The cure for HOT! summer supercharger blues

[fr8tdog]

Headers are absolutely amazing!! I haven't made it to the dyno yet, but look forward to the results. The only problem is my baseline was done when I discovered my fuel pump/filter issue and afr's were very lean up top, so I probably wasn't making the power i should have from all the timing pull. I will dyno sometime mid week.

[Beedub]

ok bro im really confused by my wideband gauge

i need some help ive just installed the stack wideband gauge in my z4m VT2-500, on the recommendation of my tuner alot with boost and oil pressure.

BUT i have literally no idea what AFR is, What my AFR is telling me and What if anything i should be looking for..........

Can someone basically give me a detailed explanation on terms like AFR stoichiometric?

If i run stoichiometric should this flash up 14.7 on my gauge indicating a non lean non rich situation?

this is the gauge i have

http://www.stackltd.com/instruments.html#Lambda

if you could take the time to look through the instructions provided on the above link id really appreciate some help to get this setup. my tuner told me ITS a must to have this gauge so i forked out the money and basically have NO CLUE what im looking at.....

if you could do this for me fr8t, ill shoot you a beer next time you in the UK :-) lol

[krnnerdboy]

Hey beedub,
I'm not knowledgable in this but I do understand the basic principle of it I think.

14.7 is perfect 1:1 or stoichmetric and not necessarily what you want to be seeing while on the throttle. Most cars are meant to run run around 12.0. Your basically looking to see if there are any spikes above whatever your Tune is supposed to be running(usually around 12). And anything that spikes above 13 is when you should be concerned. Your basically looking for spikes (usually found on the top end) or an overall lean condition.

That should help you look at it for now before a more knowledgable person chimes in

Cheers

[rabbit69]

im normally ideling at 14.8 and when i push it hard it goes to about 11.2-11.5ish.

btw i installed the meth kit, i gotta say im not really feeling anything different, i guess i have to wait for some really hot weather

[fr8tdog]

make sure you are using the smallest nozzle and a 50/50 mix of water/meth. the higher your meth percentage the more rich you will be and that will lose power. If the nozzle is anything but the smallest AEM provides you will be rich. 11-11.5 sounds a tad rich. You may not notice a power gain as little as they are, but your engine will run cooler and cleaner along with mitigated summer power lose. The best thing to do is get on the dyno and play with progression rates and watch your afr's. On the dyno you shoud see a nice increase in tq and hp. I have a power switch that lets me turn water/meth of and on to see whats happening on the dyno.

[fr8tdog]

fr8t need some serious help here
ok bro im really confused by my wideband gauge

i need some help ive just installed the stack wideband gauge in my z4m VT2-500, on the recommendation of my tuner alot with boost and oil pressure.

BUT i have literally no idea what AFR is, What my AFR is telling me and What if anything i should be looking for..........

Can someone basically give me a detailed explanation on terms like AFR stoichiometric?

If i run stoichiometric should this flash up 14.7 on my gauge indicating a non lean non rich situation?

this is the gauge i have

http://www.stackltd.com/instruments.html#Lambda

if you could take the time to look through the instructions provided on the above link id really appreciate some help to get this setup. my tuner told me ITS a must to have this gauge so i forked out the money and basically have NO CLUE what im looking at.....

if you could do this for me fr8t, ill shoot you a beer next time you in the UK :-) lol
__________________
Prestine show condition Z4m Ess supercharged!
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Beedub is offline Report Post Reply With Quote





AFR=air fuel ratio. 14.7 is approx. what you want to see with unleaded pump gas at idle. At wide open throttle you want 11.8- to as high as 12.8 at redline. most of the power band you will see low to mid 12's. Stoichiometric is basically the mass of air to mass of fuel that will produce a clean burn with no unburned fuel. This is fine at idle and driving under vac, but driving under load it's to hot and will cause detonation/knock/engine dammage. Any number greater than 14.7 is lean and less is rich. When you load the car the afr's must go richer to prevent knock and other heat related engine damage. When you let of the gas as you shift the numbers will shoot past 14.7 up to 15 17 18 for a brief moment, which is normal. What you should worry about is afr under load and your rpms ramp up. The way I recommend using this gauge is a monitor system. Dont stare at it every time you redline, but check every few times to make sure you aren't getting any lean spikes as you load up your engine to redline. It's almost impossible to look at it redlining from 1 st gear without hitting your rev limiter. A good and smart time to look at it is when you are in a higher gear under a prolonged pull. This is where you will most likely blow a motor anyway. Hope this helps without getting to technical. Different types of race gas have a different stoich and that will be seen on your wide band. That is another discussion. Just keep it simple and watch out for 13 at higher rpm's.

[Beedub]

Fr8t ur awesome im seeing between 11.8-12.5 , cheers bro!!!!

[ZStig]

videos biznatch!

[Beedub]

Fr8t i was shocked on the removal of s/c intake to see how much oil had been sucked / blown into the intake, take urs off and see what i mean. You must , repeat must get a catch can setup on this car, were loosing valuable octanes from fuel by this prob.

Ive ordered the can with some proper high quality hoses, cant wait to do the install on that part. Its definatly something you should look into!!!

This is one of few mods i deem essential on an s/c z4m.

[Beedub]

fr8tdog i took a little clip of my gauge pod for you :-)

3d design with stack pro step gauges, probably the most expensive gauge you can buy!!

the gauge pod was imported from japan and looks PERFECT!!!

so so so so so happy

[fr8tdog]

Originally Posted by Beedub

Fr8t ur awesome im seeing between 11.8-12.5 , cheers bro!!!!

That sounds PERFECT!! If you add water/meth you will most likely see a tad richer. Those afr's are right where you should be and congrats on the VT2-500! Ready for VT3 yet?? The gauges look beautiful beedub. I'm getting my afr and boost installed in the rear view mirror soon...will post that when its done. Cheers

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by fr8tdog

That sounds PERFECT!! If you add water/meth you will most likely see a tad richer. Those afr's are right where you should be and congrats on the VT2-500! Ready for VT3 yet?? The gauges look beautiful beedub. I'm getting my afr and boost installed in the rear view mirror soon...will post that when its done. Cheers

we need to work together on spec, im happy to build a vt3 :-)

i think we should work with ESS and get a vt2.5 kit with 8.5psi and a proper tune for it, this would be close to the old CFR550 rated unit.

this car just seems to need more, its just a wierd type of power, theirs no sort of bang POWER, its very linear, very smooth, very undramatic, which gives an illusion of a mre sedate pace until you need to brake and you realise how fast your traveling........

any thoughts on the catch can idea??... mines ordered, ive made my own bracket, looking forward to showing you my setup..... id hate to loose valuable octanes due to oil / fuel ingestion :-(

With the vt2 my charger sound is much more apparent, also the exhaust note now sounds properly angry.

[johanness]

Originally Posted by Beedub

this car just seems to need more, its just a wierd type of power, theirs no sort of bang POWER, its very linear, very smooth, very undramatic, which gives an illusion of a mre sedate pace until you need to brake and you realise how fast your traveling........

any thoughts on the catch can idea??... mines ordered, ive made my own bracket, looking forward to showing you my setup..... id hate to loose valuable octanes due to oil / fuel ingestion :-(

With the vt2 my charger sound is much more apparent, also the exhaust note now sounds properly angry.

You're wanting MORE power after the VT2 conversion you JUST did? LOL
That's hilarious. Power hungry much?

Also, hells ya you should be running a catch can. I know Bimmers are engineered to fine specs and all, with not a lot of blow-by per se... but I'd still run one. ESPECIALLY running F/I. There's no negative running one except finding perfect placement.

I used these in the past (different application of course, not sure it'd work here)

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by johanness

You're wanting MORE power after the VT2 conversion you JUST did? LOL
That's hilarious. Power hungry much?

Also, hells ya you should be running a catch can. I know Bimmers are engineered to fine specs and all, with not a lot of blow-by per se... but I'd still run one. ESPECIALLY running F/I. There's no negative running one except finding perfect placement.

I used these in the past (different application of course, not sure it'd work here)

powwweerrr... lol

seriously ill run VT2 for a year, then build vt3 next year as i did from vt1 to vt2 spec, honestly at this power level, with proper suspension, proper brakes should be enough to see off most vehicles at the track :-) the stock z4m was a weapon on the track, this thing is insane :-)

[Beedub]

fr8t... any thoughts on Catless system?? we may be able to liberate some good power from loosing them.

VT2 rocks bro...... Really happy with it, i love the lightweight piping :-)
can you do me a favour please and re-activate your video you made :-)

[rabbit69]

Originally Posted by Beedub

fr8t... any thoughts on Catless system?? we may be able to liberate some good power from loosing them.

VT2 rocks bro...... Really happy with it, i love the lightweight piping :-)
can you do me a favour please and re-activate your video you made :-)

i was really thinking about a catless system, funny you mentioned it. and btw i am soo in on the vt3 upgrade, just waiting on news from ess

[Beedub]

Absolutly on the vt3...... as soon as its available im in :-)

rabbit, hows the car??

[Beedub]

guys ive come up with some things i think the vt2 needs to gain some improvements.

1)

right guys, after alittle time withe the VT2 i feel we can make good gains by getting a proper exhaust system that designed for boost, im going to get a complete manifold back system made with v band connections, completly removeable cat sections, and rear boxes with a slightly down turned tip at each exit, this will help at those track noise regultions, id like to try a bigger bore pipe but im unsure how this works with supercharging, i know turbo's like zero backpressure.

2)Also a vented bonnet is a must for these s/ccars, the vortech acts like a giant radiator and sucks up all that heat, it would be great to loose some of that heat, Varis do a Cooling bonnet :-) i will order mine asap.

3)oil catch can is needed imo, unfortunatly im REALLY struggling to find where to mount one, i purchased a mocal 1 litre item and ive wasted money as their is no-where to mount this thing, we need a discreet option to catch the oil but allow vapour to flow freely.....

4) maybe look into what the ess handheld tuner can do for us?? we seem to have a great resource that were not tapping into, remember this will allow Real time data logging.

5) maybe the possibilty of vt-550?? the m3 got this and its proved very reliable and strong, we have all the hardware needed, we'll just need maybe an uprated fuel system, puley and tune...... interesting to note im already seeing 7.8psi-ish at 7900.

6) the simple one, weight reduction.... weve added alot of weight to our cars and i feel we must try to reach an equilibrium (sp) if possible, the biggest single gain i can see?? Lightweight seats, we can shed some serious weight here, only thing is, i LOVE the stock seats....

7) just for totally safety, uprated fuel pump?? walbro??


im SURE we can see good gains from an exhaust system Designed for boost, i for one am very interested, fr8t, rabbit........ time for some revisions. im really looking forward to working with you guys and getting the absolute most out of our kits :-)

anything yo want to add??

[rabbit69]

Originally Posted by Beedub

Absolutly on the vt3...... as soon as its available im in :-)

rabbit, hows the car??

Car is doing great, and im at the ease of mind knowing that the meth is cooling the engine down. 1 problem I'm having is I think tunerworks relocated the powersteering pump wrong, I see a kink in the hose, I didn't see any other leaks up until I took it to the track again, very little spray was seen, the level is low now

And if u guys track the cars with the vt2kit and use meth, it goes reaaly quick. Only on the track though

[Beedub]

rabbit, Re your boost gauge, you sorted yet???
im really looking forward to hearing about the water/meth kit, where did you guys install the take or did you use the wash bottle?? im pretty happy with the stock VT2 at the moment, i do feel we can make substantial gains by some of what ive outlined above :-)

im seeing rock steady water and oil temps, i would like a meth/water kit but really dont want something else to have to maintain really.... Im seeing REALLY nice AITs, england isnt really all that warm anyway, im climate is cool and damp, perfect for FI.......

Re the P/S pump, it shouldnt have come off i dont think for this install?? unless its different for RHD cars maybe?? I had some install issues i had to fix myself which was a PITA but sometimes you gotta just do it, the last thing you want is crappy oil everywhere.

byron

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Beedub

4) maybe look into what the ess handheld tuner can do for us?? we seem to have a great resource that were not tapping into, remember this will allow Real time data logging.

I have the ESS "Direct Flash" handheld, but haven't explored any of its data logging capabilities. I also have a WiFi OBD-II interface that can data-log many parameters to an iPhone ("Rev" is one such app that can interface with it). Once my VT2-500 is installed, let me know if there were any OBD-II-related logging experiments you are curious about .

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

I have the ESS "Direct Flash" handheld, but haven't explored any of its data logging capabilities. I also have a WiFi OBD-II interface that can data-log many parameters to an iPhone ("Rev" is one such app that can interface with it). Once my VT2-500 is installed, let me know if there were any OBD-II-related logging experiments you are curious about .

the Ess handheld is a great tool..... they can make you lots of different maps, right upto a Valet map with a 2k rev limit... lol