Tear Down and Rebuild of My R400 Duratec Engine

[Colin_T]

Throttle pedal mod is neat. 👍 

Sharing of experiences with jenvey return spring setup and the R clip they use:

i had the R clip come off on one of my race cars causing the return mechanism to fly off and of course throttle return became interesting to say the least….
  ever since then on either mine and any customers cars I always swapped the R clip out for a split pin. 
 

Colin 

[cobar]

Really nice work!  Someone needs to sell that throttle cable adapter.  I tried to radius the edges of the factory opening to reduce the likelihood of snapping a cable, but this is a far better solution.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

To remove slight rubbing of my modified throttle pedal cable end on the steering shaft and flange near the throttle stop, I modified the bolt used and added a couple of reliefs to the cable nipple holder, I also machined off 1.2mm from the pedal pivot bush to remove virtually all the lateral movement of the pedal:

A couple of mm of the flange near the throttle stop was ground away and given a bit of paint:

On full throttle the low profile bolt head clears the steering shaft by a couple of mm:

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Marked out the air filter backing plate, deciding that I need to drop the centreline a little below the throttle body centreline to give enough bonnet clearance. Used a 2” hole saw to cut the intake holes for the 48mm throttle bodies and 6mm holes for the 5mm horn securing bolts:

I used a bit of RTV between the backing plate and throttle bodies and blue thread locker with Belleville serrated locking washers on the bolts. The intake air temp sensor is just visible in the backing plate between #1&2 intakes. Needed to cut a small angle on the bottom of the backing plate below #4 cylinder to give a bit of clearance to the diagonal frame tube below it:

With the Jenvey DTH throttle bodies on the Duratec, the intakes are not evenly placed, being 97.5mm between #2&3 and 90mm between #1&2 and #3&4. Just as well I measured all of them instead of assuming constant pitch, before cutting the backing plate holes:

The horn sticks out quite a bit from the body on #1:

The underside of the bonnet should be around 5mm above the central air filter securing tab:

 

Ready for measuring and cutting the bonnet hole next:

The TPS was also fitted. The existing Econoseal flat 3-pin connector had to be replaced as the directional keys on the side were the opposite of the 3-pin connectors I had spare. The TPS also had a round Econoseal connector on it. I cut both off and used the Econoseal connectors I had on hand:

[BigCol]

Love your attention to detail - even to the extent of your masking tape matching your car’s colour!

[John Vine]

Excellent stuff as ever, James.  I think "precision" and "care" must be your middle names.

Will you be running an airbox?  If not, you might want to browse this thread concerning how my PX filter began to shed its outer foam layer.

JV

[Jonathan Kay]

On 26/03/2024 at 04:30, aerobod - near CYYC said:

On full throttle the low profile bolt head clears the steering shaft by a couple of mm:

If anyone is making something similar how about drilling the hole in the pedal shaft at a right angle to that so that the fastener goes fore-aft rather than left-right and doesn't go near the shaft? The cable would then have to pass through or over one half rather than between the halves.

Jonathan

[aerobod - near CYYC]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Kay said:

If anyone is making something similar how about drilling the hole in the pedal shaft at a right angle to that so that the fastener goes fore-aft rather than left-right and doesn't go near the shaft? The cable would then have to pass through or over one half rather than between the halves.

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,

The way I made it at the moment the bolts has to be at 90 degrees to the cable, as besides holding the clamping halves to the pedal shaft, it also holds them together. I would need a solid piece that goes over and is bolted to the tube, then a top bit that separates to hold the nipple with its own fastener. It would have to be longer than the current design to give space for the additional fastener, but would also risk interfering with the closed throttle stop bolt if too long.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

3 hours ago, John Vine said:

Excellent stuff as ever, James.  I think "precision" and "care" must be your middle names.

Will you be running an airbox?  If not, you might want to browse this thread concerning how my PX filter began to shed its outer foam layer.

JV

I saw that thread about the filter wear, John. I’m trying to avoid running an airbox if possible, but depends on noise at the track, I have a 24 plate Supertrapp for the exhaust, so hopefully that is enough to stay below the limit (it was last year), without the intake pushing me over.

If I do get wear like you experienced, I will probably end up treating it as an £80 consumable item, hopefully lasting a couple of years at least.

[Jonathan Kay]

9 minutes ago, aerobod - near CYYC said:

Hi Jonathan,

The way I made it at the moment the bolts has to be at 90 degrees to the cable, as besides holding the clamping halves to the pedal shaft, it also holds them together. I would need a solid piece that goes over and is bolted to the tube, then a top bit that separates to hold the nipple with its own fastener. It would have to be longer than the current design to give space for the additional fastener, but would also risk interfering with the closed throttle stop bolt if too long.

Thanks

Jonathan

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Today was the careful cutting of the hole in the bonnet for the air filter. Good Friday did turn out to be a good Friday 😀

The first task was to mask the filter and contact points where I was going to create a form to simulate the bonnet lines:

Next I used some wire mesh held in position with a spirit level to form a profile of the bonnet around the air filter:

I then used a plastic file folder as the template to lay over the mesh and gradually cut the hole in it to give about 5mm clearance to the filter, but using smooth curves as opposed to the exact profile of the filter that has bulges where the end pieces are joined to the main part of it. The template was then taped to the bonnet and the profile traced on to it:

Dimensions were then re-checked and checked again, before bonnet was ready for cutting:

A cutting wheel was used to pierce the aluminium. I thought about using it for the whole cut, but it was slow going:

It was a lot faster using a hacksaw blade, only about 20 mins for the complete cut:

The hole was then deburred with a file, ready for test fitting:

As expected, a bit of adjustment was needed for about half of the circumference of the hole:

Some plastic edging trim was added, including a short piece for the strengthening flange where it is close to the filter:

I’m happy with the fit, it is pretty even around the periphery of the filter:

Overall there is little room for putting the filter anywhere other than the position I used, perhaps 2 or 3mm leeway in moving it up or down by altering the vertical position of the holes in the filter backing plate:

[Ralph45]

That is fabulous to see how you approached the task of cutting the bonnet opening being something I’ve often wondered how you could do it without causing carnage.

[Colin_T]

Wire mesh - clever 👍

[John Vine]

Very neat work, James.

Following your example, I've just added a strip of IVA edging rubber to the bonnet flange.  When I removed the filter, there was a tell-tale groove in the foam along the underneath.  But not only that, the filter was showing signs of the perennial ablation problem:

This filter is has done just over 5000 miles.   I'd already attached a protective plastic guard (which seems to have helped), but to eke out a bit more life, I covered the worn area with a rubber patch:

Not particularly pretty but it's well out of sight.

JV 

Edited March 30 by John Vine
Fix typo

[aerobod - near CYYC]

34 minutes ago, John Vine said:

Very neat work, James.

Following your example, I've just added a strip of IVA edging rubber to the bonnet flange.  When I removed the filter, there was a tell-tale groove in the foam along the underneath.  But not only that, the filter was showing signs of the perennial ablation problem:

This filter is has done just over 5000 miles.   I'd already attached a protective plastic guard (which seems to have helped), but to eke out a bit more life, I covered the worn area with a rubber patch:

Not particulaly pretty but it's well out of sight.

JV 

Do you think it is stones from the front tyre that aren’t captured by the wings or just grit in the airflow hitting the leading edge of the filter that causes the ablation problem?

[John Vine]

2 hours ago, aerobod - near CYYC said:

Do you think it is stones from the front tyre that aren’t captured by the wings or just grit in the airflow hitting the leading edge of the filter that causes the ablation problem?

Interesting question.  My guess is that it's more likely to be the airstream than grit as my plastic guard should shield that section of the filter:

Mind you, the only basis for that assertion is that the current filter has lasted longer than the previous one!

JV

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Gave the exhaust and headers a bit of a clean and repacked the silencer with 1.7m of Acousta-fil today, then fitted the system to the car.

Assembly is now complete. Will bleed the clutch and do the annual brake bleed just before starting, when I swap to the sticker track tyres ready for a rolling road session. Need to get some more coolant and remember to get a container of fuel as I drained the tank last year.

Waiting for a bit better weather over the next couple of weeks, once the snow from one of the snowiest Marchs melts.

[Geoff Brown]

19 hours ago, John Vine said:

Very neat work, James.

Following your example, I've just added a strip of IVA edging rubber to the bonnet flange.  When I removed the filter, there was a tell-tale groove in the foam along the underneath.  But not only that, the filter was showing signs of the perennial ablation problem:

This filter is has done just over 5000 miles.   I'd already attached a protective plastic guard (which seems to have helped), but to eke out a bit more life, I covered the worn area with a rubber patch:

Not particularly pretty but it's well out of sight.

JV 

JV - I found this occurred on my filter as well. I considered ablation as one probable cause but the primary one is the bonnet cut out grazing the filter when one removes the bonnet.

I now flex the bonnet so the cut out avoids the filter when removing/refitting the bonnet. So far so good & the current filter is lasting much longer than the others.

[John Vine]

3 hours ago, Geoff Brown said:

JV - I found this occurred on my filter as well. I considered ablation as one probable cause but the primary one is the bonnet cut out grazing the filter when one removes the bonnet.

I now flex the bonnet so the cut out avoids the filter when removing/refitting the bonnet. So far so good & the current filter is lasting much longer than the others.

Thanks for that, Geoff.  But I religiously do just as you do, and have done ever since I fitted the RBs.  Also, my bonnet cut-out has a rubber protective strip along its bottom edge.  So my vote, at the moment, looks like favouring the airstream.  But I'm watching developments closely.

JV

[aerobod - near CYYC]

1 hour ago, John Vine said:

Thanks for that, Geoff.  But I religiously do just as you do, and have done ever since I fitted the RBs.  Also, my bonnet cut-out has a rubber protective strip along its bottom edge.  So my vote, at the moment, looks like favouring the airstream.  But I'm watching developments closely.

JV

I will test it with lots of high speed airstream this coming summer, John, then report back.  Around 2500km of track use scheduled, hopefully at speeds up to around 185km/h with the new engine.

[Geoff Brown]

19 hours ago, John Vine said:

Thanks for that, Geoff.  But I religiously do just as you do, and have done ever since I fitted the RBs.  Also, my bonnet cut-out has a rubber protective strip along its bottom edge.  So my vote, at the moment, looks like favouring the airstream.  But I'm watching developments closely.

JV

JV - If we are both carrying out best practice when removing the bonnet then it has got to be ablation caused by hard particles in the airstream. Must slow down !!

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Checked all the sensor and loaded the latest software and my starting map into the ECU today. I made a number of modifications to the mapping:

- Retarded all timing by 4 degrees across most of the ignition map from my R400D settings (Thanks Colin T & John C for input).

- Set throttle limits at 0.30V for site 0.0 and 4.52V for site 15.0, scaling the other sites from the original SBD throttle mapping on the R400D to maintain the same mapping curve, which had a range of 1.35V to 4.75V.

- Adjusted the coolant sensor mapping. It had been accurate in the 50C and up range, but never very good down below. I looked everywhere for the specific Ford sensor calibration, but couldn't find it. Instead, I used the exponential curve that all thermistors  follow, and alterned the constants to fit the temperature points I knew to be good. It came out to R=0.000172*exp^(4750/T), where T is the temperature in Kelvin. This then translates to a voltage mapping of V=5*R/(R+1000) foir the 5V sensor supply voltage and 1000 ohm pull-up resistor in the MBE ECU.

The mapping then becomes:

Temperature (C)	Resistance (Ω)	Voltage (V)
-30	52,431	4.91
-20	24,235	4.80
-10	11,879	4.61
0	6,135	4.30
10	3,319	3.84
20	1,873	3.26
30	1,098	2.62
40	665	2.00
50	416	1.47
60	268	1.06
70	177	0.75
80	119	0.53
90	82	0.38
100	58	0.27
110	42	0.20
120	30	0.15

I also fitted a new wideband sensor to the LC-1 system and calibrated it.

I also ran into a problem where the battery voltage stared to fluctuate a lot, even though it was on a smart charger, with the ignition being on for a couple of hours. What seems to have happened is the battery has started to look tired (7 years old at the moment) or potentially a cell went bad during my calibration session. It would drop over 2V very quickly from 12.8V after being taken off the charger and the ignition switched on. I ended up spending 4 hours pulling all the fuses and relays and testing all circuits as far as possible. The ignition off state is at 0.15A draw and ignition on (including running lights) is at 3.4A, but no obvious issues with any of the circuits. I've put the battery on the "Repair" cycle the charger has. Will order a new battery this week if it won't hold a charge or give the correct voltage when under ignition load.

I've created a spiffy new ECU data page for my rolling road session, with related functions ordered in groups:

 

[Colin_T]

When mapping I had a page layout which had just a single bar across the top with the main things I needed. Temperatures, battery voltage, rpm, throttle position etc. 

that gave me big chunk of space below to have the fuel / ignition tables yet still be able to view the important data in the “background”

 

[aerobod - near CYYC]

9 hours ago, Colin_T said:

When mapping I had a page layout which had just a single bar across the top with the main things I needed. Temperatures, battery voltage, rpm, throttle position etc. 

that gave me big chunk of space below to have the fuel / ignition tables yet still be able to view the important data in the “background”

 

Sounds good Colin. I have created 2 pages now, the rolling road page and the monitoring page. the monitoring page will also determine the logging channels when not on the rolling road:

 

[Colin_T]

Good to see the preparation going into this. 

Suggestions on your “mapping” page…. 

1) Won’t need engine speed site as a value,  the engine rpm is quite obvious what rpm site your in.  

2) Id say add battery voltage - handy to see incase alternator craps itself and you spend hours mapping before realising you’ve been mapping it at low battery voltage and have to go back and redo it all… 

3) Injector duty is a nice one too - make sure not maxing injectors out (may have a fuel pressure or pump issue) 

4) Lambda target and lambda target error are handy to compliment Lambda. sometimes can just watch the error value and add and remove the fuel until the error is 0… 

(MBE may call these parameters different names to what I’ve actually called them, example “lambda target error” could be “lambda correction” or something so may have to translate it to whatever seems most relevant, I forget off the top of my head how to speak MBE fluently - ecu manufacturers all use their own language! Example battery voltage on Life Racing ECUs is “vbatt” … ) 

- Colin