Quick Question

[davetibbs]

Hi

I am currently building a Peugeot engine for my 405 - it was originally a 2.0 8v turbo but I have swapped the head for 16v and am looking at making it twincharged - turbo and supercharged - and VEMS seems like the right way to go about running it.

Quick question - is there an output that can be used to control the ECU LED on the car's instrument cluster? I'd like it to light up to show the ECU has power, and also possibly if there's any kind of an error state - pretty much like an OEM ECU.

Thanks

Dave

[rob@vems.co.uk]

We can use one of the p259 channels to switch a light on, displaying errors is a little more of an issue as theres not much in the ecu to report errors and cause a subsequent channel activation.

[davetibbs]

That's cool, it's really only to show the ECU has power and for it to switch off once the engine is running.

Is this easy to do?

[dnb]

That's very easy.  Just configure a misc_out channel to be on for 0 RPM and go off at 500 RPM or so.

[davetibbs]

Perfect, thanks 

Once I've finished the bodywork I'll work on the engine and get the ECU.  Can't wait to get one and start fiddling, it looks like a lot of fun.

[dnb]

I've just finished an S16 engine install in a Pug 309, so I'm confident you'll have plenty of fun. 

[davetibbs]

Excellent!

The engine I'm building actually has a head from an S16 (but the bottom end of a 2.0 8v turbo engine from a Citroen XM).  I need to fabricate a 16v turbo manifold as well as mountings for supercharger, and some sort of bypass/switchover/etc valve for the twincharger setup which I'm hoping to control using the stepper control built into the VEMS.

Can the stepper control be activated by a boost level?

[rob@vems.co.uk]

I trust that you've seen Dave and Pieters work:
http://www.dp-engineering.com/EN/

Their twin turbo supercharger setup works well:
http://www.dp-engineering.com/EN/projects/twinturbo.php

[davetibbs]

I have indeed, thanks Rob.

However, I think they are using twincharging in a slightly different way to the way I intend to - I'm looking to have the supercharger provide boost until a (large!) turbo comes on boost, at which point the the supercharger is bypassed.  This is because I'm planning on using a fairly small supercharger just to improve turbo spool-up time and I think it could turn out to be a restriction on the top-end if it is not bypassed.  From what I can see from the DP Engineering setup it doesn't seem to bypass the supercharger - possibly because it is a compound setup on a small capacity engine?

I was thinking that I could use a drive-by-wire (i.e. stepper motor controlled) throttle as a well-flowing bypass valve, and use the stepper control in the VEMS to control this when the boost hit a certain value.  Is this possible?

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Supercharger+Turbocharger setups are hugely complicated affairs.

If I was going to do one (and I dont intend to!) I'd be looking at using wastegate actuators to move valves about based on pressure.

[davetibbs]

Complicated-ish - everyone seems to be scared of the idea of a twincharger setup but I'm not entirely sure why - it's just two sources of boost and choosing to use each one at the right time?  I appreciate there will be a huge amount of work involved but most of it will be tuning.

The reason I'm doing it is because it's an idea that fascinates me and I'd love to see if I can get it to work.  You can pick up a relatively small displacement supercharger off a Mini Cooper S for very little money.  VW seem to like the idea with their Golf Twincharged, and it's been done very sucessfully with the Nissan March SuperTurbo and the Lancia Delta S4 (drool), as well as aftermarket conversions for the MR2 and the RB26 engines

[rob@vems.co.uk]

Well hats off to you for trying, it will be an interesting project, and we're all for those