333pg333

Well you're building a legendary car for what it's worth. Serious congratulations for going on with it. I know that these things grow their own momentum and there's always a case of "While we're doing this we really should do that". It's never as simple as sitting down before a spanner has been touched and planning it out from go to whoa and being given a firm cost from the builder...Never! It always takes twice as long (and then double that again) and twice as much (and double that). The most difficult thing is that once you're in deep you can't stop otherwise all the time/money/effort has been for nought. :-( It's a hard school!

NZ951

I have over 100k in my track car, I thought about the $ per hour of racing the other day, it wasnt pretty lol I like working on the car too much.

Jeff Lamb

Tony, I am putting a Racepak IQ3 in my race car too (bought it a while back) and I am considering the Smartwire. However, regarding the Smartwire, are you going to buy two so you have one as a spare? Or, are those PDMs known to be really reliable to the point where you don't need a spare?

I am going to completely re-wire my car and I am on the fence right now between using the Smartwire or using traditional relays and circuit breakers. Part of me is thinking a simple traditional setup with relays and circuit breakers would be fairly simple for me to troubleshoot and keep spares for everything so I could quickly and easily perform repairs at the track when needed. However, if I was using the Smartwire and it started having problems (not sure how likely that is?), then the only solution would be to carry a spare or risk blowing a track weekend.

I would prefer to use the Smartwire for the increased functionality but I am not sure if I want to buy two of them.

Jeff

TonyG

I searched the net and the racepak forums to see if there where any reported smartwire failures and only found one (which was repaired for free) early in the product roll out.

There are a lot of people using there everywhere now and it's all been reported as good (that I can find).

BTW... Racepak was purchased by MSD.

I guess you could have a spare unit preprogrammed and just plug it in. It certainly woudn't hurt, but I just haven't heard of or been able to find any failures (except the 1) that would motivate me to carry a spare.

I will tell you... once you use a PDM, or Smartwire in this case... you'll never go back to fuses, relays, and breakers. You just can't use relays to perform the conditional logic that you can with a PDM or Smartwire. Nor can you have outputs that will reset themselves automatically, for a predetermined number if times, at a predetermined interval, etc... The list of advantages is long.

TonyG

333pg333

The other advantage is that if something is trying to short a connection, where a fuse would normally blow, the PDMs will keep trying to retain the connection. So you don’t necessarily just pull up to a stop mid race. It might be a momentary glitch that the PDM resets and you keep going.

Dubai944

It's nice stuff you have Tony

I wanted PDMs and wish I could have afforded it when I did my electrics. That's why I put all my fuses and relays in the dash right in front of me. I keep a soldering iron near the gearshift in case I need to do some mid-race electrical work.

Dutch944

Just had my contact search for the IQ3 in the Netherlands as well, I'm curious for prices and the ability to work with the AEM EMS4

TonyG

Racepak lists an AEM EFI Data Interface. P/N 230-VM-EFIAEM

Not sure if will work with your particular model or not, but that's the interface for you to research.

TonyG

ausgeflippt951

What kind of sensors are you looking to hook up? Racepak is a great value, especially if you're not looking for gobs of customizability or sensors and mostly just want a dash.

If you want to have a sensor for literally everything, Motec and AIM can't be beat. I haven't had as great luck with getting the engr analysis out of Racepak equipment.

TonyG

As far as sensors go, the Racepak IQ3 can use any sensor that a Motec or AIM can use.

The main problem with AIM is that there are no outputs which means the AIM can't control anything. It's purely for lap timing and data logging... that's it. It can't run the car or turn anything on or off.

The Motec does it all. But by the time your done, it's a $15k-$20k solution.

TonyG

Dutch944

I've been looking into it and it looks like the AEM EMS4 will be fully compatible. Only thing i'm looking in now is what kind of data it can show from the EMS4. Ofcourse i need boost/oil temp/AFR and i'm not sure if it can display that but i'll be looking into it soon!

Now ontopic.. Please give us more pics! You just keep amazing me (and all the others from the Netherlands i showed this topic to, 944 lover or not)

V2Rocket

How is your fuel transfer set up? Special pump, any inter-tank filters?

TonyG

There is a transfer pump that pumps from the rear tank to the main tank.

Both the transfer pump and the main fuel pump are external.

The filter is external and is just before the main fuel pump.

TonyG

TonyG

6/19/13

The dash is mounted with removable passenger side to access the all the stuff between the main fuel cell and the engine firewall (dual fire systems, Smartwire, ECU, Battery), the Racepak IQ3 is mounted, fuel gauges about to be mounted, electric power steering pump plumbed, all Racepak Vnet Sensors installed (oil temp, oil press, water temp, trans fluid temp, fuel pressure, front and rear brake pressure), modifying radiator outlet ducting, installed new 996 GT3 MK2 Brake Calipers with yellow pagid pads, installed seat....

Still need rear sway bar, new JRZ's, Genesis Dual 5-way sway bar adjuster and some radiator outlet ducting, and some brake ducting. And from where we've come.. the list is finally getting down to just a few things left.

Some day I'll drive this car before I die.

TonyG

mikey_audiogeek

Have to change the slogan on the back of the car: "Life's too short to build awesome race cars"

Seriously though, great work, keep it up!

Cheers,
Mike