Duke Racing Celica GT-Four Time Attack Racecar
- Thread starter Punknoodle
- 1,059 comments
- 146,498 views
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Decided car is coming off the road until ECU is wired and tuned. Over boost is a massive problem and I don't want to break it. Leant on it a bit last night and revved it up fairly high and I think although I'm not sure that it had a bit of audible knock, the boost must have got pretty high (I wasn't looking at the gauge). Anyway I don't want to destroy my engine so that's it. It's coming off the road.
Edit: Just to explain, I leave for New Zealand for a holiday in 3 weeks, and then after that I head to Perth for work until Christmas and then after Christmas I go back to Perth for another month. So it will only be the 3 weeks now and a couple of weeks over Christmas that I'm without it, but I'll have my work van anyway. I'll buy the ECU while I'm away because I'm going to be doing massive hours and I'll install it and get it tuned when I get back. That's the plan, anyway.
Edit: Just to explain, I leave for New Zealand for a holiday in 3 weeks, and then after that I head to Perth for work until Christmas and then after Christmas I go back to Perth for another month. So it will only be the 3 weeks now and a couple of weeks over Christmas that I'm without it, but I'll have my work van anyway. I'll buy the ECU while I'm away because I'm going to be doing massive hours and I'll install it and get it tuned when I get back. That's the plan, anyway.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
I've parked the car up and put it up on stands for while I'm away. I've also removed some junk:
That's the Air Flow Meter, Igniter, Coil, ECU and some leads. All obsolete now.. Couple that with the Battery, Charcoal Canister, EGR system, Air Con Compressor and piping, etc, it's a lot of stuff that has been removed from the engine bay (for the purposes of this exercise never mind the added weight and complexity of a water to air charge cooler system lol)
Makes it look a bit less cluttered in that corner of the bay and gives me a nice place to mount my overflow tank for the charge cooler:
Oh and I bought some nicer plates for it. Slim for the front and normal for the rear. White on Black:
That's the Air Flow Meter, Igniter, Coil, ECU and some leads. All obsolete now.. Couple that with the Battery, Charcoal Canister, EGR system, Air Con Compressor and piping, etc, it's a lot of stuff that has been removed from the engine bay (for the purposes of this exercise never mind the added weight and complexity of a water to air charge cooler system lol)
Makes it look a bit less cluttered in that corner of the bay and gives me a nice place to mount my overflow tank for the charge cooler:
Oh and I bought some nicer plates for it. Slim for the front and normal for the rear. White on Black:
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Cheers mate I completely agree - seen it too many times!
In other news I am currently weighing up a fairly attraction option that I might do with the car come time to get it tuned - running E85.
Normally this would mean that I have to run E85 full time but Haltech have released support in their ECUs for flex fuel - that is automatic adjustment of the map - based on the percentage of E85 it detects in the fuel using a special sensor.
All that I'd need is the flex fuel sensor and larger injectors, as you need about 30% more fuel with E85. I already have a high flow fuel pump, lines, rail and regulator so that's all good. Injectors don't come cheap though and the extra time spent on the dyno tuning for both fuels wouldn't be cheap either, so I'm considering holding off until I do further modifications that necessitate bigger injectors anyway (such as a larger turbo and gen 3 head).
Anyway it's food for thought - plenty of power can be made with E85 as you can really push ignition timing more than with 98 octane.
In other news I am currently weighing up a fairly attraction option that I might do with the car come time to get it tuned - running E85.
Normally this would mean that I have to run E85 full time but Haltech have released support in their ECUs for flex fuel - that is automatic adjustment of the map - based on the percentage of E85 it detects in the fuel using a special sensor.
All that I'd need is the flex fuel sensor and larger injectors, as you need about 30% more fuel with E85. I already have a high flow fuel pump, lines, rail and regulator so that's all good. Injectors don't come cheap though and the extra time spent on the dyno tuning for both fuels wouldn't be cheap either, so I'm considering holding off until I do further modifications that necessitate bigger injectors anyway (such as a larger turbo and gen 3 head).
Anyway it's food for thought - plenty of power can be made with E85 as you can really push ignition timing more than with 98 octane.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
I bought a turbo! It's a C20B, off the later model GT-Four. It's larger, so flows more air at the same boost pressure. It also holds boost a lot better and spools up faster. So I'll be getting the internal wastegate on it ported and installing it when I get back and before I send it off to get tuned.
To go along with the turbo I also bought a set of 750cc injectors, which will be good for around 250awkW on E85, if I ever go down that route..
Should make a ton more power once set up.
To go along with the turbo I also bought a set of 750cc injectors, which will be good for around 250awkW on E85, if I ever go down that route..
Should make a ton more power once set up.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
GDII
Yeah the one I got is in excellent condition, and it was a pretty good price, and it is a direct bolt on, no stuffing around with coolant or oil lines etc, so a very easy way to make a massive difference to performance 👍
Paulie
Cheers man it is, but it's going to be a long few months wait while I'm away, wanting to get back to work on it and get it on the road!
- 331
- KUSHifornia
- MaliciousMD
- MaliciousMD
Found this nice pre-made bracket and comes with the rail mounts for the underside of the Platinum Sport as well. Only $39.00 USD, beats making one. 👍
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Hey thanks for sharing, though I still have plenty of aluminium sheeting that I have used for brackets and what not left over and all the tools to make one so I'll just make my own, all bent up to suit my factory ECU mounting points.
My friend picked up my turbo for me yesterday as I'm still away for work and he's dropping it off this week for the wastegate to get ported. I've also placed an order with Toyota for all new turbo gaskets and a new oil return hose (just coz the old one is as old as the car and I fear it will be hard as a rock and crack as soon as I disturb it) so when we change it we can do it properly 👍
Oh and according to my receptionist back in Brisbane, my plates have arrived!
My friend picked up my turbo for me yesterday as I'm still away for work and he's dropping it off this week for the wastegate to get ported. I've also placed an order with Toyota for all new turbo gaskets and a new oil return hose (just coz the old one is as old as the car and I fear it will be hard as a rock and crack as soon as I disturb it) so when we change it we can do it properly 👍
Oh and according to my receptionist back in Brisbane, my plates have arrived!
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Injectors, ECU with short loom and mounting kit, personalized plates, turbo (now with enlarged wastegate ports) and various gaskets and filters are all sitting back in Brisbane waiting for me now. Can't wait to get home and get stuck in.
Interesting thing to note, is that Haltech is an Australian company, so you'd think it's products would be cheaper here... I was just browsing eBay and found multiple Motorsport vendors listing the exact same product for around $300 less (exchange rate is pretty much 1:1) with delivery to Australia. So the ECU gets shipped to the US, the vendor puts on their mark up, and sends it BACK to Australia for less than someone buying one directly from Haltech here in Australia... It's madness.
Anyway, I bought mine through Haltech, as if there is a problem with it I won't have to send it back to the U.S for a warranty claim.. And I got a free T-Shirt lol. Just curious as to how much you paid for your PS1000 MD?
Interesting thing to note, is that Haltech is an Australian company, so you'd think it's products would be cheaper here... I was just browsing eBay and found multiple Motorsport vendors listing the exact same product for around $300 less (exchange rate is pretty much 1:1) with delivery to Australia. So the ECU gets shipped to the US, the vendor puts on their mark up, and sends it BACK to Australia for less than someone buying one directly from Haltech here in Australia... It's madness.
Anyway, I bought mine through Haltech, as if there is a problem with it I won't have to send it back to the U.S for a warranty claim.. And I got a free T-Shirt lol. Just curious as to how much you paid for your PS1000 MD?
- 331
- KUSHifornia
- MaliciousMD
- MaliciousMD
Punknoodle
Official Haltech USA distributors all basically sell at MAP (manufactured agreed price). Haltech's USA office is based in Kentucky, so it gets sent from Australia to KY, USA and then to authorized distributors. So anyone advertising in violation of their lowest agreed price (under MAP) will get their distributor status yanked. Or a firm slap on the wrist depending on who you are, lol. That's why you see the eBay USA guys selling right at MAP (lower than MSRP).
This is also why we choose not to advertise their product online as we don't have time to tech ECU issues all day. Or get calls/emails from people who buy ECU's from unauthorized dealers and talk your ear off for the tech. Too many people whoring out the product already. Shame as it's a nice piece for the price. These days I just sell lots of sensors and flying lead looms...
I'll send you a PM. Lets just say it was cheap and I got a t-shirt too
. Oh and according to Matt @ Haltech I also go my all important Haltech stickers!
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Haha yeah Matt and his love for those bloody stickers. I already got a sticker sheet from buying the air temp sensor, so my tool box is already adorned with one, as is my heat shield so mine will be going to my son to stick on one of his school books or something lol
- 9,473
- QLD, Down Under
- GTP_Paulie
- Paulie LDP
I sell parts at a car dealer, and I've recently been seeing aftermarket companies getting genuine parts from the manufacturer, putting their own sticker on it, selling it to Repco then they to us for hundreds of dollars less, maybe half the price, than what I'd buy it direct off the manufacturer myself as an official dealer! Makes you wonder what price the aftermarket guys originally get it off the manufacturer for, it must be something like a quarter of what I get it off the manufacturer for.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Paulie, its like home brand stuff being the same as the other brands, as in off the same production line, just different packaging and lower cost. I suppose they still sell their product directly at a premium price for those who want the name etc, but to get all those sales that would otherwise be going to aftermarket options, they decide to sell directly to the aftermarket suppliers at a very low price, which would obviously cover cost plus a bit.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Tonight I spent a bit of time with my new loom kit for the ECU. This is what it looks like, and what the vehicle harness looks like that I have to splice together to install it:
The Haltech loom is really well put together, the labelling is great, and the connectors are excellent - there are a few wires in the loom that I don't need, such as the 4-wire stepper motor control wires (for idle control, I have a BAC type system instead) but all you do is press the unlock tab on the connector and pull the pin out, remembering to lock the connector back up. Once the unrequired cables are out (although I left the spare I/O in the loom, I will just tidy the ends as it makes it easier if I want to add to it) you can shrink down the heatshink already on the harness to tidy it up
Here are my unused wires:
So whenever I next get a chance, I'll start cutting in to the factory loom. I'm not mucking around - in my opinion the car has moved too far from stock to compromise the wiring by leaving the original harness intact and splicing in to it - I'm going the whole hog and cutting off the original plugs and doing my connections like that, making a nice clean loom instead of it looking like an add on.
Apart from that, fitted up my new license plates:
Pick up my turbo this week some time so once I finish the wiring I'll move on to that and the injectors.
The Haltech loom is really well put together, the labelling is great, and the connectors are excellent - there are a few wires in the loom that I don't need, such as the 4-wire stepper motor control wires (for idle control, I have a BAC type system instead) but all you do is press the unlock tab on the connector and pull the pin out, remembering to lock the connector back up. Once the unrequired cables are out (although I left the spare I/O in the loom, I will just tidy the ends as it makes it easier if I want to add to it) you can shrink down the heatshink already on the harness to tidy it up
Here are my unused wires:
So whenever I next get a chance, I'll start cutting in to the factory loom. I'm not mucking around - in my opinion the car has moved too far from stock to compromise the wiring by leaving the original harness intact and splicing in to it - I'm going the whole hog and cutting off the original plugs and doing my connections like that, making a nice clean loom instead of it looking like an add on.
Apart from that, fitted up my new license plates:
Pick up my turbo this week some time so once I finish the wiring I'll move on to that and the injectors.
- 863
- oops_sorryy
This has got to be my favorite car build on gtplanet.
- 175
- colepepper
^^ +1
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Thanks chaps that's really great to hear
I finished the wiring on the ECU today. In the process I burnt my toe on the soldering iron that was sitting on the ground. It's so awkward doing wiring in the footwell!
Anyhow, plugged it in, disconnected the coils and injectors and turned on the ignition, plugged in my Laptop and tested the inputs, everything works! I calibrated my throttle position sensor, and tested the temp sensors and tested the triggers by pulling the spark plugs and cranking the engine, and they work too
So up next is swapping the turbo and injectors and then it's off to get properly set up and tuned. I'm not brave enough to try and make my own base map to try and start the engine, I'm afraid I'd cook my coils with the wrong dwell settings or something. I managed to set all the inputs and outputs and trigger types and test it, I'm pretty happy with that.
I finished the wiring on the ECU today. In the process I burnt my toe on the soldering iron that was sitting on the ground. It's so awkward doing wiring in the footwell!
Anyhow, plugged it in, disconnected the coils and injectors and turned on the ignition, plugged in my Laptop and tested the inputs, everything works! I calibrated my throttle position sensor, and tested the temp sensors and tested the triggers by pulling the spark plugs and cranking the engine, and they work too
So up next is swapping the turbo and injectors and then it's off to get properly set up and tuned. I'm not brave enough to try and make my own base map to try and start the engine, I'm afraid I'd cook my coils with the wrong dwell settings or something. I managed to set all the inputs and outputs and trigger types and test it, I'm pretty happy with that.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Right so a bit of a write up, now that I have finished the ECU connections. Here is what greeted me when I exposed the factory loom I was splicing in to:
That new bunch of cables coming through the firewall is my new sub harness I made.
Seen as I've been planning this job for months, I had all my diagrams and connection spreadsheets done already, which I prepared by studying the factory diagram and the Haltech diagrams and deciding what needed to go where.
The basic process was picking a wire from the factory harness, cutting it, then splicing on to the relevant wire from the Haltech loom, remembering to slide head shrink over first so that I could shrink over the joins.
Anyhow with everything wired I put the key in the ignition clicked it to on, then got my laptop and plugged it in so I could check the I/O.
That new bunch of cables coming through the firewall is my new sub harness I made.
Seen as I've been planning this job for months, I had all my diagrams and connection spreadsheets done already, which I prepared by studying the factory diagram and the Haltech diagrams and deciding what needed to go where.
The basic process was picking a wire from the factory harness, cutting it, then splicing on to the relevant wire from the Haltech loom, remembering to slide head shrink over first so that I could shrink over the joins.
Anyhow with everything wired I put the key in the ignition clicked it to on, then got my laptop and plugged it in so I could check the I/O.
- 1,522
Awesome stuff man. Looking forward to reading about all your ECU adventures. 👍
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
I've tidied up the loom now (well as tidy as I could, because the factory loom I was splicing in to had connections at different places it wasn't easy to make it nice and straight).
Each connection is soldered and heat shrunk. The two wires you see coming out by the dash are for my data log enable switch, I just need to run them through to the switch and terminate them.
So next up is fabricating a bracket to hold the ECU in the factory location and also the MSD tach adapter. I've already run a vacuum line to the location so that just plugs in to the Haltech too. The small plugs you see are for the wideband, for plugging in the serial adapter to connect it to the laptop and also the calibration connector I added so I can easily plug in the lead I made, with push button and LED for when I need to calibrate it. The two main connectors are for the ECU.
Each connection is soldered and heat shrunk. The two wires you see coming out by the dash are for my data log enable switch, I just need to run them through to the switch and terminate them.
So next up is fabricating a bracket to hold the ECU in the factory location and also the MSD tach adapter. I've already run a vacuum line to the location so that just plugs in to the Haltech too. The small plugs you see are for the wideband, for plugging in the serial adapter to connect it to the laptop and also the calibration connector I added so I can easily plug in the lead I made, with push button and LED for when I need to calibrate it. The two main connectors are for the ECU.
- 4,213
- Puerto Rico
- motortrend
I've never done any wiring work on a car but it looks like such a PITA. Looks really nice now 👍
- 1,522
Yeah my ECU was "plug and play" simply meaning that it connects to the factory harness and practically nothing more 
The only wiring that was done was for removing the AFM and installing the wideband.
The only wiring that was done was for removing the AFM and installing the wideband.
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
I would have loved a Pro Plugin but they don't make one for my car, much like everything else.. Hence all the custom work!
It's frustrating but satisfying at the same time, creating something to your liking. I'm not incredibly talented at engineering things but I think I do alright I love the way the engine bay looks now.
The most difficult part of working out how it needed to be wired was all the conflicting information on the Internet. The sensors and outputs were easy, and I knew how to wire my new coil on plug, but the triggers were a pain.
On one trusted Toyota forum it listed the NE terminal from the Dizzy as the Home and the G1 terminal as the trigger, but on the Haltech forum another user listed G2 as the trigger. I wired it up to G1 and was getting erratic triggers, my Triggers since Last Home was all over the place, so I switched it to G2 and it was stable.
I have no idea what settings to give it though in regards to tooth offset, angle etc. I've received a base map from another user and he had settings in there that didn't look quite right, but hey my tuner will check all that anyway..
Time to get busy and remove the fuel rail I suppose and cut off the plugs for my current coils and solder on the new plugs.
It's frustrating but satisfying at the same time, creating something to your liking. I'm not incredibly talented at engineering things but I think I do alright
I love the way the engine bay looks now.The most difficult part of working out how it needed to be wired was all the conflicting information on the Internet. The sensors and outputs were easy, and I knew how to wire my new coil on plug, but the triggers were a pain.
On one trusted Toyota forum it listed the NE terminal from the Dizzy as the Home and the G1 terminal as the trigger, but on the Haltech forum another user listed G2 as the trigger. I wired it up to G1 and was getting erratic triggers, my Triggers since Last Home was all over the place, so I switched it to G2 and it was stable.
I have no idea what settings to give it though in regards to tooth offset, angle etc. I've received a base map from another user and he had settings in there that didn't look quite right, but hey my tuner will check all that anyway..
Time to get busy and remove the fuel rail I suppose and cut off the plugs for my current coils and solder on the new plugs.
- 1,522
Yeah I looked into a COP swap on my car and it actually looked fairly simple in terms of wiring. The part I don't totally know how to do is changing the setting in the ECU besides decreasing dwell and changing it from wasted spark to individual coil sparc.
Either way my mind isn't currently in that mode right now after finding out that I'll have to install new rings for the second time *sigh.*
I'll definitely keep an eye on the thread though. I'm a huge fan of the ST185 and your build is definitely top notch 👍
Either way my mind isn't currently in that mode right now after finding out that I'll have to install new rings for the second time
*sigh.*I'll definitely keep an eye on the thread though. I'm a huge fan of the ST185 and your build is definitely top notch 👍
- 3,211
- Brisbane
- Punknoodle_Nick
Thanks mate I really appreciate the kind words
Not much is happening due to the Christmas break - My turbo is ready but I didn't get a chance to pick it up before they closed for the Christmas break. I fly to Perth the day they reopen, so I'll have to get a mate of mine to pick it up for me. The parts I need to fit it and my new filters from Toyota should all be waiting for me now though.
I did, however pull my fuel rail out (it's sad seeing the engine bay sitting all dismantled again)
I need to get the injector holes bored out to fit the new injectors, problem with that is the engineering shop I am using to do it have also closed for the Christmas break also reopen the day I fly to Perth. Quite inconvenient. Also need to do something for the bottom of the injector - either modify the stock bushes to fit the new injectors or just run a large o-ring. I'm leaning towards the modification route.
After that's done I'll just need to cut off the factory plugs and solder on the new ones.
So yes. Wrong time of the year to modify a vehicle lol. For now, it sits sadly. Like this:
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