Hi guys!
I have been reading this forums for a while now and I must admit that I love what you have done to some of your cars! Specially Edk's 2.2 DCi, your work and research is amazing! I've also modified my Almera a little bit, it's my first car and with the help of a friend (he's mechanic), we have done some serious mechanical and electronic modifications. Hope you like my ride
First things first, I bought the car fairly cheap (about 1700€), with only 137.000 Kms. It was the 2003 restyling version. Mechanically it was ok, I knew that it was a very realiable and strong engine, but both the interior and the bodywork were a little bit "broken". Let's just say that the previous owner wasn't careful at all.
We (my friend and me) started by stripping the interiors to clean them all, and replace the broken ones. Everything was bought from different scrapyards.
After this, the car was looking much better. Overall cost was about 300€, including oil and coolant change. The central glove was broken, so I integrated a Samsung Galaxy Tab II there. I'm a programmer, so i needed something with an OS in my car. Seriusly now, the tablet has GPS and using MapFactor I don't need an internet connection. I also have the Torque app and using bluetooth, the tablet synchronizes with the car's CAN bus and is able to read all the ECU parameters. Real speed, fuel injection parameters, MAF, turbo boost pressure, etc. I also can read and delete the ECU errors. The car was looking almost like this:
I didn't touch anything more on my car for some time. I came from a 1.9D Citroen and the 2.2 Di Almera was a great change, but I felt that the engine was a little bit slugish. When the turbo kicked in at about 2000-2500 rpm, the car accelerated quickly enought until 3000-3500 rpm, but then it wasn't going up to 4000 at the speed it should. So I investigated a little bit, from forums and my own research, and I reprogrammed my car myself, using a 10€ chip tunning cable. The 2.2 Di is very easy to modify, the ECU uses only 3 maps to manage the power output, because the VP44 pump manages the injection timing itself. For example, so you can have an idea, this is the torque limiter map.
The green line is the Nissan's original, and the red line is the new one. With this, the car has now about 140 bhp and 300 nm of torque. It will rev up to 4500 rpm without problem. With the torque increase, I have also reduced fuel consumption, as I have to shift gears less often. As my car has a wastegated turbo, until 2000 rpm the car doesn't consume a lot of fuel since it is really an atmosferic, BUT if you push your foot hard down, it's fast. I also closed the EGR valve electronically, so it has no problems with the service light, and more importantly, the ECU knows that the EGR is closed and adapts the air/fuel mixture accordingly so it's more clean and pure. I recorded this the other day for a friend that said that diesels aren't any fast (obviously he hasn't seen Edk's one)
It was going a little bit uphill and in a winding road, as you can see in the G-meter.
But may be the most interesting modification has to do with the gearbox: I switched mine for the one on the DCi. So I have shorter ratios now but with that 6th gear to do large cruisers. It wasn't easy though. First, the 6-speed gearbox uses wires and the 5-speed doesn't. So we had to cut the chasis in the right point to get those wires out from the stick to the gearbox. Second, we saw the original engine mounting that's on the gearbox and was soldered to the chasis, luckily the chasis has the holes for the screws in the 6-speed engine mount. We also had to change the driveshafts, the starter engine, the rear engine mounting, the air filter case, and a lot more things. But it worth it a lot. Aside from the gear ratios, the car is much more confortable now, the vibrations have gone, it has to do with the rear engine mounting, Nissan redesigned it when fitting the 6-speed gearbox and it's much better.
I have done some more details, like adapting the original controls on the steering wheel to the pioneer stereo, doble courtesy lights in the roof (I changed it because when I bought the car, it was completly destroyed, and I used the original car light + the one that came with the roof I bought on the scrapyard)
Handling wise, and I know that, with more HPs, it comes a greater responsability, I have fitted some KYB Ultra-SR shock absorbers, and I use Dunlop SP FastResponse tires in the front wheels, they're not amazing but they get the job done, and they work well in the rain, something very common over here.
Future plans for this car may be interesting for some of you. First I'm going to repaint it in pearl white, like the Audi RS3 or the VW Golf GTi, because externally it's "not nice" as it is right now. Nothing serious, but I like the car to look as well as I can. I want to buy also an original rear spoiler from one of the sporty versions like the 136 DCi, and the side skirts.
Mechanically, I'm planing on fitting an intercooler and design a DIY Sport mode. Basically I want to create a electronically controlled wastegated turbo using a boost control solenoid and an Arduino board programmed by myself, and, using a button and/or detecting when the car is at full throttle, rise automatically the boost pressure from 1.0 bar to 1.5. Having the ECU mapped to work like it will get 1.5 bar always, that should give me a nice power increase when on 1.5, but running on 1.0 boost will give nice fuel consumption in the other hand (and may be control a cutout valve in the exhaust to void one of the silencers and make nice noises when in sport mode)
I'm planning also to bypass the factory gauges controls and correct them with my arduino, so the gauges will give accurate readings, and retroiluminate them with white LEDs that will do a "fade in" effect when turned on. Also, I'm going to do a "gauges check" VAG style when starting the car. Something like this:
May be you can help me a little bit with the intercooler piping! I'll let you know about my progress with the custom mini-ECU btw!
Greetings from Spain!
I have been reading this forums for a while now and I must admit that I love what you have done to some of your cars! Specially Edk's 2.2 DCi, your work and research is amazing! I've also modified my Almera a little bit, it's my first car and with the help of a friend (he's mechanic), we have done some serious mechanical and electronic modifications. Hope you like my ride
First things first, I bought the car fairly cheap (about 1700€), with only 137.000 Kms. It was the 2003 restyling version. Mechanically it was ok, I knew that it was a very realiable and strong engine, but both the interior and the bodywork were a little bit "broken". Let's just say that the previous owner wasn't careful at all.
We (my friend and me) started by stripping the interiors to clean them all, and replace the broken ones. Everything was bought from different scrapyards.
After this, the car was looking much better. Overall cost was about 300€, including oil and coolant change. The central glove was broken, so I integrated a Samsung Galaxy Tab II there. I'm a programmer, so i needed something with an OS in my car
. Seriusly now, the tablet has GPS and using MapFactor I don't need an internet connection. I also have the Torque app and using bluetooth, the tablet synchronizes with the car's CAN bus and is able to read all the ECU parameters. Real speed, fuel injection parameters, MAF, turbo boost pressure, etc. I also can read and delete the ECU errors. The car was looking almost like this:
I didn't touch anything more on my car for some time. I came from a 1.9D Citroen and the 2.2 Di Almera was a great change, but I felt that the engine was a little bit slugish. When the turbo kicked in at about 2000-2500 rpm, the car accelerated quickly enought until 3000-3500 rpm, but then it wasn't going up to 4000 at the speed it should. So I investigated a little bit, from forums and my own research, and I reprogrammed my car myself, using a 10€ chip tunning cable. The 2.2 Di is very easy to modify, the ECU uses only 3 maps to manage the power output, because the VP44 pump manages the injection timing itself. For example, so you can have an idea, this is the torque limiter map.
The green line is the Nissan's original, and the red line is the new one. With this, the car has now about 140 bhp and 300 nm of torque. It will rev up to 4500 rpm without problem. With the torque increase, I have also reduced fuel consumption, as I have to shift gears less often. As my car has a wastegated turbo, until 2000 rpm the car doesn't consume a lot of fuel since it is really an atmosferic, BUT if you push your foot hard down, it's fast. I also closed the EGR valve electronically, so it has no problems with the service light, and more importantly, the ECU knows that the EGR is closed and adapts the air/fuel mixture accordingly so it's more clean and pure. I recorded this the other day for a friend that said that diesels aren't any fast (obviously he hasn't seen Edk's one)
It was going a little bit uphill and in a winding road, as you can see in the G-meter.
But may be the most interesting modification has to do with the gearbox: I switched mine for the one on the DCi. So I have shorter ratios now but with that 6th gear to do large cruisers. It wasn't easy though. First, the 6-speed gearbox uses wires and the 5-speed doesn't. So we had to cut the chasis in the right point to get those wires out from the stick to the gearbox. Second, we saw the original engine mounting that's on the gearbox and was soldered to the chasis, luckily the chasis has the holes for the screws in the 6-speed engine mount. We also had to change the driveshafts, the starter engine, the rear engine mounting, the air filter case, and a lot more things. But it worth it a lot. Aside from the gear ratios, the car is much more confortable now, the vibrations have gone, it has to do with the rear engine mounting, Nissan redesigned it when fitting the 6-speed gearbox and it's much better.
I have done some more details, like adapting the original controls on the steering wheel to the pioneer stereo, doble courtesy lights in the roof (I changed it because when I bought the car, it was completly destroyed, and I used the original car light + the one that came with the roof I bought on the scrapyard)
Handling wise, and I know that, with more HPs, it comes a greater responsability
, I have fitted some KYB Ultra-SR shock absorbers, and I use Dunlop SP FastResponse tires in the front wheels, they're not amazing but they get the job done, and they work well in the rain, something very common over here.Future plans for this car may be interesting for some of you. First I'm going to repaint it in pearl white, like the Audi RS3 or the VW Golf GTi, because externally it's "not nice"
as it is right now. Nothing serious, but I like the car to look as well as I can. I want to buy also an original rear spoiler from one of the sporty versions like the 136 DCi, and the side skirts.Mechanically, I'm planing on fitting an intercooler and design a DIY Sport mode. Basically I want to create a electronically controlled wastegated turbo using a boost control solenoid and an Arduino board programmed by myself, and, using a button and/or detecting when the car is at full throttle, rise automatically the boost pressure from 1.0 bar to 1.5. Having the ECU mapped to work like it will get 1.5 bar always, that should give me a nice power increase when on 1.5, but running on 1.0 boost will give nice fuel consumption in the other hand (and may be control a cutout valve in the exhaust to void one of the silencers and make nice noises when in sport mode
)I'm planning also to bypass the factory gauges controls and correct them with my arduino, so the gauges will give accurate readings, and retroiluminate them with white LEDs that will do a "fade in" effect when turned on. Also, I'm going to do a "gauges check" VAG style when starting the car. Something like this:
May be you can help me a little bit with the intercooler piping! I'll let you know about my progress with the custom mini-ECU btw!
Greetings from Spain!
