The Project Pad

Status Update:
- Replaced the rear knock sensor. Unplugged battery to reset the ECU and went for a drive. Got 8psi in 2nd, 10 in 3rd, 4th and 5th. That is the running pattern at the moment. Can't get past 8psi in second. It will get to the 8psi and hold, same with 10. However, if I am at around 3k in 3rd and roll on the throttle it will peak to 13/14psi quick and then back to 10, almost 11. The power is awesome!

Feels like there's still some kinks though somewhere. I need to try the VAG COM i have and hope it connects this time to see where we are at with codes. Stay Tuned.

EDIT: Checked codes and no knock sensor codes. Still getting the ISV sporatic short to ground though.

This morning I had some good pulls in 3rd, 4th and 5th. Even got a solid 12psi in 5th more than once. If I get on it in 2nd though I can't get past 8psi. Seems a bit weird to have solid pressure through the powerband but sometimes at 8 and others at 12. Would a vacuum leak cause this or should I start looking at diverter valve, n75, or other possibles?

Sooooo...what's the latest on this? Good to go....? Almost there....?

After much thinking I finally ordered VEMS. Super excited for this phase in the project and hope I can get the swap done and running in a short amount of time. Namely before BBQ 2014.

I'd love to document as much as I can while doing this to hopefully help people in the future. As of right now my knowledge is limited and will probably need some help with the relays/fuse panel portion.

If you have any info/links/etc please post them up here.

Thanks in advance!

well no shit Nick!!! Way to pull out from the darkness. Glad you went VEMS on your swap…something is NOT right with your ECU and or harness....broken wires/not communicating with the ECU properly.

Hopefully I'll see you at the BBQ...

Been way too long!

Now I have a 3b harness and other wiring bits all scattered on the garage floor.

So I think I have the right wideband 02 sensor, it's a Bosch LSU 4.2 but the connector looks different than what I'm seeing pretty much everywhere else. Is it better to just pick up a new one?

That looks right, just like a wideband should. Just has that white retaining clip on it to throw you off.

I think innovate says you can 100k miles on a wideband. Re calibrate every so often. If that makes you feel better about buying one used.

Yeah that isn't the same connector that VEMS will be using...

Harness swap began yesterday evening. Pulled the old harness out and spend a couple hours fiddling with the new one before pushing it through the firewall.

Stopped after we got it through. Today there will be a few more connectors to splice onto the harness and plug things in.

If any of you are willing to be on call for quick questions (possibly some timing help if I get it running) that would be awesome!

Base map timing should be okay. You should really only have to mess with fuel. Are you running PNP or Econoseal?

Econoseal.

Just about ready to plug in and see what happens.

And?

No go. Got it to crank but the fuel pump is constantly on and no crank trigger for some reason.

are you going to make the bbq?

Sure hope so!

Hopefully I can get some guidance tomorrow and try again.

You'll need to change the fuel pump output in VEMS. Mine would come on with the key on but turn off when the car was on. It's on a different setup than the PNP way from what I remember.
Did you reverse the polarity of your secondary trigger sender? What is the ECU grounded to?

Gotcha.

I did not do any reversing of the polarities on the secondary trigger. There are two wires on the crank sensor plugs that I didn't pin in- the blue and red wires that go to pin 48 on the 3b ecu.

Marc gave me some guidance with the crank sensor wires. I'll be confirming those at lunch and taking a quick log of key on/crank to send over for the fuel pump situation.

ECU is grounded to the Intake Manifold and there's one ground wire in the footwell. I used all the stock grounding points and made sure that the different ground points on the ECU went to the bigger ground wire in the existing loom. Tried to follow the guidelines in the VEMS manual best I could keeping the smaller wires as short as possible.

Question: Will the stock flywheel pin on a 7a flywheel be big enough for VEMS? My 3b setup ran just fine for a year (minus the boost issues) but does VEMS need something more?

Getting down to the wire with this thing. I have today and then mon-thur next week before BBQ!

The 7a pin seems to be hit or miss. I had to do the pin width enhancement trick (through the starter hole).

Anyway to confirm that it's an issue or is it more/less a last thing to update after eliminating the rest of the potential causes?

We took a spare crank sensor, plugged it in with VEMS up and didn't get any trigger errors if that helps.

I'll be reporting back here after lunch with what I find out. Also working on a pin out mapping of the 3b pin out to where I plugged in on the Econoseal.

As much as I love driving Dave's S6 Avant, it will be nice to get my car back on the road

If you have access to an oscilloscope you can see if anything is being picked up. Here is the start of my 7a flywheel pin troubleshooting http://theprojectpad.com/viewtopic.php? ... &start=370

That's an expensive word

So did you go straight to VEMS with your build or did you go the route of 3b ecu then switch?

The one I've used is <$100.

Anyway, I went straight to an econoseal VEMS.

I had a LOAD of issues with trigger pin errors. I originally thought my issue was the tiny pin that the fidanza aluminum flywheel has, but after switching flywheels and the issue still being there, I finally realized my issue was improper ECU grounding.
Make sure you follow the instructions for ECU grounding exactly, make sure the polarity is reversed(I remember that being pretty damn important) and the 7a should be okay. In theory. I never tested the trigger sensitivity with the fidanza setup so I'm not certain.

Talked with Marc and I have some homework (pin moving) to do after work today and try again.

The polarity on the fuel pump will need to be reversed or I'll need to use a different output and assign it (never done this before so I have no idea how. Yet) but first thing's first, trigger signal. Once I have that then we can continue across the bridge to glory.