Some history
Last decade of 20th century certainly gave us some beautiful cars. Motorsport in full bloom, power to weight ratio heavily exceeding 1:1, and first hypercar ever, made in the UK, McLaren F1. Approximately in the same time, this F3000 was born.
Controlled with Marelli ECU, using distributor with one ignition coil, JUDD V8 easily hit 8500RPM limiter. For years, this combination was working fine, but after 15 years of use, Zytek itself recommended the change of ECU into more capable and modern control system.
As market was saturated with more or less capable ecu’s, owner of the car was forced to some serious thinking. For rare Judd engine, reworked by Renato Armaroli of Armaroli Motorsport, Bologna, only the best was good enough. So, as a weapon of choice, Emtron KV16 was chosen. Decision to use 16 sequential injectors in everlasting pursuit of power, made the choice even easier. Emtron KV16 as a high end ECU with capability of driving 16 sequentially staged injectors and 12 coils, was a natural choice. As only ECU armed with proper Torque model, traction control based on torque delivery, launch control in the same fashion, and all this available from 2016, refined and forged in numerous record holding cars, from Pikes Peak (fastest EVER FWD record holder), multiple WTAC champions (Tilton Interiors Evo, RP968 Porsche and many more), owner was more than pleased to go Emtron way!!!
The plan
The plan was to make Judd engine modern in all the aspects. ECU conversion put our imagination to work. Single ignition coil with old ignition cables was exchanged to 8 individual NGK pencil style coils. Traction control was enabled to keep the car safe on slippery mountain roads. All the failsafes must be enabled. Individual knock control using 2 knock sensors controlling each bank of engine, with 2 LSU ADV lambda sensors controlling each bank air fuel ration individually.
Fuel pressure and temperature sensor incorporated in advanced Emtron fuel model, to make fuelling of 10 000 RPM engine perfect under all conditions.
Oil pressure and temperature failsafe, to keep the lubrication and engine always well lubricated and safe. Finally, Emtron Throttle Mass Flow (TMF) for superb fuelling control of 8 very hungry cylinders with individual throttle bodies, with guillotine style mechanism. All in all, very serious and demanding task, but easy job for Emtron!
Original power of the car was measured at 486hp….so what will be the new number?
One of the downside of Marelli ecu was inability to use more than 4 teeth as a crank trigger, which was changed into 20-2 flywheel immediately after taking the project in the works. Can you imagine having 4 teeth at TDC for V8, runing 9000RPM???
One of the things worth to mention, was a TIGHT time schedule, to rewire the complete car, install the ECU, retune, make gearbox control, traction control and make sure that all works better than before.
As a circuit car, F3000 is using 3 fuel pumps, built into tank, 2 used a suction pumps, and 1 as a main pump. Tank is 120L, proper circuit car! What was discovered was one dead suction pump, so that was also fixed.
Additional fuel rails were added, so now the carbon airbox became crowded with wires and rails.
Wiring, Emtron, sensors….
Tuning was performed on a Mainline dyno, using 10 Lambda sensors, 8 individual and 2 bank ones. It was a challenging job to make it all perform flawlessly. Emtron EL4 was used with 4 NTK lab grade lambda sensors, and 2 Emtron ELC2 lambda controllers were used to control individual cylinder fueling. All connected together through CANBus, which keeps the wiring job simple as it can be. (Picture) To properly use Emtron’s TMF fuel model, pre/post MAP sensors were added, together with fast IAT sensors. Fuel pressure and temperature sensor mounted on new fuel rails, now feeding 16 injectors, for fuel model and safety. Oil pressure and temperature sensor for safety and warning, when used on the circuit or long hillclimb tracks. All new speed sensors on all 4 wheels added. Rotary switch added, for choosing the level of traction control. Double knock sensors added. Proper individual cylinder knock control. To make the job properly, all needs to be in perfect order….so….never enough sensors, right?
Tuning, dyno, Emtron
So, the time has come to fire up the V8 beast and see what we did and what will be the gain.
Engine started, working perfectly. A bit different sound, probably the responsibility of superb Emtron injector drivers, as we had opportunity to see in the past. All pressures tested perfect, oil and fuel right where they are meant to be.
Next test, sequential staging of injectors, and switchover. Tested at idle, tested optically, tested manually. All passes superbly!
What was noticed is the odd resonance in the intake, and airflow in the specific spot, right where the cams become alive and start to move the air through the wild engine. Wild, aggressive, and lightning fast on picking up the revs. RPM limiter was moved to 5 figures….so 10 000 RPM became new danger zone.
Also, the other thing we noticed was the difference between cylinders/banks. One cylinder was dangerously lean and after changing the injectors on it, same thing occurred. After trimming, no more worries about burning it lean. So, does the individual cylinder tuning nets power? No. But, does it give piece of mind and smoother engine running, yes.
For fast tuning and impressive AFR stability, we say thanks to Emtron. TMF did the job superbly, also reporting power and torque almost spot on as a dyno! That only assured us that all the calibrations are spot on!
Aftermath
So, what did we gain? Compared to the old configuration, which was measured at 486hp, we got 34hp after 6000 RPM. So total was exactly 520hp. The most impressive thing is that the power just extended up to the redline! Minimum loss of power till limiter was very impressive.
What does the owner say? After testing on a track, without any issues, that was it. The goal was reached, even better, cracked at 520hp! Addition of superb torque based traction control made the car more useful on slippery mu stain roads. Failsafes used made all the spirits sleep happy.
Gear shifting was superb comparing to old gear cut version. Fast as lightning shifts now safely used with “Next gear stable” strategy. All in all, perfect.
What else was left on the table?
Only upgrade that was left on the table is paddle shifting. That will be addressed next time we see this F3000!
Till then, enjoy the sound:
