Blitz Dual Turbo Timer Installation

Author: Tony Wang / wangstar@yahoo.com
Date: October 10th, 1998
Performed on a 1993 MR2 Turbo.


Disclaimer: Whatever you do to your car, you did it. This is what I did, it worked for me.


Parts & Supplies:

Tools:
Note: This installation not possible without the wisdom of www.mr2.com!
Note: These instructions are for surface mounting below the dash underneath the fog light switch.
Note: Read the instructions through at least once before starting.


Wiring Setup
Installation Step-by-Step
Operating Instructions


Wiring Setup


Orange: Tap into the third pin of the third plug in the ECU. See the Blitz manual for diagram.
White: For use in Nissan cars.
Purple: Tap into parking brake wire.

The orange wire is a safety feature which will deactivate the timer if the car starts moving.


Installation Procedures


1. Make sure the engine is cool. Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery.

2. Remove the center storage compartment.
There are four head screws, two in the top compartment and two in the lower compartment. After removing the screws, the compartment simply lifts off. Put it aside.

3. Remove the lower dash panel.
There are four screws, at the corners. Afterthis you can pull the panel off, tilt downward from the back to the front.

4. Remove the metal plate behind the dash panel.
It is held on by 6 10mm bolts. Note: Apparantly some cars do not have this panel.

5. Remove the stereo trim.
Take the ashtray out and remove the two screws underneath. Next, under the ignition cylinder there is a metal tab with a hole (retaining a plastic knob) and a screw. Remove this tab. Take out the cigarette lighter. Now, - carefully- pull out the stereo trim. There are a plastic tabs which hold it on. After you get the tabs out, you will have to disconnect the hazard signal, cigarette lighter, and cigarette lighter LED. The trim should be completely free now.

6. Remove the shifter trim.
Start by unscrewing your shifter knob. Remove the shift boot by pushing forward gently on the rearward side of the boot. There are two tabs back there, after they pop out just tilt upward and you can remove the whole thing (the two clips in front will clear the lip of the trim now). There are four clips which hold the shifter trim on, one near each corner. Stick your fingers inside and under the trim, near the back. Pull up gently and the rear clips should pop off, repeat for the front.

7. Remove the center divider.
First remove the two screws near the ashtray. There are four more screws now, two on each side of the divider. They are covered by small plastic caps. You can remove the caps by taking a small flat-head screwdriver and gently prying them off. (The ones in back are more annoying to take off.) Take all four screws out, and you should be able to remove the divider by tilting the back end of it upward, then sliding the whole thing off.

8. Connect Blitz harness adapter.
Under the ignition cylinder you should see a harness connection. The plugs looked exactly the same as the plugs in my Blitz harness, so I knew I had the right plugs. Connect the Blitz harness and hang the 4 pin connector downward.

9. Tap into the parking brake wire.
There is one wire which leads from the parking brake. It has a black jacket around it. Follow the wire to where it connects to a large wire bundle, on the left side of the exposed divider. Use a knife to carefully remove a piece of the jacket near where it enters the bundle. Use your tap-in connector to tap the 3 ft. of 18 gauge wire into the parking brake wire. Wrap the connector up with electrical tape. Now run the tap wire along the left side wire bundle (I taped mine to the bundle in two places to make sure it wouldn't move). Feed the wire through the gap where the bundle disappears into the center console. With your free hand, feel around behind the console and pull the wire through. Strip the end and crimp the female end of the bullet connector onto it.

10. Connect the timer.
Plug the 3-4 extension that comes with the Blitz kit into the harness. Take the 3 pin coupler and strip the end of the PURPLE wire. Crimp the male end of the bullet connector on and connect it to the parking brake wire tap. Wrap the connection in electrical tape to make sure it's secure. The white wire with the bullet connector is for Nissan's only; it connects to a shift-lock defeat. The orange wire can be hooked up to your ECU's speed signal; the unit will apparantly shut the engine off if it gets a speed signal in countdown mode. I did not feel like going through the trouble (and at the time I had no idea what it was supposed to do, but I did know it was optional). Anyway, tape over the ends of those wires so they don't short anything. Connect the 3-pin coupler to the timer.

11. Ground the timer, then test it.
The 3-4 extension should have two ground clips coming off of it. I screwed them to the two left-side bolts which connect the lower-dash metal plate. Don't put the metal plate back on yet! Just ground those wires. Look over all your connections and when you are satisfied, reconnect the negative terminal on the battery. Start the car... if everything is kosher so far, your car should start up normally and the timer should turn on in "Boost" mode. Press the power button three times; you should see "Timer" and "Set". Mine was defaulted to 10 seconds. Turn the key to off... if everything is cool, the display should turn red and countdown, your engine should be still running. Congratulations, we're half done!

12. Run vacuum hose to the engine compartment.
This was the most annoying part for me. I have stock intake so it's nearly impossible to see the firewall on the driver's side, especially near where I ran the hose. If you have a cone-type filter this is apparantly much easier. First pull the firewall carpeting up from behind the drivers' side. Pull it from the bottom corner nearest to the door. Peel it back carefully and you should see bundle of wires coming out of the firewall. Remove the insulation around the bundle. You'll see that it passes through a rubber grommet. Cut a small slit in the hole. Now comes the fun. Take the chopstick (I wasn't kidding) and stick it into an end of your 4mm hose. Stick it in about an inch then wrap duct tape around the end so it's nice and sturdy. Now stick the other end of the chopstick through the slit SLOWLY. Aim the chopstick down and towards the passenger side. Keep pushing it slowly through the slit until there's only about an inch of chopstick left on your side. Now go around the engine compartment. Look down under the airbox- you should be able to spot the end of the chopstick. It's pretty far down and inaccesible. Unless you have long thin arms (like me) you will have to use a gripper claw and pull the stick SLOWLY through. I was able to stick my arm between the airbox and airbox hose to reach it. Pull it up to you an voila! One vacuum hose. You will probably have to feed hose through the cockpit side, as it's not easy to just pull it through (and you may damage the hose or something else doing so). Lay the hose so it goes around the left edge of the engine compartment then along the backside near the passenger side of the intake manifold.

13. Connect the hose.
There are two hoses which come out of the intake manifold on the passenger side. One of them goes down below the manifold, the other comes to the side connecting to a T-adapter and a component on the back wall of the engine compartment. This second hose is the one you want. Disconnect the hose from the component (this is the stock boost sensor). There is a spring clamp which holds it tight. There is a little white filter between the end you just disconnected and the intake manifold. Cut the hose halfway between the open end and the white adapter. Connect your hose using the 3/8" T-adapter. The T-adapter that comes with the Blitz kit is too small. The hoses should all squeeze on quite tightly (this is good). Reconnect the open end to the stock boost sensor. MAKE SURE ALL THE CONNECTIONS ARE TIGHT!!!

14. Tidy up the hose.
Use zip ties (don't pinch the hose though) to secure the hose around the edges of the engine compartment. Make sure the hose doesn't rub up against anything that will get really hot (i.e. intake manifold). Go back inside. Run the hose to the center divider, along the left side. Use zip-ties to secure the position. If you got 10 ft. of hose like me, you will run out somewhere in the middle of the divider. Take the thin black hose that came with the Blitz kit, and stick one end into your hose. It should fit quite snugly. If you want you could apply silicone sealer on the connection, but I didn't think it was necessary. I wrapped it up with electrical tape, just in case. I suppose you could get an adapter also, but the Blitz hose is so thin and I couldn't find one the right size. Anyway, run the Blitz hose the same way you ran the parking brake tap wire.

15. Connect the hose to the timer and test the gauge.
80% done now! Connect the hose to the timer unit using the provided adapter. Start the car up. I had a reading of -50 cmHg at idle. Rev the engine a bit, watch the numbers move around. Let the engine idle for a minute or so. If your hose connection is loose anywhere, like mine was, the idle RPM will drop. Mine fell to 500 rpm - double checking the T at the manifold revealed that the connection to the stock boost sensor was loose.

16. Reassemble the interior.
Run the wires and hose under the steering column and put the metal plate back on. Don't forget to ground the unit- I used the two left bolts on the metal plate. Put all the other interior trim pieces back on, and tuck the carpeting back in. Be careful not to kink or pinch your hose. After all this, your timer, a bunch of wires, and the loose hose should be hanging out below the dash on the left side. Bundle up all the loose wires and zip tie them together. Leave enough slack so you can mount the unit. Look behind the lower dash trim on the left side (stick your head back there). You should see a bundle of wires wrapped in black tape. Use another zip-tie to attach your bundle to that bundle. Loosly coil up the hose slack and zip tie it to your bundle of wires. If you are wondering why the heck I left all this slack cable and hose behind it's because I plan on moving the whole unit on top of the dash on the left side, so I can take more advantage of the boost gauge. If you don't plan on moving it, you can skip the extension for the parking cable tap wire.

17. Mount the timer.
In my early survey of where to mount the Blitz Dual TT, it seemed below the fog switches was a popular spot. I like the spot too (for now), but unfortunately it seems very few things in existance actually are able to stick to the plastic in that area. It's not really flat and has little veins running through it, so the foam tape and velcro that come with the Blitz kit are pretty useless (I tried). It drove me crazy trying to get the unit to stick there, I ended up with some fairly thick and REALLY sticky foam tape. This sort of takes away the option on-demand removal, but it's all I could get to actually stick.

18. You're done! Enjoy your new Blitz Dual Turbo Timer.



Operating Instructions


The timer has five modes: Boost, Peak, A-Set, Set, and Off. To cycle through them, press the power button.

Boost: Displays the current boost level. Press the MINUTE button to toggle auto-countdown mode, indicated by a small "A".
Peak: Displays the maximum level of boost achieved. Press the SECOND button to reset the current value. Press the minute button to toggle auto-countdown mode.
A-Set: Displays the countdown time to be used if you shutdown with auto-countdown activated. This value changes in real-time depending on driving condition. You cannot modify this time :(
Set: Displays the countdown time to be used in manual mode. Press the MINUTE button to cycle 0-9 minutes, press the SECOND button to toggle from 0-50 seconds in 10 second increments.
Off: Turns the unit off completely.

The unit will perform a countdown when you shut off regardless of what mode you are in, except Off.

When you shut the car off, the display will turn red and begin countdown. At this point, if you are in manual mode, you can press the MINUTE and SECOND buttons to add more time to the countdown.

Auto-mode defaults to 10 seconds. Even after running at periods of high boost I haven't seen the auto-mode indicator go above 39 seconds. It's been the consensus so far that this is not enough time... Stick with manual mode.