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EBBdude`s : Micro Micra project

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Yeah, EB, that is apserlutely awesome! Will definately be saving up to do some of these things, your slowly edging gains more and more, keep it up man!
 
Thanks for all the thumbs up guys :)

Regarding the copper core cables :
-These are made from universal pieces that most shops that have some of this stuff lying around could supply you.
-The cables are pretty basic 7 mm with copper inner coils and adaptors are Bosch ones that many electrical car repair shops would have available.
Just make sure that you dont cut them to shore and make some arrangement to push the cables onto the plugs low down in the cavity in the head.

-I use a pair of long legged pliers bought for 3 pounds in tools shop to press the adaptors onto the plugs and that works fine.
-Also make sure to insultate the endings that is around the adaptors with iex silicone hose or similar.

Otherwise than that their as bolt on as they can get with no trixy mixy at all :)
 
are you sure its not the stronger spark that is igniting the charge quicker (and effectively advancing the timing) that is giving the gain on the dyno EBB ?
because the is only a given amount of energy in the fuel/air charge eh (ie, where is the extra power coming from ?)
 
Awesome read feels like I'm back at school :) on the subject of ht leads would it be worth testing ones like magnecore?
 
Good question Frank !

I would not consider myself an expert on these matters but here are some thoughts :
Most manufacturers will have a recommended plug gap taken into considerations things like starting in the cold , smooth driving at many different levels of load etc.

When this gap is set it is not set from the manufacturers point of power needs , rather of fuel economy , versatility in driving conditions and so on.

But first a little sidepoint of your question Frank :

From a performance point of view I would like to think of it as this:

What can I get away with and what are the consequences of it ?

First to find out what I can get away with I need to find something to do the work on , that being a car and secondly I need to find out if what I have done ( got away with ) actually represents any improvement for my , shall we call it “ performance intention “ for that car.

The first one is easy, just give it a go at what you want to do.

Second one is that I need a measuring device to be able to repeat the processes in testing mode to prove if I got what I wanted in the first place,,,,,hence the DYNAPACK dynometer that I use.

This is the case regarding the different HT cables and spark plug as well.

Nissan has never intended the Micra as a “performance intention “ car.

But Nissan has done something to help us out in the first matter ;
-what can I get away with ?

Well , Nissan has fortunately given the Micra a great set of ignition tools , that’s for sure.

-During testing I have found out that it gives tremendous amount of igniting power through all components in the IGN system
-We easily see that it can take 3 mm pluss on the gap itself.
-It easily revs , even with stock cables 9000rpms.
-With quite easy modifications , it will bring us up to twice the numbers of Hp and Nm that we started with,,,,being a totally stock IGN system in basic ; Dizzy , internals , ecu etc.

So that leads me to the second one ; try what I want to achieve and then secondly find out via the Dynapack if I got it right.

What I have done is that I have found out :

- yes , you can remove the RPM limiter and get away with it
-yes , you can increase the power with other than std spark plugs
-yes , you can get higher power output by using copper core cables
-yes , the IGN system CAN run such cables without any problems interfering with the rest of the cars electronics = EMP problems is not an issue
- And yes I have tested it for more than a year so I know it works in a daily driven Micra.

But ok Frank , that was I diversion from your question ; could it be that the increased power is a direct result of changed IGN timing ,,,,instead of the plug , cable etc themselves ?

From my experience there are several things that happen when you get a “ bigger spark “.

First you get a more accessible “spark area “ with better plug types and different exposure area with different gap position ( side , cut back , 4-points etc ).

This increased area will give a bigger “ window “ for the first part of the spark process to get established in and everything starts to work better from that point on.

Then you get a more complete transfer rate of the actual combustion taking place , as the spark now has a better expanding rate inside the chamber. That as a result of easier and faster travel for each released spark , and available time on " down stroke " , and that gives increased rate of pressure= more power at the same time available in that stroke region.

As a result of all these optimized conditions you get a more complete “burnthrough “ of the incoming air / fuel mixtures.
For each MORE complete and fully burnt molecule of air / fuel , the MORE power you will get from the SAME amount of Air/fuel.
Rather as not spilling a drop of your pint at the pub = more total fun

I believe that we are not changing the exact moment of WHEN the point of ignition happens , as that is pre-determined in the ECU , dizzy , coil and timing point integrated in a already determined manner by iex IGN MAP.

Rather that we are giving the complete ignition process better conditions to evolve from therefore gaining more power.

There are several more trick to work with concerning ignition parts like :
-Plugs that extends further into the cylinder head like the HCX versions plugs
-Indexing of spark plugs
-higher output coils
-increased voltage by higher volts through the voltage regulator= higher voltage in primaries.
-pluss many others

But as that is said , you are at the same time right Frank ,there is a point where ignition timing will be the result of many of these modifications , but that is a totally another part of the process than what is shown here as this is not to be to heavy material reagarding presentation of the different levels of the Micro Micra project :)



Next up in the project ; Snake oils !
 
i thought you might say "more complete burn" lol :grinning:
but my understanding is that modern engines burn about 98% of the charge (else they wont pass the HC emissions) and if you,ve raised that to 99% ? then 1% gain in a petrol engine that is 25% efficient in converting energy to hp output at best is less than 1/2 a hp surely ?
 
Frank :
In realtime world on real cars you will quickly find out , at least if you do back-to-back testing a lot, that the case is far from reality.
What a producer has intended their car to fullfill on the paper when the car is new is sadly to often not the case when the car has had its fair share of mileage on the street.

After some time the different paramteres on several details concerning what the specific volumetric efficiency actual is ( lambda control , injector quality , fuel pressure , fuel filter , air filter , fuel quality etc , will far to often show up as abnormalities and as a result the readout , or actual performance level , will vary accordingly.

Actually you could say that we enthusiasts bring out the best from it.
That means what Nissan forgot to put into the equation ,,,,enthusiasm :)
 
Frank is right, the ecu sends the spark to the plug before it wants the big explosion to happen because its takes some time for the fuel to begin to burn and produce the force to push the piston down. The spark usually occurs while the piston is still on the compression (BTDC or before top dead centre) so that the burning of the fuel will happen just as the piston is on its way back down the cylinder.
If you are getting a better spark and the fuel is igniting faster as a result, the burning of the fuel is going to happen earlier, which would have the same effect as advancing the ignition.
Still, if you can get the fuel to burn quicker then possibly you can advance the ignition slightly and have less of the negative forces (ignition while piston is still on the up stroke) which may result in better hp?

EBB, this is designed as more of an informational post for readers of this thread, im sure you know all that already :)
 
Noddie
Wery good point and true to a certain degree.
But whats best ; have one cookie or have them all :)

There could be endless discussions around a topic as this and thats all well and good.

My intention with this tread is only to show the reader the steps of a process documented , in a easy understandable way, so that even the simplest equippped and enthusiastic idividual could perform the same processes on their own Micra or other car for that matter.

But i welcome all comments and wievs of course and fully accept that not all is within reach of such a project as this.

My next input on the project will definitely be a moment of slippery sloppery..... :)
 
Hey dude!

If you do take up Franks suggestion to use engine oil in the gearbox, you might like to use lightweight synthetic motorcycle oil. It is available down to 5w -40 and has the additives necessary for high pressure gearbox use, as most motorcycles use combind engine and box sumps. Synthetic road car oil has had a lot of the additives reduced in recent years as they were damaging cats. Look at the Mobil web site for more info and see why racing oils have a different spec to road oils. Even racing car oil spec'd for turbo's etc would not be as good for franks suggestion as they have additives for engines only.

Keep up the good work, its the very best of the many good threads on here.
 
Testing so called ”low-friction ” oil and other snake oils ( at least that is what it normally end up to be ) was not my intention on this project , it just became as a result of a sponsor contacting me and telling me about their experience with some “stuff “ they had tried.

Earlier in my work with both engines and performance cars I know how oils and additives actually can be of benefit for both stamina and power output.

Just never thought about it before this opportunity came along in the form of a sponsor GIVING ME FOR FREE all this to try.

This is what I will present some result of :
tn_div%20955.jpg


Engine oil specially formulated to do and give you all the best bla bla bla and even for the gearbox so we can see if there is anything to be gained for us in power at all.

After the oils I will present you for a real killer in form of a oil “ additive “ that has always blown me away in earlier tests with other engines undergoing heavy testing.
Have used this product over several years and wanted to show you all how “good stuff “ actually keeps what It promises.
This sneaky oily additive is the real deal , I promise you all !

But first I want to make one thing crystal clear :
I DO NOT SELL OR WANT TO SELL ANY OF THESE PRODUCTS INVOLVED.
NEITHER DO I WANT TO PROMOTE THEM OR ANY OTHER BRAND NAME FOR PERSONAL GAIN IN ANY ECONOMICAL WAY.

I only show them here `cause it was donated to the project.
That is why I have left out the sponsors name and you will never see me refer to any dealer or anything as a result for these tests.
They are only and truly just a result of my own testing and that’s all.

So to be continued…..
 
Ok guys , the Dynapack has run wild on lots of runs testing oil and oil additive.

First I started with doing several control runs to see if the last measured HP / Nm was the same as now and after 6-7 test it was clear that the power was the same.
I thought that was best to do as I didn’t expect the biggest numbers on these oil issue so I had to have full control of numbers before / after.

Started off by emptying out the old oil , changed filter and drained all the oil in there.

This is how the old semi-synthetic looked like in the tray :
tn_div%20959.jpg

Nothing special at all and happily no debris or small parts in there.

Putting the REDLINE special oil in:
tn_div%20960.jpg

Put the amount in as described by Nissan.

When all the fillng was done and new filter on I fired up the engine:
tn_div%20961.jpg

Remarkably , the oil light has never turned off so quick before..hm.

Warmed up the engine to normal working temperature and when several runs later was done this is what the result was :
tn_div%20971.jpg


Hp went up from last measured 45,4 to 47 Hp = + 1,6 Hp gain !

That’s good considering that the producers of the oil says that the engine oil has to be run for some K`s before it is fully “working “.

Comment : there is now a distinct change of internal engine noise then before.
Specially on idle as we earlier had something of a little tiny rattle noise from what we thought was the upper chain part and that noise is strangely enough totally gone.

tn_div%20964.jpg

Nm = up + 1,4 Nm

Oki , at least a gain for us so happy days again

We wanted to test the sponsored low friction gear oil :
tn_div%20983.jpg


Fillng the correct volume of gear oil:
tn_div%20984.jpg

That is done by filling through the speedometer drive , where the cable enters the gearbox.
Unscrew the 10 mm bolt , pull out the waier and fill it up through the hole.
You can drain the gearbox from underneath undoing the special bllt using the back of a 3/8 ” ratchet square head.

Then its off with multiple runs again on the Dynapack and in the end we have worked up a normal oil temp in the gearbox and this is how it looks at the speedo in the car.
tn_div%20991.jpg

A little blurrish but you get he point of the action going on.

A small increase of 0,5 Hp registered after several runs of testing.
tn_div%20992.jpg


But again , the producers promises lower friction as the miles goes on so there will be a follow up on these teste later on in the project to see of that is the case…

tn_div%20989.jpg

Nm from 73,3 til 74,4 = +1,1 Nm

COMMENT ; Its without question a positive effect on the way you now can both handel and feel the gearbox working.
It is easier to shift and specially when the temperature drops down to under minus 5 C or lower you will easily notice how more lightly it will be shifted.
As a enthusiast I also feel that the speed you now can shift with in driving activities like Auto-x etc makes it worthwhile.

So let us have a look of what these low-friction oils gave us:

REDLINE engine oil 1,6 hP / 1,4 Nm
+ Gear oil 0,5 HP / 1,1 nm .

RESULT = 2,1 HP / 2,5 Nm gain compared to what we had before.

That brings us to the final number of :

47,5 HP og 74,4 Nm
Not to bad i dear say !

And , as i promised you , THE KILLER !
tn_div%20979.jpg


Power in a can ?
Lets find out , shall we ?

The producers says ; 100 ml pr liter of oil and we pour in 4 dl into the engine.
tn_div%20997.jpg


Some of the benefits PROLONG is to give you.
tn_div%20980.jpg

As it is in Norwegian it basically says ;
-lower friction
-reduced wear
-reduced working temperature
-easier cold start
-etc etc etc

This product will , as the low friction oils , take some K`s of running before it give full payback of it advantages but we will for sure see if it gives any measurable gains straight away from the bottle.

So off we go with a 20 minutes drive to make sure it has got a fair chance of blending in with the rest of the stuff in there and hopefully even started to give us superlatives to view on the screen of the Dynapack.

RESULT :
tn_div%201004.jpg

49,3 HP !!!
An immidiate increase of power of = 1,8 Hp after 6 runs.


tn_div%201005.jpg

A little bit more than 1 Nm , not much but measurable anyways.

COMMENT : The engine runs more smooth on idle and in fear of being to enthusiastic involved I would say that it is noticeable how more willing the engine is when it is being pumped on the throttle.
The car is to be driven for many miles to , as mentioned , be tested later on to see if the benefits will be even greater.
We did managed to get up to 49,5 Hp by doing some runs that same day.

(Note ; i have used this product on many cars earlier and was not suprized that it gave a positive result. Normally it takes some km of driving before its full effect shows up at the tests. )

So for the numbers on oils / additives:

+ 3,9 HP og 3,6 Nm if my calculations are not to far off.

Then our latest numbers visualized here:
tn_div%201010.jpg

The only thing you can see is different is the cables.

Let us have a look at what we have achieved up to now then in the “ Micro Micra “ project:

HP = 49,3 / 5699 rpm :
tn_div%201006.jpg


Nm = 75,5 / 3216 rpm :
tn_div%201007.jpg


That means from the original to todays version :
39,6 hk --> 49,3 hk = + 9,7 HK
62,2 nm--> 75,5 nm = +13,3 Nm

That my ladies and gentlemen is no more than :

24 % + for HP
22 % +for Nm

That is big bang for the bucks if you ask me !

Even better is that this is absolutely achievable for everyone with a Micra by doing something like this to their own car….

Did I hear someone say ; MORE ?
 
Mate that is legendary, alot of people including me overlook these simple things but it works, fair play to you!! What's next??
 
I think it is nice to see that many small bricks will build a bigger house :)

This type of project is probably not just interesting for us Micra owners but its fair to say that many of these changes can easily be found in other vehicles.

I certanly enjoy looking into minute details in all aspect of particular engines and the Micro Micra project is quite exiting in such matter :)
 
Micras are quite some fine small cars to play with , thats for sure.
Taking into consideration how cheap the car is to buy and then how high mileage you get from them in the first place its strange that they arent "hooked" up by more poeple :)

Oki ., lets get back to some more testing :

I thought i throw in a little something here :
tn_div%201013.jpg


I did mention that we have 4 Micras in the family and here is a ”twin-brother ” of the Micro Micra that i wanted to test

It is the exact same car , with the 1.0 engine and it has only covered about 50 000 km and its run everyday as a commuter car to work.

Here is the engine bay of the ” twin ” :
tn_div%201015.jpg


Only difference is that it has power stearing as the Micro Micra does not.

Here is the twin in action on the Dynapack
tn_div%201016.jpg


So todays quiz is ?

WHAT ARE THE NUMBERS ON THE "TWIN" IN TOTALLY STOCK EDITION YOU GUESS?
 
I don't know, but excellent blog and an excellent read as well.

Just a quick question, could you not put a ferrite coil looped inline with each of HT leads to cut down on Interferance?

I work with upto 6000w inverters and each one is fitted with a ferrite coil about an 1" x 1/2" and the positive lead is looped through this to cut down interferance.

With an extra 3" of HT cable per spark plug to loop through the Ferrite Coil could cut down on Interferance.

Or would it not be worth it?
 
pjg1979 :
i couldnt answer your question as i have no exsperience with that.
Doing a set of HT cables as shown in the tread normally takes care of business even though there might be even more and better solutions out there.

Have personally tried quite a lot of odd types of solutions on this matter but normally i end up with the most easy and functional in aspect of cost and use.
 
I thought i just throw in this little video of how to use your existing key in the car after you have changed to another ecu when modifying your car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_bcLyls5cw
wasnt supposed to do that now but will cover some details about ecu`s and stuff later on so..


The results of the " Twin " of the Micro Micra will come in tomorrow :)
 
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)

I only mentioned about the ferrite coil because of this post.
 
I only mentioned about the ferrite coil because of this post.

you might not need it with the stock spark plugs phil (because they have a 3 k ohm resistor built in, the same resistance as the stock carbon cables eh :eek:)
but if the bosch 4 prong plugs have no built-in resistor, then all that extra unsuppressed EMF and RFI sounds a bit risky to me
 
Oki guys , here are the numbers for the ”twin ” Micra in its totally on-touched edition straight from the street:

HP = 38,3 / 4992
Nm = 64 / 3890

Then i put the graphs from the ”Micro Micra ” that I have worked with so far on the same compare picture :
tn_div%201023.jpg

Here you can see the 3 lower graphs as the ones from the Twin and the upper graph is the result so far in the Micro Micra project

Some change when showed here :
tn_div%201025.jpg

Quite pleased with the result so far.

Next phase is coming not to soon….
 
Damm I took my mesh of the throttle Body!

I forgot about this thread, so I had to read a lot to catch up, this is such an amazing read keep it up.
 
Eliot :
the mesh actually will help you produce more power as you adventure on your quest for more :)

Have tried several types of mesh in both plenum and throttle body in combination and the results are positive , specially when you are playing with more ompa ompa camshafts...
 
Wow!! Epic thread.

What are your opinions on open aftermarket air filters? I was thinking of getting one for my 93' 1 litre micra. Could you run a test on it?
 
Coz:

i have tried a lot of different remedies concerning air filter , air-boxes and the lot.

This is what i have found realy makes power:

tn_div%201098.jpg

but the design , shape , lenght etc must correspond with other details before it gives you any real numbers.
But you will be able to get somehwre in the positive direction simply by going to a radioschack store and look for air-horns as used in loudspeakers. Cheap yet very effective used riht :)

This is by the way also a std device i use to make sure that the tests on the Dynapack are correctly done and have same base compering details other then air-related.
 
shaun :
the actual one that you see there is a test edition that is put on when i test it multiple times on the Dynapack.

The one used on the street has a wery fine mesh on top and i a bit shorter and wider.
 
shaun :

The one i use on the street is like the one to the left :
tn_div%20222.jpg


The mesh is purely a copper mesh from a kitchen supply thingy.... :)
 
Thankyou!
I think i will try this out for a little bit and see what happens as i think i have some bits like this in the garage!:p
Look forward to more results! (Y)
 
Now the Micro Micra has run some miles with the oil additives in and I took a new compression test to see if there has been a change :
tn_div%20174_2.jpg


If we compare to the first test we can now see that we have actually a increase of 0.3-0.5 bar through the different cylinders :
tn_div%20756.jpg


This corresponds with what the producers of the oil additives claims with their products and that is good.
Note : later tests has shown even higher numbers.

The Micro Micra project has now come to the point where we have found some OEM limitiations of what we gan get away with without touching anything than merely small details for more power.
One thing that I have seen is that the fuel system is limiting the ability to give us more than a
“ economical “ view of point conserning more ompa ompa on the hubs.

I need to be able to juggle around some more stuff with the AFR ( Air fuel ratio ) to go further.

I decided to put in a adjustable pressure regulator to do some more research.
This fuel rail is the OEM from Nissan
tn_fuelrekk.jpg

(marked with red line)

4 fuel-nozzels are working in a predetermined pressure set from factory through a set regulator on the end of the fuel line.
tn_div%201040.jpg


I was lucky to be sponsored by a company called : TURBOKING with this new adjustable regulator
tn_div%201044.jpg

( chinese is no problem when you speak the language---ha-ha )

To make it work on the OEM fuel rail I had to make a adaptor from a piece of aluminium so that I could fit a fuel line into the rail
tn_div%201060.jpg

Here is the little piece of Alu i used
The OEM regulator to the right

Thought i put in a new fuel filter at the same time to makes things predictable:
tn_div%201043.jpg


The reulator is installed and with a proper pressure-meter i will be able to see what pressure i use at all times when i change it.

The pressure regulator has a built in function of lowering the pressure by a vacuum outlet that gives lower pressure near idle and around high vacuum conditions.
tn_div%201065.jpg

The regulator is highly adjustable in even the smallest increments.

So why put in a adjustable fuel regulator ?

Keep watching an I will try to show some more….
 
^^ nice. I was considering this after i put my intake on incase my car starts to run lean.

If my car is running lean at the top end of the rev range, if i adjust the fpr to add more fuel into the mixture. Wont the car run rich at idle and lower revs from the increased fuel pressure??
 
Coz:
when you change to bigger throttle blade or other details that makes the engine breathe easier you will , if nothing else is done , end up with a less then ideal situation regarding AFR ( air to fuel ratio )
and power being produced.

With such a smart little pressure regulator you will be able to find ( at least working on a Dynapack as i do ) the different power peaks as you project progresses along after different modifications.
But with certain limitations of course.

But as a crude rule of thumb you will normally get away with a better result after som work with the pressure compared to having no means of adjusting it at the same level of tune your in at that moment of time.

Yes , it will run more richer at some points of the rev / laod range but at the same time it will definitely rund better at the most interesting aerea ; where you want it to produce more power , and thats not near the idle or low rpms .

have a look at this picture :
tn_SP_A0497.jpg

The graphs are from another Micra project i am involved in.

SO HERE IS TODAYS QUIZ FOR YOU ALL GUYS :

Which AFR curve do you think gave the most power and where was the one with the most fuel pressure "off " , when it comes to power , compared to the one with low fuel pressure you think ?
You might be in for a small surprize...

Will show you more about this after your comments...
 
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