So I ordered the unit from RPS- site sponsor-- THANKS! got it in like 2 days. I had already picked up a CO2 bottle from the local welding shop. Had a regulator and a gauge from a paint sprayer laying around and picked up a welding co2 regulator from harbor freight b/c i needed the fitting that connects directly to the co2 bottle- that adapts to the regulator i had. My home-made setup ends up much smaller than the unit from harbor freight and mine has a 1/4 barb on it making the hose connection a cinch.

The first thing you need to do is determine where the hell you are going to mount it. This is one place where the AMS1000 has the advantage -- the 1000 uses an EXTERNAL MAP sensor-- the 500 is internal-- so that means you have to run a 1/4" hose into the interior and connect it to the unit. This makes finding a good location to mount the unit a bit of a PITA. Of course you want it to be accessible so you can make adjustments to it, it needs to be in view so you can see which units are activated and so you can verify how is is set when you turn the unit on. I decided to mount it in the glove box with some additional slack in the hose and wires that will allow me to pull it out , adjust and pit it back. If i leave the box open, I can clearly see the unit from the drivers seat-- Thus we have a winning location for me!

Install is very simple-- 2 trigger wires, 12V+ and ground and 3 wires to the solenoids. I used the trans brake to singnal stage 1 and used an adjustable pressure switch to provide ground, activating the second stage at about 5 psi.

With the unit on, and no activation to stage 1 or 2, the unit maintains 0 psi on the top of the gate resulting in WG spring regulated boost pressure. I was seeing about 6-8 psi with my setup. CAUTION: If the unit is powered OFF and you are running the car, the solenoids are CLOSED-- this means the top of the gate is NOT vented and will most likely result in an overboost situation. turn the unit on if you are making hits out there!

So I put 20 psi on the bottle regulator and put 12 on the 2nd stage settings and made some pulls out on a back street. The Co2 on the gate makes such a difference! It got up to 16 Psi and got there significantly faster than usual. The car seemed to be pulling very hard compared to how it was with the Eboost2 and manifold pressure. It was spinnign the tires so bad I couldnt get a good data log with a full pull thru 2nd. (powerglide) I had to get in and out of it on and off and it shot right back to 16 psi every time and the car just pulled and pulled very hard!. I didnt have a chance to try different settings on the AMS500 today. But considering it held pretty damn solid at 16 psi, I would say the controller is doing its job and if I can add 2 more psi on the unit and see 2 more psi in the intake, I will be very happy! I realize it wont be exactly 2 for 2, but as long as its pretty predictable that will be great! Perhaps I will turn it down a bit so i can keep traction and actually get some solid, consistent data logs I can post up.

Very satisfied so far!! Thanks NLR for the product and tech support and RPS for the service!

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Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

pics

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Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

congrats lee, cant wait to pick mine up!

 

Thanks for the write up and pics Lee. A few questions for ya..........So do you manually need to switch the AMS on everytime you run the car?? If the unit is not switched on an overboost situation may occur??!!!!! Did the unit come with the Solenoids?? I'm not clear on how you are activating the second stage with a pressure switch. What is activating the switch?? What size of CO2 bottle are you using and where did you mount the bottle?? IS the bottle pressure something that you need to tweak according to the amount of boost you want to run or is that adjustment strictly done through the AMS ??

Thanksl
Rick

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

Great questions-
I have the AMS-500 hooked up to the bs3/ ignition so it is on all the time. I asked Sebastian at NLR about it-- I didnt want the solenoids trying to open and close all the time and wear them out prematurely. I thought perhaps putting it on a switch would be the way to increase the life of the solenoids. I would have done just that IF there was a solenoid OPEN on top of the gate that would allow the gate to be able to open. There is NOT one open so that is why I caution anyone who decided to hook this controller up on a switch. So, when hooked up to the ignition switch, you dont have to turn the unit on manually. And since the unit shoots for 0 psi on top of the gate when neither of the stages are activated (according to sebastian again), it will open the solenoid vent the top of the gate when you get into some boost without the stages activated.

solenoids come with the unit-- everything in the 1st picture.

The pressure switch is activated by boost. its pretty neat. it is a double pole relay basically. there is a common terminal and a normally open terminal and a normally closed terminal. i hooked the common to the firewall ground, and the #2 wire to the normally open terminal. you use a 5/64 allen wrench and adjust teh switch from 0-25 psi. I set mine to about 5-6 psi so when i get into 5-6 psi of boost, the switch closes and activates the 2nd stage. This way the solenoids are quiet and not activating when i am cruising around and if i get into some bigger boost, the unit will control the boost. so, pressure activate the switch.

I got a 5lb CO2 bottle and the bracket in the picture mounts it to the roll cage. I bought the wrong size and I'm waiting on the 5.25" clamp to arrive.

The co2 pressure is important too. There is a normal mode and a safe mode. This is to protect against a solenoid failure. Long story short, you dont want to put too much pressure on top of the gate b/c if the solenoid fails and all that pressure goes to the top of the gate, you will overboost. so they suggest you put just a couple lbs over your target boost pressure. For example, 8 lb wg spring plus 20 psi co2 on top= 28 psi boost. there is still manifold pressure on the bottom of the gate plus back pressure etc, so its not exact, but you want to use just enough to get the job done. If there is no solenoid failure, then you can run excess co2 pressure, but you never know what can happen! the controller is all you need to adjust to set the desired pressure on the gate (which will determine boost pressure achieved)

 

Does this system ever vent Co2 to atmosphere? If so, how much can a bottle last?

 

Yes the decrease solenoid is vented to the atm.

Lee call me we have a add on for the AMS's.

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

oooooo!! i will call this afternoon- i am swamped here at work this morning-
THANKS!
Lee

 

Was wandering were did you get the pressure switch from? This may sound like a stupid question but how did you set the pressure switch, did you use co2 with the regulator?

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZboostQ20pressureQ20switchQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZR40QQ_mdoZ

i watched the green light on the 2nd stage unit to see when it turned on vs. boost level.

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

great write up Drlee50.
I just bought my AMS-500 from Chaos last week and am in the process of installing it in the car. I too found that the only practical place to put the unit is in the glove box. I think velcro will help in mounting the unit in the glove box.
I am interested in the pressure switch that you have installed. I was wondering how the hell i was going to activate the 2nd stage part of the controller. I wired the yellow to my transbrake and have not a clue where to wire the blue wire and was just going to leave it unconnected and just use the unit in a different mode.
I understand your explaination on wiring the common to the ground, the #2 wire get wired to the blue wire? is that correct? How is it getting the 12 volts from to activated the 2nd stage? or does it not need the +12v to activate the switch?
Also, i read somewhere people are using the CO2 on the wastegate too.
Good to know that the unit needs constant power with the car running. I am going to put my on a switch that turns on my ignition box.

Is the CO2 bottle you bought 4.25" diameter? If so, where did you get the mounting bracket to mount the bottle to your rollbar?

thanks

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

you can activate the stages by supplying a electrical positive or an electrical ground to the signal wires (yellow / blue) There is a set of dip switches on the unit that allow you to select which signal you will be supplying. i am using ground for stage 2. so when the pressure switch is activated, it connects the blue wire to ground and the stage comes on.
my bottle is 5.25". apparently that is the standad size or the majority of the 5lb co2 bottles. I thought it was 5" and ordered the bracket. turns out it wouldnt fit so i ordered the 5.25 - it should be here today or tomorrow. I got it from Jerry Bickle race cars:
http://www.jerrybickel.com/bottle-mounts-co2-bottles-coolers-and-filters/bottle-mounts-1.html

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

duh, now i got it.
thanks

 

can you post up some pics of the regulator your using on the co2 bottle, also what type of pressure or setting are you regulating to the co2 bottle to ?
thanks great great write up

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

i will try to post up some pics tonight of the bottle and regulator. For my initial tests I was using 20 psi of CO2. I has 12 set on the 2nd stage and saw 16 psi with my 7-8 psi WG spring.I was assuming the manifold\boost signal to the bottom of the gate plus backpressure must have accounted for about 4 psi difference. so 12+8=20 closing pressure resulting in 16 psi. I am guessing with a solenoid failure I would be looking at about 22psi. Plenty safe for my setup. I actually plan on running 22-28 psi depending on how the car runs and what fuel I have.

 

Wow, those look just like the ingersol(sp?) soleniods you can get at Grainger. I am going to use it to completely block the wastegate signal on the Brake.

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

there are the same.... correct

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

hey lee you interested in comming out on friday night? My buddy with the TT 408 T/A will be out with us as well as ryan with the black hatch. You can get some more testing done lol!

 

This is great I've been wanting a AMS-500. Let us know when you get to the boost ramping feature it has. I'd like to know what it's capable of.

 

Re: Insalled the AMS-500 with CO2 today... 1st impressions and results on the st

some pics of the bottle mounted and the regulator.

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