wstar's Journal

wstar · 08-03-2013, 08:25 AM

Awesome work

wstar · 08-05-2013, 01:45 AM

UpRev Map-switching without the stock steering wheel stuff: I've figured out a solution for this, where you can just mount two pushbuttons wherever you want. One acts as Coast/Set, the other as Cancel, so you hold one and input the map number on the other as before. It just needs 3 resistors wired up to the 2 pushbuttons a certain way, and then in the end you hook that up to two pins on the main ECM.

The pins on the ECM are the Sky Blue + Yellow wires which are on pins 101 and 108 of connector M107 (which, of the 3 big connectors on the ECM, is the one that's rearmost on the car and runs to the main wiring harness under the dash, as opposed to the other two that run straight over into the engine bay).

I'll post up a circuit diagram and whatnot once I've actually tested it and I know I'm not leading people down some horrible path of breakage. Might be sometime later this week.

I'm also looking at some 7AT hacks, but I don't have anything to report from experiments yet, just ideas from staring at wiring diagrams. The first one on my priority list is I'm thinking it's possible to put a hard toggle switch on the dash that switches between the normal behavior and "D is always M". Meaning when you move the lever into D, the car goes into M-mode and the paddle shifters are always good to go (although obviously you won't be able to use +/- controls on the floor stick until you move it over into the actual M position).

The rationale here is that it's really easy to accidentally bump the stick sideways with your hand/arm and drop out of M into D, which means you lose your current gearing because it auto-upshifts for you almost immediately, etc. It's happened to me a few times, and I just don't want that to happen again ever. I could just hardwire the D-mode away permanently, but I figure it might be nice to at least have a toggle switch somewhere to revert to true D-mode.

VoBoy · 08-07-2013, 09:19 AM

^- 6MT swap - Problem solved!

Megan370z · 08-07-2013, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoBoy

^- 6MT swap - Problem solved!

really ?

6MT arent perfect either.

trolling with 19post....

wstar · 08-07-2013, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megan370z

trolling with 19post....

It's ok, I know him from track events

. He's a 350 guy mostly so he's not native to these forums!

wstar · 08-07-2013, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoBoy

^- 6MT swap - Problem solved!

Heresy!

But on a more serious note, I still plan to someday swap in an LS-series engine whenever I finally destroy this VQ, and when that happens I'll undoubtedly have to go with a T-56 manual from GM for sanity's sake. Making the 7AT work without the stock ECU/BCM/Meters/Sensors would be a nightmare if it's possible at all, and the aftermarket sequential/DCT options are just way too expensive.

Maybe the 'vette has a nice paddle-shift auto option that could theoretically work, but even then it's probably more expensive, and probably doesn't work out with a minimal harness and a race ECU or whatever. We'll see what happens when I get there, but I'm mostly just bracing for having to accept a manual again at that point. By then I'll probably have the rest of driving down pretty well though, so I won't mind having to focus on heel-toe skill for a while.

VoBoy · 08-13-2013, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Heresy!

But on a more serious note, I still plan to someday swap in an LS-series engine whenever I finally destroy this VQ, and when that happens I'll undoubtedly have to go with a T-56 manual from GM for sanity's sake. Making the 7AT work without the stock ECU/BCM/Meters/Sensors would be a nightmare if it's possible at all, and the aftermarket sequential/DCT options are just way too expensive.

Maybe the 'vette has a nice paddle-shift auto option that could theoretically work, but even then it's probably more expensive, and probably doesn't work out with a minimal harness and a race ECU or whatever. We'll see what happens when I get there, but I'm mostly just bracing for having to accept a manual again at that point. By then I'll probably have the rest of driving down pretty well though, so I won't mind having to focus on heel-toe skill for a while.

LS swap is Heresy! Lolj you'd demolish everything on the track with that swap.

theDreamer · 08-07-2013, 11:48 AM

If you wait long enough, the new vette motor & trans will have SRM feature for the manual so you can skip the heal toe. Not sure yet on how the new auto will fair on the track though that they are producing.

wstar · 08-13-2013, 11:31 AM

Well, that project's hopefully a long ways off (famous last words!).

Right now the car's undergoing a lot of change as it is. I feel like I have 10 different projects on it in a half-complete state, and I really don't know if it will be track-ready again in time for the planned Sept 29th TDE event.

I'm done gutting interior wiring and have started cleaning up the remainder with new conduit, etc. The steering member is out for cleanup, but I haven't done that yet (cut off excess brackets, sand, paint). I've sorted out the wiring logic and layout for the new center-dash controls (stock start button + hazard button, future remote killswitch, uprev map-switch buttons, on/off for RaceKeeper, on/off for gauge alarms) and gauges (just oil pres and trans temp for now, using stock oil temp still...), but haven't actually wired that stuff or assembled the panel(s). I still need to run a new battery feed to my second fuel pump relay through the new harness layout. I still need to hook up the Evo2 battery with some 4-gauge cable and the existing breaker.

The doors are gutted and the glass is out. Need some kind of strap handle solution for the interior handle cables. Would like to have some pop-in Lexan just for rain protection when the car's parked, but I doubt I sort that out during this sprint of work. Exterior trunk latches are kinda in the same boat - I can live without them for now but it would be nice to get it done as well.

Still waiting on the final bit for the new seats (driver's side base, backordered...). Steering wheel + QR hub is on the car (but I haven't wired up my planned shift buttons on the wheel itself - that can always be left for later as the paddles are still there too). Still need to sort out the last bits of the current cooling system (either switch to the 2013 tank setup or replace my radiator cap). And then get it to Dallas and have a guy weld in a rear cage, and weld in the harness mounts, and paint the cage. Oh and swap out my fluids again.

And I have a two week trip out of town in the middle of September, so there's that in the way :P

It'll be worth it in the end, but the timing of this hypothetical "end" is a little fuzzy right now...

VoBoy · 08-13-2013, 01:55 PM

Is there a reason to go to the shop in Dallas? I can highly recommend Lucas Racing on our side of town. The two that run it are very easy to deal with and lots of knowledge on building cages.

Lucas

Example of their work

wstar · 08-18-2013, 08:51 PM

Well, I may check them out. I saw another cage that was done well locally over at Bumbera's as well. I think early this week I'm gonna swing by both places and at least get a quote and see how they are. But the guy in Dallas might end up beating them on price by enough that it's worth the drive, and his quality looks good as well. We'll see how it all goes

I got the car put back together enough for a test drive today, and everything went well. Nothing fell off or caught fire or failed to work

I still haven't done my center-dash-area panels for various switches and gauges and whatnot, I just taped the engine start button in place and taped the other wires out of the way for now. I also ended up running my catch can back through the firewall and putting in the interior (also just taped up for now, not properly mounted), I think I like that setup for a number of reasons.

I can confirm now that the Evo2 16-cell battery starts the engine fine. In fact, I think it actually cranks the engine better than my PC680 did (some of that may be due to the huge positive cable run on the PC680 from the trunk area, vs having the Evo2 right up in the stock location on very very short cables).

Pic of the dash area in the current in-progress state that I test-drove it in (well, and you can see the battery cover and the Evo2 charger through the window - I was using them to check out the battery's charge state after):

wstar · 08-19-2013, 09:29 AM

Late last night I was able to finish up my 7AT wiring experiments. It was mostly a failure - there's no simple method (e.g. just cutting/splicing/grounding whatever one or more pins on the wiring to the Control Device) to force D to act it's in M without causing other problems. Had some fascinating partial failures though, including getting the "S" to light up over the dash gear indicator like S-mode in a 6MT

There probably is a way to do it, but you'd have to disassemble the control device itself and change some of the switches' wiring within it, rather than just doing simple work at the harness connector. I may or may not get around to playing with it anytime soon.

The basic problem is that the car doesn't like seeing the M-mode signal while in Park (or reverse, or neutral, etc). I was hoping it would just ignore it, but no such luck. Down inside the control device, of course, you could rewire the D<->M switch itself such that both sides are attached to the M side's wire and the D side's wire is unused. The switch is in series (electrically and also in a physical sense) with other controls inside the unit, which is why you can't just do the same thing out at the harness sanely.

wstar · 08-19-2013, 10:02 AM

Also, here's a pic of the Evo2 battery install:

My install is mostly like ChipsWithDips's install over here: Ballistic Performance EVO2 16cell battery in 370Z - Imgur . The key differences are:

1) I used 2x 6AWG wire for each of the main connections. I was originally going to do 1x 4AWG, but the 6AWG is easier to bend and work with, and a pair of them is electrically equivalent to a single 3AWG wire. No issues there, the wires aren't hot or anything right after starting.
2) I re-used the same Lightning Audio LCB-200 breaker I had on my old relocated setup. It's nice to have a fail-safe in the case of a massive short-circuit somewhere in the car, and it's also a convenient switch to shut off the battery when doing electrical work. I hard-attached it to the negative post of the battery by screwing a terminal lug directly between the two. This is a temporary solution, I'll eventually remove the breaker whenever I get around to upgrading to a nice racing kill-switch system, probably this one: Battery Isolator XS, or something similar.
3) I dug in my old parts bins and found my old stock battery tray to use as a base instead of fabbing a metal one. The only thing I changed about the stock tray base is I drilled out the 6 rivets that attach that metal bracket to the underside that's used for the stock hold-down, and removed that piece.

I did several more engine starts (something like 5-6 starts and stops in the space of 20 minutes?) last night while playing with the transmission wiring and every start was snappy, so I think it's got plenty of excess cranking capacity. I can't speak to how well it would hold up to the residual drain on a stock car's electrical system if the car's off for days though, seeing as mine's so minimized. After all that and then sitting off overnight though, mine was still reading about 13.2V this morning, so at least I know I don't have any serious problems in my new wiring draining it.

VoBoy · 08-20-2013, 12:49 PM

Are you gonna be working on the car over the weekend? I'd love to check it out on Saturday.

wstar · 08-20-2013, 01:15 PM

Working on the car seems to be all I do lately, so almost certainly

08-03-2013, 08:25 AM	#1 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Awesome work __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-05-2013, 01:45 AM	#2 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	UpRev Map-switching without the stock steering wheel stuff: I've figured out a solution for this, where you can just mount two pushbuttons wherever you want. One acts as Coast/Set, the other as Cancel, so you hold one and input the map number on the other as before. It just needs 3 resistors wired up to the 2 pushbuttons a certain way, and then in the end you hook that up to two pins on the main ECM. The pins on the ECM are the Sky Blue + Yellow wires which are on pins 101 and 108 of connector M107 (which, of the 3 big connectors on the ECM, is the one that's rearmost on the car and runs to the main wiring harness under the dash, as opposed to the other two that run straight over into the engine bay). I'll post up a circuit diagram and whatnot once I've actually tested it and I know I'm not leading people down some horrible path of breakage. Might be sometime later this week. I'm also looking at some 7AT hacks, but I don't have anything to report from experiments yet, just ideas from staring at wiring diagrams. The first one on my priority list is I'm thinking it's possible to put a hard toggle switch on the dash that switches between the normal behavior and "D is always M". Meaning when you move the lever into D, the car goes into M-mode and the paddle shifters are always good to go (although obviously you won't be able to use +/- controls on the floor stick until you move it over into the actual M position). The rationale here is that it's really easy to accidentally bump the stick sideways with your hand/arm and drop out of M into D, which means you lose your current gearing because it auto-upshifts for you almost immediately, etc. It's happened to me a few times, and I just don't want that to happen again ever. I could just hardwire the D-mode away permanently, but I figure it might be nice to at least have a toggle switch somewhere to revert to true D-mode. Megan370z likes this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 08-05-2013 at 08:24 AM.

08-07-2013, 11:48 AM	#8 (permalink)
theDreamer A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 30,879 Drives: 370z Rep Power: 4211	If you wait long enough, the new vette motor & trans will have SRM feature for the manual so you can skip the heal toe. Not sure yet on how the new auto will fair on the track though that they are producing. __________________ theDreamer's Z // Fast Intentions // Uprev // GTM // HKS // TEIN theDreamer's Silvia // URAS // GREDDY Houston Zs // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

08-13-2013, 11:31 AM	#9 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Well, that project's hopefully a long ways off (famous last words!). Right now the car's undergoing a lot of change as it is. I feel like I have 10 different projects on it in a half-complete state, and I really don't know if it will be track-ready again in time for the planned Sept 29th TDE event. I'm done gutting interior wiring and have started cleaning up the remainder with new conduit, etc. The steering member is out for cleanup, but I haven't done that yet (cut off excess brackets, sand, paint). I've sorted out the wiring logic and layout for the new center-dash controls (stock start button + hazard button, future remote killswitch, uprev map-switch buttons, on/off for RaceKeeper, on/off for gauge alarms) and gauges (just oil pres and trans temp for now, using stock oil temp still...), but haven't actually wired that stuff or assembled the panel(s). I still need to run a new battery feed to my second fuel pump relay through the new harness layout. I still need to hook up the Evo2 battery with some 4-gauge cable and the existing breaker. The doors are gutted and the glass is out. Need some kind of strap handle solution for the interior handle cables. Would like to have some pop-in Lexan just for rain protection when the car's parked, but I doubt I sort that out during this sprint of work. Exterior trunk latches are kinda in the same boat - I can live without them for now but it would be nice to get it done as well. Still waiting on the final bit for the new seats (driver's side base, backordered...). Steering wheel + QR hub is on the car (but I haven't wired up my planned shift buttons on the wheel itself - that can always be left for later as the paddles are still there too). Still need to sort out the last bits of the current cooling system (either switch to the 2013 tank setup or replace my radiator cap). And then get it to Dallas and have a guy weld in a rear cage, and weld in the harness mounts, and paint the cage. Oh and swap out my fluids again. And I have a two week trip out of town in the middle of September, so there's that in the way :P It'll be worth it in the end, but the timing of this hypothetical "end" is a little fuzzy right now... __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 08-13-2013 at 11:36 AM.

08-13-2013, 01:55 PM	#10 (permalink)
VoBoy Base Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago/Houston Posts: 37 Drives: 06 350z Rep Power: 17	Is there a reason to go to the shop in Dallas? I can highly recommend Lucas Racing on our side of town. The two that run it are very easy to deal with and lots of knowledge on building cages. Lucas Example of their work Last edited by VoBoy; 08-15-2013 at 09:32 AM.

08-07-2013, 09:19 AM	#3 (permalink)
VoBoy Base Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago/Houston Posts: 37 Drives: 06 350z Rep Power: 17	^- 6MT swap - Problem solved!

08-18-2013, 08:51 PM	#11 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Well, I may check them out. I saw another cage that was done well locally over at Bumbera's as well. I think early this week I'm gonna swing by both places and at least get a quote and see how they are. But the guy in Dallas might end up beating them on price by enough that it's worth the drive, and his quality looks good as well. We'll see how it all goes I got the car put back together enough for a test drive today, and everything went well. Nothing fell off or caught fire or failed to work I still haven't done my center-dash-area panels for various switches and gauges and whatnot, I just taped the engine start button in place and taped the other wires out of the way for now. I also ended up running my catch can back through the firewall and putting in the interior (also just taped up for now, not properly mounted), I think I like that setup for a number of reasons. I can confirm now that the Evo2 16-cell battery starts the engine fine. In fact, I think it actually cranks the engine better than my PC680 did (some of that may be due to the huge positive cable run on the PC680 from the trunk area, vs having the Evo2 right up in the stock location on very very short cables). Pic of the dash area in the current in-progress state that I test-drove it in (well, and you can see the battery cover and the Evo2 charger through the window - I was using them to check out the battery's charge state after): __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-19-2013, 09:29 AM	#12 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Late last night I was able to finish up my 7AT wiring experiments. It was mostly a failure - there's no simple method (e.g. just cutting/splicing/grounding whatever one or more pins on the wiring to the Control Device) to force D to act it's in M without causing other problems. Had some fascinating partial failures though, including getting the "S" to light up over the dash gear indicator like S-mode in a 6MT There probably is a way to do it, but you'd have to disassemble the control device itself and change some of the switches' wiring within it, rather than just doing simple work at the harness connector. I may or may not get around to playing with it anytime soon. The basic problem is that the car doesn't like seeing the M-mode signal while in Park (or reverse, or neutral, etc). I was hoping it would just ignore it, but no such luck. Down inside the control device, of course, you could rewire the D<->M switch itself such that both sides are attached to the M side's wire and the D side's wire is unused. The switch is in series (electrically and also in a physical sense) with other controls inside the unit, which is why you can't just do the same thing out at the harness sanely. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-19-2013, 10:02 AM	#13 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Also, here's a pic of the Evo2 battery install: My install is mostly like ChipsWithDips's install over here: Ballistic Performance EVO2 16cell battery in 370Z - Imgur . The key differences are: 1) I used 2x 6AWG wire for each of the main connections. I was originally going to do 1x 4AWG, but the 6AWG is easier to bend and work with, and a pair of them is electrically equivalent to a single 3AWG wire. No issues there, the wires aren't hot or anything right after starting. 2) I re-used the same Lightning Audio LCB-200 breaker I had on my old relocated setup. It's nice to have a fail-safe in the case of a massive short-circuit somewhere in the car, and it's also a convenient switch to shut off the battery when doing electrical work. I hard-attached it to the negative post of the battery by screwing a terminal lug directly between the two. This is a temporary solution, I'll eventually remove the breaker whenever I get around to upgrading to a nice racing kill-switch system, probably this one: Battery Isolator XS, or something similar. 3) I dug in my old parts bins and found my old stock battery tray to use as a base instead of fabbing a metal one. The only thing I changed about the stock tray base is I drilled out the 6 rivets that attach that metal bracket to the underside that's used for the stock hold-down, and removed that piece. I did several more engine starts (something like 5-6 starts and stops in the space of 20 minutes?) last night while playing with the transmission wiring and every start was snappy, so I think it's got plenty of excess cranking capacity. I can't speak to how well it would hold up to the residual drain on a stock car's electrical system if the car's off for days though, seeing as mine's so minimized. After all that and then sitting off overnight though, mine was still reading about 13.2V this morning, so at least I know I don't have any serious problems in my new wiring draining it. carlitos_370z likes this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

08-20-2013, 12:49 PM	#14 (permalink)
VoBoy Base Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Chicago/Houston Posts: 37 Drives: 06 350z Rep Power: 17	Are you gonna be working on the car over the weekend? I'd love to check it out on Saturday.

08-20-2013, 01:15 PM	#15 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3595	Working on the car seems to be all I do lately, so almost certainly __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

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