Re: Mk1 Hybrid Project
Day 68
Had a very poor result from the Hybrid today on the dyno today, but glad I did it as I now know there is a serious problem with it. Took the drive upto Paul @ RS Tuning in Leeds, to see what power the hybrid was running. Current engine spec is: Megane F7R 2.0 Bottom End, Standard Valver Head…Running Williams ECU. I was told the Williams ECU was chipped to allow the spec of the engine to run, but its seems not to be the case.
For people that know dyno graphs, you can probably see whats going wrong. Paul explained to me it was massively overfuelling, and could be due to the valver head having smaller valves than a williams head, and the williams ECU was making the engine run rich, possibly meaning that the ECU has never been set up properly for the engine.
Massive overfuelling resulted in poor power output, Hybrids of the same specification were running around 160bhp at the rolling road day there just two days ago, so its safe to say im 30bhp down at least. Needless to say I’m pretty dissapointed with the outcome, but at least its uncovered a problem which is fixable, and hopefully give me the correct power output for the setup.
Day 70
Since fitting the new engine, I've been having issues with overheating. This became more apparent since I had the car rolling roaded yesterday. The water temperature rises very quickly when stopped at lights or in traffic, which cant be good for the engine/performance.
The coolant level seems to be going down slowly, so I thought there may be a leak somewhere. After checking all the pipes, it seems there are no leaks at all, so I've no idea where it is going. The waterpump is working, as coolant is coming through the return of the coolant bottle, and all the related pipework in the engine bay is getting upto to temperature.
Did a short video, after driving for 5-10 minutes from stone cold. Pulled up and left the car idling, the temprature rises rapidly, and would keep on rising if I had left it longer.
Video Here.
To try and fix the fuelling issues, I got hold of a spare exhaust/lambda sensor, and swapped it with mine. I also swapped the coolant temprature sensor, and the manifold pressure sensor, then left the ECU unplugged for a short while allowing it to reset. After taking it for a drive, neither of the sensors seemed to have made any difference to the running/fuelling at all. If there is nothing else left for me to check, I may well leave it as it is, and get on with sorting a Williams head for the engine.
