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Nefarious

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Posts posted by Nefarious

    Custom Tuning a Pathfinder ECU, the Project begins.

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted

    Well just wanted to give a little update.... it works!!!! So freaking stoked right now, a year or so of part time planning, research, learning, acquiring parts and patience has finally paid off. So far the truck is running on a custom programmed flash eprom with the stock 1995 pathfinder tune. Next step will be to implement some fuel and timing changes and swap to the n60 maf! ???

     

    Today is a good day!

    • Like 1

    What did you do to your Pathfinder today?

    in The Garage

    Posted

    Productive day today. Swapped over parts from the old 93 into the new 92 again. Ngk ignition wires, non broken accordion intake pipe, replaced all the broken and cracked vacuum lines with new blue silicon lines. Also finished putting the doors back together after adding the defrosting side mirrors.

     

    I also finally tested the custom chipped ecu in my girlfriends truck and it worked first time!! Got to say I'm pretty stoked about that one. Been working at this one for a while now and it's nice to say it's working flawlessly. Next step will be to actually implement some changes in the tune. So far it's running on a programmed eprom chip but with just the factory 95 pathfinder tune. ??

    Custom Tuning a Pathfinder ECU, the Project begins.

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted · Edited by Nefarious

     

    Damn, why do we have to live on opposite sides of the country :(

     

    Sry for the thread jack.

     

     

     

    I also noticed you're running windows vista, you should upgrade to 7 (being an IT guy I noticed, hehe).

     

    I know right? Well see the problem is you live in the wrong end of the country! You gotta move over here to the land of beautiful ocean beaches, forests, lakes, weather and lots and lots of trails! ?

     

    haha no problem! I'm actually running Vista only on my purposely old desktop. Its an old pentium 4 box tbat i use to play old windows games (like system shock 2 that wont run on newer computers) and run my eprom programmer. The eprom programmer that I use was last updated in 200, lol. Keep in mind these chips are VERY old technology by today's standards so getting the old programmers to work with new computers can be a pain. It also has to have a dedicated parallel port with true LPT1 communication in order to function and none of my new computers even have parallel port! Hahaha.

     

    I actually run windows 7 on my laptop and 8.1 on my transformer t100 and I agree 7 is where it's at!! I like it more than prior and later versions.

    Custom Tuning a Pathfinder ECU, the Project begins.

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted · Edited by Nefarious

    That would be the way to go. I didn't use Mr 510 adapter myself for my truck but I did for my girlfriends pathy and it made the swap go a lot quicker.

     

    vg33e swap , intake/headers/exhaust and vg30e cams was the best thing I ever did to this truck and really woke it up but I know there's more to be had...especially after my thezstore re ground camshafts show up!

     

    To run the n60 maf, you must run a Socketted ecu (28 pin, DIP socket ) with a custom programmed eprom with the VQ table for the maf of choice programmed into it. The maf values just tell the ecu how much air is entering the engine and can be run with an otherwise stock tune to keep your emissions the same for smog checks if you have that where you live. Where I live has zero smog laws at all, so I plan to add more aggressive fuel and timing tables as well as the n60 maf myself. ?

    Custom Tuning a Pathfinder ECU, the Project begins.

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted

    Worked for Intel for 10 years repairing equipment that made the computer chips. Got layed off a few years ago. Now I manage all the military movements for New Mexico. Talk about a career change.

    oh that's a definite career change but sounds interesting for sure!

     

    And adamzan; yes those are snes controllers :) just finished fixing the power supply to get the old beast running again. I am also a major fan of retro video games. Snes, n64, early Playstation, so good.....lol.

    Custom Tuning a Pathfinder ECU, the Project begins.

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted · Edited by Nefarious

    Well my new flash eproms finally arrived from overseas. These will replace the factory uv erasable eproms and are much easier to work with once properly setup. Getting them setup on the other hand took some real patience but after a good 8 hours of tweaking hardware and software settings I finally got the new chips functioning properly!

     

    So far I have burned the factory 1995 pathfinder tune on to the chip and then verified the chip carries the tune successfully. Next step is testing out the socketted ecu in the truck with the factory tune. Once everything proves to function properly, I will then begin applying the changes i have made to enhance the tune and add support for the N60 maf.

     

    Making some real progress now..

     

    20140911_160010_zps0b9e3aaa.jpg

    Will a frame from a different year work?

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted

    I would have to agree on this one as well. Hense why i said IF you want to keep the truck, 90-92 are better. But unless u find a steal of a deal on the frame and get a reduction in labour costs , you may as well just try and locate a new donor vehicle. Even one with engine or transmission problems as you have a good power plant now and an engine or transmission swap would be a lot cheaper since you already have everything you would need.

    Bull Bar install

    in The Garage

    Posted · Edited by Nefarious

    Perfect thanks for the measurement info there!

     

    That's my take on it anyway, is that once a vg33 is swapped in and is using more aggressive cams, headers/exhaust, and even a vg33e intake manifold and throttle body, that small maf is not beneficial anymore since the low end torque has already been increased to a point above factory as it is. The rest of the gains to really wake the motor up on my opinion will be ditching the rest of the intake restriction to allow the mid range to really open up and make the most of the rest of the modifications. This should optimize in town and highway driving (120 km per hour speed limits here) and I am not worried about sacrificing a small amount of low rpm torque since after the work I have done I will still have much more than stock levels anyway throughout the rpm range.

     

    I'm going to do my best to log virtual dyno graphs before and after the changes to document effects on the power band

    Will a frame from a different year work?

    in 90-95 WD21 Pathfinders

    Posted

    I would swap the frame personally of you plan to keep the vehicle. Any frame 90-95 will works but 90-92 are the best as they have powder coated frames instead of painted frames and hold up much better over time (generally). It's amazing how the powder coat keeps the frames in good condition. My 93 has frame rot, my 92 is almost completely immaculate underneath

    What did you do to your Pathfinder today?

    in The Garage

    Posted

     

    Yep exactly that, both the surrounds and vents themselves were pretty busted so removed the lot. I then cut out the shape to be slightly larger than the hole and bent the edges over so they just slid in tightly at the perfect size.

    do you by any chance know what brand the mesh was so I could look it up? My girlfriends truck is missing the vent trims all around and this looks like a great alternative

    Bull Bar install

    in The Garage

    Posted

    I also plan to convert my wd21 to run the r 50 intake manifold/throttle body as well as some re ground cams from thezstore so the decrease in intake resistance will be even more important to make maximum efficiency

    Bull Bar install

    in The Garage

    Posted

    Well my theory is it was made with such a restriction to act as a venturi tube to increase air velocity at low engine speed and thus increasing low rpm torque slightly. This may help very low rpm torque to make the truck a bit more grunty off idle but sacrificing some higher end efficiency.

     

    I know the heads and cam shafts are the same between the m30, maxima, and pathfinder. The only difference is in the intake system (manifold and intake tube/maf). I have studied the fuel and timing maps of all of the above 3 vehicles and they are nearly identical to each other aside from some more fuel added under higher tp values on the m30 tune. I'm convinced nissan originally sacrificed some hp in the mid range to gain a bit of low grunt by tuning the intake in this way. Still my theory!

     

    I just love re engineering things and tweaking them to get the most I can. Please keep posted on the r 50 maf size. I know physically it looks just like the n60 maf dimension wise and it is 90 mm

    Bull Bar install

    in The Garage

    Posted · Edited by Nefarious

    They definitely did go to a 90 mm maf on the 3.3. My thoughts is that the stock maf was never large enough anyways. It may help with velocity a little bit at very low rpm but my truck spends most of its time between 2000-4000 rpm daily driving and that is not where a tiny maf like that would be flowing efficiently. Even the vg30e in the maxima and the m30 both use a 90 mm maf as well and that's on a 3.0. Those engines made 160 hp factory instead of 153 hp.

     

    I have copies of the tunes for all of the above mentioned vehicles and other than a slight bit more fuel on the m30 they are very similar in fuel maps and the timing are almost identical so it's doubtful that extra power was made in tune alone as they are so close.

     

    if peak torque on these engines is made between 2800-3800 rpm (depending on camshafts profile) and that is also where I spend most of my time while daily driving then that is also where I plan to tune for optimum flow. I don't need a few more off idle torque pounds but I do need more mid range torque and therefore power.

     

    this is all speculation based on my experience but I will be running several virtual dyno runs before and after my changes to document the improvements. Virtual dyno is known to be between 1-3% as accurate as a true chassis dyno, so with multiple runs to average before and after I'll be happy with the accuracy for confirmation of gains.

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