Project MRX350

[PW@Woodsport]

Hub sorted

Ok so i've had this brake upgrade in the planning stages for over a year now, so my discs had a little surface rust on them, but this is the biggest disc and caliper combo i can physically fit under a 16" Borbet A wheel.

I carefully sized these discs by scouring brake part catalogues for hours to find one with the right diameter and the right hat height to place the caliper in the sweet spot, in the end Rangerover 302mm discs were the ones that met all requirements, so i had some hubcentric spigots made for them and drilled them out.

Then my Aston Martin Vantage Brembos were fitted, this lot clears my wheel spokes by about 2mm in all directions, pretty snug, i've fitted much bigger brakes to a Mk1 before but never squeezed as much inside a 16" wheel as this.

Ignore the surface rust and i have to paint the calipers still.





A Mk2 master cylinder will be moving more fluid to these and i'll be fitting an adjustable bias valve along with the rear brake upgrade to tinker with it.

[Gullzter]

Amazing work Mr Woods, loving the "factory look"

Ive used Torque & a £7 blutooth adapter to sort out my daughter car

brilliant app free! look forward to seeing pics of it working Mr Woods

Ive no idea how this stuff works, i believe the mk2 is an obd-I so how would i get it going on my rev3 turbo as ive noticed it is for obd-II?

[toxo]

You can't use it on a mk2.

[PW@Woodsport]

The only way to get it working is to fit a more modern engine with OBD2 i'm afraid, the stock Mk1 and Mk2 can't use Torque as Toxo says.

The Mk3 can though

[Gullzter]

Ah ok i thought it would be something to do with the ecu

[PW@Woodsport]

I suppose you could do something clever like rig up a Mk3 ECU in the boot, feed it with engine signals (some of which will need their own sensors), power it up and wire an OBD2 socket up to it (i do this dual ECU setup all the time on Mk3 engine conversions) , then run Torque on a limited data stream from the Mk3 ECU.

That would allow you to run basic gauges on Torque in a Mk1 or Mk2, but i think it would be more trouble than it's worth.

[Gullzter]

I suppose you could do something clever like rig up a Mk3 ECU in the boot, feed it with engine signals (some of which will need their own sensors), power it up and wire an OBD2 socket up to it (i do this dual ECU setup all the time on Mk3 engine conversions) , then run Torque on a limited data stream from the Mk3 ECU.

That would allow you to run basic gauges on Torque in a Mk1 or Mk2, but i think it would be more trouble than it's worth.

Interesting.. Im just thinking down the line if i go for a Motec or Apexi ecu when i go for bigger power, i know from reading up the apexi power fc doesnt have ob-II but cant find out what the Motec is.
More interested in have the software to log data like 0-60/0-100, 1/4mile, bhp, torque, as well as sensor reading etc.

[PW@Woodsport]

Oh it will already do GPS and accelerometer based stuff already, so your 0-60 and BHP/Torque calcs will not need OBD2 to work, that info comes from the tablet albeit crudely.

I have bought an AEM Infinity which will be running my 2gr SC by the end of summer, that too hasn't got OBD2, so to keep my Torque dash alive i will be running my stock 2gr ECU in parallel with the AEM.

It's tricky but entirely doable.

[Gullzter]

I like your enthusiasm

Im in very very early planning stages just so so wont be for another 6-9months before i consider what route i will go down.
Thanks for the info

[toxo]

You can do obd ii over CAN so it could be possible with motec. That's what Ian told me when I asked him about aftermarket ECU support anyway

[michaeljapp]

If the app supports the ISO 15765 standard it would be easy enough to interface a Motec unit.
There is no reason why a standard MK1 ECU couldn't be made to talk to the app either. It would be easy enough to take the data being fed via the standard ECU and convert it into a OBD2 compatible protocol. I've done something similar with a Motec data logger before.

Anyway we are getting sidetracked.

[PW@Woodsport]

No that's very interesting info Michael, i didn't think it was possible at all.... might have to pick your brains at some point when i come to it

[michaeljapp]

Just had a quick look over some of the signals available to the ECU; (If I'm reading the pin out correctly.)
Speed pulse feed from the dash should be a simple frequency adjusted square wave, although without hooking up an oscilloscope that is a guess.
RPM should be easy to work out, looks like the ECU is already feed this.
Other feeds like battery voltage, coolant temp, Oil temp(?) .... etc could be fed as well.

Are there any other channels that you think would be useful?

The ECU also looks like a very basic 'look up table' system. ( the ECU doesn't seem to calculate much, just adjust the injectors / ignition in based on existing data ) It doesn't seem to use much other than intake pressure ( MAP sensor ) and RPM to work out the fuelling. I would guess the 4AGE doesn't respond well to mods like cam shafts; the ECU doesn't have any values stored for the increased volumetric efficiency and can't 'read' any changes to air flow like a modern engine.

I will have a play around and see if I can decipher the signals being sent to the ECU, it should be easy from there.

Is there any reason for using OBD2 other than getting the Torque app to work? I don't know that much about vehicle diagnostics, so I'm guessing quite a bit here.

[PW@Woodsport]

My reason for using it was initially to get a working speedo, my new 6 speed has no speedo cog (i could fit one but not this year), so Torque has a GPS speedo which is very accurate. Once i found out how good the App was though it is something i would like to keep and make the most of, stuff like fuel trims and AFR readings are useful to me.

[synXero]

Fun fact: the mk2 SW20 beams had J-OBD which was an interim stage between OBD-I and II. You can use Torque with it and read oil temps etc.

[toxo]

Fun fact: the mk2 SW20 beams had J-OBD which was an interim stage between OBD-I and II. You can use Torque with it and read oil temps etc.

Ish... A lot of the PIDs aren't there

[PW@Woodsport]

Nice info, although the Mk2 Beams didn't come with an OBD2 port anywhere on the car as such?

[synXero]

It did in fact. I had an imported GoPoint (I think?) wifi adapter for it which was OBDII (now use it on all sorts of other cars) and it fitted such that I could read items from the beams.

Yes you are right about missing PIDs but this could be dealt with. I forget how. Somewhere in the depths of the internet there is a guide regarding protocols and so on.

[synXero]

Feast your minds!
www.mr2.com/forums/threads/92691-Workin ... on-jdm-ecu!

It was fun when I got it to work

A broader Q though - your GPS speedo. Is that a legitimate way of having a speedo? What about low signal areas etc? Is there an accelerometer type back up system or anything?

[PW@Woodsport]

It seems to be a bit of a grey area regarding legality, for MOT purpose it simply states you have to have a speedo, however it is not something that is tested during an MOT, after all the tester does not take your car out and drive it to check it works, so the law states it has to have one but not necessarily working (i think the presumption in the rules is that if it has one then we all presume it works) but this loophole allows GPS speedos to be used.

It is very accurate, there is the issue of the signal dropping out, but at this point i have no choice and have to go with it. Next year the gearbox will be stripped, by that time Quaife will have an LSD for it and i'll stick a speedo cog on the diff at the same time... then Torque will use the ECU speed reading.

Another option open to me is to make my own speedo drive running off the supported driveshaft or ABS ring etc, doesn't really need to come from the gearbox.