New rides entry: 1995 Alfa Romeo 155 Q4 Sport "widebody"

[kunev]

I mentioned before, that I use Ecumaster Data Master software to make custom calculation channels first for turbo speed and later for boost pressure as this is not possible in the software for Ecumaster EMU Black. I also made some for current fuel consumption. There is system channels from ECU for "Fuel usage" in liters/h and "Fuel used" in liters, from which 2nd one is not working in the logs currently unfortunately, it is always 0. So I used "Fuel usage" and vehicle speed, which is configured and calculated in ECU from VSS signal frequency, to calculate uncorrected (for variation of differential fuel pressure) current fuel consumption. In ECU's software is defined fuel injector size in cc3/min, which is at rated for fuel regulator base differential pressure, but if differential pressure changes from rated one so does fuel flow from injector. In my case, pumped fuel during low load is much more than used one and fuel pressure regulator become overwhelmed, so differential pressure increase than rated one. I doubt that system "Fuel usage" signal is corrected for available fuel pressure and respectively delta fuel pressure, so I made also corrected (for variation in fuel pressure) current fuel consumption custom channel. Not long ago there was question in one group for Ecumaster EMU Black about possibility to see fuel consumption with this ECU and this intrigued me and I look more into that in Data Master software. As a kids we have interested what is the max number on the speedometer of cars and now people are only interested how how much hp, how much it cost, and how much it consume ... so look like important aspect to consider putting more effort . During that goal I implemented custom channels for total fuel used corrected for variations in differential fuel pressure (using fuel usage and delta fuel pressure), trip distance (using vehicle speed) and average fuel consumption corrected for variations in differential pressure (using calculated fuel used and trip distance). I think that mathematics look sound (trust me I'm an engineer ), results look reasonable and I'm very pleased with my "achievements" .

And now something maybe more interesting and easy to assimilate - some new photos and video of the car
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[kunev]

It is time for a first post for this year in this thread, better late than never as they say
Before the start of this season I bought something, which I already have bought before as a spare - original Q4 badge.
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When I first saw it for sale in one fb group I wasn't sure that want to buy another one and especially in unofficial, unsecured way there. But when I saw it again listed after some time decided to try my luck. The guy happen to be a passionate alfista with big alfa history and we have good alfa conversation Now I have two new original, sealed Q4 badges as a spare, so can say that I'm prepared for the future in that respect haha. But still I hope that current one on the car to stay there and in that condition . I have probably already mentioned it in this thread - this badge is the only visual outside identification of this model unfortunately ... yeah and the wheels

And now to the technical aspects and preparation for the new season. With some recent local stories about problems with modified cars and police in some cities I start to think about making the car to attract a little less attention. One aspect of this is by making it quieter and probably better term here will be less noisy. But I also don't wanted to sacrifice performance too much. This can be achieved with exhaust control, which changes exhaust gases path depending on condition or command as is used in modern performance cars. So we start to look for exhaust valves options on the market. We look only for simple variants without any electrical control and hence less parts to fail. And I bought the following exhaust valve, which open on boost
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Butterfly body is at 76mm/3", normally closed and start to open on positive pressure. There are different variants of such valves - normally closed or open and controlled by vacuum or boost. So different variant will be appropriate depending on mounting scenario and goal. By bench testing was seen, that this valve start to open at around 0.2bar and is fully open at around 0.5bar. Our idea is when the car is pushed and on boost to open more straight through exhaust path and in normal driving, when valve is closed path to be a little more indirect. Here I should mention that available space is a limitation to what can be done. Addition muffler was added and here are some pictures after instalation
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I don't say that it is like a standard car now, but it definitely have an effect in that direction, which was the goal The tune was also touched a bit for this change as VE changed a little in the low load conditions mostly.

Other aspect, which I planned in regards to unwanted attention, which the car can attract, was making the front mounted intercooler a little less noticeable. I'm not so big fan of DTM or GTA replica bumpers, because I like this car's fog lights haha and they don't have provision for such. And also I have yellow fog lights waiting for installation at some point in the future . So, I first thought about painting just the end tanks in black as a compromise between making intercooler a little less visible and not hurting its efficiency. But at the end full front side of it was painted and it look good that way and it "hides" inside the bumper. I will show pictures with "new look" in the next post, which will be from one event where I go with the car and also because post become very long again .

There was also other activities around the car during this visit to the mechanic - oil and oil filter, timing belt, brake fluid, battery, modifications to crank case ventilation, prop shaft u-joint, cv joint at the back, air conditioner refilling, annual technical inspection and some touches to the tune.

[kunev]

This year I went with a friend of mine to Alfa Fest in Romania. I was with this car and he was with his Alfetta GT. This year it held at Târgu Mureș with driving at Transilvania Motor Ring circuit and visit at Alpine Coaster Toplita and Bethlen Castle. It was well organized 4-days event with many participants mainly with newer alfas Giulia and Stelvio. This is my 3rd participation of their annual multi-day event and 2nd in a row. Here are a couple of photos from this trip.
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[kunev]

Some more media for Romanian trip from previous post. I prepared a video for it for my YouTube channel dedicated to this car.


Also some more photos:
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And something from yesterday really, related to this car, with which I’m very happy. I have in the car Ecumaster EDL-1 logger, which is connected to Ecumaster EMU Black ECU by serial communication and log almost any parameter from it to micro SD card when it is powered on. After some driving I copy and review on computer these logs with Ecumaster EMU Black software and Ecumaster Data Master, but since I switched to Apple MacBook Pro I wasn’t able to run these applications anymore as not surprisingly they are only available for Windows OS. I have this task in mind and have done some research about possibilities, but nothing more actually. There is one option which really intrigued me - running Windows Apps on Mac OS without Windows i.e. without virtual machine with Windows or installing Windows on Mac directly. It is free and fast, but not user friendly and doesn’t guarantee full functionality of the software as on Windows. This is by Wine, which is compatibility layer, which translates Windows API calls to supported host operating system calls on the fly. And yesterday I decided to go more deeper into it, read and watch about what I should do. No graphic interface here, everything is done in Terminal, which is like Command Prompt in Mac OS. After installing of Homebrew, which is a package manager for Mac OS (or Linux), Command Line Tools (CLT) for XCode, which is integrated development environment (IDE) for all Apple’s platforms, then I installed latest stable version of Wine by Homebrew. And for Wine to run on Apple silicon processor, which is not x86 based it needs Rosetta2, but look like on latest Mac OS it happen automatically or on background or have happen before and I did’t even get a prompt to be installed. So now I’m ready for download and instal of Ecumaster applications. Installation happen through Wine, i.e. downloaded install file is open with Wine and process is similar to what on Windows. Interestingly default locations are C:\Program Files … , which is not something you have on Mac, but this is a file structure from and for Wine. Both application was installed successfully and look to work normal 🙂. They doesn’t look exactly the same as in Windows, I see difference in appearance of windows and menus inside, but functionality look to be there at least for working with logs. I have played just a little with it yet, but look promising. Unfortunately I forgot to write somewhere my custom functions in Data Master and now I have to restore them from memory.

[AlfaJack]

Thanks for the updates kunev - awesome to see the progress and your dedication to it!
I don't have any data to log seeing as the engine is just about ready to be removed. I have too many oil leaks and and the gearbox casing is absolutely covered in oil (on the inside). I will start a thread soon!

[kunev]

I’m glad you like this thread 🙂. I’m doing it also for me, a dedicated public place, where to write about the car and which I can use as a reference for me or others and this to accompany its history. I’m not looking for a great publicity. This site and forum is an apocryphal place from the old days, which every real 155 Q4 enthusiast and owner should know in my opinion. So what I write and show will only be seen by who is really interested and looking for information on this model, at least this is how I see it 🙂.

Wish you fast and quality progress and soon to have something to show us . I also want to write only when I have something to tell and show.

Issues are also part of the game. One such occur during last long drive. First sign was that external in-line fuel pump become louder and changing its voice and after some time at one uphill engine slowly stopped and didn’t wanted to restart. A friend of mine, who lives not far away help me to pull the car and I decided to leave it at his place, return home, order new performance in-line fuel pump as this is what I suspected, send it to my friend and some local mechanic to install it. My mechanic recommended a new model performance in-line fuel pump from Bosch. It’s designed by Bosch Motorsport and is intended to replace renowned ‘044’ fuel pump and now is known as '200' in similar way to its predecessor as its product number ends with 200. Here are two informative pages about it:
https://www.bosch-performanceparts.c...pumps-is-here/
https://www.bosch-motorsport-shop.co...otorsport-200/

As current Aeroflow external in-line fuel pump AF49-1014 is physical and performance equivalent to Bosch '044', this look as obvious approach. My mechanic ordered the pump and compare it dimension and connection-wise to same Aeroflow pump as on the car, which he has in place, before sending it to me. Here are both side by side
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The new pump is smaller as a body and is provided with connectors to make it direct fit for its predecessor. The only real functional difference is power supply cable shoes, which are exchanged compared to older model. There are cable shoes provided in the package with Bosch '200' pump. So the new in-line performance fuel pump is available, checked against existing one and ready for installation.

As this post already become long enough I will continue in another one ...

[kunev]

This is the continuation of previous post.

The pump was send to my friend, where the car was left and he has to arrange a local mechanic to change it. And after a couple of days I was told, that the pump was changed and the car is ready, but the mechanic wasn’t able to source a fuel filter on time, which was requested by me… I go to that town to pick up the car. After start up of engine I noticed, that new external fuel pump is quieter that previous one even before that issue, which is a good thing. But after some time and driving the new pump become noisier. I said to me, ok look like there is something else and probably my assumption was not correct. As it have to be waited 2 weeks at least for another known by my friend local mechanic in and around this town to have time to check it and I don’t wanted to drive it to city where I live, which is around 80km from there and car’s mechanic is far far away, I decided the car to be transported to one service shop specialised in Alfa Romeo in the city where I live. And after talk with them the car was transported directly to their place. After a couple of days they call me and told me, that in-tank fuel pump is dead. They replaced it with a Bosch unit with fuel filter filter also this time. There was another two things, which I'm requested from them to look and work on - steering column was not firmly locked in up-down position and driver side external door handle was opening the door almost if not in its up-most position. As you know, external door handles are well known issue for this model. They start to open the door more and more toward their top position and when they reach it people start to push them more to open the door and at some point they broke. In the winter they broke easier. And now these handles are not easily available. They have fixed both and and after some time told, that they are ready and I can get the car.

Normally I show new parts, but this time will be different. Here are old parts, which I get from them.
This is failed Magneti Marelli in-tank fuel pump.
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It is strange, that it failed as it was installed just a couple of years ago. It just fills up fuel surge tank and not build pressure in the fuel rail agains fuel pressure regulator as originally.

This is previous external external in-line fuel pump, which may not be broken, but may be damaged.
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This is old mechanism for open and lock of drivers door, which they changed. Now door start to open right after you pull the handle.
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Here is the package of new external in-line pump.
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I want to clarify here, that part number ending with 200 as on the picture above is for the package replacement for old ‘044’ pump. And pump only item ends with 150. This was mentioned in some of the articles, which I also posted, I think.

Here is the package of newly installed in-tank fuel pump.
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[kunev]

Last season for this car finished a little premature. The case with fuel system issue is not closed for me. Some strange noise can be heard from the back since installation of external Bosch “200” fuel pump. I want to go to car’s mechanic and tuner to check installation of both fuel pumps and everything around them and hear his opinion. But as he was busy and his garage is full with disassembled cars and off-season winter period came this wait transition to current year.

During Christmas and New Year holidays in general is time for plans and wishes for next year and I have some for this car in current year.
First one is related to ECU. ECU Master, which is the company producing ECU used on the car, work around 2 years on a new, completely redesigned firmware for their ‘EMU Black’ model ECU called V3. They say that have reached limits of what can do with current hardware of this ECU model, while keeping backward compatibility and decided to completely reorganize strategies more closely resembling their newer and upper-class ‘EMU Pro’ model, which to easy transition from ‘EMU Black’ to it. Initial work was fully internal of course, then was ‘closed beta’ stage, where customer can apply and be provided with unofficial beta versions to try and provide feedback. Now they are at ‘open beta’ stage, where it is publicly available to everyone, but still not officially released version. And they said that official release is planned for beginning of this year. They need to finish and add some features for official release.
Until now firmware version of ECU on my car have been updated a couple of times, but that were incremental software updates with small updates and bug fixes, where nothing needed to be redone after it except with one instance I think. For moving to V3 ‘type’ firmware must be started basically from beginning, i.e. with a new empty project. They say that with official version will provide migrator of most time consuming items, which are main fuel and ignition tables. But even without it they can be quickly copied and pasted between software applications with original and new version. For everything else must be check and clarified case by case between old and new and tested of course. ECU Master claim that signification work is put to be better in every aspect as performance, features, diagnostic of issues and help documentation and reactions by customers so far are very promising. So I’m really excited for V3 firmware to be implemented and tested on the car

[kunev]

And continuation from my previous post with other major plan for this car. As I have showed in this thread, not long after the car was alive again after its performance resurrection, I bought a new bigger turbocharger for it. That was 4 years ago. I was and still am interested to try the car with a bigger turbo. Current turbo on the car is Borg Warner EFR 7163 with T4 twin-scroll 0.80 A/R internal wastegate hot side, which is really good quick-spooling big turbo for a street car. The turbo, which I bought more than 4 years ago is Borg Warner EFR 7670 with T4 twin-scroll 0.92 A/R internal wastegate hot side, which is bigger than it in every aspect and will feel more like a big turbo. A couple of years ago (at the end of 2021 to be precise) Borg Warner announced the latest for now member of EFR family of turbos, which caught my attention as something, which can fit and be used on the car. I look for it regularly and check for deals, but there was a period, when look like Borg Warner have stopped producing EFRs and they were generally unavailable. And last year during some sales it was available and I decided to pull the trigger and bought Borg Warner EFR 8370 super core with aluminum CHRA
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This is basically a hybrid between two existing EFR models - turbine of 7670 and compressor of 8374. EFRs are offered with aluminum and iron CHRA. Aluminum center housing is a little more expensive, but significantly lighter and doesn’t rust like an iron one. It is one of the nice features of EFR lineup, so I decided that this is the way to go especially for a big, heavy turbocharger. Aluminum CHRA requires water cooling unlike iron one. I have checked drawings from Borg Warner of 7670 before and now also for 8374 as there isn’t drawing for 8370 and compared them with that of 7163 and examined space around it on the car. I expect to fit without much work and this is the biggest turbo of this series, which can fit there. My plan then was to be used turbine housing from complete 7670, which I already had.

And here are some pictures of both 7670 and 8370. Compressor cover of 8370 is significantly bigger than 7670. Compressor cover inlet is also bigger on 8370, which is 4” compared to 3.5” on 7670. 7163 have no ported shroud compressor cover and its inlet is just 2.5”.
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[kunev]

After some time I found that Borg Warner offer a special installation kit for B2 frame turbos with aluminum CHRA and don’t recommend they to be used with their standard installation kit, which is for iron CHRA. B1 frames are smaller EFRs with smaller CHRA like 7163 for example and B2 are bigger EFRs, which correspondingly have bigger CHRA like 7670, 8370 and 8374 for example. My 7163 is with aluminum CHRA and this is the only variant for it, but it is B1 frame and my 7670 is with iron one, so I needed to buy that dedicated installation kit. After that I decided to not spoil complete 7670 package and to buy separate turbine housing for 8370 super core, the same as on my 7670. And at the end of last year during Black Friday I bough both.
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Bolts and plates kit for mounting of turbine housing contain ARP bolts with drilled heads prepared for safety wire for securing their fitment.
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Turbine housing package doesn't contain anything else than the housing itself. Being twin scroll and internally gated at same time is unique feature of EFR series. So customer can benefit of true twin scroll exhaust pulses separation and compact packaging like on OEMs, no external gates and plumbing for them.
It is made of stainless steel as on all EFR turbos, so it won't rust on the surface as other turbochargers. Somewhere at the beginning of EFR series their exhaust housing were produced by investment cast technology and looked much smooth and nicer respectively, but then that changed probably because of issue with suppliers.
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So my plan for now is to go with 8370 and see from then. I also plan to be able to easily revert back to current 7163, so if something from current hardware needs to be different, then better to be changed, than modifying existing one. Intake for sure will be different. Wastegate actuator bracket likely also.
This turbocharger upgrade also goes hand in hand with described in yesterday's post. As ECU tune will be moved and redone in different firmware i.e. architecture and of course tested again, then makes sense at same time to be done some serious performance modification.

[kunev]

The season is not started yet, but always there are things for which can be written From long time I think to show and write some things here about ECU Master software applications, which I use. I have mentioned them several times already in my previous posts and will be good to show them as well.

ECU Master EMU Black client application
This is the software by which is tuned EMU Black ECU to control the engine and by which also can be viewed real-time data from it. I don’t tune the engine and don’t use it for that, but still in offline mode, disconnected from ECU I use it to view configuration options, read help information on them and mainly to review log files from my driving.

ECU Master EMU Black ECU doesn’t have internal memory for logging. For such purpose they offer EDL-1 external device, which connects to EMU Black ECU by serial communication. While the ECU is powered up and running it store information from it to SD card with a frequency of 25Hz i.e. 25 times per second. For one on-off cycle it creates one log file. It also provides Bluetooth connectivity to other devices. I have EDL-1 installed in the car and I’m really glad about that. It store the data that is coming to ECU and what calculations and control it is doing.

And now back on EMU Black client application. Unfortunately, it is not available for MacOS, but I succeeded to be able to use it for offline activities on my MacBook through Wine compatibility layer described several posts back. Because of that its appearance is not exactly as on Windows, but functionality which I’m looking for look to be there. Here is the layout in “logs” tab, which I arranged and currently use to view log data on my MacBook Pro 14”, so not much real estate to play with.
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This is from client version 2.169. All the tables showed in above picture are off-the-shelf, predefined in software from Log menu (left pane) combining related data. There are more from them there.
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Custom table also can be made, but only 3 from what I see. There are also gauges, but I prefer tables instead, because I want to see more information at same time.
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Graph log is the main star of the show and most useful tool for data review as it present historical trend for selected parameters, but takes more space. I play with its configuration and presentation to review parameters of main interest to me. Parameters are grouped by two automatically, when configured one after another, but one also can be configured to be presented separately. Up to 16 parameters can be configured in one graph window and 10 graphs are available.
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There are also several predefined log presets for graph and also custom ones can be configured.
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Minimum and maximum value for each parameter in selected time period is indicated. Cursor line appears in the Graph log, when mouse cursor is in it and moves with it. Near this line are presented values of parameters in the graph in selected time. Parameters in all tables present value in cursor line time, which is relative and start from beginning of log file.

[kunev]

The other software product, which I use along with EMU Black ECU and EDL-1 logger is

ECU Master Data Master application

It is especially made for data log analysis and hence it packs more features for this task than EMU Black client software which I showed and talk about in my previous post. It has Graph Log, GPS/Track map, Table Report for Lap Time and also a video can be added and aligned with data. Again as for EMU Black client application this is only available for Windows OS, but I succeeded to use it on Mac OS on a MacBook respectively through Wine compatibility layer. And because of that the software doesn’t look absolutely the same. Below screenshot are from Data Master version 2024.4 beta. I have only used its Graph Log an example of which is shown below.
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Unlike EMU Black client application with this one can be added more than 2 channels on a graph. It has one feature, which is especially useful for me and the main reason to use it - maths channels. In short, the user can implement mathematical formulas with available data channels from log file, mathematical operators and constants. The initial reason to look into this application when it appears and to start using it was turbocharger speed. I have Borg Warner turbo speed sensor installed on my EFR turbo, which counts compressor wheel blades. The sensor has electronics to divide by 8 frequency of signal, but still it cannot be processed by V2 firmware EMU Black ECU. For that purpose I have additional device from Road Rage Gages to convert this high frequency signal to standard analogue 0-5V one, which can be connected to EMU Black. Unfortunately, there aren’t possibilities to be converted to engineering units i.e. rpm. The paper with Road Rage Gages turbo rpm converter specify three calculations for turbo rpm for 12, 14 and 16 compressor wheel blades. And calculation for 12 blades as on EFR 7163 turbo was implemented in Data Master application for review of turbo speed. Below is shown Math Channel Editor where my turbo speed math channel is implemented
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I have read that turbo speed is available as configurable input in V3 firmware for EMU Black ECU and in that way the sensor should be able to be wired and used directly in ECU.
Later on I have look to add more such channels and Boost, Trip distance, Fuel used, Current and Average Fuel Consumption followed.

The software present a lot of possibilities for someone who wants to play and review data.