I may wrap them to see if it helps any, I’d probably have to make a wonky bit of steps on the ends of the 90s if I went down to 2.5” for the velocity since the turbine vband inlets are already 3” but I will definitely look into that as well. That’s really been my only complaint so far but other than that absolutely no regrets with going twins lol.

 

Yeah, that's true. Didn't think about that. I don't think wrapping, alone, is going to do much but it's worth a shot, as that's the easiest thing to do.

Only thing I am kinda starting to regret on mine is not putting the turbos in the engine bay and simplifying everything. I still have time to change it before I get it up and running, but we'll see

 

​​​​​​​Ryker, I sent you a PM about your Procharger parts and responded to your F/S thread but haven’t heard back. Are you in or near KC?

 

Apologies, I don’t check notifications much on the forums as I mostly use it on my phone. Responded!!

 

I made some longer 4" downpipes and it seems to have majorly improved spool time. Not sure if I had a backpressure issue, I'm new to the turbo stuff so I don't know how all of that really works quite yet. Anyways, thought I would leave this thread with a couple of "finished" pictures until I get the motivation to rear mount the radiator and correctly redo the kit with better turbo placement.

 

I know I keep saying I'll stop spamming this thread lol but wanted to give a further update on the spool time issue. The 4" exhaust helped a ton, but I was also able to rig up a rolling anti-lag using the IAT sensor trick on the stock computer. Basically just switching the IAT reference wire from the sensor itself to ground through a relay that is activated by my horn (lol). For anyone that may try this, if anyone, the signal wire CANNOT just be interrupted, the IAT sensor will read -40* but there must be a safety in place to prevent the ECU from actually trusting this value as it seems to just take a "best guess" at what the current IAT actually is. Since the IAT sensor itself is just a resistor, you can ground the signal wire and it will obviously dump the entire voltage resulting in the IAT to be read as 194*+, you can then go into the IAT spark modifier tables and pull a bunch of timing at these temperatures, assuming you'll never actually hit 194*+ intake temps.



I experimented with different values, you must remember that it's not setting actual timing to -25* but rather adding -25* to the main spark table. If I pulled 20* the car would try to push forwards a little still but 25* seems to be just perfect. The car built wastegate pressure within 2-3 seconds rolling... awesome.

I know this method has been documented before but a quick google will just show a bunch of posts telling you to interrupt the wire, which won't work on the E38, or to use a resistor in place which seemed like an unnecessary addition to me.

Here's a video to show how it works, I basically just press my horn down and step on the gas and it builds a ton of boost. The pull itself is rather slow, was just testing on wastegate pressure to get it working (9-10psi)

 

I would use a resistor to pull it down to a negative value. It is possible that you could reach the 180+ degree intake temps after a few back to back pulls and everything gets heatsoaked. Also, pretty sure, the ecu is pulling fuel on that end of the IAT table, where on the negative end, it would be adding fuel. That can also help get it to spool faster and build more boost on the button.

 

I was wondering about heat soak but I rarely do back to back stuff in this car but the fueling thing definitely makes more sense. Anyways, i’m ordering a Haltech standalone tomorrow so I won’t worry about this any further.

 

That's the best option! I played with the software a little. There are so many options. I'm already used to the holley, so didn't want to change it up but if one day I do, I'll be going haltech as well.

 

Yup, 5 minutes in each program gave me my answer almost immediately. Since i’m not already biased towards one or the other I thought it would be the right choice. Gonna try to make a small write up on the install since I only have seen a few scattered posts regarding it, mainly on FB. Either way, i’m assuming this will be the most in depth project thus far so we’ll see how it goes lol.

 

Depends on how you plan to go about it. As far as the ECU install itself, its very straight forward. If you want to keep OEM functions, that's when it starts to go a little more indepth.

 

Is there a cheaper option that gets he job done? Or does anyone have some used ones for sale for cheaper?

 

Not sure exactly what you're referencing, if you're talking about ECU's, both the entry level Holley and Haltech ECU's are very competitively priced for what they offer. You can still do tons of things with the stock computer it may just take a little bit more work and some creative thinking.

On topic of the project, I ordered the Haltech a few hours ago, should be here in a few days. Maybe I'll start tearing everything down and getting ready to trim the main harness.

 

Finally got time to work on the car so for the last few days I started the install. Honestly was not nearly as bad as I was expecting, need to tidy up and mount the ECU in a nice spot as it's just sitting on the passenger floor right now. It started up but definitely needs some work, haven't really looked at the log to see what it doesn't like, the Haltech software is super new to me so navigating and using it correctly will be a challenge.

 

Things have been good, the ECU is piggybacked alongside the stock ECU for the time being (spliced into cam, crank, and oil pressure). But, I am running into one small issue and wanted to see if anyone here had something similar with another ECU like the term or something.

Basically, it starts and runs perfect, couldn’t be happier but if I turn it off and try to turn it back on quickly it just simply won’t crank. I have to disconnect and reconnect the battery. It doesn’t happen on cold starts or if I wait even a little bit (10-20 minutes).

 

I had a similar issue, but only when it was hot out. If I had the car sitting out in the sun, it wouldn't start. Main reason I decided to just go standalone. Happened at a SCT event and ruined my day. You could always just wire a switch in to the starter.

 

It won't crank or the starter will turn slowly ?
any codes ?

 

It wouldn’t activate the starter at all, no relay click, nothing. I found the wiring diagram for the starter circuit and thought maybe the ECM side wasn’t happy so I tried bypassing that and activating the relay solely based off the purple/pink ign signal wire coming from the BCM since this should just be a positive voltage if the clutch switch is engaged. Same problem, starts fine cold and then if I turn it off won’t crank. Clutch switch is good, so for now I have given up and just put the starter on an external switched relay and it works fine.

For some good news, finally started the tuning process last night. All I can say is the difference between a stock ecu and a true “race” computer is night and day, made the process so much faster and easier to understand. Leave this post with an antilag clip just for a little fun lol, storm was coming so had to end before doing any 60-130 tests.

Lastly, I have some cool things I’m ready to share soon relating to the cars canbus network, specifically emulating, translating, and injecting custom messages to both the canbus network and the class 2 serial network. Every function within the car can be retained without the ECM present and almost any button, dial, or control can be used as an input or output for the Haltech.

 

Prepare yourself, this is a lot of rambling that may not make sense in some spots, I don't like to re-read before posting lol.

I have been working on the CANbus network on my car, trying to decipher it and figure it out for emulation. I'm not sure my understanding is 100% correct, I am still waiting for that "click" moment when everything comes together but here's what I've got so far:

Although GMLAN (Global A) is documented, it seems as if this standard wasn't put into play until some later years, my 2008 with the E38 ECM (12617631 os) has been putting out CAN messages that don't directly relate with almost anything posted online. I still have yet to find a good resource but thought if anything, I would post my info here as I reverse it.

I setup a monitor on the network and have been intercepting messages across it to try and decipher them, I don't have a great way to unhook/disconnect certain modules so for the time being my data is quite noisy, here's what I've deciphered.


You might be reading this and wondering why this info is at all relevant, and that's a great point so I thought I would stop and explain. My car uses Haltech for engine management, it currently piggybacks alongside the stock ECM in the car to keep things happy, the goal of this "study" is to be able to emulate the stock ECM functions and be able to remove it entirely while keeping everything else functioning. To add to this, you can also turn almost any control inside the car to an input/output, here's a video showcasing just that:

A custom mode that runs off the cruise controls. Hold the cruise control button down, enables the boost pressure mode, then adjust the desired boost controller pressure/duty cycle using the cruise controls and the oil pressure DIC readout as an indicator for pressure. Once satisfied, hold the cruise button again and it locks this value in, sends it to the Haltech and the Haltech adjusts the boost controller settings accordingly. This is just one mode possible, all while retaining cruise control without the stock ECM controlling the throttle. Another great thing about this, is that it's completely programmable. This means an input can have multiple functions, to get into the boost pressure mode the car must meet certain conditions, under 3000rpm and under 20mph, then if we're above these values and meet some other conditions it functions as rolling anti-lag. But as stated before, another condition is setup to keep cruise control functionality!



This is very obviously only the tip of the iceberg, and there is tons more to come. Just wanted to post to see if anyone else here has messed with this kind of thing and maybe could give some more help, I spent around an hour finding the values in the table above. I can make a spreadsheet to keep updating it live with the info I find if anyone is interested as well. It's showing promising results and I truly do think this could be helpful for those wanting to go the aftermarket ECU route but don't wont to lose functionality.

 

Damn, that's badass. Way over my head.