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
DJI_0025.jpg DJI_0029.jpg DJI_0045.jpg DJI_0044.jpg

[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.
IMG_2070.jpg
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
IMG_2127.jpg IMG_2126.jpg
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
Unknown.jpg Unknown-2.jpg
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.
IMG_2182.jpg IMG_2167.jpg IMG_2168.jpg IMG_2177.jpg IMG_2180.jpg IMG_2184.jpg IMG_2185.jpg Hampton hotel top view.jpg At the corner.jpg

[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:
IMG_2164.jpg IMG_2229.jpg IMG_2236.jpg IMG_2238.jpg

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!