Brodie's Ke30 2Door - Supercharged, Intercooled, Megasquirt, C.o.p

[brodie]

Long time lurker here. I don't post often but thought it time I share some latest pics

 

As some of you would have seen previously, I have a ke30 2door sedan with a 3k, worked head, lightened flywheel, EFI (7ke manifold), Megasquirt, distributorless ignition (EDIS), etc etc. It even has a catalytic converter.

 

I have now added an AMR500 supercharger, which is originally from a 930cc twincharged Nissan March Superturbo.

 

I fitted it to the engine using custom brackets, which I knocked up on a spare block in my shed. This was the easy bit! The pulley on the S/C was changed from serpentine to a v-belt type from a corolla alternator. My crank pulley already had a toothed wheel bolted on the front to determine crankshaft position for the ECU. To the front of that I have added a power steering pulley from a Nissan Navara, giving me a pulley ratio of about 1.95:1, and the toothed wheel sandwiched in the middle. I have designed the S/C to rock to tension/ replace the belt, rather than having a tensioner. These parts all transferred to the engine in the car easily. It started, the charger span (without plumbing connected), and made the most deafening howl I have ever heard. My ears rang for hours. My dog hid for a whole day. Her ears were ringing. It was damn loud!!

 

At this stage I had to wait for some fittings to arrive. Planning to run the throttle on the manifold, after the charger, required a CBV (recirc BOV) to dump excess pressure when the throttle slams shut, and is also required to vent at idle, because the supercharger is boosting, even at idle. It also reduces parasitic load on the engine from physically turning the charger when it is not required. I used a bosch plastic BOV from an audi TT. Seems OK. Running a throttle body AFTER a roots supercharger is technically a no-no. Others have managed it though, even some OEM manufacturers have tried successfully, including Nissan in this charger's OEM application. Eventually the fittings arrived and I plumbed it all up, including a free flowing (enclosed) pod style air filter. I made some estimated maps for the Megasquirt based on what I expected it would need, which included both fuel, and timing, retarding approx 1 degree per psi boost. I loaded these, left the laptop on the seat and went for a drive.......

 

It boosted! But oh my was it loud. Even at idle. It wailed like a police siren, so much so it had old ladies peering through the curtains to see what it was! You could hear it for miles and miles. I didn't care. I left my company car at home for a couple of days and drove it to work like this to see what it was like. It misfired badly under boost when cold, and was way too loud in traffic. Sitting stationary in traffic at south rd lights brought a few attention-seeking looks. I started to wonder - WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MY CAR? It really was a bit of a pig in traffic. Fun for a blast but drivability was at an all-time low. At least I hadn't modified anything permanently, or cut, or drilled any holes or anything permanent. But the boost bug had bitten. The car went heaps better. Torque was available from idle, which was always my bugbear with this car, that it didn't get moving 'till after 4k. Now it was hard to take off without wheelspin. Boost was on or off. No in-between. There was no going back now!

 

The car sat in the back of my shed for a month or more at this stage while i thought about it. I had determined that i needed to throttle the inlet to the blower somehow to quieten it down as this was the source of the bulk of the noise. At idle, for instance, there was a ton of noise at the outlet of the blower, but because the bypass valve was open, all the noise made it back to the intake anyway. I really had objections to relocating the only throttle to the inlet of the blower, especially as I was using silicone fittings that collapse under vacuum. I didn't want lag, or the possibility of run-away if a fitting blew off (engine would just full-throttle). So I set about a dual-throttle system. The mx-5 guys do it all the time. Big throttle before blower, cracked open slightly, normal throttle on manifold operating normally. I ran a cable from the kick-down attachment on the 7ke TB to the new TB (from an SR20) before the blower. I couldn't gear it right though. The kickdown cam on the 7ke TB was just too small. But since the SR20 TB was so big, I gave it a go anyway.....

 

Much quieter at idle. Ahhh. Drove like a COMPLETE pig though. Wouldn't start properly either as the idle-air bypass would, of course, only bypass the main throttle-body on the manifold. It also sucked silicone elbows in under vacuum, like decelerating up to a corner, then they stayed sucked in and you couldn't move out of the corner. Shouldn't have driven it to work in peak-hour that day! I even tried a coiled wire - spring type arrangement in the pipe to stop it crushing. This reduced flow - and boost. It also had some fittings under so much vacuum it damaged them. Now very disheartened, I brought it home and parked it again. And sobbed.

 

I thought long and hard. And researched. I even took days off of work to scour wrecking yards. Which brings me to where we are now - to a car that idles and cruises like (almost) any other ke30, but accelerates with a delightfully loud supercharger whine, and 8 to 10 psi of boost from idle through to a 7000 rpm redline. Here's what I did.

Firstly I changed the platinum plugs which were in the engine to cheap copper ones. Whilst they were fantastic when it was an atmo engine, plats are notoriously bad in boosted applications. I also reduced the gap to the oem .8mm to reduce misfire under boost. Then I completely replumbed the intake to the blower, still retaining the SR20 TB. I used a suzuki swift GTi airbox with a fresh finer-filter in it, because it was small and nicely designed, and the only thing I found in the wreckers that would fit my engine bay. Then the biggest change - I reversed the spring in the SR20 TB so it would default OPEN, and added a vacuum actuator to CLOSE the TB under vacuum - which would obviously be cruise and idle - when I needed it quieter. This also meant that the TB before the blower was open when cranking - and now the car would start properly again! There is also a vacuum solenoid to dump the vacuum and open the TB - I have programmed the megasquirt to open this during quick throttle movements or when the throttle is above 50%, so it wont bog down off the line waiting for it to open.

 

How does it drive? Great, if you like the noise under throttle. I'm getting used to it, it's certainly not a daily driver anyway. There's still some refinement to go, but it's very, very smooth and drivable - Toyota could have put it there, noise aside. I get about 8psi in the lower gears, moving to 10psi in 3rd, 4th and 5th. Roll-on accelaration is hugely improved. I love watching the boost gauge! It's just so different to the way my turbo car operates, with having boost from idle etc. I guess it goes about the same as if I put a 2 litre in there instead. According to the logs I have taken while driving with the megasquirt its using about the same amount of air now as a 2 litre.

 

Here's some pictures, feel free to ask any questions! Cheers, Brodie.

Edited May 21, 2012 by brodie

[Crowie55]

That's so neat, car looks great and the engine bay is just so clean.

cheers, Crowie.

[Medicine_Man]

Nice build, I am impressed!

[twisted2]

very impressive build

[Undertaker_is_the_best]

awsome idea and great to see you did something totally different to get the power u were after

[Crowie55]

At first I though you posted a pic of your altenator, that sc sure is small but it would pack a punch in your 30. :y:

[NIXON]

Looks great mate, must hoot along now.

[jaygore]

dude that looks extremely neat and alot of effort to get it going just right... Its making me think about going to a supercharger again on my 4k...

[blktoy35]

the amr 500 looks like it belongs in there. less bulky than the sc14 etc....top job :y:

[ke70dave]

brilliant write up mate. i enjoyed the read! and really nice work with the ke30.

 

well done, I'm a bit of a megasquirt fan, don't have one personally but working with one on a friends 12a turbo. great bit of gear. btw where did you get the EDIS from? america?

 

good to see some real engineering there. what do you do for a job?

Edited January 10, 2011 by ke70dave

[brodie]

brilliant write up mate. i enjoyed the read! and really nice work with the ke30.

 

well done, I'm a bit of a megasquirt fan, don't have one personally but working with one on a friends 12a turbo. great bit of gear. btw where did you get the EDIS from? america?

 

good to see some real engineering there. what do you do for a job?

 

 

Thanks everyone for all your kind comments. ke70dave: I am a big fan of the megasquirt - depending on what you're expecting from it. If it's a turn-key solution you're after then it's NOT for you. IF you want to read, read, read some more, and then play around and customise the unit, before even beginning with the teething problems after fitting to the car - and you expect it to be a project - then it's fantastic. I did a lot of research before deciding it was for me, and I wouldn't go back. I'm running an MSII v3 with 2.891 s/w by the way.

 

The edis I purchased used, on ebay, from the UK. I also purchased another module (from US this time) to enable me to easily run coil-on-plug... down the track. I will get to that one later, but the twin wasted-spark coils work great for now... and look like a dizzy too. Since the units aren't readily available here I keep it in the boot as a spare - just in case. The car only does about 800kms max a year anyway, so I doubt it will be required.

 

As for a job I'm the workshop manager for an automotive installation company here in Adelaide - so we fit things like handsfree kits and cruise controls thru to cargo barriers and window tint. Not superchargers though! This car is just my hobby to keep me entertained, it's been in the family since new and I've had it about 8 years. I've done all the work on the car in my shed at home - so it's all backyarder special - but I still like to do things properly. I'm aware it's far from the best option to power-up a ke30, but it's different - and hasn't cost huge $ to do.

 

Cheers, Brodie.

[RKE020]

Hi Brodie,

 

Let me take this opportunity to say job well done and something to be very proud of. Its always nice to seem somebody think outside the square with the old girls to keep them kicking and screaming in the new age.

 

We have a KE20 mildly worked 4K with extractors and a 40mm DHLA Dellorto,starting the process to change induction using Microtech D4S in conjunction with 5K inlet manifold. If you don't mind we might get in touch with you sometime and have a look at what you have done and how, my youngest son and I are doing it as a school project.

 

Again great work !!!!!! :y: :y:

[brodie]

Evening all.

 

Been a long time since I posted here. Haven't done a lot to the car except driving it, and a bit of fine tuning & minor stuff here and there, but thought the latest addition may be of interest to some of you.

 

Many of you may recall that I was running a distributorless setup previously, using a ford EDIS system. Whilst I do like the setup, it did have a couple of shortcomings. One was that the spark, whilst fine when the car was NA, was somewhat inadequate on cold mornings under boost. The 'cure' to this was to close the spark plug gap to about 0.6mm, which worked, but I was never happy with this solution. The other objection that I had was that, due to the limitation of the double-ended coil used for wasted-spark purposes, the spark had the opposite polarity on 2 cylinders. Not a big deal but it bothered me. Used to foul 2 plugs more than others in the early days, and wore two of the plugs strangely too. I don't mind the idea of wasted spark, but really wanted coil per cylinder, thus giving each cylinder the same spark polarity.

 

Bought some Honda CBR bike coils, mocked it up, and well, I'll let the pictures tell the story. Suffice to say it works really well, and with normal plug gaps too!

[Taz_Rx]

Very nice! I've been looking for some coils that would work well on mine like that. Inbuilt igniters too?

[brodie]

Cheers. No sorry they're dumb coils, ie - no igniter... but that's what I was after. These require plugs that have removable tips where the lead normally attatches, which isn't so easy to come by these days. If you're looking for something with an inbuilt igniter, look on ebay, there's some sort of new toyota igniter that's being marketed as a conversion for the mx5/miata crowd, and is going for about $100 for a new set last i looked, seemed rather inexpensive. Another tidy alternative in dumb coils is off a ca18 nissan (or was it an sr20? I forget). They are on a frame already and have red boots, it all almost lines up and the boots are a good fit too. I bought a set but preferred the bike coils. A bosch 211 igniter makes a neat job if you can't find the smart coils you're after too...