EBBdude`s : Micro Micra project

[EBBdude]

As a new member to MSC i thought that i would share with you a process that i did with a 1.0 K11 here in Norway.

Please excuse my lack of perfect written english as i go along

This little cutie was bought as a car for my daughter so she could have something to practice on while training for a drivers license.

Never did I know what that would lead to as I got quite involved in the car in the time before she got the license...

Here are some snapshots of the car when I bought it :

Bought it locally for a good price and gave it into the hands of a mate and he spent an hour with the rubb & dubb machine :

Good man i must say !

Ok , so far so good.
Now to the stuff that I was interested in and that’s what resides inside here:

As an avid and happy enthusiast , specially when it comes to engines , I was longing to do something with this little poor engine in here. Small engine = small gains they say , but could we get some serious numbers out of it , at least as percentage gain compared to a stock ontouched engine ?

What are the actual numbers , even from small modifications , that a enthusiast could acheive by simple means ?
Questions like this are to be answered i think so off i went with this project

Having done my fair share of work with all kinds of engines i thought it could be an excellent opportunity to experiment and play with on my DYNAPACK :

The Dynapack is a brilliant tool to find even the smallest gain in Hp / Nm and its all measured directly on the hubs and its repeatability is excellent.

So here in this thread I will show some of the results that I have lured out of this K11 and some of the tricks that you can use on your car.

Some of the first things I did was to check and test the condition of the engine before any work was started :

First I took a compression test to find out what kind of pressure this little mini-monster cranked out :

This simple little tool gives me the readings of each cylinder and its condition relating to cranking pressure.

First , out goes the spark plugs :

And here you can see one of the readings :

After all is done you will get some numbers :

The engine has run 130 000 km so the result is ok.

Time for cylinder leakage test. Here you pressurize each cylinder to compare numbers and to find out exactly where eventually any leakage exists :

This test tells you if you have leaking valves , headgasket , blown piston rings etc etc.

If You iex. open the throttle valve completely and listen as the pressure is entering the cylinder and hear a whistling noise in the inlet manifold , well then there could be a chance of a leaking inlet valve.

Same if you put you ear into the exit of the exhaust pipe , and hear a clear swooshing air sound in the pipe , then your exhaust valve could have seen better days in that cylinder and so on…

Here is the result of the cylinder-leakage test :
img]http://www.raceinfo.no/temp/tn_syllekk.jpg[/img]
Quite normal for a fully operational and in good working order engine with that mileage.

Ok , now I have established and found a baseline for the engine and it condition so now to something that is quite important to get some correct baseline numbers on the dynapack :

I check the spark plugs to see that they are of the right heat range and type to be in this engine :

There are many issues with spark plugs that makes or brakes a successful engine.

This little fellow here is by far probably not the right stuff to produce absolute maximum figures but I will get back to that later and show you the magic…

Measuring the ignition cables is also of value when you want to develop any engine set up so i dug out the ohm-meter and did all cables :

Here is the measured values for all cables :

Note how different lenght give different reading.
Will get back to this later.

So , there you are. A baseline for the project and now its time for some real numbers to pop up from the screen on the Dynapack.

TODAYS QUIZZ :
Anyone care to guess what the power and Nm for this little car is in dead stock trim ?

More to come….

 

[frank]

53hp and 86nm :grinning:
interesting blog EBBdude (Y)

 

[Noddie]

49hp and 74nm.
looking forward to updates!

 

[Alexx117]

53hp and 75nm

 

[martinb]

176 and 202 he he, show us the magic!

 

[MrMigs08]

50 hp 79nm (Noob here just random guess )

Very interesting thread though, look forward to progress!

 

[EBBdude]

I forgot to tell you guys that all my measurements are at the hubs so i only use Hp@hub which of course is lower than at the flywheel numbers.
( even if you can estimate them back to the flywheel if you like , but i only am interested in the wheel power as they refer to my real hp available going out to the wheels and down to the tarmac ).

Why ? Because , as you will see in the thread later , even minute changes in oils etc will give you difference ( friction losses etc ) in power so when i measure at the wheel hub i get the exact numbers as relative to any changes beiing in engine or drivetrain...

So bear that in mind when you give som feedback in the QUIZ

 

[martinb]

Sounds interesting, be good if could try different plugs, fuel filters, air filter positions etc, show what really works, big thanks for taking the time to show us all

 

[r-reg-sr]

hi welcome
seems like you are dealing in exelence?thats fine some good company here
cars gleeming away!

 

[EBBdude]

Some results will be in later on today...

 

[pap29]

i am glued to this thread! this is the sort of mechanics i would love to learn alot more about (Y)

 

[EBBdude]

Then i have finished the first Dynapack sessions and just for reference some info regarding the projects dynapack sessions :

All levels of change will go through at least 3 runs and I will use the highest measurements as final results.

Here is the first result of whats inside this little 1.0 fellow :

39.6 Ps / 5547 rpm
62,2 Nm / 4098 rpm

AFR "as is " :

(Flywheel Nm = hub Nm divided to final drivetrain ratio )
Hub Nm is of course many times flywheel Nm as a result of ratio differences from flywheel to actual hub.
If you have , lets say 400 nm at the hubs with a final ratio of 4.00 you have a Flywheel Nm =
400 : 4.00 = 100 Nm flywheel.

So this cars engine has almost 40 hp at the wheels available and that isn’t exactly much but gets the car from a to b.

So can we dos ome stuff to make this better ?
You bet , and I promise it gets better and better….

Oki , here is some of the first “ myths “ to be investigated :

New air filter:

The sound & resonance tube that Nissan so kindly supplied these cars with:

So these two will define a new result:

I am also going to experiment a little around this intake aerea here :

So what is it going to be now then ?

It keeps coming…..

 

[frank]

it goes very lean at 4k eh EBBdude
4 more hp and less torque without the filter and pipes/resonator

 

[r-reg-sr]

good show!

 

[Low Rider]

it goes very lean at 4k eh EBBdude
4 more hp and less torque without the filter and pipes/resonator

And you wonder why Ed and I mention ECU remapping so much Frank Even the standard ECU does a lousy job of running the standard engine on WOT.

Great thread EBB

 

[MrMigs08]

Yeah, this thread really is awesome in the fact that everything will be broken down an explained/shown, i'd imagine my engine is running quite closely to yours so i'm definately glued to this thread atm .

I'd say another 2 or 3 hp, wonder how warm (If at all) the air will be entering the engine from that point instead of from the stock piping,

 

[martinb]

Why were the cars mapped from stock to run lean in mid range? Can't see why Nissan would go that? Or..... Is it only a consequence of fitting performance parts which alter thedstock design ?

 

[frank]

Why were the cars mapped from stock to run lean in mid range? Can't see why Nissan would go that? Or..... Is it only a consequence of fitting performance parts which alter thedstock design ?

i would guess its just an anomaly in the way the air flows into the engine (further tests with the resonator removed may explain maybe ?), but it has,nt caused a dip in the powercurve tho eh

 

[r-reg-sr]

or maybe so the cat dont get oversaturated?? guesing like

 

[EBBdude]

Thank You for all feedback

What i havent told you about is that as a consequence of my passion for Micras i have more of them:

In fact we have no less then 4 Micras in the family which i have data available from at any time for comparing.

In this way i have gained some knowledge of what the totally OEM facts of power numbers and Nm are of a selection of quite normal driven cars straight from the street.

You might call it quality control regarding speculations of whether one car is off in a milage from any other car.

The " Micro Micra " is right in the middle of the more than 12 totally stock Micras i have put on the Dynapack and they range from poorly 34 hp to nearly 40 hp untouched.

Regarding AFR numbers then its wery simple ;
Nissan AFR control system is as good as any others but as time and milage is rolled by then things starts to alter the case.
I think that there hasnt been even one Micra that i have had on the dynepack that has been identical to another regarding AFR values ,,,at lest as stock car.

It all depends on several issues :
-Lambda condition
- spark plugs condition
-spark wire edition
- fuel quality
- MAF sensor condition and function
- fuel pressure
- +++more
So this issue of AFR is giving the most headache when one wants to squirl some more action out of the shoeboxes with wheels

Will show you more of this later on as the project expands.

More to be relased soon and a short video to show how a car with RPM limit removed actually works compared to a dead stock one......did we hear parkinglot dragrace..lol

 

[EBBdude]

Well then , several runs later on the Dynapack and more numbers to wiew.

Let`s have a look at some of the details found :

These three items were the first one to look at and find out if they made ant difference

The air inlet pipe, air filter and spark plugs.

First out ; the air filter.
In with new one and out with the old one :

RESULT ; consistent increase of 1,5 Hp after multiple runs of testing the filter comparing old versus new.

Almost as anticipated since the old one was dirty and grimy.
Took the time to test with and without the filter in the air-box with nearly zero difference in ieither HP or Nm.

Then I worked with the Air-tube or what Nissan has called “air-resonate dampener." :

RESULT :
2 Hp increase but AFR was considerably weaker in the upper rpm region.

Noticeable lift of NM from 2500-3300 rpm
Removal of this tube is the same as instantly lowering the peak point of the Nm to 32-3300 rpm area against the normal peak of Nm at around 4000 rpm



Air-filter in or out ; result as above with minute changes.

Did try several solutions on the inlet hole of the air-box , like this one and other cone remedias :

None of which gave any positive result in either Hp or Nm.


One thing that became very noticable was the noise of the air rushing into the inlet after removal of the ”resonate-tube ”.
One could describe it as quite aggressive and the sound waves hitting the underneath of the bonnet makes this a Baby Ferrari wannabee…

Ok , that’s these details.

Now I wanted to test something that I have seen has been one of the most misunderstood “quick tune tricks “ on the Micras:

This wire-mesh in the throttle body has a function of smoothening out the air-flow as it passes on its way down the throttle body and past the heated wire in the MAF sensor that measures the drop of temperature through the wires as a function of how much air that goes by and into the cylinders at any given moment.

More than one time I have seen enthusiasts proclaim a higher output og the engine afterwards when the have removed the wire-mesh.
Oki , lets try this then and off it goes :

Oki , then it looks like this in here:

After many repeted runs with it in and out the result is :

RESULT ; 1,5 Hp LOST t as a average number of 4 runs tested with / without wire-mesh.
So in it goes and it stays sthere…

Next step was something I knew would give a positive result after som juggeling around with spark plugs.

Several types , with the same heat range , was to be put to the test. Ran the same numbers of test with each set of spark plugs.

When the car was bought it ran NGK , with std heatrange , and all test up until now has been done on them.

A sponsor gave me a bundle of plugs to test so that made it easy for me to do several tests.
First set out was BERU , and the factory specified 1.1 mm gap at the electrode in the center.

After several runs :
RESULT ; Minus 3 HP

Actually , the more runs i gave them , the lower the numbers came out,,,strange.

Well , out they went and a set of NGK , same as the car came with was then tested :

NGK at left here.
These spark plugs had a cool V-groove in the centre-electrode that the producer of the sprak-plugs claimed would give more efficient and bigger “ bang “ as the spark traveled across the gap,,,lets find out if that’s the case .

After the same amount of runs as the BERU ones they tested out almost exactly the same as the NGK`s that was in there when the car was bought.
Maybe a bit towards 1 + Hp ,,,but that’s just maybe near that increase , nothing more.

At least the gave me consistent numbers that did not decrease the power as the test runs increased.

Out they went too.

Then I got hold of a type I have successfully installed with positive result in many other cars I had been working on.

BOSCH SUPER 4

These little friends have no less then 4 side electrodes for the spark action to occur from.

Oki , lets put them in and crank up the Dynapack:

Wheyyy , that’s the right stuff and a very positive result compare to the other

Blue = NGK
Light GREEN : BOSCH SUPER 4
After several runs , the BOSCH SUPER 4 gave a little bit more then 1,5 Hp at the tops and even a gain all the way from 3500 rpms.
Later tests showed actually more when I opened up the gap to almost twice the normal gap recomended on these SUPER 4 plugs.

Very interesting I must say.

Ok a little conclusion of these latest tests then:

RESULT :
Air filter = 1,5 Hp pluss
Air-pipe = 1,8-2 Hp
Spark plugs = 1,5 Hp

Highest measured HP uptil now :

44.3 HP

Highest measured Nm uptil now :

69,3 NM

RESULT = + 4,7 HP and + 7,1 Nm from original.

Over 10 % increase in Hp and Nm.
NOT BAD AT ALL !

Comment :
The car has now been driven quite a bit on the street and its not the big sceary numbers we are talking about , but definitely noticeable , specially in the mid-range area of the 2500-3500 rpms.
Especially when there are more than one person in the car.
It also works itself easier towards the higher region of the rpm range.

Next level of this process is on its way so stay tuned…more 2 come.

 

[pjg1979]

Really enjoying this Blog so far. Keep up the good work.

 

[EBBdude]

Thanks you for looking

Ther will be even better results showing up later.
Including some rather spectacular.

 

[EBBdude]

Thought i just post the first and the last numbers on the project:

Here we can se the first dyno test and what i started with :

39,6 Hp and 62,2 Nm


Then here are the numbers so far:

44.3 HP

Highest measured Nm uptil now :

69,3 NM

RESULT = + 4,7 HP and + 7,1 Nm from original.

Next items to be worked at to finds some more ompa ompa from the engine are these :

Anyone want to guess what happens ?

 

[pollyp]

this is prob the most fascinating and really useful thread ever and valuable database to help ppl decide which upgrade gives the best bang/buck. Thx m8

 

[EBBdude]

Thank You very much for positive feedback.

I hope that all the details that will be covered can both de-mystify and confirm the different aspects of the micra engine bays internal

 

[martinb]

More, more, more!!! What happens with the new ht leads mate?

 

[EBBdude]

This little item was donated to the project and promises heavenly increase in power :

Ohhh , yes , it will be tested and the results will be shown here.

Having worked on many competition cars earlier I know the difference between a powerful spark and a weak spark that does not support a peak power producing engine`s need.

So a new , home made set of low resistance cables will emerge to the project

The work on a new set of copper core spark plug cables has started :

A sponsor donated these items to the project:

Now we are going to build and test the new cable kit to prove once for all if that will give any increase in power as a result of lower impedance through the cables that will bring more juice to the spark plugs and then again give us a bigger “ bang “ = more power.

Here you can see :
Old cables ( OEM ) had almost 3 K-ohms resistance
The whole coil here with the new copper core cables has : 0 Ohms resistance

Will this have a positive effect on the hunt for power you think ?

 

[pollyp]

this'll be interesting to know. i once read somewhere that solid core cables produce more electromagnetic interference than stock fibre cored type cable? dunno what the facts were, hence watching this blog closely(Y)

 

[martinb]

id hope so, i was told to add the ht leads to a list of useless mods, hope there proved wrong! i thought they come pre made or is there universal kits that you cut to length mate?

whats the black box, does it trick the ecu into thinking theres more cold air coming in?

cant wait for the figures afterwards

 

[Noddie]

Really looking forward to future results. Great stuff, thank you!

 

[sleeper_ss]

Yep..Interesting stuff.Looking forward to updates,will be getting stuck into my engine soon.

 

[EBBdude]

Try to answer here some questiones:

-Little Black box is a so called " manipulator " that a guy donated me to test on the project.
He sells them on internet and wanted to see what the result was on the Micro Micra.

-The ht leads that i am making are a amateur diy type that you cut too length yourself.

-The idea is to let people se for themselves if it is worth any gain in power and what they will represent in future levels of power output , specially with a certain modification to be shown in the future of the project.

i will even show what a new set of fibre core cables does or do not do for you...

EMI ; electro magnetic inteference is one of the myhts that people says makes this swop impossible,,,,wanna bet ?
:grinning:

 

[r-reg-sr]

been bookies put my bet down!!

 

[meteora]

Very informative blog. It pushed me to register just to give this comment. Been hanging around this site for quite sometime now and didn't bother to comment etc... :laugh:

May I request to include mythbusting this throttle body resoldering? -> http://micra.com.au/technical-articles/cg13de-throttle-body-resoldering-guide.php

and sidegapping? -> http://performanceunlimited.com/documents/plugsidegapping.html

Looking forward for more updates on your blog.

Thanks,

 

[EBBdude]

@meteora
thank you for comment

i belive that i have already answered your question regarding " side gapping " plugs , have a look at my picture from earlier in my posts results :

These BOSCH SUPER 4 are already a : quadruple side-gapped monster power plug "

just as a perculiar sidebar info :
In my project i have also put the side gapped Bosch plugs up to over more than double the gap they are recomende to run with and that brings out even more ponnies....

As you could se earlier in my thread these Bosch super 4 ones are real killers and give what they promise , thats for sure.

As a even more peculiar info :
the super duper NIPPODENSO super irridium bla bla bla wonderplugs beiing sold out there is rubbish from first to last rpm compared to the cheap Bosch ones .

More 2 come later...

 

[meteora]

How about the Throttle Body Resoldering? Do you think it will improve the performance of your car with its 130K mileage?

http://micra.com.au/technical-articles/cg13de-throttle-body-resoldering-guide.php

I'm glued to this thread. :grinning:

 

[Noddie]

The re-soldering should only help if the maf is failing in the first place...

 

[EBBdude]

thought i showed you how to make a new cable kit with copper core centre:

So this is basically what im building a resistance-free cable kit from :

Here you can see the process of making a kit that will cost you about 12 pounds.

First you cut you desired length of cables to all cylinders.

Then You assemble the one ends cable connector and rubber thingy.

The little connector just being pushed into the cables centre and you pinch the sidepieces into the cable for it to stick.

Yes you can solder it if you want to be a superhero.

On the other side of the cable you want to connect to the spark plugs and you use a little “ adaptor “ to be clamped against the cable.

You first take of some of the outer material of the cable like this :

Next step is to put the cable into the adaptor and crimp it onto the cables outer

I am using a special thingy for this but you can easily do it with a regular crimper plier.
Here is how it looks when the connector is attached to a spark plug

You want to isolate your end of the cable so that high voltage current doesn’t leak out pass the cable and grounds itself in the cavity where the plugs go into in the head so I just found a cilicone hose thing to cut and use

Cut a appropriate length to fit and then pushes it over the cables adaptor and rubber thingy follows after : ( I glue the little hose onto the rubber thingy )

Then you end up with something like this

I have later on used crimp-plastic on the end to make it easier to push the cable into the plug.

So here they are , your new DIY cables with NO resistance at all

Then its off to the Dynapack and do some work to test the cables and the little black box i got donated

 

[martinb]

Looks like pro job got a linky to the kit please? I'll wait to see if any gains first, also I understand gapping the normal spark plugs but isn't it a little difficult on the Bosch super 4 fours? Cheers

 

[EBBdude]

its a simple job doing the cables.
Everyone can do it.
Gapping the SUPER 4 BOSCH plugs is easy as well and they can take amazingly large gaps before the start to suffer

 

[frank]

are you running it with no suppressors at all then EBB ?

 

[EBBdude]

Frank
Running them as you see them in the pictures

 

[Shaun]

Wow this is an amazing thread! Thankyou EBB look forward to more! (Y)

 

[EBBdude]

martboy21 :
Here you can se how the SUPER 4 BOSCH can take quite large gaps , easily :

These in particular has had more than 30 runs on the Dynapack with lots of experimenting

shaun:
Thank you for kind words.
Hope to be able to show even more stuff as we go along...

 

[martinb]

So you just pulling them out, what was factory specs ( 1.1mm?) what did you have it set at for best performance? Cheers

 

[Shaun]

So you just pulling them out, what was factory specs ( 1.1mm?) what did you have it set at for best performance? Cheers

X2 would be nice to know :grinning:

 

[EBBdude]

You can safely open it as much as this if you want to :

More than 3 mm and its starts to be interesting...
You will actually be able to notice a rahter cool sound from the engine if you get them to their
"sweet spot "

Will post some more results later on today...

 

[MrMigs08]

Hey EBB you should sell the HTs to people that aren't quite up for making them and brand them your own too

Also on the image where you were playing with the nissan air filter resonator? how did you make the extended cone? maybe its worth running a pipe from the underside of the car to the top left hand corner of the engine bay? you coud also try drill some circles in the last cylander on that lovely big one.

Cheers ebb!

 

[EBBdude]

I have now played a little bit more around the ” black box ” and the cables.

The little black box is a small ebay gismo that proclaims wonderful improvement in power bla bla bla.

We installed it in the prescribed way for the producer of the thingy.

RESULT : 0

No matter how it was installed , pluss some creative alternative installation of it , it did NOT give anything positive at all.
In fact it just gave us a grunchy ECU that refused to cooperate when it was “in line “ in the system.
The ECU simply wouldn’t accept it and the conclusion is ; BMW = Big money wasted.( for anyone spending money buying it.)

Then for something else , our home made HT leads:

they are ready to go in the car.

And off we go again on the Dynapack

RESULT = + 1,9 Hp
From 43.5 to 45.4 Hp

NOTE :
( 46,2 Hp with even more gap )
We actually managed to open up the spark plug electrode even more and passed 46 + HP but we will not include that number as we only wanted to see what the cables themselves represented.

We changed from the old and the new homemade ones several times and it is a consistent increase using the new ones.


It actually feels as if the car even starts easier but it makes the AFR goes a little bit more lean toward high rpm aerea.

No misfire or problems whatsoever concerning EMP ( electro magnetic puls ) or anything else.

We put the ghettoblaster on in the same room , a tv about 20 meters away and none of them showed any sign of “disturbance “,,puuh.

So off and away with these:

As a side note we did take time to do another test :

Since the OEM Nissan cables might not have been fair to compare against , old cables with fibercore , age etc we got a fresh set of cables from a sponsor to do some head to head comparison against the copper core ones.

These have fiber core as the OEM ones.

We brought out the OHM reader and looked at the new cables values

Then straight into the car for testing

Here is what happended :

The 2 graghs with the lowest numbers are the new fiber ones:
2 with highest numbers our home made copper core cables

The difference in no less then 2,6 Hp and 4 Nm in disfavour of the brand new fiber core cables with higher resistance and less "big bang " for the spark plugs.

CONCLUSION ON THE MATTER OF HT CABLES:

-Copper core cables DO give more power
-Used in Nissan Micra they DO NOT create ant el.interference when using the car
-New fibre cables DO NOT perform better than OEM or copper cables

So , then our new results are :

Nm :

A quick look at numbers :

After last test = 45,4 – original 39,6 = 5,8 HP
------#--------------Nm = 71,5 – original 62,2 = 9,3 Nm

Not to shabby , or what guys ?