I finally got some time to go back and work on the car more. Fired it up and started working on the idle more. I had Trent jump in the drivers seat and we took off down the road to dial in the drivability. A nice sunny, cool day like today it's sometimes nicer to be on the road than the dyno.

The car ran great. Being scared of more problems with the cam sensor I just wanted to drive around normally and easy.

That got boring. I told Trent to hit it in 1st gear..............useless, tires lit up, 8870 rpm, told Trent not to go over 7000, it was instantly spinning the tires.

We drove a little further, my courage grew and I figured it ran good in 1st, try 2nd, so it was done. Again, just about useless, spun the tires hard in 2nd, we could see the lines in the road behind us. BTW, this was on low boost at 30 psi.

We came back to the shop, popped the hood, looked things over, talked about how great the car was and went back out.

3,000 rpm, 3rd gear, Trent floors it, seems like we were on the gas about 2.5 seconds and it was at 8,000 rpm. Rediculous. Drive another 8 miles or so off boost, just cruising and enjoying everything.

We get back on the main road and I get all my courage back and tell Trent to hit the switch for high boost and if he so much as hears a peep to lift instantly. He rolls out on the street, softly through 1st and I tell him, "Dude punch it!" He puts it in 2nd and hits it, HOLY HELL BATMAN, then came the shift to 3rd, it's like lightening I'm telling you, through 3rd in a matter of a few seconds. I can't even describe it, it's just simply illegal.

Back to the shop everything was perfect except for the hose coming off the BOV (my fault). Washed, dried and put it away.

I'm so tempted to just dyno it like it is but really want to try the Haltech so I am going to save it.

We had 40.83 psi of boost, air temps were stuck at 77 degrees, hottest it got on the road was 172 degrees. It's a flat out joy to drive.

I called Norwalk to make sure we can race tomorrow, freaking track is closed for some big event. So it won't be until next week. To say I am anxious would be a HUGE understatement.

It's never felt like this, maybe because I was in the passenger seat but Trent sure was grinning too!!

 

does this mean the comment you made tord putting this car back on the stock ecu and trying SD is out of the question?? lol

 

evilevo2006, not out of the question but not my decision right now. Mike approached me with the Haltech and I decided to try it.

 

Car is just flat out MEAN! I couldnt get over how nice it cruises around town! In fact David, I think I should take it home this weekend and drive it around to make sure its fast enough I can go pick up Kevin and we can just cruise around

 

Damn David , umm this sort of sound similar.

I got a log from Saturday night Dave , did a first gear roll and bam it go's from 6000 rpm to 9500 rpm rev limit In no **** 1 second according to the AEM Log timer flat out rediculous it seems to grab 2nd ok but 1st is useless for sure. Street tires FTL hahaha

David I am gonna email you a log !!!!

 

I've been reading about cam angle sensor failures on EVO's on this forum and others; looks like you have pretty much vetted that it is not heat that is making them fail, my guess is that the sensor is being destroyed by vibration or a frequency of vibration from a highly modded engine. So, my stab in the dark solution would be to try to dampen the sensor by wrapping it with a rubber/silicone based tape and wrapping that with a thermal blanket material just in case it maybe a heat related failure. I have wrapped mine up to dampen noise/vibration/heat, don't know if this will help you but maybe this will get rid of that phantom knock I was having!! Goodluck Guys!!

 

Dave, let me know how you like it! I am up in the air at this point as well.


-Em

 

my thoughts were that balance shafts removed adds a nice high frequency. I have been amazed over the years of the things I have see happen. bolts backing out, flywheel bolts coming off, oil filters spinning off. wouldnt surprise me a bit if the sensor is failing from this vibration.

 

94awd,
I don't think I can feel a difference between an engine we've built with no balance shafts and a stock one, we balance the assemblies extremely close. Yes, I know the purpose of the shafts and it's not to balance the rotating assembly. I am simply saying, sitting in an EVO with a well balanced short block compared to a stock one, not sure I can tell the difference.

I also have never seen an oil filter come off an EVO, yes, had it happen numerous times on 1G's. Also keep in mind, I've not seen it happen on any EVO with any engine management other than AEM.

Emery, I should start getting an idea tomorrow how I like it, I should have mine in the AM. I have nothing scheduled tomorrow so I can just work on the car once the Haltech comes in.

 

My motive is, that I would simply like to know what is the best ECU on the market! You asking me what my motive is, is like asking, "jeez Dave why'd you test all those intakes, this old magnus sheet metal intake was working fine!".

What upsets me a bit as well, is Haltech has non-existent knock control AFAIK. Then you look at Autronic for example where Richard Aubert (ex Motec btw) spent years working on custom 4G63 per cylinder knock control for the Evo PnP SM4 board, and you guys won't even give it a try!

And from my limited understanding, AEM uses boost comp tables etc for fueling? I think that is an entirely primitive system compared to the Autronic where you map fuel using VE not IDC in the fuel tables. You could map the entire fuel table with the same number in every cell and you would be in the ballpark with Autronic.

Plus for years you and Dave and every other vendor out there has been pushing AEM which can't even sync to start the car within 5 seconds. Now all of the sudden there is something better? There has always been something better. In fact probably anything would have been better.

I do understand all you need is a distributor and a carb to make a ton of power but ECU's are important in terms ignition and injector drivers, startup, idle, and safety in terms of knock control.

Why are COP systems so popular for Evo's when I can run 42 psi of boost on stock coils with Autronic? I think the AEM is a big reason for the success of COP. In fact I believe there was threads on this and how the AEM settings for dwell etc were incorrect.

My only point is, it would be terrific if a test was done where all the features of PnP Evo ECU's were compared, with safety especially in mind for the end users who you are selling the units to. I get asked all the time what standalone do I recommend. I would absolutely use Dave's findings as point of reference if he conducted an ECU comparison test.

 

crcain, what you are asking would easily be put together with just research. You want to know what features each has and such, that can be all just looked up and found.

For reference one of my big NO's with the Haltech in the past was lack of knock control, the new box has it, along with 02 feedback and boost correct.

I do not feel boost comp is primative, it's one of the reasons I like the AEM so much. Now Haltech has it too, so I'm right at home with it.

I see and understand your points, I however do not have the time, energy or money to buy that many stand alones, install them on my car and give feedback on how they work.

BTW, I do agree with you on the COP's too.

 

Dude, your description of the car makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Very nice. I bet that thing is a blast!

 

Man, I just sent my EMS to AEM to have them look at it because I'm having similar issues. Car will crank, but not start. My twin pump setup won't prime either.

Good luck with the Haltech and let us know what AEM says.

 

The twin pumps not priming is misleading. The primary pump in your car should come on as soon as you turn the key to "on". The secondary pump in your car comes on at 6 psi of boost. If the car won't start and the primary pump doesn't come on when the key is turned to on you have one of two likely problems. One the ECU fuse is blown, either under the dash or under the hood, usually the 5 amp fuse. The second is you just needed to unplug all the connectors on the ECU and then plug it back in.

black95, it is flat out disgusting, trying to describe it is kind of pointless. A good writer could come up with something, I'm just a dumb redneck.

 

Wow thats impressive. The response and spool must be amazing then, when does peak boost hit?