The Portabull LFX Build
03-30-2016, 10:03 AM
#141
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 55
Total Cats: 5
Some encouragement for you guys:
Ran the car yeaterday at the DC SCCA test and tune autox. Car ran great, no issues whatsoever with over 30 runs. Throttle is very sensitive and very easy to pick up too much speed even on 205 series R compounds. Next task is going to be to step up to 275s.
Sounded awesome from outside the car. I'm running a tein monoflex suspension and Re-71r's, the same as last year, and there's no noticable change in the handling characteristics other than than lots more power. Still very nuetral, very balanced. All in, super happy with the swap.
Ran the car yeaterday at the DC SCCA test and tune autox. Car ran great, no issues whatsoever with over 30 runs. Throttle is very sensitive and very easy to pick up too much speed even on 205 series R compounds. Next task is going to be to step up to 275s.
Sounded awesome from outside the car. I'm running a tein monoflex suspension and Re-71r's, the same as last year, and there's no noticable change in the handling characteristics other than than lots more power. Still very nuetral, very balanced. All in, super happy with the swap.
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03-30-2016, 01:01 PM
#143
Newb
Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
Total Cats: 10
Didn't seem like going aftermarket was going to save me a lot of weight looking at how thick the Spec flywheel is to eliminate the dual mass design. Clamping force and disc material is surely better than stock, but my car is significantly lighter than a camaro, so decided to run a stock setup especially once considering the cost side. But yeah, even with what felt like a 40 pound flywheel/pressure plate/disc combo, it revs really quick and is super responsive. Would consider swaping to aftermarket if some better options became available or we burn up the stock setup.
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04-07-2016, 08:45 PM
#145
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Livermore, CO
Posts: 193
Total Cats: 84
Just had my first start up... WOO HOO! Now I just need to pull the motor and tidy up the wiring over the weekend and it is time to see what she can do! Thanks to everyone for all the help.....especially you Gooflophaze!
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04-10-2016, 08:31 AM
#147
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 21
Total Cats: 10
Just a heads up - in my guage write up i listed pin 3 as the ground on the VSS connector. That was incorrect - updated image below.
Pin 1: pulse output
Pin 2: Ground
Pin 3: ignitition power
Anyway we can update the original post to prevent anyone from wiring this up wrong?
[QUOTE=1999LFX;1312249]
On the speedo, I haven't driven the car yet, so can't completely confirm this works, but you need to pick up the speed output and ground off the vehicle speed sensor. This is wires 1 and 3, respectively on the connector. Once you can drive the car, you will drive to the preset speed and set the speedometer to that speed, so you will need a gps unit or phone app or friend. One option is to just upgrade to the GPS speedo unit - not a bad idea and something I wished I had done. The speedhut gauges are compatible with other gps sending units, so still an option.
<br >
Pin 1: pulse output
Pin 2: Ground
Pin 3: ignitition power
Anyway we can update the original post to prevent anyone from wiring this up wrong?
[QUOTE=1999LFX;1312249]
On the speedo, I haven't driven the car yet, so can't completely confirm this works, but you need to pick up the speed output and ground off the vehicle speed sensor. This is wires 1 and 3, respectively on the connector. Once you can drive the car, you will drive to the preset speed and set the speedometer to that speed, so you will need a gps unit or phone app or friend. One option is to just upgrade to the GPS speedo unit - not a bad idea and something I wished I had done. The speedhut gauges are compatible with other gps sending units, so still an option.
<br >
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04-10-2016, 02:10 PM
#149
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 997
Total Cats: 156
12v.
Good news is that we got the car tagged. Bad news is that we're still fighting for a VSS reading from the ECM. I snagged a J2534 cable and a 2 day subscription to GM's SPS to reflash the ECM.. turns out you can't. GM locked down what they called "off board" programming, so if it's not flashed in a car with a BCM, FPCM, ABSCM, WTFBBQCM present it won't allow a flash. After more research, it looks like EFI Live is superior to HPTuners in changing options, including disabling the BCM that forces the VSS to be picked up by the ECM via failover.
Now, normally I wouldn't give a flip at this point and would just go ahead and focus on getting the speedometer working by reading the VSS signal directly.
But after spending a considerable amount of time looking at E39 and E39a tuning, VSS plays a fairly significant role in torque delivery (and misc. other options). More than anything, I'm disappointed at the lengths GM has gone through to crippled their software.
Good news is that we got the car tagged. Bad news is that we're still fighting for a VSS reading from the ECM. I snagged a J2534 cable and a 2 day subscription to GM's SPS to reflash the ECM.. turns out you can't. GM locked down what they called "off board" programming, so if it's not flashed in a car with a BCM, FPCM, ABSCM, WTFBBQCM present it won't allow a flash. After more research, it looks like EFI Live is superior to HPTuners in changing options, including disabling the BCM that forces the VSS to be picked up by the ECM via failover.
Now, normally I wouldn't give a flip at this point and would just go ahead and focus on getting the speedometer working by reading the VSS signal directly.
But after spending a considerable amount of time looking at E39 and E39a tuning, VSS plays a fairly significant role in torque delivery (and misc. other options). More than anything, I'm disappointed at the lengths GM has gone through to crippled their software.
Last edited by gooflophaze; 04-10-2016 at 02:35 PM.
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04-13-2016, 04:31 PM
#150
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Livermore, CO
Posts: 193
Total Cats: 84
Quick question to those with running cars.... What did you do for cooling fan wiring? I tied into pin 59 on X1 with a diode, just to be safe, and on my first full temp run up my fan never kicked on. I had a coolant leak so I was more worried about that than I was to check to see if I had 12v going to my fan relay. Just curious as I get ready for my next full temp run.
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04-13-2016, 05:14 PM
#151
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 997
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Are you running HPTuners? VCM Scanner has the option to turn things on and off for testing.
I also found that the LFX wants to run a little warm by stock. Our firstish start we saw temps hit 220 without the fans kicking on so we shut it down - turns out the fans kick on at 222f or 195f depending on "torque zone" and vss and rpm.
I also found that the LFX wants to run a little warm by stock. Our firstish start we saw temps hit 220 without the fans kicking on so we shut it down - turns out the fans kick on at 222f or 195f depending on "torque zone" and vss and rpm.
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04-13-2016, 10:00 PM
#153
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Location: Atlanta
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If we weren't this close to the mitty, I'd take you up on that. But at this point, I'm not sure if anything short of EFI Live with their option of disabling the BCM that HPTuners doesn't have will get the ECM to play with the VSS. Too many TLA's.
Oh - and this is kinda neat - with raspberry pi you can throw on a mcp2515 board (if you bring SPI down to 3.3v) and there's a kernel module that'll introduce berkley sockets so you can run tcpdump (candump) and a slew of other nifty utils. It's nice because you can capture frames at the full 500kpbs instead of relying on serial (that's only 115kbps). There's also python and c libraries - I just wish I was as proficient with my python as I am with my shell scripting. I've got a rpi zero that I've hooked up via serial console to my laptop, wired in a potentiometer to the coolant (and oil pressure) sensor, and was able to identify the gmlan packets and bytes by seeing what changed as I sweeped the pot. The nice thing about using the gmlan packets is I don't have to load up the bus with obdii requests. </geek>
I'm still playing with scaling the coolant gauge and seeing where the LFX wants sit naturally. In traffic we hit 222f, at speed it sat around 190-200f - this appears to be in line with what camaro5 forums are reporting. We'll need to fabricate an undertray before we get the A/C working and fighting the Georgia summer for sure. I'm still slightly confused as to when the fans are supposed to kick on - there's a hi fan and a low fan, torque zones and RPM and VSS.. and a stock 180f thermostat.
Right now I have the nb cluster gauge scaled from 160 to 240, so it sits pointing straight up at 200 and 2/3rds at 220. I can make that less prevalent by increasing the scale from say 100 to 300, or applying some math to it. I might miata sender resistance curves and try and ape those.. plenty of ways to skin that cat.
And again.. Sorry for the lack of chapters, been busy doing all this stuff and more. Got new rubber on 6ul's yesterday along with an alignment. Hood is back from paint and looks good. I'll try and snag a better picture in the sun, but it looks nice and subtle.
Oh - and this is kinda neat - with raspberry pi you can throw on a mcp2515 board (if you bring SPI down to 3.3v) and there's a kernel module that'll introduce berkley sockets so you can run tcpdump (candump) and a slew of other nifty utils. It's nice because you can capture frames at the full 500kpbs instead of relying on serial (that's only 115kbps). There's also python and c libraries - I just wish I was as proficient with my python as I am with my shell scripting. I've got a rpi zero that I've hooked up via serial console to my laptop, wired in a potentiometer to the coolant (and oil pressure) sensor, and was able to identify the gmlan packets and bytes by seeing what changed as I sweeped the pot. The nice thing about using the gmlan packets is I don't have to load up the bus with obdii requests. </geek>
I'm still playing with scaling the coolant gauge and seeing where the LFX wants sit naturally. In traffic we hit 222f, at speed it sat around 190-200f - this appears to be in line with what camaro5 forums are reporting. We'll need to fabricate an undertray before we get the A/C working and fighting the Georgia summer for sure. I'm still slightly confused as to when the fans are supposed to kick on - there's a hi fan and a low fan, torque zones and RPM and VSS.. and a stock 180f thermostat.
Right now I have the nb cluster gauge scaled from 160 to 240, so it sits pointing straight up at 200 and 2/3rds at 220. I can make that less prevalent by increasing the scale from say 100 to 300, or applying some math to it. I might miata sender resistance curves and try and ape those.. plenty of ways to skin that cat.
And again.. Sorry for the lack of chapters, been busy doing all this stuff and more. Got new rubber on 6ul's yesterday along with an alignment. Hood is back from paint and looks good. I'll try and snag a better picture in the sun, but it looks nice and subtle.
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04-23-2016, 01:28 AM
#156
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 997
Total Cats: 156
GM PN 22897960. Our dealer had it in stock as they tend to break. Was only about $10 if memory serves.
It's a plastic(composite) mount. We shaved the extra bits off the bottom to give a flat mounting part.
We trimmed one of the headlight bucket braces underneath the fender to give us an additional 1.5 inches so we could tuck the top part of the ECM underneath which made a HUGE difference. The biggest problem is trying to find a good position that the harness will allow.
Once we had the position, we used some fat rivets to attach a piece of flat metal we bent and drilled to meet a hole that was already threaded m6x1.0.
Found a pre-threaded hole behind the headlight bucket - it's at an odd angle, so we bent the flat at roughly 45 degrees, drilled the hole for the bolt, positioned the mount while twisting the flat into submission, drilled and riveted. Nothings exactly square in this area..
After that, we bent a piece of flat into an S, drilled a hole into the fender well, ran a bolt from there to the S bracket, and from there onto the mounting tab (we had to cut a gusset out of the composite - it'll make more sense when you have it in your hand unmolested).
It's not going anywhere. Pretty happy with how it came out.
It's a plastic(composite) mount. We shaved the extra bits off the bottom to give a flat mounting part.
We trimmed one of the headlight bucket braces underneath the fender to give us an additional 1.5 inches so we could tuck the top part of the ECM underneath which made a HUGE difference. The biggest problem is trying to find a good position that the harness will allow.
Once we had the position, we used some fat rivets to attach a piece of flat metal we bent and drilled to meet a hole that was already threaded m6x1.0.
Found a pre-threaded hole behind the headlight bucket - it's at an odd angle, so we bent the flat at roughly 45 degrees, drilled the hole for the bolt, positioned the mount while twisting the flat into submission, drilled and riveted. Nothings exactly square in this area..
After that, we bent a piece of flat into an S, drilled a hole into the fender well, ran a bolt from there to the S bracket, and from there onto the mounting tab (we had to cut a gusset out of the composite - it'll make more sense when you have it in your hand unmolested).
It's not going anywhere. Pretty happy with how it came out.
Last edited by gooflophaze; 04-23-2016 at 09:04 PM.
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04-25-2016, 11:09 PM
#159
Junior Member
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Livermore, CO
Posts: 193
Total Cats: 84
Any chance you have a shot of the underside of your hood gooflophaze? I am about to start modifying the hood to clear and I'd like to have a good reference of exactly where I am going to have to make clearance.
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04-26-2016, 02:13 PM
#160
nice meeting you this weekend. do you have any drink tickets?
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