Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

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DriverGT5
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Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by DriverGT5 »

I've been lurking, searching, and fixing all of my issues and figured I'd post my success in case anyone runs into similar issues with their vehicle.

This is my second Megasquirt project. First was back in 2002 on a 1985 Mazda RX-7 with a MS1 and Ford 5.0 V8 running stock fuel injection and using the Ford distributor and MSD to control spark. That project was easy. Lots of info, simple build, plenty of fuel maps to chose from.

This one was much harder. The car is a 2001 Thunder Roadster built by 600 racing in Concord, NC. I was powered by a 1250cc Yamaha air cooled engine, converted to water cooling, running carburetors. Up to this point, no one that I know has run fuel injection on any of these cars. By the class rules they have to run no more than 140whp and several guys have put in Hiyabusa engines with the Yamaha carburetors to get the power down to the 140 mark.

I just installed a 2011 Kawasaki ZX14 motor that makes about 165-170whp on the motorcycles. My plan is to use the spark control to pull timing and keep the power curve under 140whp to stay legal but should give me a nice flat power line and LOTS of area under the curve. The plus advantage is that with the flip of a computer file, I can run the engine at full power if I chose to race a different class one weekend. I'm going to the dyno in the next week and I'll post dyno curves to see how successful the tuning is.

As for the install, I'm running a Microsquirt V3.0 with a GM 2-bar MAP, the factory Kawasaki ITB's and fuel injectors and the factory stick coils. I'm pulling a crank signal from the factory VR sensor and not using the cam sensor at the moment although there is another VR sensor I could use if I wanted. I have a ambient air sensor tied to the wire harness (no air box) and I'm using the factory Kawasaki CLT and TPS sensors. I thought I could run true DIS with the Quadspark but I couldn't figure out if it was possible or not so I wired the Quadspark in pairs to the two outputs from the Microsquirt and basically double fire the stick coils as if they were wasted spark. I was afraid they would run out of juice but so far they seem to hold up at 11,000 rpms so my fingers are crossed.

The wire harness that came with the Microsquirt was awesome! I built my last harness (actually a friend did most of the work while I watched) and I really didn't want to go through it all again. I wired the car up as shown online and was able to get my signals and cranking within a couple hours. 4 or 5 hours later the car started and idled. Only took two days from start to finish to get the car wired, installed, fuel and spark maps rough enough to start and idle the engine.

I did run into some problems though.

First was figuring out that when the battery gets low the plugs foul out. The spark seems to get weak and the combination of slower cranking and cooler spark seems to foul the plugs easily. I currently have no priming pulse and very low cranking pulse because once the car floods it takes a long time to start again. The good news is that I can clean the plugs or install a jump box and it usually starts after that. I still have to redo how the alternator is wired up.

Second and biggest was my false Rev Limiter. To avoid engine damage I had the limiter set to 6,000 rpms while testing. We took it to our first track day to turn the car (and found it crazy lean under load!!) and started bumping it up as we added more fuel and felt safer about the car. I had it set to 9,500 and finally felt like I could open it all the way up only to find out it would never go above 9,500 rpms. This is a problem for many reasons, one being that the gear in the rear will top out at 140mph in 6th at 11,000rpms and the car needs that speed at Road Atlanta. Not fun to find that 1500 feet before the brake zone you no longer can accelerate.

I figured out I was getting false teeth signals on my trigger above 9500. I was counting 23 teeth instead of 22 causing a lost sync code #2. What is crazy is the car starts well, idles great, and runs like a bat out of hell right up to 9500 and then hits a wall! I found a very obscure document on the V3 Microsquirt board about a solder jumper on the back of the board and reasoned that my higher than usual rpms must be maxing out the ignition adaptive circuit on the Microsquirt (http://www.useasydocs.com/theory/vr.htm) so I removed the Microsquirt, took the case apart, and found a VERY small solder joint that simply said VR. So I jumped it and put it all back together. It improved. The ignition would still break up at 9500 but sometimes it would now go past and hit the 11,000 red line. Now we're onto something....

Further research seems to have lots of people installing resistors on the VR+ line. Many recommend 10K but I found a lot of people seemed to find 1K working for them so I just hit Radio Shack and purchased a range from 470-10k and came back. I started with a 1K ohm 1/4w resistor, twisted in, fired up the car, and ran it clean all the way to 11,000 without a single false signal. After 10 minutes I couldn't make it miss a beat. Hopefully this will save someone else a major headache if they try to do this on a Kawasaki or other motorcycle.

I still have one problem. My tach is not accurate. It's off by about 6% so when Tuner Studio says 11,000 my tach says 11,600. Other than that I am very please and looking forward to the dyno with this car.
Robert
-2001 ZX14R powered Thunder Roadster - Microsquirt
racingmini_mtl
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by racingmini_mtl »

That's a really cool project.

If you want to use sequential ignition (COPs), you can use the WLED and ALED outputs for spark C and D, respectively. Of course, you're also going to need the cam sensor. You might also want to look into using the latest firmware (V3.3.1).

Jean
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DriverGT5
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by DriverGT5 »

racingmini_mtl wrote:That's a really cool project.

If you want to use sequential ignition (COPs), you can use the WLED and ALED outputs for spark C and D, respectively. Of course, you're also going to need the cam sensor. You might also want to look into using the latest firmware (V3.3.1).

Jean
Thanks for the info. I was focused on getting the car running and didn't know how many modifications I would have to do to run COP. I left the unused wires still in the harness because I figured I would end up going back and using some other features down the road. Maybe half way through the season I'll attach the cam sensor and rewire the coil outputs. I have my first track day this weekend so I'll see how the coils hold up to 25 minutes of 11,000 rpms at a time.

The only thing I wish I had was a compact data logger. Since it's a one seater car I have no good place to put a laptop to record data while on track. We do have a Kindle Fire that is running Shadow Logger but I haven't tried it out yet to see how well it will work nor do I know how easy it will be to get the information to my laptop at a race track with spotty internet to tune the fuel maps.
Robert
-2001 ZX14R powered Thunder Roadster - Microsquirt
ktmdude2002
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by ktmdude2002 »

Any new updates on this build?
DriverGT5
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by DriverGT5 »

I did just kind of leave this hanging didn't I?

Well, after a couple track days with poor results I found the fuel cell foam coming apart and clogging the fuel filter and an old fuel hose sucking in air. I replaced a lot of the fuel system and got the car running at Road Atlanta in March 2014, set a track record in qualifying, and ran out of gas during the race..... :roll:

Sunday we ran in the rain and I sucked water into the engine and bent three rods. That's why there haven't been any updates, the car has sat for over a year as I worked on growing my business.

Last month I got it put back together and ran it around Roebling Road. What a difference a year and a half made! Now everyone is running fuel injected Hiyabusa engines and I was lucky to be in 5th place! Of course I still need to dial in the setup and go back to the dyno to tune the motor again.

Saturday I went from 10th to 5th, got spun off the track, went back to 10th, then fought my way to 5th to finish.
Sunday I was running 5th when the guy in 4th lost control, spun across track and put us both into a wall. There was minor damage to my body but the impact snapped my rear end.

Next race will be at Road Atlanta in December. I hope to have the car tuned and setup better by then so I can see how it does. If it goes smooth, I'll pull it apart and start messing with some other features like using the cam signal to run COP instead of batch firing the coils.
Robert
-2001 ZX14R powered Thunder Roadster - Microsquirt
elaw
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by elaw »

Sounds cool!

But threads like this are always better with photos and/or videos, hint hint... :lol:
Eric Law
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DriverGT5
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by DriverGT5 »

elaw wrote:Sounds cool!

But threads like this are always better with photos and/or videos, hint hint... :lol:
Indeed they are....

https://youtu.be/WytDljfLKzg Here's it running last year. Sorry for the creepy face. I sent this video to all the other racers to taunt them... :mrgreen:

https://youtu.be/CbSAXYH_lLk Here's the view from my most recent race from the car behind me. Fast forward to 5:30 if you want to see me get smashed into the wall. :|
Robert
-2001 ZX14R powered Thunder Roadster - Microsquirt
DriverGT5
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by DriverGT5 »

It took a while to learn how to get it to work but after getting the ignition cells where I wanted them and pulling ignition timing out at higher RPMS I was able to get a nice flat power band. Our series has a cap of 140whp and I was able to get between 135-140hp from 7,500-10,500 RPMS!

"Hey Rob! What gear are you in?"
"Doesn't matter!" :mrgreen:
Robert
-2001 ZX14R powered Thunder Roadster - Microsquirt
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Re: Kawasaki ZX14 powered Thunder Roadster!

Post by dontz125 »

Holy crap - I've seen CVTs with peakier bands! Nice work! :yeah!:
QuadraMAP Sensor Module -- PWM-to-Stepper Controller -- Dual Coil Driver
Coming soon: OctoMAP Sensor Module
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