A bit of history (part 7) – Information overload

In reaction to losing my prior engine in, what seemed to me, a very preventable manner- I was determined not to make the same mistake again. The key to this was data, and lots of it! The more information I had about how the engine was working (or not), the more I could do to prevent another failure.

So in addition to adding thermo-couples into the exhaust manifold, I decided I wanted on board wide-band lambda measurement, this would tell me how much oxygen was left in the exhaust gases, and hence provide valuable information about how much fuel was being burnt in the cylinders. The Innovate kit seemed good value for money, and went into my “to do” pile.

Talking my plans through with people, a consistent piece of advice was to capture the data from all the various sensors in order to be able to analyse it after the event, and I was pointed at Race Technologies DL-1 data logger. The advantage of this kit was that it interfaces with their Dash 2, providing a digital display to give the driver all the warnings and information they could want in one place…so plenty of warning if/ when things did go wrong, and without the need for multiple after market gauges plastered everywhere in the cabin. Bonus!

While I was on it, I also decided to listen to another piece of advice I was hearing…mainly that I was letting the car down with the ECU I had. It was an Apexi Power FC, which I admit was a great bit of kit for its time…but things have progressed so far in this field, and modern ECUs are far more able.

There are a LOT of choices in this area, but one name had appeared a few times in the research I had been doing on other people's builds: Dave Rowe. A lot of people spoke very highly of Ryan (a lot!), but the two or three builds that had impressed me most had been mapped by Dave...Chris Isles being one of them. I forget the exact stats, but I'm pretty sure his engine was putting out in excess of 600bhp...and reliably.

Chris is another one of the awesome friends I've made on the way with this car, albeit we have never actually met in person! At the time I think he was working at YVS, but has since set up his own business looking after Jaguars, and doing pretty well by the looks of the car(s) he now drives...such a shame he left the world of MR2s behind though.

Anyhow, that was me sold- Dave only maps MoTeC ECUs, so job done...and as luck would have it my brother (being involved in motorsports) was able to find me one at slightly less than trade price, so I jumped on it.

I could have easily gone with AEM, or even Solaris (or Syvecs as they subsequently re-branded), but I was sold on Dave to map my car...a decision I have never regretted, and he has helped me numerous times over the last 6 or so years, both with advice and his no nonsense approach to mapping. He's a character that will keep popping up as I keep telling stories...and someone I have to admit I look up to.

So all the car sensors would feed direct into the ECU, and this would in turn talk to the data logger and digital dash…in theory a fully integrated system in the car…

This switch meant I could sell the popular Defi gauges that came with the car for decent money, which along with the HKS turbo and manifold, really helped recoup some much needed funding! It did mean I had to replace the Defi sensors, but that was alright as I upgraded most of them at the same time.

Finally the time had come to think about getting all this new kit on the car, and once again (not trusting myself…hindsight again!) I called Matt at Rogue. At the same time I incidentally asked a question about how easy it may be to fit a 5S crankshaft to my engine (being from the 2.2l block, this would add volume to my engine, and in theory help reduce turbo lag).

This honestly wasn’t a serious request, but his reply floored me…he just ‘happened’ to have a 5S block from a late 1998 Toyota Camry sitting around waiting for a monster build.

Damn…this is the final answer to four cylinder big power in these cars if you stick with Toyota engines, it’s 2.2l from the factory, and the block is significantly stronger than the 3S engines that the MR2 originally came with. Not only would this increase the capacity of the engine, but it would be far more resistant to going bang in the future…

What to do….?!