Big Blue's Transformation

[grumpin]

I think the current schedule is around the 32nd of Juvember.

Ha! An old boss would ask for a wrench by saying hand me that eleventy seventy sevenths.

[Gary Lewis]

Ha! An old boss would ask for a wrench by saying hand me that eleventy seventy sevenths.

Yep, I've met some guys like that.

As for what I did today, I got the wide-band AFR meter installed - all but the O2 sensor. Yes, I've had it installed before, although in a quick/dirty sort of way. But this time I wanted it "right", so I pulled the dash cover and tied into power & "lights on" at the clock connector. With one of my cheap waterproof connectors on the end of those wires plus the ground wire, and a matching one on the gauge I had the gauge itself wired.

Then I fished the serial cable through the dash to the gauge and connected it to the "Out" connector. And I downloaded the programming software for the gauge and installed it on this tablet.

So now all I have to do is to calibrate the gauge with the sensor. That requires powering up for at least 30 seconds w/o the sensor, which will delete the previous calibration. Then power down, connect the sensor, and power back up. After a minute or so the calibration will be done and I can install the sensor.

Then I can log both the true AFR from the wide band as well as all of the parameters from the ECU, including the AFR the ECU is calling for - the "commanded" AFR. And from what I've read the way you dial in the fuel part of the "tune" is to change the MAF table such that the "commanded" AFR from the ECU is the same as the actual AFR from the wide band. When they match fuel is dialed in.

So it will be very interesting to see how close the actual AFR and the commanded AFR are. Wish me luck! (We need a crossed-fingers emoji.)

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, I've met some guys like that.

As for what I did today, I got the wide-band AFR meter installed - all but the O2 sensor. Yes, I've had it installed before, although in a quick/dirty sort of way. But this time I wanted it "right", so I pulled the dash cover and tied into power & "lights on" at the clock connector. With one of my cheap waterproof connectors on the end of those wires plus the ground wire, and a matching one on the gauge I had the gauge itself wired.

Then I fished the serial cable through the dash to the gauge and connected it to the "Out" connector. And I downloaded the programming software for the gauge and installed it on this tablet.

So now all I have to do is to calibrate the gauge with the sensor. That requires powering up for at least 30 seconds w/o the sensor, which will delete the previous calibration. Then power down, connect the sensor, and power back up. After a minute or so the calibration will be done and I can install the sensor.

Then I can log both the true AFR from the wide band as well as all of the parameters from the ECU, including the AFR the ECU is calling for - the "commanded" AFR. And from what I've read the way you dial in the fuel part of the "tune" is to change the MAF table such that the "commanded" AFR from the ECU is the same as the actual AFR from the wide band. When they match fuel is dialed in.

So it will be very interesting to see how close the actual AFR and the commanded AFR are. Wish me luck! (We need a crossed-fingers emoji.)

As I've been reading what I can find on BE and how to use it to tune I've come across several places on the internet and need to document them so I can get back to them. I'll add more if/when I find them.

• Ben Head of Core Tuning: This link takes you to a selection of 10 videos. And since BE comes from Core Tuning this is obviously one of the first places someone should go when trying to learn. I've watched all of the 10 videos, some multiple times, and learned something significant each and every time. I've not yet met Ben, who lives in the OKC area, but expect to do so in the next few months - either when I have him dyno Big Blue or maybe if he decides to come to the show in Sept.

• Leech Motorsports: This link takes you to 52 videos, currently, of which I've only watched a couple. But they are good and I intend to watch many more of them. Leech Motorsports is in Stroud, OK and that's not far from me in Skiatook. I've talked to Cody Lemon of Leech on the phone and it looks like he may come to the show along with his father and another, one of which has a Bullnose and one an OBS. Anyway, their specialty is EEC-IV systems with MAF, but they obviously know their way around BE and EFI. And they may well come to the show in Sept.

• Fuel Control: This page gets into things I truly do not understand, but obviously the author does. And while it is a difficult read since I don't really understand all of what he's saying, it is an interesting read nonetheless.

[Gary Lewis]

As I've been reading what I can find on BE and how to use it to tune I've come across several places on the internet and need to document them so I can get back to them. I'll add more if/when I find them.

• Ben Head of Core Tuning: This link takes you to a selection of 10 videos. And since BE comes from Core Tuning this is obviously one of the first places someone should go when trying to learn. I've watched all of the 10 videos, some multiple times, and learned something significant each and every time. I've not yet met Ben, who lives in the OKC area, but expect to do so in the next few months - either when I have him dyno Big Blue or maybe if he decides to come to the show in Sept.

• Leech Motorsports: This link takes you to 52 videos, currently, of which I've only watched a couple. But they are good and I intend to watch many more of them. Leech Motorsports is in Stroud, OK and that's not far from me in Skiatook. I've talked to Cody Lemon of Leech on the phone and it looks like he may come to the show along with his father and another, one of which has a Bullnose and one an OBS. Anyway, their specialty is EEC-IV systems with MAF, but they obviously know their way around BE and EFI. And they may well come to the show in Sept.

• Fuel Control: This page gets into things I truly do not understand, but obviously the author does. And while it is a difficult read since I don't really understand all of what he's saying, it is an interesting read nonetheless.

Today was good, but also frustrating.

Let's start with the good. I called Champion Cooling about my radiator leak. Cara answered, found my order in their system, asked for pictures of the radiator and the leak, and when I sent them said they'll ship me another one tomorrow. And, I don't need to return this one. So I'm going to write up a really good review of Champion. I'll used their radiators on everything I do

And then I got the wide band AFR meter working quite well. But, I cannot get the serial cable logging to work. I get an odd error message on my computer but I got it working one time on Janey's computer. ONE TIME. I've tried everything I can think of to get it going, to no avail.

So tomorrow I'm going to connect the analog output of the meter to the ECU via the EGR pin and will log it that way. I sorta planned ahead for this as I put a 4-pin connector on the meter with power, ground, lighting, and analog out. So I just have to pick that signal up in the mating connector and run it to the ECU.

That will make the setup a bit cleaner as I'll just have the Mongoose cable to the OBD-II connector instead of it and the serial cable. And it'll mean I can log with this tablet, which never did work on the serial cable, even with the Innovate Log Works software.

Also, John/Machspeed came by this afternoon. He got to drive the truck and may have a report on that. But he didn't get to stay as long as we'd hoped since a large line of storms came in and tornado warnings were issued for Skiatook, so he wisely headed home. But we did have a good visit.

However we did eyeball the AFR readings on the wide band vs those on Binary Editor, and the wide band was typically in the 15's and once in a while dipped into the 14's. But the ECU thought it was runnin in the high 14's and once in a while jumped up into the 15's. So I'm expecting that when I get the wide band to log I'm going to see something like a .5 - .7 delta which I'll need to adjust out.

[Machspeed]

Today was good, but also frustrating.

Let's start with the good. I called Champion Cooling about my radiator leak. Cara answered, found my order in their system, asked for pictures of the radiator and the leak, and when I sent them said they'll ship me another one tomorrow. And, I don't need to return this one. So I'm going to write up a really good review of Champion. I'll used their radiators on everything I do

And then I got the wide band AFR meter working quite well. But, I cannot get the serial cable logging to work. I get an odd error message on my computer but I got it working one time on Janey's computer. ONE TIME. I've tried everything I can think of to get it going, to no avail.

So tomorrow I'm going to connect the analog output of the meter to the ECU via the EGR pin and will log it that way. I sorta planned ahead for this as I put a 4-pin connector on the meter with power, ground, lighting, and analog out. So I just have to pick that signal up in the mating connector and run it to the ECU.

That will make the setup a bit cleaner as I'll just have the Mongoose cable to the OBD-II connector instead of it and the serial cable. And it'll mean I can log with this tablet, which never did work on the serial cable, even with the Innovate Log Works software.

Also, John/Machspeed came by this afternoon. He got to drive the truck and may have a report on that. But he didn't get to stay as long as we'd hoped since a large line of storms came in and tornado warnings were issued for Skiatook, so he wisely headed home. But we did have a good visit.

However we did eyeball the AFR readings on the wide band vs those on Binary Editor, and the wide band was typically in the 15's and once in a while dipped into the 14's. But the ECU thought it was runnin in the high 14's and once in a while jumped up into the 15's. So I'm expecting that when I get the wide band to log I'm going to see something like a .5 - .7 delta which I'll need to adjust out.

Gary, jetted home and made it before the stuff came down. Think I hit the driveway around 7:45 so I was making time. Didn't want to see hail

Yes, I enjoyed driving Big Blue, thank you! He sits a little higher than I'm used to sitting and he's a torquie fella! I wished I could have driven him with the old carb set up for some kind of comparison. Can't believe you endured the pains of the transition. So much to learn! I'll be keeping with my carb. Did I tell you how much I like it....LOL!

BTW, best mod on Big Blue is that camera set up and the keyless locking system. So strange to lock an old Bullnose up by pressing a remote button.

Thanks for the meal and good conversation, my friend!

Sirens just now going off here in Wagoner (8:35) now and phone alerts going crazy! Pray we don't get hit. I'm headed to the safe room.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, jetted home and made it before the stuff came down. Think I hit the driveway around 7:45 so I was making time. Didn't want to see hail

Yes, I enjoyed driving Big Blue, thank you! He sits a little higher than I'm used to sitting and he's a torquie fella! I wished I could have driven him with the old carb set up for some kind of comparison. Can't believe you endured the pains of the transition. So much to learn! I'll be keeping with my carb. Did I tell you how much I like it....LOL!

BTW, best mod on Big Blue is that camera set up and the keyless locking system. So strange to lock an old Bullnose up by pressing a remote button.

Thanks for the meal and good conversation, my friend!

Sirens just now going off here in Wagoner (8:35) now and phone alerts going crazy! Pray we don't get hit. I'm headed to the safe room.

 

Praying for you, John! The storm went mainly south of us and we just got rain. I'd left the lights on for the neighbors and just turned them off and locked the doors as we are in the clear.

Yes, the mirror and cameras as well as the security system are a big plus. It is such a good feeling as you walk away and hear the door locks clunk, and when driving put it in reverse and actually see what is behind you.

[Gary Lewis]

Praying for you, John! The storm went mainly south of us and we just got rain. I'd left the lights on for the neighbors and just turned them off and locked the doors as we are in the clear.

Yes, the mirror and cameras as well as the security system are a big plus. It is such a good feeling as you walk away and hear the door locks clunk, and when driving put it in reverse and actually see what is behind you.

Well, another frustrating day. I got the BR/LG wire connected from the wide band's analog output to Pin 65 on the ECU quite easily, but it went downhill from there.

The first issue was in discovering what the correct input is called. I was thinking that the parameter is DELPR, so set it up for that but then the data that was being logged was all over the map.

Given that I thought I had the wrong input so I played around for a long time logging a bunch of different inputs and kept coming back to that one. So I finally pulled the connectors apart and set it up so that I could monitor the output of the gauge and use whatever I wanted as the input to the ECU.

I put an analog volt meter as well as my DVM on the output and it was nice and smooth. So I put a 3v battery on the input to the ECU and DELPR was all over the map again. Even when I grounded it the data log doesn't really go to the AFR of 7.35, which is what 0 volts represents in the transfer table. (You can see that at the end of the trace below where it comes down from the flat peak and then chatters for a while until the trace stops.)

So I've appealed to Ben of Core Tuning. I'm tired of banging my head against the wall, and told him I need to get the wide band logging correctly so I can bring it down to him and have him tune it.

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

Well, another frustrating day. I got the BR/LG wire connected from the wide band's analog output to Pin 65 on the ECU quite easily, but it went downhill from there.

The first issue was in discovering what the correct input is called. I was thinking that the parameter is DELPR, so set it up for that but then the data that was being logged was all over the map.

Given that I thought I had the wrong input so I played around for a long time logging a bunch of different inputs and kept coming back to that one. So I finally pulled the connectors apart and set it up so that I could monitor the output of the gauge and use whatever I wanted as the input to the ECU.

I put an analog volt meter as well as my DVM on the output and it was nice and smooth. So I put a 3v battery on the input to the ECU and DELPR was all over the map again. Even when I grounded it the data log doesn't really go to the AFR of 7.35, which is what 0 volts represents in the transfer table. (You can see that at the end of the trace below where it comes down from the flat peak and then chatters for a while until the trace stops.)

So I've appealed to Ben of Core Tuning. I'm tired of banging my head against the wall, and told him I need to get the wide band logging correctly so I can bring it down to him and have him tune it.

I feel your pain Gary. 😖

So close you can taste it, but that ECU just isn't playing nice.

I might ask if you have another control unit with a compatible catch code you could swap.

Did you try back probing right at the computer?

If you did, is your signal clean there?

 

[85lebaront2]

I feel your pain Gary. 😖

So close you can taste it, but that ECU just isn't playing nice.

I might ask if you have another control unit with a compatible catch code you could swap.

Did you try back probing right at the computer?

If you did, is your signal clean there?

Jim, I don't know which computer he is using, I sent him one to help get started, and I think he has another one.

He is at least close to one of the three from Core Tuning. I never tried to integrate my wideband O2 sensor into the computer, I only used it for datalogging and as a glance at the reading occasionally item.

[Gary Lewis]

I feel your pain Gary. 😖

So close you can taste it, but that ECU just isn't playing nice.

I might ask if you have another control unit with a compatible catch code you could swap.

Did you try back probing right at the computer?

If you did, is your signal clean there?

Yes, Jim, so close I could TASTE it! But, Ben called and got me going.

As it turns out, the ECU I have uses a completely different input than the 0 - 5v I was trying to give it via the analog input. So it was never going to work. It is a "Pressure Feedback EGR" system and Ben said it won't work.

So he got the serial input working.

Then he poked around in the "tune" and asked "Who set this up for you?" I told him it was his co-worker Adam, and he said it is a 460 manual transmission tune, so that explains why it runs so well right out of the box. But then he looked at the timing tables and said it is leaving a lot on the table.

So then we discussed my coming down to put it on the dyno. He's into drag racing and has races the next several weekends and has other people lined up to tune in the interim. But I'm going to get it down there one way or another.

In the interim he wants me to put it into open loop and do some data logging and send him the file. And the easiest way to put it in open loop is to just pull the connectors to the factory O2 sensors. From that he'll suggest some changes and we can get it close. Then he can dial it in the last little bit on the dyno.

So I can do that awa poke around to dial in a few other things, but it is driveable right now w/o hurting it.