VIC Midlife crisis :-)

[Kaldek]

Hi everyone, my name is Ed (aka Kaldek) and I'm in the middle of completing the purchase of a 2000 model manual VR4 from forum member evilnoddy.

I'm a bike man historically but started getting back into cars after I completely tore down and rebuilt my Honda VFR800 three or four times (don't ask) and realised that I enjoy pulling shit apart and that I seem to be pretty bloody good at auto electrical work. I had a guy come round to my house the other day with naught but a wiring harness and a dashboard from a motorbike he was going to use for a buggy and in about 20 minutes I'd worked out how the ignition system worked and how to bypass all the lockouts (clutch, neutral, sidestand). I also have a bunch of OBD diagnostics crap and an oscilloscope for probing EFI signals.

Yeah, I'm kinda weird.

Anyway I'm turning 40 this year and needed a project. I spend my days doing InfoSec consulting and while I like it, it can be a real pissing contest of an industry to work in. It also means I spend a lot of time on my ass, so I need something that's really hands on and gets me into the garage where I can fire up Triple J and just zone out.

Ergo, I bought a fairly heavily modified, defected and unregistered VR4. Oddly enough, getting it back on the rod and close to stock to pass RWC has me giddy with excitement. I'll be boring my co-workers to death with my tales in no time.

 

[Gt_Galant]

!! Welcome To OzVR4 !!

Congratz on the buy.

Car looks good, i really like that blue colour with the white car, suite's very well.

Once you get it registered - what are your plans with this ?

 

[Kaldek]

Post registration I'll be turning up the wick again. I'll be looking at going a full Haltech system in the long run. Why? Because I can, and because I love building tunes from scratch, and I hate piggyback systems (up yours, "DynoJet Power Commander"!).

Also I sold the idea to my oldest son by telling him we will put an Xbox in it.

 

[VOLK]

Welcome aboard Ed, picked up a nice one for a bargain there hey. I noticed it had an SAFC in evilboddy's for sale thread. They're a truly shithouse tuning trinket best used for monitoring only, just zero out any correction and leave it there. Might be able to save yourself the hassle of going to full standalone ECU as stock ecu is quite capable and can be written to with appropriate cable and software. It'll even do launch control and NLTS.

Power commanders are Honda bike piggybacks yeah? Recall a mate of mine with a CB900 telling me ages ago it was his only option for modifying (interrupting more like it) his tune.

Lucky you like pulling shit apart as the Legnum will certainly keep you busy. Oh and for a mid-life crisis mobile you've certainly shown some restraint, doesn't look like a convertible to me!?

 

[mookers]

Welcome to the forum, Ed. Good to see someone's going to take care of this car, it would have been a shame to see it go to waste.

You probably don't need this but I'm compulsive about it:

unclepaulie's infamous welcome template

Useful threads:
http://www.ozvr4.com/threads/index-look-here-first.11/
http://www.ozvr4.com/threads/cyber-scribers-guide-to-galant-legnum-common-problems.6799/
http://www.ozvr4.com/threads/the-most-important-thread-on-the-forum-must-read.9330/
http://www.ozvr4.com/threads/staged-upgrades.4889/
http://www.ozvr4.com/threads/legnum-galant-production-info-help.7229/

If you are wondering why you can't post a new thread somewhere, it's because for full access you need to be a Premium Member ($15 a year):
http://www.ozvr4.com/account/upgrades

 

[Kaldek]

Welcome aboard Ed, picked up a nice one for a bargain there hey. I noticed it had an SAFC in evilboddy's for sale thread. They're a truly shithouse tuning trinket best used for monitoring only, just zero out any correction and leave it there. Might be able to save yourself the hassle of going to full standalone ECU as stock ecu is quite capable and can be written to with appropriate cable and software. It'll even do launch control and NLTS.

Yeah, those little piggyback boxes have always been a disaster. I learned that the hard way with the Powercommander crap - trying to overlay Alpha-N tuning maps over a Speed-Density system is just retarded (the Honda bikes pretty much all use MAP sensors). Generally any device which alters the airflow signal to fool the ECU is also a bad idea, as you're sitting outside a black box (the ECU) *assuming* how it will respond to the alterations. You're basically jumping around through the existing cells in the stock ECU map and hoping that where it jumps to is what you want. It always seems to work, and then you get on the gas harder than you did yesterday (throttle delta) and the engine starts behaving like a bag of spanners.

Oddly enough my current bike is a BMW K1300R and the super-tricky ECU on this bike is Alpha-N; no airflow metering at all! It just uses the closed loop from the O2 sensor to monitor how the engine is breathing and adjust the AFR from there. That particular bike would actually respond well to a Powercommander, because the two systems are the same - Alpha-N.

Anyway I have a copy of EvoScan and an OpenPort 1.3 cable (bought it for the Magna just to have a look around), so that's my starting point.

One question I will ask though is about the wideband O2 sensor. I'd need to ask Matt again but I think he's got a wideband O2 sensor with a narrowband converter box attached to it for the stock ECU signal. Are these workable or should a stock narrowband sensor go back in, with another bung welded in for a wideband?

 

[Kaldek]

By the way, this my ride. It's a trick piece of kit. 1.3 litre N/A motor that spins to 11,000rpm and puts out 180hp and about 150Nm of torque. This engine will be pulling so hard at redline that you just keep hitting the rev cutout because you can't feel it coming. It will happily launch from a stop in 3rd gear, and will power wheelie in 2nd gear.

It also has whacky front end - a "Hossack". These are not forks but steel girders attached to double A-arms up top. Also has ABS, TCS, quick shifter, and electronically adjustable suspension. Pulls low 10s quarter mile with even a ham-fisted idiot on the throttle and drinks about 5.5 litres per 100km.

This is what they look like in race form (LOVE these colours). One day I might go down this path.

 

[Kaldek]

Here you go, here's a shit launch of a K1300S (fairing version of my bike) getting a 10.3.

 

[GMan]

Welcome to the forum! Nice acquisition -- car seems in good shape aside from what evilnoddy stated.

 

[VOLK]

Nice Bimmer, mate has a new S1000R with similar levels of wizardry to your K; ABS, TCL, active rear damper, flat shifting etc. The rear swing arm angle sensor is a cool feature for feedback to ecu. The varying levels of shenanigan control (mono/slip) it had were pretty fancy too. Bikes have come a long way.

Mixed feedback re: narrowband emulation or dedicated. Tuning guru on here says dedicated. I've run a wideband in the factory spot with zero narrowband signal to ecu and it achieved perfect stoich regardless. Some guys run more like ~15:1 at cruise, which surely a regular narrowband would have issue with so perhaps emulation is fine.

Factory wideband stuff is awesome and surprising it's taken this long for oem to use!

 

[Kaldek]

Thanks Volk. My intention is to create a car that has decent economic cruise but power when asked of it. Honestly if I tune it only up to about where an FPV F6 would be in terms of power delivery I'll be quite happy.

 

[Kaldek]

Got the car back from roadworthy. Only failures were rear sway bar D bushes being split, and lower rear suspension arm ball joint bushes also being split. Pretty happy with that!

 

[niterida]

welcome Ed - if a VR4 is a mid life crisis then you must have led a very boring life up until now

A mid life crisis for me would be the missus keeping the VR4 and me getting back into a Corvette and an MV F4 1000 312 R

But seriously you will enjoy the VR4 - its one of the best cars I have owned and mine is completely stock (and staying that way).

How do you find the Hossack front end - its been years since I have that term - I love alternative front ends. Would love a Tesi or a Britten but both totally out of reach for me

My last bike was an old dinosaur 1998 ZX9 - completely standard except for an aftermarket muffler and I managed 10.3s on the 1/4

 

[Kaldek]

welcome Ed - if a VR4 is a mid life crisis then you must have led a very boring life up until now

LOL! Yeah, pretty much.

How do you find the Hossack front end - its been years since I have that term - I love alternative front ends. Would love a Tesi or a Britten but both totally out of reach for me

Honestly it's the best part of the bike. Super-planted front end that just tracks where you want it to go and eats up the bumps. Unfortunately the rear end is not as awesome and lets the bike down a bit.

My last bike was an old dinosaur 1998 ZX9 - completely standard except for an aftermarket muffler and I managed 10.3s on the 1/4

I can't say I've ridden a whole bunch of bikes. I tend to find things I like and stick with 'em (hence the 10 years I had my VFR800 for). My brother in law however is a graphic designer who does all the layout work for Motor magazine (if you read Motor, he's the guy who designed every page), and works in the same building as AMCN magazine. He gets to ride a LOT of bikes, and is now doing some side work for them as a reporter! Lucky bastage. He rides a ZX12R he's put 130,000km on, and also used to own a ZX9R. Fast bike, that. Great induction roar from the Kwaka's too.

 

[Kaldek]

Got the car back from roadworthy. Only failures were rear sway bar D bushes being split, and lower rear suspension arm ball joint bushes also being split. Pretty happy with that!

Yes it's weird replying to myself, but I'm off to pickup the parts tomorrow. Should have this bitch roadworthy in a couple of days!