Like too many others, my engine blew. While the rebuild is in progress, I am researching engine management options and would appreciate any input from the forum members.

From what I can gather, fuel delivery and ignition timing are critical factors to consider. The tuner I chose was road testing the installation of the J&S SafeGuard when the engine blew. (Greddy TT, e-manage, Walbro FP, Aeromotive FPR and AAM return fuel in place as well)

My car is a 5AT and will not be tracked or AutoX'ed. Goal is 400 whp.

I appreciate the versatility of the e-manage, but am not one to tinker with fuel maps or timing. The J&S seems to be working well in some applications(on other Z owners F/I cars), but I am unsure if the shop that installed it has done so to spec. They are no longer involved with the project, and we are trying to contact John at J&S to see if he will inspect the unit.

I know very little about the TS GReddy reflash, but am considering this as an option.

It took almost a year to get the car ready for tuning, and she blew. The engine will be pulled soon and more info will follow on cause and effect as best that can be determined. Once the engine is rebuilt, I would really like to make it as easy as possible for the tuner to get the job done. Thanks for any input and good luck to those of you who are rebuilding your engines, blown or not.

 

Kshep, checkout the thread on the crank angle sensor wire. This would be something I would immediately address during your engine rebuild.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....hreadid=104349

Once that is done, here is what I recommend. Since you mentioned that you dont like to tinker with the maps and stuff, I would highly recommend that HKS FCon-Pro. It is the best standalone on the market today, and will provide the most accurate and robust set of tuning options around.

Contact Phunk, since he is the resident HKS Pro-F-Con expert.

If you wanted to tinker, I would still recommend the eManage, since the HKS unit is not user tunable.

 

i know this may have been cobvered...but the hks stand alone allows partial operation to exist throught the stock ecu, right? like windows, cruise control, etc?
also, what does one of these bad boys cost?

 

If Charles doen't chime in...I'll PM him for details and opinions.

 

According to Charles (from a while back), with the HKS F-Con V-Pro, cruise control, vdc, etc. kind of work. He said he's sure that it could be fixed easily if someone cared to fix the problem. It has to be installed at an HKS Pro-Dealer, which Kshep, you are in GA, so the closest one is either Fort Worth, Texas or Wakeman, Ohio or go a further and just get Charles to install it. It costs about $1400 for the module and about $500 for the harness.

 

Kshep: How much gas was in your tank when the engine blew?

The HKS Fcon V Pro wires in harmony with the factory ECU. The factory ECU controls the things the FCON cannot do, or things that you do not need to do... but could wire up if you wanted.

Its very simple actually, the FCON simply takes over control of the injectors and coils, and THAT IS IT. It knows what to do with them because it taps in to every sensor and knows exactly what is going on.

Stock ECU is still doing everything else, fly by wire, cruise, idle valve, etc etc etc.

The FCON can control more things if you cared to wire it to. But it will never be able to handle your fly by wire or cam timing. If cam timing tuning ever becomes and issue I might see if I can come up with a solution to possibly have a correction trim for cam timing.. but so far I have seen no inconsitancies. Since one of the major factors of cam timing is MAF readings VS RPM... the FCON will keep that consistent from pass to pass... because the FCON generates a false MAF signal out of a voltage output map based on RPM VS MAP.

You will still need a reflash for the throttle mod... supposedly they say that the throttle body starts to close at higher RPM and load or something? I dont know about that, but if its true the FCON cannot help you there.

If you need to raise your idle cause of massive injectors or cams, the FCON does not typically do this... but you could wire it to. I would suggest saving the time and tinkering, and allow the very intelligent stock ECU to control idle and simply having the idle raised in the ECU. My car idled like stock.

Some side effects I have noted:

CEL - too rich bank 1/2... this is because my well tuned Z is making boost at such low RPM that it requires lots of fuel at low RPM, and a rich A/F mixture... the stock ECU must still be in closed loop and paying attention to the primary O2s so it thinks this rich condition is not correct and trips on the CEL... it comes and goes. But I have never had the CEL illuminate for anything else... I keep an eye on it. For 2005 I will be figuring out how I want to get around that. This is currently the only things preventing the car from fooling almost any emissions test center and their OBD scan test. On some days I could pass, some I couldnt. Like I said it comes and goes. If someone were to generate an O2 simulator for application of the primary O2s... this problem would go away for good. The 4 stock O2 sensors do not need to be there anymore and are only there so the stock ECU doesnt complain.

Cruise control is wierd. Another fix-it for 2005. It works only under very light load. If you start to go up a hill it acts very strange... vacuum slowly climbs to 0 while the A/F slowly goes off the chart lean until the car bucks and studders. I gotta go thru the wiring and read about the cruise in this car before I can even try and figure out whats going on here. Just for a test I disabled the MAF output map and just ran the signal straight thru with no alteration... this did not help the cruise control at all.

VDC/Traction control.... They are functional but a little retarded. The Traction control comes on, but after allowing a lot more wheel slip than it should. VDC SEEMS to be ok but ever since the whole 467rwhp I havent been too into drifting the Z and I always turn VDC/TC off when I get in the car anyway... the only times I ever turned them back on was when taking freeway curves at insane speeds... so I wasnt missing much. This gimpyness could possibly be related to whatever is causing the cruise control retardation.

The car is tuned perfectly, runs perfectly.... starts right up.... throttle response better than ever... just flawless. I sacraficed a few luxurys that I beleive can be regained with a little more R&D... but I can only do so many things at once... I have lots of other things about the 350Z I am making sure I learn inside and out before I start to focus much on the cruise control... if you know what I mean.

The FCON is more expensive than most people think... because it does not run MAP out of the box... that requires additional sensors and harness.

http://www.cj-motorsports.com/prodfconv.htm

Here you can see what we charge for it... my pricing might sound high at first but when you add up all the things its actually very competitive... unfortunatly the nature of this game is just very expensive.

I have not tested this unit with a 5AT.... Chances are that it would work fine. However, sometimes auto cars have some wierd stuff going on in them. If there is anything about the auto trans that is dependant on the MAF... there might be problems... or at least a little bit of reprogramming to do.

The FCON is currently the best, and might I add ONLY, way to get a 350z with FI running at 100%. You can go far with piggyback systems but in the end you lack the control and ability to fine tune. Even with the lack of cam timing control I was able to achieve what is got to be the cleanest and smoothest powerband from any FI 350z. BTW that was my first day ever even using the FCON... I didnt have to spent 3 months on a forum figuring out how the update the thing and deal with beta software bugs and crashing software and serial-usb adapter problems etc etce tc etc. Since day one I put in the FCON, it worked, I tuned it... end of story. Other systems seem like their tuning session never truely ends.

 

phunk:
let's say i wanted to go with the hks...if i bought it through you...who could install it and more importantly tune it here in albuquerque?
do u know of any tuners here w/ expereince in that (i haven't asked my tuner yet,but i'm assuming with what i've heard that its not so simple)
any ideas? THX,
TODD

 

We are a HKS Pro dealer and have some smoking deals right now
. Email me for pricing.

 

Only HKS Pro-Dealers can install the F-Con V-Pro, I checked and APS doesn't list New Mexico as having any HKS dealers at all, so you are going to have to look and see where the closest one is: http://hksusa.com/dealers/Default.asp

 

I cannot recommend anyone to tune it other than myself. I have no personal experience with any other HKS Prodealers... but I am sure that most Prodealers are competent enough for the job.

After my success with the FCON in the 350z, there have been several additions and applications to the Prodealer list of shops that work on 350zs. People that have never heard of the FCON until now are adding it to their list of mods to do, and more and more shops will jump on the new bandwagon. If there is no Prodealer near you right now and you do not wish to transport your car, hold tight, im sure someone local to you will catch on to what has started.

We will continue to stay on top of things while everyone else catches up... if you give them a chance to do so, you will have a local tuner in short time.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by phunk
[B]Kshep: How much gas was in your tank when the engine blew?

I fiiled the tank the morning I brought it in (93 octane). The tech wired in the J&S and thought all was o-k until she blew a fuse on the dyno at 3800rpm. Shut everything down on the car...they attempted to dyno again...same result. After some back & forth phone troubleshooting w/John at J&S..they wired into fuse #90 and instead of strapping the car down on the dyno again...decided to road test and see if the fuse held up. The fuse did...the engine didn't. I will ask Greg at GSC Motorsports (he has my car now) to check the currrent fuel level and report back. I understand that the AAM return fuel system is quirky at less than 1/4 fuel capacity.

Thanks for your input on the HKS F-Kon Charles.

 

Since we are going to be pulling the engine soon...I seem to recall a thread that mentioned a plastic timing belt tensioner which was subject to be broken when the engine is removed. Anyone know the part number? I was going to try and have one on hand just in case we hit the same snag with this part.

 

Its got a hair under a 1/2 a tank in the car.

 

Good thing its wasnt the fuel system that caused this. The AAM system currently goes dry at 1/4 tank. It is my understanding that Phunk and AAM are working on a fix.

 

well... you are correct but we are not working on it together... which I dont think you meant that way but it kinda sounded like it. It definatly doesnt surprise me if they are gonna come out for a fix for their kit.

I am not exactly working on a fix tho... i am building a fully R&D' fuel supply system... my customers wont be the test rats. I was going to offer a small piece of my kit to correct their return setup mistake, but they will probably release their own fix and give to their customers free of charge to correct the problem.. making it not needed for me to make anything for a fix.

 

^^^Yup^^^ that is what I meant. That both you are working independently on different things.

 

My fuel system, which I got from Ultimate Racing works just fine... I mean it reads the tank level till the last drop and I have tested that.

I'm really surprised that the AAM system does that !!

Az

 

phunk:
what would u charge to come out here for a day and tune it?...all expenses paid, obviously, flight, etc....?