A few people have asked me questions about my project of converting my 2G over to a Fueltech FT550 so I figured I'd document it here seeing as I never did a build journal.
For starters I've been running the car on ECMLink since about 2009, it's been great, super user friendly but I've decided the car will be a dedicated drag car now so I want to upgrade the electrical of the car to better suite the mechanical upgrades it already has. I also decided to eliminate ALL the OEM wiring from the car and start over from scratch, this is due to the fact that over the last couple years, electrical gremlins are becoming more and more common with the car and are not going to remedy themselves due to the age and stresses the wiring system has been through. Not only that but there is actually a tremendous weight savings possible by doing away with wiring that is no longer required for a drag car.
So to start off with, at the end of 2022 I picked up a Fueltech FT550, a FT Nano wideband and FT strain gauge. I wanted to get the FT CAN switch panel as well but the price was stretching my budget over the limit as well and they were on backorder. No big deal, I can simply make my own panel.
One of my first tasks was to figure out how I was going to mount this thing, seeing as the screen IS the ECU and the heart of the operation. So I went to Solidworks and starting designing up a mount to fit into the 2g cluster with the help of my 3D printer. Luckily Fueltech provides downloadable 3D models of all their products to make designing mounts around them much easier. This is what I came up with:
First test print, I basically cut the factory bezel in half and glued a temporary cardboard backing to it to do a test fit for placement on the car:
And installed into the car:
Powered on via USB (yes you can just plug in the USB to power up the ECU itself), I think the placement worked out perfect:
Now that I was happy, so I ordered up some materials to complete the cluster and sat this part aside for the time being.
For starters I've been running the car on ECMLink since about 2009, it's been great, super user friendly but I've decided the car will be a dedicated drag car now so I want to upgrade the electrical of the car to better suite the mechanical upgrades it already has. I also decided to eliminate ALL the OEM wiring from the car and start over from scratch, this is due to the fact that over the last couple years, electrical gremlins are becoming more and more common with the car and are not going to remedy themselves due to the age and stresses the wiring system has been through. Not only that but there is actually a tremendous weight savings possible by doing away with wiring that is no longer required for a drag car.
So to start off with, at the end of 2022 I picked up a Fueltech FT550, a FT Nano wideband and FT strain gauge. I wanted to get the FT CAN switch panel as well but the price was stretching my budget over the limit as well and they were on backorder. No big deal, I can simply make my own panel.
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One of my first tasks was to figure out how I was going to mount this thing, seeing as the screen IS the ECU and the heart of the operation. So I went to Solidworks and starting designing up a mount to fit into the 2g cluster with the help of my 3D printer. Luckily Fueltech provides downloadable 3D models of all their products to make designing mounts around them much easier. This is what I came up with:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
First test print, I basically cut the factory bezel in half and glued a temporary cardboard backing to it to do a test fit for placement on the car:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
And installed into the car:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Powered on via USB (yes you can just plug in the USB to power up the ECU itself), I think the placement worked out perfect:
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Now that I was happy, so I ordered up some materials to complete the cluster and sat this part aside for the time being.
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