Non VEMS Related Problems and Upgrades
These items are not directly related to installing VEMS, but it's worth documenting them for completeness. And they may be useful to someone at some time...
act_manifolds_sml.Fuse board
VEMS adds about 5 new fuses, and possibly adds or removes a relay or two (depending on your car). Instead of just having these extra bits kicking around loose, I thought I'd put in another small fuseboard.
This quickly became an excercise in rewiring the whole car, since a few wiring gremlins had been discovered. A useful modular fuseboard was acquired from A company called "Vehicle Wiring Products". It is considerably smaller than the old one so will allow me to gain an extra couple of inches of legroom in the passenger side.
The engine, cooling fans and headlamps have been put on to the new fuseboard, along with the main ignition relay now. The rest of the wiring is taking a lot of time to figure out!!
[Fuseboard wiring pic]
Fuel Pressure Regulator
See the section headed "1st Long Tuning Run - 05/02/06" in MembersPage/DavidBlades/FuelTest
The fuel regulator had died shut and replacement seems inevitable. I've always tried to see such things as oppertunities for upgrades, so I have found an adjustable regulator.
The standard TVR reg was set to 2.5 bar. This simply isn't enough for good atomisation, so the new one should have 2 benefits - apparently bigger injectors and a better burn.
Picture of modified injector rail and new pressure reg. Note the addition of a pressure gauge for easy testing in the future.
All back on the car now. It's certainly cleaner, but it's a bit obvious that the car's modified now.
The snag is that the fuel pump sounds a bit strained being asked to pressurise the rail to 3.5 bar.
Oh well, maybe that Bosch 044 pump is in order...
Exhaust Upgrade
I think the "1st Long Tuning Run" incident has also killed the pre-cats. These have been removed and the car is happier.
Exhaust leak is obvious here. Some connectors also got melted, but they aren't visible here.
Recently, the exhaust caught a speed bump. This has started to split the flexi-joint under the car. It's been patched up with gun-gum but it's only a matter of time before the sports exhaust goes on!
It turns out that I have a serious problem with the exhaust manifolds now - some of the bolts have "worked loose" and the flange on one bank has been etched by the exhaust gasses so that they now won't seal.
New performance manifolds have been bought to fix this. Built to my specs with proper wideband and EGT ports fitted. The primary length also suits the engine better than the standard one, making this an all-round improvement.
Note how the engine bay is considerably tidier than previously - maybe I'll get this project finished sometime?
Fitting the new manifolds was a headache. I had to enlarge some of the holes to get them to fit properly and I found some of the threads had stripped out of the head! No wonder the bolts had worked loose. Thankfully there's enough thread for slightly longer bolts. It's a bodge but it only needs to survive until December when the engine comes out for a new cam and the manifolds get ceramic coated.
Note the cat cells are easily removed without the aid of jacks!
The new sensor positions have helped stabilise the lambda readings and the car is MUCH happier now. It's a good deal louder too.
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