Malone Tuning Stage 2

Today, I wrap up the saga of the bigger injector nozzles and the Malone Tune in the VW bus. And, finally take Hapy for a drive. But first, for my mj-friendly readers, Hapy 420; celebrate safely :) Before I get flamed, yes, I know 420 did not stem from a date. It came from a time-of-day, but that does not change the fact that people celebrate pot on the 20th of April. It does, however, explain why some folks celebrate 4:20 in the afternoon with their personal favorite intoxicant.

Also, please note that the fine people at blogger have notified their users that "After July 2021, your feed will still continue to work, but the automated emails to your subscribers will no longer be supported." So, if you are relying upon an email to let you know that there is a new post on one of your favorite blogs, this will no longer function starting in August.

On to chipping Hapy's TDI computer...

Malone Tuning

In the TDI world, and increasingly outside of it, Malone Tuning is kind of the hallmark for getting your ECU "chipped". For those who wish to get more out of their engine, there is a tune for practically any set up and performance target. Malone has a few tunes below the "stage 2" that I selected, which either maximize power with a completely stock set up or adjust settings for best economy. I decided that I wanted larger injectors so I could get a little more oomph, so the stage 2 is the better choice. I do not have any plans to upsize my turbo, but if I did, this tune would support it.

On the turbo, I am running a stock VNT-15. The easiest upgrade would be to find and install a VNT-17. These appear on some cars stock. The advantage of the 17 is that it can create more boost (in pounds per square inch or PSI), because everything is bigger. The downside is the turbo lag (delay in the arrival of the power) is increased, moving the powerband up the RPM's. Since the sound and vibration of the bus increases with the RPM as well, I generally try to stay below 3500RPM. The VNT-15 turbo starts to kick in around 1800, but isn't really all-there until closer to 2200. So, right now, my total band for power is around 1300RPM (2200-3500). Adding a bigger turbo will reduce that or push my top-end higher to compensate which would make for a more noisy / shaking experience. It is for this reason that I am not really considering a turbo swap. The $1000US for a turbo is, of course, a factor too. Besides, we haven't seen how bigger nozzles and a tune will affect things yet!

Ship Ship Ship Ship

projected HP and torque
increases from stage 2

The actual purchasing of a Malone tune is through "Tunezilla". For someone with a super-early TDI like mine, it is not a simple download of software, though. A pair of chips need to be swapped out. This can be done by their shop, who does this every day, or they will send you the chips to do it yourself. I decided to have them do it, and sent my ECU off to them. Less than a week later, it was back in my hands, having traveled through customs twice (Malone is in BC, Canada) and their shop. Unfortunately, FedEx international shipping was a little rough with the package and after some highly responsive tech support from Malone to diagnose, I had to send it back. Malone determined that a handful of the solder joints broke free during shipping, causing the ECU to not power up.

The symptoms were consistent: apply switched 12V power and nothing happened. No messages on the "K" line thru the OBD-II plug to my little reader, no check engine light, no glow-plug light, but there was power at and past relay 109. So, there was some power moving through the ECU (relay 109 is triggered by the ECU), just not all of it.

I sent it back and they turned it around in 2 days, finding and fixing the loose soldier joints. They super-packed it with extra puff, so we would not have a solder fail repeat. Again, about a week after I sent it to them, it was back in my hands. An aside: when I sent it the first time, FedEx said they were not delivering to that address, so I went through UPS. UPS cost twice as much. The second time I sent it, FedEx was delivering there again. So weird.

Holy Head Snap

Hapy says "lets play"

Anyway, this time when I plugged it in, I had an entirely different experience. I turned the key to "RUN" and heard the familiar "snap snap" of the relays and the dash-pod waking up. I turned the key to start and Hapy fired up immediately (bum-bum broom). He rough idled for a few seconds and then settled down at 900RPM. I cleared the codes (per Malone instructions) and then played with the go pedal. Oh, this is gonna be fun. The new injectors don't leak at all, and the pump retains prime after being left idle for days. Bigger nozzles, stage 2 tune, wrapped exhaust, oil temp and pressure gauging, fresh wiring from front to back, including a new, custom fuse/relay box, the fat-plug harness surgery... All I needed was a test drive and Hapy could be ready to rumble.

Not so fast. It would be irresponsible to put that much new power on the road without verifying the brakes. So, before I got my "go" on, I adjusted the rear drum brakes, checked the lining on the front and confirmed I had full fluid. I switched out the system to DOT4 a couple of years ago, so the fact that he has been sitting most of the time since did not concern me as much as DOT3 would have. DOT3 absorbs moisture (bad for your fluid life) over time while DOT4 does not.

dyno curve compare
stock -v- stage 2

So.. with brakes adjusted, and all the stuff I said a paragraph ago now complete, I'm ready to test drive. We have been blessed with pleasant (20*C / upper 60*'s F) high temperatures so far this April, with many sunny skies. This makes for some perfect conditions for a test drive. While I only did the usual lap for my test, it was amazing. Somewhere along the way when I worked on the original bus dash I failed to re-connect the speedometer cable, but otherwise, everything worked very well and the brakes responded strong. As I turned onto the main road, I quickly moved through 1st and 2nd gear. When I put it in third, I really put my foot into it. I didn't floor it, but I put it pressed it pretty far down. The turbo spun up and I lost traction in my drive tires: I was burning rubber in 3rd gear, rolling at around 25mph. That'll do. Hahaha. I don't think I'll need to do anything more performance-wise, though I may replace the exhaust pipe if that will reduce exhaust gas temperature (EGT) or if the wrap destroys it. When I got back home, I felt the rear tires; they were warm, but not hot. Same goes for the rear drums. Then, I checked the wrapped exhaust which was also warm, but easily touchable.

With a consistent accelerator pedal (no more 1200 limp mode) and better visibility into the engine health, Hapy is pretty much ready for some road-tripping this Summer. Now that CoViD-19 vaccines are becoming more widespread and plentiful, Hapy's system-ready status could not arrive soon enough.

That's it for now. As I go, another reminder that Hapy turns 50 on 3-September-2021 and we will be celebrating it at LL Stub State Park. If you have nothing else to do Labor Day weekend, there are some great hiking, horse and bike trails there as well as our little birthday.

Thanks, as always, for following along--

Oh SNAP

A couple of weeks ago, I had the $500 Jetta suddenly stall in the driveway. Today's post covers the root cause investigation.

P0341: cam position sensor
P0422: o2 sensor

Stall

So, Boo is standing in the driveway next to her idling 2001 VW Jetta (named 2dot0) when it suddenly stopped running. There was no special noise, nor did it gasp on it's way down. It was just running one second and not running the next. My mind ran through a few scenarios, but I landed on electrical because of how quickly it shut off.

What You Should Do

Since a gas engine runs with the correct combination of fuel, air, compression and spark, These are the things that should be checked, and checked in that order, before you start swapping parts... even if you think you're sure you know what's wrong. If you have a more modern car, get a code reader and pull the codes from the computer. Sometimes, the computer won't give you a code for a while. I didn't get these codes here until after I'd figured out what was wrong through the steps below. The P0341 code confirmed my findings.

Fuel

fuel pressure regulators
(new on right)

Simply put, verify that you have fuel at the injector. To radically simplify things, I verified that I had fuel at the fuel pressure regulator by removing the regulator and letting the fuel pump cycle. I had fuel bubbling over. Pulling an injector can be difficult, so for me, this demonstrated that I had fuel at the rail. The probability of all 4 injectors clogging so badly that the fuel wasn't making it to the chamber was so low, I ruled out fuel, but replaced the fuel pressure regulator anyway since the old one fell apart on extraction (see picture).

Air

Check the air filter. It is completely clogged? It's probably not the issue. Check the "snow snorkel" that runs from the air box to the outside. Sometimes something can get jammed in there (like snow), preventing the engine from getting air. Remove some intake piping between the air box and the metal bits so you can see the little gate on the air intake. When the foot pedal is moved, does the flap move? You're probably getting air. This would be a good time to check the air sensor. This usually would throw a code, but to verify it isn't that sensor, unplug it and try to start the car. If it starts, that sensor is bad. The car will run without the sensor, but badly. Sometimes this sensor can prevent a start, but that wasn't the case with me. I ruled out air, and put everything back together again.

This is where I should have checked compression, but I was convinced it was an electrical thing, so I skipped ahead to Spark. Don't. Checking your compression is easy, and it reveals some very interesting info about your upper end, the mechanical timing and, possibly, a lower end issue.

Compression

2.0 ignition coil

Grab your compression tester (they are pretty cheap, if you don't have one) and test your cylinders one at a time. It's best to remove all four plugs, and test each cylinder multiple times. Take care how you manage your plugs and wires so you don't set yourself or your car on fire nor do you lose track of which wire goes where. Unplugging the coil is the simple solution. Anyway, if you get any reading under 100psi, try squirting a little oil into the cylinder and retest. If the reading is better, your rings are going and you'll need a bottom end rebuild soon. Start saving. If the reading doesn't change, its a valve-train issue. Assuming all of your reading are within 15% of each other and they are all above 100psi, move on to fuel.

Had I done this step before Spark, I would have found all 4 cylinders at 0 PSI, indicating a broken timing belt. This was verified by removing the timing belt cover and not seeing the belt. Yikes.

Spark

Remove the spark plug that's easiest to get to. In the 2.0 engine, that's #4. Take care how you remove the plug wire. Now, with a partner turning the key, hold the plug against the engine block (forming a ground) and watch for the spark. No spark? Could be your issue. I was way overdue for a tune up, and the plug socket fell off the plug wire when I touched it, so I concluded replacing plugs and wires was a good idea. 2dot0 still didn't start. I should already have checked compression, but still, I should have stopped here and gone back to it. I continued down the electrical gremlin path instead.

The new plugs and wires didn't do it. So, I got a new coil. And then a new battery. And finally a new crank position sensor. Still no start.

Realizations

no, I'm not a Packer fan

It wasn't until I got to this point that I reverted to the compression tests and learned that I had just thrown over $100 of new parts plus a battery into a large boat anchor. The timing belt broke, throwing off the timing and causing the valves to hit the piston tops. The engine was effectively blown. Tiny fragments of valve and piston will work their way into the deeper recesses of the engine while the breaking belt could have damaged rollers or the coolant pump. I sold the car for scrap and its gone.

Watching 2dot0 get towed away, I ran a quick accounting. I bought the car for $500, and had it running for another $30. Since then, I only bought tires and oil, so that's probably another $600 or so. Rounding up, I was probably into that car for $1200 before it broke and then threw another $300 into it. That's $1500 for a car including maintenance for 18 months minus the salvage I was paid, means it cost me less than $70/mo. Since you can barely rent a car for a weekend at that rate, I think we did extremely well. I just wish I had performed the timing belt maintenance.

That's all for today. After 2dot0 broke, I served my penance for not doing the timing belt by riding mass transit for a few weeks. Today was my first day back driving to work. It is such a luxury, though I do kind of miss the light rail. Thanks for following along-