ESS VT2-500 Supercharger Kit Installed! Impressions, pictures, video.

[iPhoneEngineer]

ESS received the DME yesterday an will "most likely" look at it and send it back today. I'm obviously on pins and needles about it because if it is not the cause of the dip in the dyno (never mind the low boost, an easier issue probably), I don't know what could be.

[iPhoneEngineer]

To clarify the record: ESS says that they did not raise my rev limiter, and that the dyno simply had an inaccurate RPM sensor reading. So far they think the one dyno has a faulty AFR sensor, boost sensor, and RPM sensor--certainly possible, though yet another unlucky discovery for me!

I haven't heard the results of the investigation of my DME, or if it has been shipped back yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions for specific things I can check myself on the car over the weekend, without the DME (i.e. without running the car)? I'm really averse to removing the bumper myself, but I guess I may have to.

[Finnegan]

I don't know how you check things without the ECU. Someone else may though. This is a good DIY for bumper removal, although it's for a splitter install (bumper removal and install are part of it). http://www.zpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=487668

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

To clarify the record: ESS says that they did not raise my rev limiter, and that the dyno simply had an inaccurate RPM sensor reading. So far they think the one dyno has a faulty AFR sensor, boost sensor, and RPM sensor--certainly possible, though yet another unlucky discovery for me!

I haven't heard the results of the investigation of my DME, or if it has been shipped back yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions for specific things I can check myself on the car over the weekend, without the DME (i.e. without running the car)? I'm really averse to removing the bumper myself, but I guess I may have to.

honestly?? whip the bumper off and re check all your clips and thoroughly inspect all silicone hosing...

the bumper is about as easy as it could be to remove!!

[Beedub]

so basically the shops dyno is fucked??? thats helpful and a very expensive way to learn about a defective dyno.

cant wait to see what ess do with your dme.......

[Beedub]

did you get the dme back?? what have you been doing within this downtime to the car?? re-check you hoses yet??

[iPhoneEngineer]

Well, without the ECU, I can't drive the car up on ramps and my floor jack can't fit under the car unless it has been lifted some...so I think I'll wait to take the bumper off.

No word from ESS on whether something wrong was found with the ECU, or if they have shipped it back yet. I badly need the car by Tuesday to take myself to an hours-long medical appt, and I live so rurally as to be out of reasonable range to ask a favor from a friend. The car I was sharing is no longer available to me. So I'm expecting them to finish the investigation before the shipping cutoff on Monday.

I inspected everything I could get to without taking the bumper off. Is there a way to tell if a clamp is broken aside from pushing on it to see if it can slip/rotate? That's what I did for all the clamps I could reach and everything seems snug.

However, the pipe coupling hose that connects the S/C output to the next IC pipe seems like it is compressed in a way that would restrict flow. It's not completely crimped or anything, and it could be normal, but check out the pictures below and let me know what you think. The last picture is of a component that a few intake/manifold lines attached to that I don't know the purpose of, if you could enlighten me .

[Beedub]

nice pictures iphone, respect for having a go yourself....... we did something slightly different, we "clocked" the blower to change the location of the outlet so the pipe your talking about wasnt being squeezed or pinched in any way.

my braided line underneath the charger is straight downwards, no bends at all ;-) Either way this was nother example of my overkill nature and completely uneccessary really for perfect fitment it needs to be done.

Re the piece under the manifold, i believe its connected to the vacumn system.

hopefully you get yor ecu tomorrow, these guys work all hours so drop them an email RE your DME.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Beedub

hopefully you get yor ecu tomorrow, these guys work all hours so drop them an email RE your DME.

There have been plenty of unanswered emails to ESS: before I bought the kit and needed information about it, during the wait for the kit and the missing parts, since problems with the kit, and since sending my DME . When they told me they would "most likely" get to it on Friday and ship it back before the cutoff (which was already a business day later than it had arrived), I expected that if that were not going to be the case they give me another estimate, and I haven't heard back from a couple subsequent emails at all.

Forgive me for believing that as a customer who has experienced a growing saga of issues, they should delay a new customer's DME a day or two rather than letting mine sit for 2+ business days.

So I'm assuming that bend in the intake results in maybe a 0.5PSI drop at max boost or something? Roffle Waffle, does your coupler look like that--bent at least 90º and pressing against the chassis?

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

There have been plenty of unanswered emails to ESS: before I bought the kit and needed information about it, during the wait for the kit and the missing parts, since problems with the kit, and since sending my DME . When they told me they would "most likely" get to it on Friday and ship it back before the cutoff (which was already a business day later than it had arrived), I expected that if that were not going to be the case they give me another estimate, and I haven't heard back from a couple subsequent emails at all.

Forgive me for believing that as a customer who has experienced a growing saga of issues, they should delay a new customer's DME a day or two rather than letting mine sit for 2+ business days.

So I'm assuming that bend in the intake results in maybe a 0.5PSI drop at max boost or something? Roffle Waffle, does your coupler look like that--bent at least 90º and pressing against the chassis?

ESS need to sort that out, that would really piss me off and probably cause me to open a can a woop ass. your bend in your intake is no way the cause of your pressure loss, trust me. The vt1 pipe is far more restricted than yours and i always made the quoted 5psi.

your pulley is @ 83mm so you should be seeing 7.5psi + ;-) still think you have a leak somewhere.... im praying ESS sort you out now as this is getting beyond a joke now, youve had issues from day 1 that have been out of your control and i cant lie..... id want some sort of monitary compensation for all the shit.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Regarding working on the car myself--I'm not inherently afraid to, as I changed the headers myself (overcomplicated on this engineering art-car). However, I think I'm rightfully concerned that if I start messing with it, I can no longer firmly state that the car is the same as it was after ESS-approved mechanics did 100% of the work.

In fact, they didn't even trust the carefully-created boost video, or at least have never said a word about it despite me mentioning it to them twice. One of the recent suggestions for post-DME-return testing was to bring the car to Aleks to have a "manual" (presumably mechanical) boost gauge evaluate the car. Nothing has changed since I did my own testing; and I certainly wouldn't blame Aleks for not going through the trouble to make a /indisputable video/ of both the boost and tachometer gauges.

I have doubts ESS is even watching this thread, though I linked them to it early on. If they had been, they would have noticed an increasingly negative sentiment as the pages wear on, and at least reply to my emails promptly. I understand people being busy, but ESS has a reputation to protect, and there should be a dedicated process for handling problems for a customer who spent as much as I did for the kit.


My greatest hope at this point is that there is something wrong with the DME, which is why I'm so anxious to hear back from ESS (and have indicated this to them at least once a day since it shipped on Wednesday morning). I expect that in addition to any DME problems, there is a boost leak.

A boost leak I can handle; what I worry about is if there are no problems discovered with the DME, I have no alternative idea for what could be causing such an erratic power curve above 6kRPM. A boost leak alone almost certainly couldn't cause that.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

Regarding working on the car myself--I'm not inherently afraid to, as I changed the headers myself (overcomplicated on this engineering art-car). However, I think I'm rightfully concerned that if I start messing with it, I can no longer firmly state that the car is the same as it was after ESS-approved mechanics did 100% of the work.

In fact, they didn't even trust the carefully-created boost video, or at least have never said a word about it despite me mentioning it to them twice. One of the recent suggestions for post-DME-return testing was to bring the car to Aleks to have a "manual" (presumably mechanical) boost gauge evaluate the car. Nothing has changed since I did my own testing; and I certainly wouldn't blame Aleks for not going through the trouble to make a /indisputable video/ of both the boost and tachometer gauges.

I have doubts ESS is even watching this thread, though I linked them to it early on. If they had been, they would have noticed an increasingly negative sentiment as the pages wear on, and at least reply to my emails promptly. I understand people being busy, but ESS has a reputation to protect, and there should be a dedicated process for handling problems for a customer who spent as much as I did for the kit.


My greatest hope at this point is that there is something wrong with the DME, which is why I'm so anxious to hear back from ESS (and have indicated this to them at least once a day since it shipped on Wednesday morning). I expect that in addition to any DME problems, there is a boost leak.

A boost leak I can handle; what I worry about is if there are no problems discovered with the DME, I have no alternative idea for what could be causing such an erratic power curve above 6kRPM. A boost leak alone almost certainly couldn't cause that.

mmm this is not the expirence ive had with ess, lets hope this isnt the future of things with them as your treatment can only be described as Poor im afraid

:-(

btw i agree with you on the erratic curve ther MUST be a tune issue, boost leak wouldnt cause that unless its an exccessive leak worsening under boost, like a cut in the boost pipe somewhere like i mentioned earlier ;-)

[ZStig]

Are you using the larger connecting pipe that I am? IIRC its slightly being pushed on, but its very minor and would not cause a pressure drop

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

Are you using the larger connecting pipe that I am? IIRC its slightly being pushed on, but its very minor and would not cause a pressure drop

I bought the HPS 45º elbow from eBay but it hasn't been installed. In fact, I'm not even sure what part of the piping requires that coupler. Is it the supercharger output? I don't see how a 45º bend would be sufficient there unless the S/C were rotated from how it is installed in my car, so I had the impression that longer replacement is for a different join.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Beedub

btw i agree with you on the erratic curve ther MUST be a tune issue, boost leak wouldnt cause that unless its an exccessive leak worsening under boost, like a cut in the boost pipe somewhere like i mentioned earlier ;-)

Yeah, hoping so. The "sliced silicone" idea is a possibility--definitely good thinking--but probably unlikely, particularly given my video of the mechanical boost gauge which appeared to show pressure increase smoothly to redline.

I do wonder, however, what the actual issue with the DME could possibly be. Did they really install the wrong tune? That would be pretty shocking and disappointing that they don't triple-check what they are flashing onto a customer's physically-sent DME, yet ironically a huge relief if it were something so simple.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Originally Posted by Beedub

tom, iphone, my bpv screw is showing 11 threads......... counted from the end going towards the BPV unit..... im guessing thats all the way down....

Tom mentioned 10. I counted 9.5. Perhaps I should tighten mine further? Seems unlikely, but possible that it could be a factor in the low boost.

I have always been suspicious of the BPV and will probably preemptively replace the vacuum line because from what I know, if the vacuum line shows just slightly less than manifold pressure it will cause the valve to open under boost.

[sales@ESSTuning]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

Regarding working on the car myself--I'm not inherently afraid to, as I changed the headers myself (overcomplicated on this engineering art-car). However, I think I'm rightfully concerned that if I start messing with it, I can no longer firmly state that the car is the same as it was after ESS-approved mechanics did 100% of the work.

In fact, they didn't even trust the carefully-created boost video, or at least have never said a word about it despite me mentioning it to them twice. One of the recent suggestions for post-DME-return testing was to bring the car to Aleks to have a "manual" (presumably mechanical) boost gauge evaluate the car. Nothing has changed since I did my own testing; and I certainly wouldn't blame Aleks for not going through the trouble to make a /indisputable video/ of both the boost and tachometer gauges.

I have doubts ESS is even watching this thread, though I linked them to it early on. If they had been, they would have noticed an increasingly negative sentiment as the pages wear on, and at least reply to my emails promptly. I understand people being busy, but ESS has a reputation to protect, and there should be a dedicated process for handling problems for a customer who spent as much as I did for the kit.


My greatest hope at this point is that there is something wrong with the DME, which is why I'm so anxious to hear back from ESS (and have indicated this to them at least once a day since it shipped on Wednesday morning). I expect that in addition to any DME problems, there is a boost leak.

A boost leak I can handle; what I worry about is if there are no problems discovered with the DME, I have no alternative idea for what could be causing such an erratic power curve above 6kRPM. A boost leak alone almost certainly couldn't cause that.

Scott

Sorry I have not been following this thread as you have been giving me the same info posted here direct. I have followed up with you on every email sent up to this past Friday when I told you we had your ECU and would attempt to get it back ASAP. We are closed on Saturday and Sunday so it is not typical that you will get a response to any email sent during our off business hours.

Due to the vehicle running on lower boost than designed before I arranged to have the proper crank pulley installed we needed to make sure your ECU adaptations were reset and we figured we would reinstall your software just to make sure there are no issues there. This is why I request the ECU to be sent in to us.

As far as your boost issue I have said that based on the info you have provided you seem to be down on boost. This can only be caused by a boost leak somewhere in the system and until it is located you will most likely be down on top end power. At no point in our discussions did I ever say I did not think this was an issue or did I ignore the data you provided. Unfortunately the dyno you used for testing had a faulty boost gauge so other than the power graph the rest of the info was of no use to us.

There is only so much we can diagnose without having the vehicle here for a full inspection. We will continue to work with Alekshop to try and locate the issue with your installation. The first step will be to get another boost log of your kit with all of the recent hardware updates we have done to see where we are at.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by Roman@ESS

Scott

Sorry I have not been following this thread as you have been giving me the same info posted here direct. I have followed up with you on every email sent up to this past Friday when I told you we had your ECU and would attempt to get it back ASAP. We are closed on Saturday and Sunday so it is not typical that you will get a response to any email sent during our off business hours.

Due to the vehicle running on lower boost than designed before I arranged to have the proper crank pulley installed we needed to make sure your ECU adaptations were reset and we figured we would reinstall your software just to make sure there are no issues there. This is why I request the ECU to be sent in to us.

As far as your boost issue I have said that based on the info you have provided you seem to be down on boost. This can only be caused by a boost leak somewhere in the system and until it is located you will most likely be down on top end power. At no point in our discussions did I ever say I did not think this was an issue or did I ignore the data you provided. Unfortunately the dyno you used for testing had a faulty boost gauge so other than the power graph the rest of the info was of no use to us.

There is only so much we can diagnose without having the vehicle here for a full inspection. We will continue to work with Alekshop to try and locate the issue with your installation. The first step will be to get another boost log of your kit with all of the recent hardware updates we have done to see where we are at.

ess are always watching ;-)

RE the BPV i dont think its going to hurt to tighten it down to the 10-11 threads me and tom have got.......

i severly doubt you have the wrong tune, i think it was just a really bad adaption cauing your issues, either way i pray to go you get your car back asap.

[iPhoneEngineer]

Roman, thanks for jumping in here--this is the only forum I'm posting at and I'm sure the people following appreciate an update direct from ESS.

Originally Posted by Roman@ESS

The first step will be to get another boost log of your kit with all of the recent hardware updates we have done to see where we are at.

There have been no mechanical changes since the video I posted which clearly and accurately shows boost across the entire rev range, unlike the faulty boost graph produced by the dyno. Since the ECU adaptations could not possibly affect boost, it does not seem to me like further testing is necessary to justify launching a search for the substantial, 2PSI+ boost leak. By indications from Roffle Waffle and Beedub, they are actually seeing 7.5-8PSI on the same size pulley, so the leak is quite likely 3PSI--though I understand the kit is only marketed to produce 7PSI.

For post-repair testing though, I'm still not aware of a better dyno shop to visit. Newtech is the only one that Alekshop could recommend and I haven't had luck finding another Dynojet on Yelp. Let me know if any of your NorCal connections can recommend a fully functioning dyno with AFR and boost logging capability.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by iPhoneEngineer

Roman, thanks for jumping in here--this is the only forum I'm posting at and I'm sure the people following appreciate an update direct from ESS.



There have been no mechanical changes since the video I posted which clearly and accurately shows boost across the entire rev range, unlike the faulty boost graph produced by the dyno. Since the ECU adaptations could not possibly affect boost, it does not seem to me like further testing is necessary to justify launching a search for the substantial, 2PSI+ boost leak. By indications from Roffle Waffle and Beedub, they are actually seeing 7.5-8PSI on the same size pulley, so the leak is quite likely 3PSI--though I understand the kit is only marketed to produce 7PSI.

For post-repair testing though, I'm still not aware of a better dyno shop to visit. Newtech is the only one that Alekshop could recommend and I haven't had luck finding another Dynojet on Yelp. Let me know if any of your NorCal connections can recommend a fully functioning dyno with AFR and boost logging capability.

definatly seeing more than the 7psi im supposed to...peak recall shows;



either way your s/c outlet location isnt causing your boost loss problem.... somewhere in your system is a leak and its either your BPV, your intake mani or the boost pipework.......

[iPhoneEngineer]

ECU is on its way, due tomorrow morning. Adaptations reset and software reflashed, though no particular errors found. I don't expect the car to drive well tomorrow but I'll report as it learns.

Most importantly, this coming weekend on the 14th I'm signed up for a dyno day with a Dynapack. It should indicate if the unusual 6kRPM+ power dip is resolved even if power is still low. I'll try to get a video of the mechanical boost gauge during the runs to confirm it's still at 5PSI.

[Finnegan]

Watching intently and hoping this gets resolved. Since it's bugging me, I can only imagine how you must feel at this point.

If it's not the ECU then, like Beedub said, it's the BPV or somehow related to the installation. Did you say someone had already done a smoke test?