Friday, April 03, 2009
Horsing around at work: Nova "blower" installation
Usually I don't post that much about what goes on at work, but this time I'll make an exception. Yesterday morning, Jerry had finished up tuning a 350-powered, Megasquirt-II equipped Chevy Nova that's going to feature in our book on EFI. So we had the Nova strapped to the dyno, a little bit of uncommitted time... and a high powered leaf blower we'd been using to clean up the parking lot yesterday. You know how sometimes you know something may be a crazy idea, but you can't pass up trying? Well, this was one of them.
Leaf blower dyno test
I was kind of surprised at the results. Then again, it was a pretty big leaf blower. The hose running to the intake actually puffed up visibly when you gave the blower full throttle.
Leaf blower dyno test
I was kind of surprised at the results. Then again, it was a pretty big leaf blower. The hose running to the intake actually puffed up visibly when you gave the blower full throttle.
Labels: Megasquirt, Videos
Monday, December 10, 2007
And I can't seem to find my camera...
I've just gotten back from the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show in Orlando. Unfortunately I haven't unpacked my camera yet, since I was there with DIYAutotune and my personal and business luggage got a bit mixed up. Yes, you heard that right - I was there representing Megasquirt at PRI, along with Jerry and Justin. Well, technically, we were actually representing Dynapack by providing the demonstration car for their dyno exhibit, but Dynapack also let us set up a table with Megasquirts on display.
So, what was going on at PRI? Here's some things I noticed:
1. A lot of the show, perhaps as much as half of it if you don't count the machinery and trailer exhibits, was dedicated to circle track racing. Most of the other cars were drag machines or road racers, with a handful of other types of cars such as a Bonneville racer. The Miata was one of maybe three autocross cars there.
2. There was a surprising number of diesel performance exhibits, including a compound turbo on display and a semi truck built for road racing.
3. A surprising number of people at the show had already heard of Megasquirt and used it.
4. If a lot of people fly into town for an exhibit about racing, it's really bad news for car rental companies.
5. I got to talk with Garrett's technical staff. They didn't think the GT4082 turbo was all that crazy for a slant six - maybe a bit large for the 400 hp range, but not an unspoolable beast, either. We'll see.
6. Conference food is really overpriced.
Pictures will be up soon.
So, what was going on at PRI? Here's some things I noticed:
1. A lot of the show, perhaps as much as half of it if you don't count the machinery and trailer exhibits, was dedicated to circle track racing. Most of the other cars were drag machines or road racers, with a handful of other types of cars such as a Bonneville racer. The Miata was one of maybe three autocross cars there.
2. There was a surprising number of diesel performance exhibits, including a compound turbo on display and a semi truck built for road racing.
3. A surprising number of people at the show had already heard of Megasquirt and used it.
4. If a lot of people fly into town for an exhibit about racing, it's really bad news for car rental companies.
5. I got to talk with Garrett's technical staff. They didn't think the GT4082 turbo was all that crazy for a slant six - maybe a bit large for the 400 hp range, but not an unspoolable beast, either. We'll see.
6. Conference food is really overpriced.
Pictures will be up soon.
Labels: Megasquirt, PRI
Monday, April 30, 2007
The Richmond Megasquirt convention
Usually I don't blog about work, but I'll make an exception here.
This weekend, Jerry, Justin, and I drove up to the Megasquirt convention. Some of the well known people in the Megasquirt world couldn't make it, but many of the distributors, coders, and people who just have provided a lot of support were there. Bruce Bowling and Al Grippo attended, of course, and so did Scott Clark, Scott Hall, Peter Florance, Rodney Sparks, James Murray (all the way from England), Ken Culver, and many other of the well known members of the community. It was great to be able to meet people I'd only seen on the Internet and message boards, and hang out over a few beers. Many of them didn't look the way I imagined at all.
I didn't bring my camera, but the guys from 1320Video.com captured a lot of it in this gallery on their site. You'll see some interesting cars and trucks there, including an Isuzu Amigo with an Eaton blower. If Satan ever took up dentistry, his drill would sound like that SUV's motor.
We had some interesting informal demos and talks on Friday night, including Bruce bringing in the scarriest wheel decoder tester I've seen. He made it out of a circular saw.
Saturday morning, we went over to AED's Mustang chassis dyno. Wes's four banger Mustang won that shootout thanks to a Garret GT32 turbo and a tank full of alchohol. He posted 390 hp. And yes, it's a street car. We picked that time to unveil our Megasquirt PNP plug-in ECU for the Miata. We had driven the Miata all the way from Atlanta on it, making a few last minute changes to the fuel map on the freeway. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable car for the trip.
We then had a few talks on Megasquirt additions that have just come out. James and Ken presented the MS2/Extra code, and Scott was there to present the Spectre eMS-Pro. Other things they covered included MegaTunix, the CANBus (which right now has been unexplored as there are no peripherals that use that; Bruce was hoping to change this), and the next development of Megasquirt, which has been known as the router board or Megasquirt-III. This one is a bit more than just a sequential add-on to Megasquirt; it's pretty much a redesign from scratch.
I'm definitely glad I went.
This weekend, Jerry, Justin, and I drove up to the Megasquirt convention. Some of the well known people in the Megasquirt world couldn't make it, but many of the distributors, coders, and people who just have provided a lot of support were there. Bruce Bowling and Al Grippo attended, of course, and so did Scott Clark, Scott Hall, Peter Florance, Rodney Sparks, James Murray (all the way from England), Ken Culver, and many other of the well known members of the community. It was great to be able to meet people I'd only seen on the Internet and message boards, and hang out over a few beers. Many of them didn't look the way I imagined at all.
I didn't bring my camera, but the guys from 1320Video.com captured a lot of it in this gallery on their site. You'll see some interesting cars and trucks there, including an Isuzu Amigo with an Eaton blower. If Satan ever took up dentistry, his drill would sound like that SUV's motor.
We had some interesting informal demos and talks on Friday night, including Bruce bringing in the scarriest wheel decoder tester I've seen. He made it out of a circular saw.
Saturday morning, we went over to AED's Mustang chassis dyno. Wes's four banger Mustang won that shootout thanks to a Garret GT32 turbo and a tank full of alchohol. He posted 390 hp. And yes, it's a street car. We picked that time to unveil our Megasquirt PNP plug-in ECU for the Miata. We had driven the Miata all the way from Atlanta on it, making a few last minute changes to the fuel map on the freeway. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable car for the trip.
We then had a few talks on Megasquirt additions that have just come out. James and Ken presented the MS2/Extra code, and Scott was there to present the Spectre eMS-Pro. Other things they covered included MegaTunix, the CANBus (which right now has been unexplored as there are no peripherals that use that; Bruce was hoping to change this), and the next development of Megasquirt, which has been known as the router board or Megasquirt-III. This one is a bit more than just a sequential add-on to Megasquirt; it's pretty much a redesign from scratch.
I'm definitely glad I went.
Labels: Megasquirt
