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"I am an automotive electrical genius" or "Why quadzilla is smarter than I am"

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Old 11-19-2007, 02:30 AM
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"I am an automotive electrical genius" or "Why quadzilla is smarter than I am"

So last week I bought a Quad M3 along with an AEM Brute Force HD Intake for my truck. I also picked up a nifty 2 way remote start, alarm, turbo timer, etc. I got the intake and chip installed last wednesday evening with no problems (which suprises even me a little since it was pretty dark out). Friday after work I begin installing the remote start kit, and get about 1% of the way done (steering column torn apart, panels removed....1 splice of about 34 complete). Saturday my friend who owns the house Im living in asks for help in busting up and disposing of the walkway in front of the house. This thing is solid concrete, about 9 inches thick on the steps. We fill the bed of my truck up, rail to rail, with concrete block and hunks and head out for the rubble fill. Immediately upon getting out of my driveway I notice something is wrong. I floor it in 2nd gear, and I got nothing, and I can barely hear the turbo spool. Then the check engine light comes on. Im starting to panic and wonder what I did to my truck. My roommate of course is laughing his *** off at this scene. Then I remember... I disconnected the M3 box cause it was in the way of my remote starter wiring, and I forgot to plug it back in. Funny how when you splice the MAP sensor and remove the box, the factory ECU doesnt see it any more and holds the waste gate open. Ever pull a full bed of concrete with 0psi of boost the whole way? It sucks...

Oh, and I just did the math, the 8' bed has a volume of 77.6 cubic feet (minus the space taken up by the wheel arches). And concrete has an average density of 150 lbs/cubic foot. Make some very rough but practical guestimates including subtracting 7.6 cubic feet for the wheel arches, and a 40% sorting efficiency (i.e. the rough shapes of the concrete caused it to only occupy 40% of the available bed volume). This leaves you with about 4200lbs of weight. Definetly not fun without the turbo!
Old 11-19-2007, 05:52 AM
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You're a genius...happens to the best of us...
Old 11-19-2007, 07:23 AM
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i bet your egts were thru the roof!!

brett
Old 11-19-2007, 10:18 AM
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... I bet your EGTs were higher than your IQ!
Old 11-19-2007, 11:28 AM
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I'm surprised it started at all.
Old 11-19-2007, 04:08 PM
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Originally Posted by XLR8R
... I bet your EGTs were higher than your IQ!
My EGT at idle is higher than most peoples IQ
Old 11-19-2007, 09:54 PM
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But IQ's are like golf scores...the lower the better...right guys? right? guys?

I dont have gauges yet....hmm...I really hope I didnt break my truck. Assuming it did this, wouldnt it have de-fueled too in order to control EGT's? Doesnt the truck a have a built in pyrometer to measure EGT's?
Old 11-19-2007, 10:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Hoser795
So last week I bought a Quad M3 along with an AEM Brute Force HD Intake for my truck. I also picked up a nifty 2 way remote start, alarm, turbo timer, etc. I got the intake and chip installed last wednesday evening with no problems (which suprises even me a little since it was pretty dark out). Friday after work I begin installing the remote start kit, and get about 1% of the way done (steering column torn apart, panels removed....1 splice of about 34 complete). Saturday my friend who owns the house Im living in asks for help in busting up and disposing of the walkway in front of the house. This thing is solid concrete, about 9 inches thick on the steps. We fill the bed of my truck up, rail to rail, with concrete block and hunks and head out for the rubble fill. Immediately upon getting out of my driveway I notice something is wrong. I floor it in 2nd gear, and I got nothing, and I can barely hear the turbo spool. Then the check engine light comes on. Im starting to panic and wonder what I did to my truck. My roommate of course is laughing his *** off at this scene. Then I remember... I disconnected the M3 box cause it was in the way of my remote starter wiring, and I forgot to plug it back in. Funny how when you splice the MAP sensor and remove the box, the factory ECU doesnt see it any more and holds the waste gate open. Ever pull a full bed of concrete with 0psi of boost the whole way? It sucks...

Oh, and I just did the math, the 8' bed has a volume of 77.6 cubic feet (minus the space taken up by the wheel arches). And concrete has an average density of 150 lbs/cubic foot. Make some very rough but practical guestimates including subtracting 7.6 cubic feet for the wheel arches, and a 40% sorting efficiency (i.e. the rough shapes of the concrete caused it to only occupy 40% of the available bed volume). This leaves you with about 4200lbs of weight. Definetly not fun without the turbo!
Well actually, with the quad disconnected, the turbo wastegate isn't held open. The problem is that the MAP sensor is disconnected and so with no signal from the MAP (boost signal) to the ECM, the EMC will defuel or not allow any fuel to be pumped into the motor. NO fuel = NO exhaust =NO turbo spool = NO boost = NO power......
Wastegate is uneffected. So it's not "no turbo", it's "no fuel".
Old 11-20-2007, 05:24 PM
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Ahhhh.... well that makes sense too I suppose. I guess the waste gate on the VP-44 trucks is all mechanical anyways, right? Im used to my subaru where it was electrically controlled. So how does that effect my EGTs?

Actually, does anyone know a good article that covers the basics of fueling a diesel. Like all the adds for boxes/programmers talk about fuel timing and quantity. I obviously know what these terms mean, but am curious as to how altering each one affects engine performance, etg's, etc.
Old 11-20-2007, 05:41 PM
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In the situation as you described above, your EGT's were probably low. No fuel or air to burn; well, very little.
The wastegate on our years are vacuum. Look at your turbo. You should see a vacuum canister with a hard line from it to the inlet of the turbo. That little vacumm canister controls an arm that controls the wastegate at the rear of the turbo.
It's realitively easy to make more power out of a diesel engine. You just gotta add more fuel. Of course there are a LOT of variables for each and every make of engine. The more fuel you add to the cylinders, the hotter your EGT's will be. That's when more cool boost is needed. Shove in as much cold air as possible to keep the EGT's down. Of course there is a balance to be found.
Now don't get me wrong. There is WAY MORE to it than that, but that's pretty much what it boils down to.
Old 11-20-2007, 10:14 PM
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Yeah, I was just wondering what the relationship between air and fuel is in a diesel. And I was wondering how timing affects it all. Like I said, I come from the gas engine world, this is my first diesel. Tuning on my Subaru, theres actually alot to take into account. Air-fuel ratio kind of dictates primarily, then EGT's, so thats what I always tuned for. My motor seems happy at a 13:1 AFR (a little extra fuel seems to keep things cooler on a gas motor), then pushed as much boost as I could and as aggressive an ignition timing as I could, all while maintaining my AFR and keeping my EGT's in check.

Does anyone have a stand-alone engine management for diesels? Or is there a way to re-write the stock ECU like I could do on the Subie with OpenECU? I used a UTEC for a little while in the car, and that came with 5 preset programs, and then you could go in and tweak them some, but it was all based on modifying the inputs/outputs of the stock ECU. Once I switched over to OpenECU, I started making sick power with that thing, and maintaining amazingly good street manners.
Old 11-21-2007, 08:44 AM
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This is where I wish we had a Cummins version of EFI Live. That is similar to what your looking for, but its for Duramax's.
Old 11-21-2007, 11:35 AM
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These guys sell the software for laptops. http://www.autotap.com/product_famil...&TrailType=Top
Old 11-26-2007, 12:04 AM
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But as far as I can tell, it only lets you read trouble codes and sensor outputs. While it does say you can adjust alarm ranges, it doesnt say anything about letting modify the running parameters of your engine (i.e. fuel quantity/timing, boost fooling, etc).

Although, that could be handy. I was planning on buying a Quadzilla Commander/Xzillaraider or Edge Juice/Attitude combo so I would have gauges and a chip. I also want to do a custom truck PC to replace my stereo...maybe I could use this instead of the Commander/Attitude monitor...

Thanks!
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