Throttle response issue

[BeingOriginal]

After a blat I’m finding an issue with the throttle response on my Duratec car (the throttle requires a much more significant prod for heal-toe and moving away, it even stalled for the first time while waiting in traffic)

What should I be investigating first? throttle cable itself (already has heat reflective film on), throttle position sensor, the map itself?

regards
Dan

[rj]

The map shouldn't change.

I have very little experience with D-cars, but I'd check lambda sensor and TPS - and then other sensors like water and air temp. I suspect that the barometric sensor is internal in the ECU, but of course it can go bust.

Can you connect to the ECU with some sort of OBD scanner? You can on the EU cars, and I think you can on UK D-s as well.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

RJ’s suggestion on Lambda sensor and TPS are good, if possible get a cable from SBD Motorsports or borrow one and run Easimap to review sensor settings. There is no barometric input on the MBE 992 ECU that is likely the one you have with your Duratec, even if a barometric sensor is added it will show pressure values in Easimap, but the default Caterham map will not adjust for it’s input.

[John Vine]

...or borrow one...

Have you come across the Equipment-for-Loan Register yet? 

(My own MBE cable (item 20) is unavailable at the moment, I'm afraid.)

JV

[BeingOriginal]

Thanks for the responses everyone, I believe I have the correct cable so I'll download the software.

I may well be back for some help interpreting any numbers!

[BeingOriginal]

FYI just checked the spec of the Scholar supplied engine in my car and I have the MBE 967 ECU

[John Vine]

MBE 967

That's unusual for a Duratec, which IME have either a 992 or a 9A4.  The 967 is old now and would normally be used for the more muscular Ks (R400, for example).

For a 967, you'll need Easimap 5 and a laptop with a serial port (old iron, in other words).  More info here.

JV

 

[rj]

And it also has to be on WinXP, otherwise communication will fail

[BeingOriginal]

Thanks for all the information everyone.

I spent some time checking the car over the weekend only to find it has no lamba sensor!

With regards the ECU while I have a laptop with a serial port, it's not running XP, I think it'll now be a case of taking it to the 2 Steve's (who mapped it previously) in Spring so they can look at it.

[John Vine]

... it has no lamba sensor!

For a Duratec that seems odd.  Is your car a "hybrid" of some sort?  You mentioned Scholar and 967, so I was beginning to wonder...

...it's not running XP...

According to SBD, "Easimap 5 requires Windows 98, 2000, XP or Vista to run".  Does your laptop run one of those? 

Also, does your ECU have a diagnostics connector?  My old 1.8K SS-R (EU2) had a 967, and the new owner had to get a special diagnostics lead wired in to be able to use Easimap.

JV

 

[BeingOriginal]

Thanks John

You're right that the car is a hybrid of sorts, originally a 93 HPC it wen't back to Arch for a refresh, engine spec is Scholar 2.0, Omega pistons, arrow rods, Piper BP300, Jenveys etc etc, made 268bhp at track n' road so a fairly high spec engine.

I have the correct connector for it at home but only have machines running Windows 10 and Mac OS sadly.

 Not sure whats involved in adding a Lambda sensor?

[rj]

You can run Easimap 5 under a virtual machine I've been told - never tried though.

[aerobod - near CYYC]

Easimap 6 definitely runs in a virtual machine, I'm using VirtualBox on Linux (Fedora 27) with Windows 10 for it, but have run it on the WinXP virtual machine I also have, in the past. The cheap way of doing this was to re-use the WinXP licence I used to run on an old laptop (depends on how restrictive Microsoft made that licence originally as to whether it is locked to the original platform). The current virtual machine software is very good in terms of hardware emulation. I even have a copy of DOS 6.22 running an ancient 1990s version of AutoCAD that requires direct memory access running on VirtualBox v5, but the menu access is tricky as they focus and de-focus so rapidly, the software was never designed to run on such a fast platform.

[BeingOriginal]

I'll install a Lambda sensor as part of revisiting all the wiring over winter and take it to road n' track, longer term I'll pick up an old laptop to run Easimap, thanks for the help.