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Improving inlet pipe flow. An important aspect of any supercharger set up is the easy flow of induction air. Any articles I've come across on superchargers be it Roots or Twin-screw always mention having the minimum restriction possible as critical. The photos below are self explanatory, I removed all of flow straightener which was rather significant from the exit of the inlet pipe which is small in itself. I'm sure it's fitment did the job with the stock boost pressure. The cross section area is still only approx 320mm sq . The stock inlet pipe is probably o.k. to feed the S/C for the stock boost pressure but with close to a 100% increase in pressure any restriction can't be good and this modification is well documented for Eaton M62. A one off custom inlet pipe with a custom straightener would be ideal but I can't fabricate something like that so it's a case of make do. I will look into porting the pipe and the S/C inlet in due course.   Cleaned up.  Material removed, 3/8 10mm socket for scale.  Done.  |
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Last Edit: Dec 20, 2022 21:44:58 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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Next step was to replace the 4.0 bar FPR (stock is 3.8) with a 4.5 bar one. With porting and the FPR the general consensus on power will be around the 250 bhp mark. That should be fine and fast enough for a daily driver that's used for only a few months of the year. Being candid I'm not too pushed what the figure is, once car is driving well with a nice power band I'll be a happy bunny.  |
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Last Edit: Mar 4, 2022 21:20:17 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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One other part I forgot to mention was the S/C belt tensioner. I reckoned it was no harm fitting a new one along with a new slightly shorter belt due to the smaller S/C pulley. I originally changed the tensioner about 30k miles ago so it was ok but I'd hate to have any belt slippage and the more boost that's generated the greater the tensioner and belt have to work.  I painted the min and max and pointer marks so I can clearly see them when the tensioner is fitted. When the belt is on the slim line will be within the rectangle , the closer the line is to either end of the rectangle equates to the condition of the belt and these belts do streach. It takes c.30 bhp to spin the S/C @ max boost pressure, so a good condition belt and tensioner are a must.   |
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Last Edit: May 7, 2022 21:29:12 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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Pressure tested the system, using just 5 psi from my tyre inflater and soapy water. Found a leak too at the I.C. inlet hose. Can't have that, any boost pressure loss no matter how minor would upset the inner child in me!🙂    |
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Last Edit: Mar 4, 2022 17:16:10 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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All back together. It's driving great but I haven't logged all the operating parameters yet as the ECU needs a few hundred miles to fully reset. Early indications are looking good like boost pressure and AFR. I had one hiccup, major flat spots between 2500-3000 rpm, swapped the Bosch MAF for a Pierburg which sorted the issue. I reckon the Bosch MAF didn't like the change in boost pressure combined with the porting. It's not an unknown issue and it's popular to use a Pierburg when chasing power from these engines.  |
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Last Edit: Mar 9, 2022 13:43:42 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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Two months since my last post and I'm almost embarrassed to say I've only managed to clock up less than 200 miles . So, I decided to take the daily off the road and use the Merc for the next five or six months.
It's still knocking out max 13 psi, it's party piece is the in-gear acceleration, 40-100 (2nd & 3rd) & 60-120 mph in 3rd & 4th,the times seem excellent and it's instant 8.5 psi @ 2000 rpm or 10 psi @ 3000 rpm in 5th is impressive for an old machine. A world away from the stock max boost pressure of 6.5-7 psi.
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Last Edit: May 11, 2022 22:06:33 GMT by Woofwoof
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Jun 18, 2022 23:13:58 GMT
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Flat spots gone as per the previous post but it transpired I couldn't hit max boost pressure in all the gears, the Bypass was opening and on odd occasions the S/C would disengage. All was good in every gear till 5000-5500 rpm. Basically the ECU built-in 'booster limiter' was still active even after sending the ECU away for this to be removed, no fault of guy who did the flash as he really needed the car not just the ECU but Sweden is a long way off. So, I took a chance on just sending him the ECU. Still, it wasn't a waste of time as I had the timing tweaked and the rev limiter raised slightly. Anyway, the first thing to do was refit the MAF back to it's factory location and voltage clamp the MAF using a zener diode. This worked, no flat sports and max boost pressure in all gears. But it's not ideal as I needed to clamp at exactly 4.7 volts and zener diodes have a tolerance of around +/- 5%. The 4.7 zener I used was actually clamping at 4.46v. Plan 'C'. Fit a built for purpose adjustable MAF voltage clamp which I've just fitted and adjusted. All is now well in the land of max boost. The LTFT's have gone out to +10% never had that before and that's with a 4.5 bar FPR (stock 3.8). The ECU is adding more fuel as its detecting more airflow (accurately) while there's no lean running at high rev's, the AFR gauge is showing 11:1. Its also making more power as it's calculating "load" correctly and adding the correct amount of ignition timing which is noticeable through the more throaty engine note. I haven't checked all engine operating parameters via OBD yet as the ECU is currently in a re-learn mode. It takes 200+ miles for ECU to fully adapt. Seat of the pants dyno test, the car has never been faster. The general consensus from those that know these supercharged engines it's making c.250 bhp and I wouldn't be surprised if it is. Clamp.  What's next regarding engine power/performance? First item is to get a larger I.C., 50% + this is definitely happing . That won't give me anymore power it just allow the engine to keep close to producing max BHP when pushing on. Sticking with the stock I.C. the ECU is vey quick to pull timing in three stages when inlet temps hit 35/45 /60 C which reduces power. A larger I.C. will help to keep IAT's down thus less timing pull. For a bit more performance a larger a exhaust system would help and ideally Water/Meth injection. I'll consider both in due course. Also, I'd like to get another S/C and have a play with that for even better flow than the modified one currently fitted. I think before doing any of the above I may pull the head, overhaul it and do the timing chain etc while I'm at it. After any or all of the above that will be it as far as the engine goes. |
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Last Edit: Jun 20, 2022 21:37:55 GMT by Woofwoof
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After doing a few miles and keeping an eye on the engine parameters while the ECU went through it's re-learn mode it became apparent I had issues with lean running @ wide open throttle. Hooked up the fuel pressure tester and found the cheapo eBay 4.5 bar FPR was actually only giving 4.2 bar. I decided the best course of action was to get an adjustable FPR. Now, I can adjust fuel pressure and the MAF voltage to get optimum safe performance. So far it looks like 4.6-4.65v for MAF and 4.7-4.8 bar for fuel. More testing required. Neat adj.FPR.  |
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Last Edit: Aug 2, 2022 21:49:05 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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Chapter 3.Here's a summary of the car as it is now. '98 Sport manual. Basic spec: Electric windows x 4, Remote central locking and A/C. No leather, electric seats or sunroof etc,etc. Weight: c.1320 kg with 1/4 tank of juice, no driver. Space saver spare wheel, smaller/lighter battery, a/c delete and exhaust centre resonator delete. With rear split folding seats removed 1295 kg. Current mileage 151,000. Chassis modifications: Koni Sport Adjustable Shocks. Eibach Pro Springs 30-35mm lower than stock. Spring Pads, No.3 front & rear. Reinforced Front Spring Perches. H&R Front and Rear Sway Bars (+2mm front & rear), Poly Bushes & Collar Locks. W124 TE metal Rear Sway Bar Drop Links. Heavy Duty Rear Subframe Mounts (x4) Heavy Duty Front Lower Arms. W202 Diesel (Taxi) Engine Mounts. Brakes: Front W210 E320 Discs and Calipers (300/28/57). Brembo Pads Rear, stock. ATE Pads. Hel Braided Flexi Lines. ATE Super (Blue) Brake Fluid. Wheels & Tyres: Rear: 8x16 225/50/16 Front: Stock 7x16 205/55/16 Yokohama Advan Sport 105's Exhaust: Centre Resonator Delete. Choice of two Down Pipes: Either stock with Cats or Cat Delete with Silencer. Interior: Autotel mounted Scanner for Live Data. Stack Boost and Oil Temperature Gauge AEM Wideband AFR Gauge. Oil Pressure Warning light. Shorter Gear Lever & located further back. Alloy Pedal Set, pedals moved closer than stock. GPS speed alarm. Fire Extinguisher. Engine: ECU remapped - timing & fuel adjusted, raised rev limit. W202 250TD Stock all alloy I.C. 218mm Crank Pulley 87 mm S/C Pulley. Belt 6pk1395 Ported S/C. Max Boost Pressure 12-13 psi Custom Sealed Air Box with ITG Cone Filter. Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator. Split Second MAF Voltage adjustable Clamp. MAF stock location, Mesh Screen delete. T/B Mesh Screen delete. M111 EVO T/B Inlet. NGK BKR7E Plugs (one stage colder). Twin Electric Fan delete (a/c delete). Power: 240-250 BHP/210 BHP @ wheels. A photo from the rear, just for the sake of it and everybody likes photos even a curse word one like this.  The general idea of this car is for fast road use along with keeping it somewhat practical while trying to avoid track specific type modifications. In a nutshell it's a compromised car that does the job well,.even if I say so myself. I know, self-praise is no praise  So, what's next? Well, since car is worth as much as a bag of crisps and a mars bar I'm not too sure. What I have planned to do over the winter is to port another S/C which I now have, the porting will be different to the current one. I've later type Bosch red top injectors to fit, fit a new fuel filter too while I'm at it and adjust the fuel pressure down to suit the higher and better flowing injectors, it also badly needs new rear tyres and then an N.C.T. (MOT).
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Last Edit: Dec 21, 2022 22:39:42 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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It's a couple months since I updated this thread. As its winter and the car is off the road, I reckoned I should start getting my finger out. So, what's been happening and what's planned? Well, the first issue was the leaking rear half shaft outer gaiters, these I replaced only three years/15000 miles ago but they've failed. At first, I suspected it was due to curse word quality, but they were not cracked in the usual manner, there was little splits in them which I suspect I caused by not correctly supporting the hubs when I removed the rear subframe and then the diff. Live & learn, annoying all the same. Replacement Injectors. The original injectors have covered 150k miles, were overhauled and tested @ 120k and seemed to be o.k. but are working hard with the FPR set to 5 bar, not good for the pump and the duty cycle has to be near 100%. Time for a more modern and larger injector that would only require max 4 bar fuel pressure, that's only 0.2 bar above stock pressure. I'll possibly only need to have somewhere between 3.5-3.7 bar. The other benefit of the new injectors is that they offer better atomization as the spay pattern is created by a four-hole nozzle giving a wide-cone spray rather than two-hole Siemens and a bonus these injectors are cheap, we're only talking about €27ea. The injectors flow 330cc @ 3 bar, 370cc @ 3.8 bar and 380cc @ 4 bar. While the old Siemens flow c.330cc @ 4 bar which is not enough running 12+ psi boost. While I was at it, I replaced the fuel filter as I reckoned for the minimal cost it would be nice to start the life of the new injectors with a fresh filter Here's the new Bosch EV6 vs old Siemens   At long last I got new tyres fitted to the rear, the old one's were on the legal limit and really poor in the wet. I opted for 225/50/16's again but Kumho Ecsta's this time rather than Yoko's. Took the car out for a quick run just to see how it performed with the new injectors and forgot about the new tyres, well I had close call after hitting the first sharp bend at speed, lost the back end really suddenly, by luck rather than driving skills I got away with it, the old heart was beating rapidly after that! It took about 30 miles or so to break the new tyres in.  Next on the to do list is replace one of the Cats as it's started to rattle, going with a 200 cell Magnaflow. After that it's NCT (M.O.T.) time. I've bought another Supercharger which I'm going port differently to one currently fitted and see what how it performs, hoping for a little more low-down boost pressure and slightly lower I.A.T's. Hopefully, I don't make a balls of it as it's easy removing metal but impossible to put it back!  |
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Last Edit: Jan 1, 2023 10:44:52 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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So getting a new Cat. After much Web searching I found exactly the size I needed - Magnaflow 200 cell x 67/100/225mm offset.  This was the cheapest Magnaflow @ approx £110 + £22 shipping from Portugal. Other sellers were offering the same from £250 to £300. Being very reasonably priced I'm going to buy another and replace the other Cat (exhaust equipped with twin Cats as stock) with the same again. store.santerchips.pt/search |
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Last Edit: Dec 18, 2022 22:27:42 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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Dec 18, 2022 22:26:14 GMT
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I got the 200 cell Cat fitted the other day and took the car in for it's NCT (MOT) today. Happy to report it passed with no advisories. The only planned job I've left to do is port and fit my spare Supercharger. This makes a nice change from having a list of jobs to do before late Spring when I put the car back on the road as a daily driver. So, in a nutshell I've nothing much to report. As they say, no news is good news. |
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How did you get an NCT that quick |
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A Christmas miracle!
I reckon I got somebody's cancellation.
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Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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A Christmas miracle! I reckon I got somebody's cancellation. I've 3 machines that need a test, all out December/January and earliest test in my local station (that won't ruin me with every nit pick) is June 30th  |
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A Christmas miracle! I reckon I got somebody's cancellation. I've 3 machines that need a test, all out December/January and earliest test in my local station (that won't ruin me with every nit pick) is June 30th Crazy situation. One company running a monopoly supported by the dept.of transport. What could go wrong... Top tip: What I always do is go on the booking site after midnight, that seems to be when the cancellations are automatically posted up. That has always worked for me. |
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Last Edit: Jan 6, 2023 9:26:25 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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I've 3 machines that need a test, all out December/January and earliest test in my local station (that won't ruin me with every nit pick) is June 30th Crazy situation. One company running a monopoly supported by the dept.of transport. What could go wrong... Top tip: What I always do is go on the booking site after midnight, that seems to be when the cancellations are automatically posted up. That has always worked for me. I reapplied for the priority list again last night, if I don't get something back in a week I'll get on it. One is my daily and I have spent an age getting it all perfect underneath, almost everything is brand new and I want to get it in and passed before it wears I also don't want to be doing two tests in six months! We should have an MOT style thing here but I can understand the reason why, then again a lot of people have favourite centres here and also know the times when nicer testers are working... |
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I will say one thing, the DOE/CVRT thing actually works. Voluntary unrecorded tests (I'm a PSV driver and we can enter them beforehand; if there is anything that would be a fail we have the option not to test it and repair it so it's not marked as a fail) and good availability of tests. For our T4 Transporter camper, I got a test within 3 days and a retest(this afternoon!) within 5 days. Take of that what you will.
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Problems, problems!
I've been out road testing the car and fine tuning the adjustable MAF voltage clamp in conjunction with the new injectors. Something wasn't right regarding the AFR's, the AFR gauge was going max lean and staying there for 10 mins after just a quick burst of wide open throttle. Then the gauge would slowly return to normal while cruising. Anyway, after carrying out a few tests that failed to show anything wrong I guessed the wide band sensor was kaput. Now it's replaced the gauge is working normally thankfully as it's vital to know the AFR's.
Back out on road testing again and another problem arises, actually two problems. Going wide open throttle the traction control was intermittently kicking in, it should do if the car loses traction but not in 3rd gear at near max rev's on a very good dry road and the lost in traction could be repeated.
Also the handling wasn't right, sharp steering inputs really unsettled the rear end, basically the rear was slower to react than the front. For all world you'd think one of the rear toe arms was loose/worn or there was a crack in the sub frame. Just for the hell of it, on the way home I upped the rear pressures from 33 to 40 psi and that made little difference.
I suspected the new Kumho's were not up to the job (no matter what the reviews said). I swapped the rear wheels with a spare pair that had nine year old well worn Bridgestone on then, bingo traction and handling problems solved. I'll take that as a win even if it means I'll have to buy another pair of new tyres. This time I'll make sure they have better grip and stiffer sidewalls. Back to Yokohama's more than likely, just hope they're available as they were not back in December for some reason.
I've a new Bosch MAF and o2 sensor on the way, once those arrive I'll be back road testing again adjusting the MAF voltage and fuel pressure after each drive until I'm happy with the live data.
All going well after that I plan on using the car as the daily driver from April or May onwards.
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Last Edit: Mar 10, 2023 9:12:04 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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So, I fitted the new MAF and o2 sensor and I got the AFR's spot on from idle to cruise to wide open throttle. The MAF clamp was set correctly @ 4.7v, 0.1v below the max threshold of 4.8v.
When out and did some 'road testing' and found the bypass valve opening when nearing max rev's in 3rd and 4th gears. Max boost pressure was only 10 psi while there was no issue in 2nd, the bypass staying closed and boost was 13psi as expected.
Talk about getting frustrated and thinking I had screwed up, I was getting annoyed with myself too.
Now, I knew there's an inbuilt map in the ECU which acts as a torque limiter and that's why the problem was happening 3 & 4th (in would be the same in 5th but I didn't get a chance to try) but not 2nd gear. Still, the MAF clamp should have taken care of it.
What to do next? Simple, just ask somebody that's actually knows his stuff when it comes to issues like I have. It transpired that the MAF voltage clamp was not enough and I'd need to fit a resistor to the IAT signal (IAT is build in to the MAF) to the ECU. One 1.3K ohmn 0.5w resistor later, bingo, max boost pressure in all gears.
The ECU pulls timing @ 35C/3.5 degrees, 45C/6.0 degrees and at 60C it's 10 degrees or more. Pulling timing @ 35C is considered very conservative by all accounts, the resistor will now fool the ECU by under reading the IAT, thus no timing pull at 35C. With this setup it's a very good reason to buy a larger I.C., so that's next on the list. I'm even considering getting an I.C. water spray kit too, not for more power but just to keep everything safe and not lose any power.
If anybody is wondering why I needed a MAF voltage clamp in the first place after getting the ECU remapped to remove the MAF limiter/Torque limiter/Boost limiter, call it what you want, well I may be able to remove the clamp as the remap may have worked (I haven't tried yet) but what remap interfered with the MAF IAT map within the ECU for some reason, the jury is still out on this one but the general thinking is, either by accident or mistake my guy in Sweden made a an error remapping MAF signal tables and it affected IAT signal tables, these are easy to get wrong when mapping either the MAF or IAT signsls from what I understand.
Anyway, blame is not the game here, the guy did his very best under the circumstances and he was doing me a favour trying to do a remap.
It's happy bloody days, 250+ BHP. It's party piece is max rev pulls in 2nd and then 3rd where it's hitting 90+ mph. I know it will be rapid in 4th too but I've got to be careful as I've no interest in having a conversation with the law. But just taking it easy and not bothering to change down gear. hit wide open throttle it still hits 9psi @ 2500 rpm with another 4psi to come. Stock was max 7 psi @5300 rpm.
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Last Edit: Apr 10, 2023 20:21:38 GMT by Woofwoof
Still learning...still spending...still breaking things!
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