EFI University

[Steve Arndt]

In this thread I am going to document the installation of the Redline ECU 882C system. I’m also converting from 48mm individual throttle bodies to a single throttle body plenum intake system.

http://redlineweber.com/

Previously the engine was outfitted with individual 48mm CB Performance throttle bodies, Haltech F9A ECU, Mallory Unilite distributor, Mallory Hyfire 6 CDI, and an MSD Blaster II coil. All of this equipment will no longer be used after converting to the Redline ECU and the new intake manifold.

Four Redline IGN-1 high-power ignition coils will handle the Ignition chores. One coil per cylinder (CNP coil near plug). The inductive design will have much longer spark duration compared to the Mallory CDI. The crank trigger will consist of a 3.5” 36-1 trigger wheel, and a Volvo 760 reluctor sensor with a custom made mounting bracket. The distributor hole in the case will be plugged (after pulling the distributor drive gear).

Here is a rundown of the ECU specifications:
http://redlineweber.com/html/throttle_bodies/Slideshow.htm

8 injector drivers
8 coil drivers
2 GPO drivers
2 board mounted MAP sensor (manifold pressure, barometric pressure)
2 PWM outputs
idle air motor control
CAN 2.0 bus
Individual cylinder timing control and injector control (sequential)

The ECU. The design has the harness for the high current devices on one end, and the sensor harness on the other end. Four rubber mounting studs included. This is the powder coated “titanium” finish.


Wiring harnesses.



Trigger wheel mockup.



CAS (crank angle sensor)



Killer ignition coils. These will need a sturdy bracket to hold their mass.



This is an ongoing project and I will update the thread as I make progress. Feel free to ask questions. I will post again with pics of the intake manifold progress and sensor installation on the engine.

Steve Arndt

[Bart Carter]

Great Steve, looking forward to it.

Can you describe the engine?

Is that a Ford trigger wheel?
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Bart Carter

[Pantera EFI]

Hi Steve, we have new software. Would you like to review the work ?
The Redline software shown is only for the " B " version. There is a difference in the " crankfire " version you currently run.
You would be surprised with the newest version.

Lance

[Steve Arndt]

The engine is a Volkswagen type 1 (old beetle) engine. Pretty much the only part that is stock is the engine block casting.
Bored and stroked (94mm x 82mm)=2275cc
13.1:1 compression ratio
40x35 big valve heads, Webcam 86B, 1.5:1 ratio rockers, 1 5/8" S&S header, 2.5" straight through dynomax muffler, etc. etc. It puts out an estimate 180 hp. I haven't had it on a dyno yet but will soon.

Lance, I would like to try the updated software. Let me get up and running with the current setup first though.

Steve Arndt

[Pantera EFI]

Hi Steve, I also manufacture a 60-2 target/pulley for the VW Type-I engine.
The fan pulley diameter is the same size as a " power pulley ". The pulley can be ordered as a " sand seal / non sandseal ".

The sensor holder is also provided and bolts on to the case studs behind the pulley.

Lance

[Steve Arndt]

The pulley pictured is a Fisher Dynamics clutch pack harmonic balancer. I really want to make use of this pulley for bearing life. It has a different shape on the backside compared to the Scat brand pulley that your kit uses so this is "all custom" for fitment. I slipped a Scat pulley on and there is a ton of room compared to my Fisher pulley.

I am going to dowel pin the trigger wheel to the pulley and epoxy it on after the sensor bracket is in position and spaced properly.

More to come...

Steve

[Guest]

I'm preparing to weld injector bungs into my manifold castings. My dad machined a few extra pieces for me to practice with. I've only had this TIG welder a short time so I'm just learning. I thought some practice was in order before I tackled the real deal.

I'm using 100% argon, 1/8" electrode 100% green (thinking of getting orange), 1/8" filler rod, 220 amps max and pedaling down a lot after the pool is built.






The first two bungs I welded to thick 1/4" plate and had a hard to keeping the pool moving and clean when I added filler.

The second pic I used a thinner base material, and I cleaned my filler rod before using. This helped.

[Steve Arndt]

whoops, wasn't logged in.

I'm preparing to weld injector bungs into my manifold castings. My dad machined a few extra pieces for me to practice with. I've only had this TIG welder a short time so I'm just learning. I thought some practice was in order before I tackled the real deal.

I'm using 100% argon, 1/8" electrode 100% green (thinking of getting orange), 1/8" filler rod, 220 amps max and pedaling down a lot after the pool is built.






The first two bungs I welded to thick 1/4" plate and had a hard to keeping the pool moving and clean when I added filler.

The second pic I used a thinner base material, and I cleaned my filler rod before using. This helped.

Steve

[Steve Arndt]

I have made some progress to post.


The above picture shows the Mexican beetle aka btlmex intake plenum. I am going to saw the throttle body flange and idle air port flush with the top. Then I will ovalize a piece of 45 degree 2.5 inch aluminum tubing and extent the plenum up and at an angle over the alternator. I gave up on trying to fit a larger throttle body and still use the stock throttle cable so I will install a Morse buggy cable (like a motorcycle cable). This will just about double the size of the plenum. The intake originally is off a 1600cc engine, and my engine is a 2275cc so the extra volume will be needed. The stock TB is 45mm. The 2.5" tubing matches perfectly with a Volvo 760 65mm throttle body that I plan on using.

My intake ports are too large to be match ported with the castings so I had to weld them up. There was quite a bit of carbon inside the castings because they are used parts so it was a pain to TIG them with all the contamination bubbling up. I also welded in injector bungs. The castings have a strange oversize injector bung originally so we machined adapter fittings. This is the first time I've welded castings so excuse the looks!











The next thing to do is match port the manifolds, build the plenum and TB flange, filter/induction tube, and throttle cable. I'm finishing up the crank trigger sensor bracket also. That just leaves the wiring. I'll post more updates soon.

Steve Arndt

[Steve Arndt]

I finished the match porting of the manifolds to my cylinder heads. The rough material removal was done with a 1/2" rounded tip alumacut carbide bit. Then I used 120 grit cartridge rolls to finish the material removal. I used 60 grit emory paper to texture the ports.

I was able to remove almost all of the "cast in" injector bung. Removing the restriction there opened up the area nicely. I worked the long side only at the bung area and a touch towards the flange. Most of the material removal was on the short side radius towards the top of the welded area.

Runner volume (for the cast section, not including the tubing that is attached to the center plenum):
Before porting: ~180cc
After porting : ~195cc

The runner that extends from the plenum is v=~112cc
Intake port volume=70cc
Yielding:
total runner volume old: 70 + 180 + 112 =362cc
total runner volume new/ported: 70 + 195 + 112 = 377cc

These volumes are far from optimal for my 2275cc engine.
2275/4 = 569cc per cylinder.

I'm going to size the plenum close to three cylinder volumes to compensate for the smaller runner volume. 569*3=1706cc, so 1.7 liters is my target plenum volume.

I also smoothed the transition from the pressed in tubing into the cast portion of the runner.

Here are some pics. The before pic is above, here is the link:
http://wagonworksboise.com/images/weldgasket.jpg

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Steve Arndt

[Steve Arndt]

Update.

I machined a throttle body flange. 1/4" thick aluminum plate stock. 65mm ID Volvo throttle body. The bolt pattern is asymmetric in all directions (none of the holes are aligned parallel or perpendicular to each other like a square or rectangle). This odd bolt pattern is why there are two extra holes mirrored in the wrong location. The two extra holes won't be a problem because of the way the sealing surface of the TB is made.

I am going to weld a section of 2.75" aluminum tubing to the flange. The tubing matches perfectly w/ the 65mm ID of the throttle body. The tubing will in turn connect to the enlarged sheet metal plenum that I'm welding to the machined off original plenum.

I am going to hand profile the outside of the flange to match the outline of the TB so it looks nice. We are armature machinists here but learning quickly!


boring the ID of the hole.



More updates to come soon.

[denis]

Please let me know how to post pic .

I have done few bug(Type 1) converted to efi using old type custom intake.

[furpo]

The picture has to be hosted on an internet site first. You then write a link to the picture with the img tags around it. You will notice these in the toolbar above the posting dialog box.

If you hit the quote button for one of the posts Steve Arndt has made with pictures in them it will bring up an example of what I am talking about.

Roger
_________________
don't mind me, i always need help

[denis]

[Steve Arndt]

If you need a place to host pictures there are many options. You probably have some space free that comes with your internet service account. Also there are free online (advert supported) services online. If all else fails, you can email pics to me and I can host them for you. If they are VW related you can post them to your private gallery at thesamba.com the biggest vw site online (then link to them).

Thanks for the interest. Things are coming together. I get to use "1 cubic inch" of plastic on our schools SLA rapid prototyping machine. I'm going to make a proof of concept model of my crank trigger mount and post all that here soon. If it "fits and works" then I'm going to mill it out of Al.

Steve

[Steve Arndt]

Update.

Pictured is my plan for what the plenum and throttle body extension tube is going to look like.

First thing I did was remove the old throttle body flange and open up the area into a rectangle shape. No turning back now!



The next thing I did was mock up a shape for enlarging the plenum volume. The 65mm tubing didn't fit directly onto the cut down original plenum so I had to expand the area and volume. My plan was to smash the tubing into an oval shape and weld it directly to the cut down plenum but I ended up going this route.





Finally:


I'm going to cut the sheet metal for the plenum box this w/e and weld it up. The dashed lines in marker on the tubing show roughly where I will cut it down to. It should fit in pretty nicely. This lets me use two other 45 degree bends and tuck a large K&N filter above/right of the fan shroud. Where the filter would be for a weber on the cyl 1/2 side.

[Steve Arndt]

The reluctor sensor has an internal "pole". This pole diameter cannont exceed the minimum tooth width or spacing. I am using a 3.5" diameter 36-1 trigger wheel, where most others use a 5" or 6" diameter. I was concerned that the Volvo sensor I've selected might possibly have problems reading the target.

Another concern was that I will be reading the sharp edge of the trigger wheel from a 45 degree angle. All the OEMs read either perpendicular or parallel to the teeth from the edge. Would it get a clean signal with the angled orientation?

Instead of speculating about "will it work????", I decided to find out! I mounted the trigger wheel in our lathe. I used an old magnetic dial indicator stand to hold the sensor. My trusty 1960 HP Oscilloscope came in handy once again. From the waveform I would say it is going to work! I captured a nice smooth sine wave and easily could distinguish the "minus one" missing tooth as it ran. I experiment with straight, perpendicular, and angled positions. The waveform remained unchanged for the most part. So, I would say it is a go.







And here is a crude model of what the sensor bracket will resemble. I am going to make a model of it on the rapid prototyping machine at school to check the fit before I machine it.





Steve

[MarcoV6T]

Nice work.

The only problem with magnetic sensors is the amplitude of the signal at low speeds, did you try at cranking speed, ~200 RPM?

[Steve Arndt]

I ran it from 400 to 2000. The picture was taken at ~1000 I believe. It is interesting to watch the amplitude change as you alter the air gap and RPM.
Steve

[Pantera EFI]

Hi Steve, you may want to machine the crankshaft target teeth to be in the same plane as the sensor.

True, the best test is to see what the lowest RPM is for the sensor to read correctly.

Go to "Monitor", look at the WDbug (upper right of the screen), the tooth count should constant, the same number at low RPM.

You should see this at 50 RPM and higher.

Lance