_10]

The easy work for doing the dash is now all finished... Now for the nitty-gritty. Time to whip out the multimeter and start assembling the wiring harness and dash circuits. I started by making a mounting pad for the ECU and other modules.


The board was planned out, and all the modules place and traced out for drilling.






With the largest two modules bossed for screws, I cut out rubber isolators from 1/8 silicone rubber sheets and mounted the modules for shock protection. I then placed the PLX wideband controller and the boost sensor on the board and made provisions to securely mount them.


Next, I went and wired in the AEM injector driver module to run the 85lb fuel injectors. The AEM "peak-n-hold" driver module is simple to wire up. Simply splice it inline the ECU and the injectors, then supply power and ground. The colors of the input wires are the same as the colors of the output wires, so anyone can install one of these.

I used Deutch connectors with gold plated contacts. For those who work with electronics, I don't have to tell you how pricey the tools, pins and connector housings are.






I wanted to keep the two harnesses that plug into the MS3 separate from one another, so I used two connectors to keep the two harness looms segregated. The input wires on the AEM inj driver were cut short to keep excess wiring to a minum.




This handy, "reused" connector has all 10 of the injector wires plugged in it. (for future expansion if needed), and I still need to route the power wires through it, so I havent tapped up any wire looms yet.

[Driver_10]

The forward 1/4 of the harness now done, I took the panel and gave it a test fit for clearance.


With the easy stuff aside, I went ahead and did the basic wiring for the gauges and indicators, and used hot-glue to hold down any potential vibration. Afterwards I went about the task of sorting through the wiring for the display.


The Aim Sport, MXL, "Strada", data display, comes with one ready made harness. Its fairly to wire up to the ECU; Power +, ground, CAN high. CAN low and the 2 RS232 wires. That will be enough for the MS3-pro to display speed, RPM, temp, and quite a few other variables. After hooking up power, and cycling the unit, it came to life.


Now... It also comes with a second AMP connector and NO INSTRUCTIONS. After a bit of searching on the internet, I located the instruction PDA and the wiring pin-outs.
Now there was a problem. The pins were identified, but there were no diagrams of the circuits within the module itself anywhere in the diagram. There was no way to tell from the simple description whether or not the analog inputs had there own separate look-up resistors installed, so using a potentiometer and monitoring PIDs, I verified that there were no internal resistors on the inputs that I would be using. As it turns out, this unit is either set up for voltage producing sensors (1-wire knock sensors), or 3-wire sensors with internal loads like throttle sensors and conventional fuel senders.

As luck would have it, Im using a 2-wire sender, 2-wire intercooler temp sensor, and a 2 wire VDO oil-pressure sender. (ಠ_ಠ) Annoying, yes, but not the end of the world

I sorted through my electronics junks and found some spare 2.2k resistors, and soldered them onto the analogue grounding pad. I then spliced it onto the input signal wire to create a pull-up measuring voltage. The resistor allows the signal voltage to be measured by the module, and enables the use of two wire sensors.


After getting my "2-wires" to work, I went and tried to calibrate the sensors... Once again, no dice (ಠ_ಠ)... There were no definitions in the software for calibration but also, nothing that I couldnt get around. (There were, however calibrations for the VDO pressure sensor, at least)

The clever guys at AIM built this display with wide flexibility in mind, and left a nifty little "custom sensor" function in the programing software. It allows a user to custom define the waveform behavior of any particular type of sensor. It can adjust for sensors that measure distance, volume, speed, temperature, electrical strain, frequency and a bunch of other stuff. It took some trial and error, but after some fine tuning, I got my fuel sender to work, and pressure gauges mapped.




If you look closely at the waveform map (lower image) and the channel directory (channel 4 in the upper image), you'll notice that I calibrated the gauge to read in gallons of fuel, rather than just a generic level. A pretty handy feature when you're wanting to determine exact fuel usage with a glance. (Not hard very hard math since I have a square shaped fuel cell. ) I went ahead and made a rear plate to cover the panel to keep dust out the sensitive areas after getting most of the wire work finished.

Im starting to appraoch a materials shortage, so I will do what I can in the next 4 days.
Later.

[unchained01]

I am so glad this is coming together for you !! Great project !!

[Purple pit]

Does the ECM need cooling air?

Great metal work as always!

[Driver_10]

There will be a set of cooling fans stationed over both modules. I still have to build enclosures though.

BTW... here's a brief walk-around video that I shot before leaving for work last month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amrAVMW9zfA

[unchained01]

This is a great build !! Keep the good work !!

[ericjon262]

been over a year, any updates?

[ericjon262]

thought about this thread. I have a feeling it's sitting in storage somewhere, lost to the world, or scrapped, but I'll give another bump a try after 6.5 years...

[SappySE107]

only 6.5 years? :P