306 Estate GTi6

[ronj]

I think I found the cause of the flat spot low down in the rev-range. Obviously my own fault . I noticed that with my dash un-plugged the car seemed to pull harder from low down. So I guessed it had something to do with my digi-dash, and it did. I specified the VSS pin as pull-up, so the Teensy was pulling on the pin which, I guess, the ECU did not really like. RPM pin is behind an opto-coupler but lacking space on the PCB I left that out for the VSS and I mis-configured. I now corrected it and we'll see tomorrow what that brings.

In the mean-time I have replaced the gearstick knob for a good one. And extended the dash to measure battery voltage. Next up is measuring the oil level/oil temp sender and display those values as well.

[ronj]

Finally found some decent full-leather rear seats and fitted them.





And some stuff to keep me busy during the week-end.

[ronj]

Sneak-peak of the headlights.

https://youtu.be/_85kbRmue2U

[ronj]

Since I am already used to the power of the '6 engine in the Estate, phase II of the project is here.








Also fitted the refurb'ed front brakes.



Let's see if we can break the 200 bhp barrier.

[Mattcheese31]

Haha good lad, should sound sweet

[ronj]

The throttle bodies are almost fully assembled now. Drilling the backplate was a bit of a pain... I'm now waiting for the ECU before I can continue. Sound will be good I hope .

[insomaniac45]

Dumb they look nice

[Eeyore]

eugh carbon air box and trumpets. I want some but theyre always covered up so needless money spunking but cool none the less.

[JTaylor2005]

I have just read through the whole of this build and I am well impressed with it all tbh.

I love the little touches like the LED lights, they look great

And nice work on the dash board computer. Must have taken some serious work but looks brilliant and I bet its proper useful.

[ronj]

Sure looks nice, and the carbon... I'll just take off the air filter every time when the car is not running . It does have some thermal properties which make it more suited than aluminium when applied as a velocity stack (just looking for excuses here ).

Dash is indeed pretty useful. Especially the independently reset-able trip computers.

[ronj]

Hmm... that's not supposed to be there.



That's better...



It has a fresh MOT again after some 'minor' repairs.

- The gaping hole you see above.
- Rear brake-shoes.
- Orange indicators i.s.o. white.
- New CV boot on the left.

[ronj]

Went on the DynaPack today @ DP-Engineering. Did a back-to-back comparison with my stock "chipped" ECU and the PnP-VEMS. Eventually hitting stock factory power with the VEMS . The weird thing was the deviation of the measurements with the stock ECU. From run to run there were quite significant changes in the power output and linearity thereof.

Ready for the next step now.





This graph shows the stock ECU output vs. the VEMS output.



This is the ATW figure for the VEMS.

[ronj]

I have made a WiFi dongle to talk with the VEMS ECU. Now it is possible to wirelessly tune the car, do data logging or just watch realtime info in VemsDisplay (for Android). I am now working on support for OBD-II (ELM) compatible apps like Torque and DashCommand.

With running engine and VemsDisplay it looks like this:

https://youtu.be/3PObqpMr-iM

The dongle looks like this:



And a still of the thing in action:

[Midnightclub]

That, is f*cking cool. Nicely done!

[ronj]

@Midnightclub thanks!

Did some mechanical work this weekend, fixed a front wheel bearing and swapped the ARB. Much more balanced now front to rear, so I am happy.

Old vs. new:

[ronj]

I want the tablet to look more factory fit so I have started on moving the radio down. I plan to make a nice spot for the tablet in the original radio location.

Adding the radio cage to the center console, and flock the entire thing.







Phase one done!

[ronj]

And then a backfire happened .





Quickly resolved by binning the Helmholtz resonator chamber and turning up a plug.





Continued with the permanent install for the tablet.

Added USB3 ports (including a fast-charge one) in place of the sigaret lighter.



Making up some small looms to connect everything together. I have re-used the original plug that is bolted to the end of the sigaret lighter to power a programmable DC-DC converter. That in turn powers a powered USB hub. The tablet takes power from the hub and via the Y cable feeds back to the hub USB3.0 input. Now the charging current is continuously around 800 mA with a reported maximum of 1500 mA. Much better than before with a cheap converter.



Tidying up the cabling.




Trial fit to see if the position is OK. There is still a lot of work to do but this gives the general idea. I still need to wire in a DAC and the reverse camera. Hook up the parking sensors and hooking up the small screen in the dash to the tablet.

[MY95]

Clever stuff! What arb was that which you upgraded? Looks a fair bit bigger!

[ronj]

The ARB is a standard GTi6 item, but the flimsy piece of string lying next to it makes it look bigger.

[ronj]

Old vs. New

[Danny Wideboy]

Genius.
Nobody else is doing this.
You, Sir, are a pioneer.

[Eeyore]

oh man the screen is cool. The bezels ive seen on ebay before. nice to see they fit properly!

[ronj]

Thanks guys! The bezels do fit quite well, it's not for everyone I reckon but I think it looks a bit more "modern" this way.

I am currently dialing in the startup-sequence.

https://youtu.be/uESObv1VKmo

[Eeyore]

kl man

[ronj]

Finally got round to installing the parking sensors. Still need to hook up the control-unit to my dashboard but that is for next week.



Created a decent shielded serial cable for communication with the VEMS ECU.



Received my custom-made plasma dials, now I can complete my Frankendash.



In an effort to fix my aircon fitted a new condensor, new dryer and new pump. These were all leaking, I diagnosed that with a leak down test. Fingers crossed that got rid of all the leaks.

[bashbarnard]

Epic build this one. Just out of interest what mpg does this get


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ronj]

About 28 mpg with a RON102 fuel. A little bit worse, but not much, with a RON98 fuel.

But my daily commute is killing for decent fuel consumption. So probably could do better if I tried.

[Eeyore]

Love the shiny new parts. Where did the dials come from?

[bashbarnard]

28s not that bad i guess specially for the estate and gti6 engine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[partybish]

That dash startup is awesome, looking forward to more updates on this!