One other thing. You did verify the connection against the repair manual to make sure they were the correct connections? I mean make sure that AF1+, CAM, etc is the correct connection on YOUR ECU.

 

Yes, we had to go over all the wiring anyways, because one wire was off. as i explained a long while ago. when i was first installing the ftc. Everything was correct except for the rpm wire, which was marked for the automatic ecu. and i have a manual trans ecu.

And for my plans. If this doesnt fix it. ill be very pissed first of all, becuse now gadget will say its my truck. Which there is no possible way its my truck i went over it left and right, and besides it was running better with the ftc bypassed. But if it doesnt work ill explain later. Id rather not say right here at the moment.

 

OK, good luck. Lemme know if I can help. I'll be installing mine in a couple weeks on a 2002 model.

 

Don't rule out the possibility of the "E" function not working properly. Have you tried to just not hook up the 02 wires coming out of the FTC and leave the stock 02 ecu wires hooked up? I know you won't be able to tune in closed loop but there is another solution that I have had luck with. The ftc itself worked great for me - it was just the E function that caused everything to go beserk.

Good Luck!

Gregg

 

I need some opinions on something.

I worked yesterday and did ALOT of fabricating to get the three gauges mounted above the stereo in a DIN slot. I got the gauges mounted to the stereo bracket and will just need to trim the dash surround a tad before installation is complete.

I've been looking around the engine bay on where to run the wires for the auto tranny gauge and the LC-1. Both will run down the passenger side fender well to their respective locations. I've got standard split loom wire cover that's good to 200* F. There is a high heat version good to 300* F but I can't find it anywhere locally. Do you guys think the 300* F version is necessary? If so any ideas on where to find it besides online? I've found one place online that has 25' for about $12 but I really don't need that much.

Also, anyone know where to find that think gray vinyl tubing that's used all over the vehicle's interior to protect wiring?

 

No ideas on where to find it, but if you'd like to see a reason for needing it, I'll get you a pic of the wire bundle on mine that runs down the driver's side of the tunnel. It's WELL torched.

 

I'll take your word for it. Just ordered 25' of 3/8" and 25' of 1/4" of high temp loom online. It'll delay my wiring plans a few days, but I'd rather do it right.

 

I got the gauges installed in the DIN area and they turned out perfect. My goal was a factory installed appearance and that's exactly what I got. Next I need to wire them up which will be sometime this week or next weekend.

There's a shot of them installed on the Supercharger Blog on my site.

It was about 5 hours of work to create the proper bracketry to make them solid yet modular as well as working with the stock dash surround to make it form around the gauge faces, well worth it though.

 

Well, got the ftc installed over the weekend w/o any luck. Im just going to start tweaking with the maps a ▓▓▓▓ ton to see if i can even get the afr's to change any at all. Still wants to stay at 14.7afr the entire time. Unless i mash the pedal down to get it to go into open loop and the afr's kick to about 12.0 to 12.5. This is the only time the afr's change too like it should be doing stock w/o a piggy back cpu.

My truck is drivable as is. i just can only stay under boost, or WOT. if its anything inbetween it runs lean.

Does anyone know if the br3 is supposed to read open loop when the over pressure is triggered? or is it only simulated? I had it set at 3 and i was keeping a steady boost at 3psi kept checking the open/close loop option on the br3 program and it stayed in closed loop the entire time. even at 4 psi too. could only get it to go into open and WOT.

If anyone else has any suggestions for me Id like to hear them. Im so frusterated right now its not even funny.

 

What's happening is the stock ECU is trimming all the fuel out that you add in in closed loop to keep it at 14.7. The "E" function is supposed to let you add fuel in closed loop without the stock ecu pulling it back out. You can get the afr's down to 13's or 12's in part throttle by dumping enough fuel in there with the ftc so that the stock ecu can't trim out any more. However, you will get a CEL showing too rich a condition. But untill you get it figured out, it may be a safer way to go to keep from leaning out - just don't go too rich or you will toast your Cat...

 

I was playing around with my br-3 last week to get a feel for it before doing the SC install. Mine would hit open loop at about 75% throttle. I had my gal drive and slowly apply throttle as I watched the % throttle and open/closed loop settings.

 

Hey Speedy, did you happen see what your max throttle position % was while monitoring the BR-3?

 

Didn't check that. I'll put that on the list of to do's though.

 

well, tried to tune it some more last night with Blink. Managed to get rid of the ping by messing with the timing.... but now i have no power what so ever with how we have to retard the timing. With the fuel maps its still going nutts..... at times itll run correctly and others it will just lean out all the way up to 16.5 afr+. and this is all in boost with the over pressure set to 1. i dont know what the hell is going on with this. but im damn close to yanking everything off and running stock injectors and no piggyback computer with the supercharger. My truck ran better w/o this crap on it. Yeah it might ping and such. but no near as bad as its pinging with this ftc unit on there.

Less than a week my truck will be down for 3 months now. this is just ridiculous.

 

I had mine down for twice that long so I can feel your frustration...

If you want too, try this. By pass the E function by hooking back up your stock 02 wires directly to your ecu. Then add fuel in with your ftc to get to the afr's you want in closed loop. The values in the r4 software tables will be higher in closed loop than in open loop for your fuel maps, but this is due to the stock ecu trimming out fuel as you put it in in closed loop. You will eventually throw a CEL but at least you won't be pinging and running so lean.

I went through all of this as well. I eventually scrapped the FTCE and went with another unit that varies the voltage coming from the stock 02 sensor instead of the frequency like the ftce does. I have had very positive results and have been running trouble free for the last 4 months or so.

Good luck!

 

Thats not all of my problems. It even starts to run lean in open loop aswell when it decides to wig out.

 

Something doesn't make sense here. Have you read the guide on timing adjustments? Your not retarding the timing per se', your getting the ECU back into it's range of adjustment. What amount of retard/advance were you running stock? That's the same place it should be with the SC installed and the timing range adjusted.

Here's the blurb from page 14 of the AIC-T guide I have:

Before we speak about ignition timing, it is important to understand how the
stock system works and what the knock threshold is.

The stock system is dynamic and it is constantly adjusting the ignition timing to
keep it as far advanced as possible and keep it right at the knock threshold. This
gives you the best performance and the best fuel economy.

The knock threshold is the point where there will start to be some spark knock.
The engines knock sensors pick up spark knock and when the ECU sees that
spark knock is starting to occur it will reduce the ignition timing slightly. Then
after a programmed period of time will start advancing the timing again until it
sees knock and the process repeats, many times a second. Just remember the
ignition timing is dynamic. This means it is constantly self-adjusting and the ECU
keeps the timing right at the knock threshold.

Now lets talk about some things that affect the knock threshold. In our test
engine the ignition timing will usually be about 20 degrees advance at Wide
Open Throttle (WOT) and redline. The normal things that affect the knock
threshold are the octane level of the fuel, the fuel mixture, induction air
temperatures, engine temperatures, compression ratio and so on.

Now we stuff in 6 PSI of boost in this same engine with a centrifugal
supercharger that builds boost as the engine RPMs increase. The ECU is now
reporting that the ignition has dropped to 14 degrees of advance with a reduction
of 6 degrees.

With forced induction installed on our test engine pushing in 6 PSI the cylinder
pressure has increased and that has made the cylinder charge more prone to
knock. This causes the knock threshold to be much lower then on the stock
engine. The ECU is still doing its dynamic ignition timing adjustments, and has
self adjusted the ignition timing down to the new knock threshold.

You might get the impression that the ECU can handle the ignition timing all by
its self with a forced induction conversion. It might, but if it cannot, it may lead to
an engine failure. The problem is that the stock ECUs are not programmed to
run properly with a forced induction conversion and was not intended to do so.
Because of this, there is usually a very limited amount of adjustment range that
the ECU has to adjust the ignition timing. When that range is used up, it cannot
retard the timing any more, and if you need more then you can have an engine
failure.

When tuning the ignition timing your goal is to restore the ECUs internal
adjustment range so it will have sufficient control authority to prevent boost
induced spark knock. Remember in our stock test engine it was 20 degrees
advance at WOT and full RPM? Then we boosted it with 6 PSI and it dropped to
14 degrees. We have used up 6 degrees of its internal retard range. What if it
only has 7 degrees available and you go boosting on a hot day? You can easily
use up what is left and drive down the road knocking and pinging and destroying
your engine. Our goal in tuning the ignition system is to restore the ECUs full
internal adjustment range so you will have a sufficient safety margin. We call
this the safety window.

You may have some people tell you if you add in retard, you will loose power.
Not so. You are not changing the knock threshold; you are just restoring the
ECUs adjustment range or the safety window.

I haven't installed my SC yet. I hooked up my BR-3 last week and drove around watching the throttle %, fuel trims, open and closed loop, timing, and intake air temps. I stayed right around 18 - 20 degrees of advance all the time and that's stock.

On a side note, my IAT was only 10 degrees hotter than ambient which surprised me. I'm running a deck plate mod and ISR mod as well.

 

Excellent post Speedy, that helps alot. I'm working on my map B right now. Thanks

 

Couldnt tell you what it was running stock for that i had the s/c before i even came to this site let alone learned about the fuel mods. and when i did purchase everything i couldnt test it either way because the s/c was in the shop getting rebuilt as i was installing the mods.

Couldnt get rid of the pinging with messing with the fuel maps. for it was running at 12.0 - 12.5afr. and it would still start to ping really bad. so therefore the pinging was due to the timing. which we corrected and stopped the pining, but now its doing what it was doing before, starting to run really lean EVERYWHERE all boost, and rpm and in open loop.

I dont know man. i cant explain it any better than that. All i know is something isnt working properly. And im not satisfied what so ever.

 

The only thing that was not mentioned in the above article is how the ecu will not read off the knock sensors before 3000rpm.

Above that the ecu will work with the timing as mentioned.

That is why most detonation that you can hear occurs before that point. HGLR ping...

To get rid of that you should only need ot pull between 2-4 degrees of timing in that load range and the ping should go away. Going super rich wont give you the cooling factor needed to remove knock, water injection yes fuel adding not so much.

I think something is really wrong with your unit man and if you are stuck still in a or 2 week i will help you out. Check your PM...