I put my ECS kit in last week, and everything went together as planned with no major surprises. Press the test button and the red light comes on. So decided to fuel it up today and bought some meth. I don't think I've been as nervouse to drive a car since my first use of nitrous. Anyway got the oil and everything up to temp and made sure I was driving toward home in case something broke, always a good idea while testing. Anyway left it in first gear and slowly accelerated into boost, at about 4 psi the turn on light came on but was red (isn't it supposed to go green?). tried it a few times on the way home with same results. If my thinking is correct, does this mean that the controller is seeing boost and trying to turn on the pump but the pump is not getting enough pressure? Now I did have the control dial set real low about 1/2 way between 1 and 2 if that would make a difference. My system normally only runs about 8 psi if that makes a difference.

Thanks for any info


Patrick

 

Put in on 7 and see what it does.

 

Will go red i believe untill it hit 30-40 psi than it will light up green and yes if you put the gain **** higher it will go green sooner

 

They're correct. You're in a pre-engagement mode. Once you hit the low threshold with about 6-7psi, you'll start seeing it go green. These systems are progressive and therefore come on slowly. It is a great thing. It makes them very tuneable. If they came on hard, your car would run like *** until your boost caught up with the meth volume.

 

 

Thanks guys,

So If I'm reading this correct, with everything left at the factory settings and the control **** set to 1.5, I know it was under 2, I might not see the light go green until around 8 psi of boost, if even then. So if everything is working correct, If I set my control **** to 7, I will proabbly see it go green around 6 psi of boost or so?, and it will be red from about 4 psi until 6 (I know we aren't talking exact figures here).

This brings me to my second question, when it turns on and red around 4psi, is it starting to spray at this point, or is it not really doing anything until it goes green.

A what if question. If I turn the gain **** up to seven and run it to full boost around 8 psi, and it still just stayed red, did the pump fail to run or do I have a leak somewhere

Sorry for all the questions guys, this is my first supercharged car so I'm doing a lot of learning here.

Thanks for all the help guys

Patrick

lol just say that I'm a 10 year member.

 

If you hit 8psi and no green light, you could have a vacuum leak to the Alky kit's map sensor. I always take the time to fully test input pressure to the map vs. pump pressure at the nozzle before I turn the system over to the customer. Not sure how your car was tuned, but changing the dial from 1.5 to 7 is going to present you with a huge change in methanol volume and probably make your car pig rich.

 

BlownBlueZ06,

No tune with the kit as of yet, just trying to confirm I have everything in working order as of right now, before I turn it over to my tuner. The MAP sensor for the alky kit is sharing the vacuum line with the MAP sensor for my boost gauge. The guage seems to be reading it's normal self on the last run. Is there a good way to bench test this system without the car running. Eg. ignition power on, send pressure to the vacuum line going to the MAP sensor, and the nozzle should start to spray at a given pressure amount?

Thanks again
Patrick

 

Yes. I do it before I start tuning any car or after I install a kit to verify it's operating as it should. Julio sells a little rig with a substitute reservior cap, a nozzle and pressure gauge so you can monitor the pump pressure and feed the output back into the reservoir. I use the pressure side of a mityvac with a pressure gauge in parallel to monitor the input pressure and verify input pressure vs. pump pressure.

 

Well guys, I did the bench test with the mityvac and all seems to be working fine I didn't do it enough to get the light to go green since I was testing on the car with the nozzle removed from the intake, so it was just a couple of short little tests. But it does start to spray as soon as the light first turns red and starts to spray harder as pressure increases on the MAP sensor. I always feel better when I can see something working rather then just thinking it should be working

Thanks for the help guys

Patrick

 

Another thing on a new system is air in the lines. Whereby the lines may be airlocked. Typically set the **** all the way to 8 and get the system to go red-green consistently. Once it does this then bring the **** down to like 5-6. Go and get tuned.

"IF" the Initial control is at 12:00 as factory set, I wouldnt run a gain of 1-2. That will make the pump lazy and not wake up as fast. And make air fuel erratic every time it gets into boost. Simply said, as the **** goes down voltage applied to pump goes down. Its like trying to start the car when battery is at 9-10 volts. It wont always start the same. Better when your battery is at 12-13 volts.. then it fires up quickly. Same with pump.. keep that gain up.. 6/7/8 are fine.

If you need less meth when tuned, make it come on latter. This will give you less meth as the window is shorter. Example turnon at 2 psi and run 8 psi is a 6 psi window of increase. vs lets say turnon at 4 psi and run 8 psi is a 4 psi window. The system given the same Gain setting will make less pressure on the latter turnon at 4 psi and run 8 psi boost, as it doesnt have as long a ramp.

Settings at 1-2 are typically trouble. Turn it up.. have it make pressure.. if it runs a little rich at WOT.. no worries, that wont hurt anything. That way when the tuner get the car.. he can tune it not chase after a weak alky kit or one full of air in the lines creating drama.

 

Thanks Julio,

I think air in the lines was part of my initial problem. When I was bench testing it in the garage I noticed the red light came on with nothing coming out for a second then it started spraying at the same boost setting. It was consistent after that coming on and ramping up as boost increased. I'll set her up to around 5 or 6, until I go in for my tune in the meantime like you suggested.

Thanks again
Patrick