Expensive #becauseracecar

It's been way too long since my last update, certainly not due to a lack of stuff happening with the car, but because I was waiting for the E85 tune to be finished on the new 5S-GTE setup, which finally happened today!
 
About 3 months ago, 'Just Engine Management' (JEM) did the 98 RON gasoline tune and everything went perfectly, but we had an issue which delayed the completion of the E85 tune until my return to JEM today. Now that it's all done, I couldn't be happier with how it went!
 
Note that the turbo is still the same GTX3076R with the same 0.82 A/R exhaust housing. 
 
418rwkw at 32psi of boost on E85:

 
289rwkw at 20psi of boost on 98 RON gasoline:

 
Same as above, but overlaid with the result which was previously achieved on the 2.0L 3S-GTE setup at 24psi on 98 RON gasoline, compared to the new 2.2L 5S-GTE setup at 20psi with the same turbo:

 
I don't have an overlay of the old and new E85 dyno plots, but with the same turbo the peak power is up by 8% and the peak torque is up by 15%! The gasoline dyno plot shows the improved response too. 
 
As mentioned at the start of this post, we had an issue which delayed the E85 tune until today. Everything pointed to it being a spark breakdown issue, so we installed a new Nissan R35 GTR COP ignition system to replace the 1ZZ COP setup. As it turned out, the issue wasn't spark breakdown at all (it was an ECU firmware bug), so the GTR coils made no difference haha, but they're probably the best coil-on-plugs that you can get so I'm really happy to have them anyway. Plus we improved the wiring for the ignition system in the process. I think I might be the first person to ever install GTR coils in an MR2, but I'm not sure. The mounting tabs on the GTR coils are at a different angle and radius to the 1ZZ coils, so I modified the existing RacerX mounting plate from the 1ZZ coils, and kept the rubber discs from the 1ZZ coils to help keep water out of the plug wells. I also had to make a little mounting thing for the cylinder 1 coil, because the raised parts of the gen 2 cam cover prevent any other solution. 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I also installed one of the amazing Injector Dynamics IDF750 fuel filters:

 
Lastly, here's a great photo from Toyotafest a few months ago:
 

Awesome result! 418KW must be fun on the street :)

Wow that's awesome. Will she hold together at that power level?

Should do, because the engine's been built to almost the same spec as another one that's making over 600rwkw with the only difference being the turbo. 

Sweet

Admin
Wow that's awesome. Will she hold together at that power level?

 

Next upgrade ... case of red bull and strapping on some wings :)

Holy ****, I thought my 250wkw was almost too much for the street. Must feel like hyperdrive.

The other day I found the printout from about 10 years ago when my gen 2 3S-GTE 2.0L was put on the dyno when it was completely stock, with only a cat-back exhaust. That's stock boost of about 8-10psi, with the CT26 turbo, on the stock ECU. When I found that old dyno printout, I just had to overlay it with the printout from my current setup, because it's a very interesting comparison:
 

 
As expected, the stock turbo is quite a lot better at low RPM, about 50% better in fact, because it's a much smaller turbo specifically designed for that purpose. However, starting from 4000rpm my new setup goes on to make exactly 3x the peak power. 
As you can see, a smaller turbo is always going to be better at low RPM, so most of the time it will be better on the street, but with a bigger turbo you can partially make up for it by downshifting, when you otherwise wouldn't have to with a smaller turbo. When considering extensive mods and a big turbo, you have to consider this and be OK with it.
When I've driven my friend's stock turbo MR2s I can clearly feel the difference at low RPM. 
I absolutely love my setup and I'd never go back, but I want to make it clear that you can't have tonnes of extra power with no trade-offs.