I thought you guys might be interested to see what I just made. Background: - My race motor has an ABF head and I need a cam position sensor to let my DTA ecu know the relationship between the cam and the crank as I run sequential injection and ignition. The block is 06A so I'm using the internal 60-2 crank wheel for crank position. I had been running an ABF dizzy but had dramas with timing, oil leaks and and dodgy hall effect sensors. I got it working reasonably well but it's not a terribly serviceable item when you need to swap out a sensor track side. At one stage I tried a KR style 4 vane dizzy which would start about 50% of the time. (Actually exactly 50% of the time unless I turned the sequential off.) The KR dizzy leaked worse then the ABF one . The folk at EuroSpec showed me how the Audi V8 pickups work with the vane bolted directly to the end of the camshaft. I thought I was going to be able to make an extension piece for the end of the cam and run it the same as the Audi V8 but that was quickly going to exceed my rudimentary machining skills and the opening in the end of the head is larger in the Audis too. So here's what I came up with. I made my own dizzy body to accommodate the ABZ style sensor. The drive dog is from a KR dizzy, the shaft is cut down from a 2E dizzy and the vane is also from the 2E dizzy. Bushes are longer and thicker than either KR or ABF and the seal is a little bigger too. One of the goals was to make swap outs quick and easy at the track side. Pulling a complete dizzy, especially the KR with the slotted mounts meant re-timing the setup. The theory was that just swapping the sensor shouldn't require any re-timing and avoid dragging out the laptop. To check this theory I tried a number of sensors in the new "dizzy" Interestingly, there's a few degrees between the three I tested. One is an Audi prototype unit (notice it's milled not cast) and two brand new generic units of the same brand. The DTA S60 doesn't seem fussed about the small difference between them, it seems to have some un published tolerance range. This is the ABF dizzy I was using
Some of the other cylinder recognition sensors look like normal 20vT jobs. Could you use one of those as the main pick up? They are pretty common and will allow you to 'freeze' the calibration, once you determine their phasing and offsets. Nice dizzy adapter by the way
You mean this style? I thought about using a second 06A crankshaft sensor as a cam position sensor by making another style of dizzy adapter. Might still do that so I only have to carry one sort of sensor as spare. I couldn't quite figure out a design for the vane though. It would be neat if you could attach a vane to the end of the cam and get the sensor to just mount in a block off plate. It would be really proof against oil leaks that way. The sensors I chose are really common and should be readily available, even here in Australia. They got used in the Audi ABZ V8s, all the 1.8turbos, V6s, Tourareg, Phaeton, Beetle, Golf, Passat. I wanted something that's a lot more readily available then the ABF dizzy. I shouldn't have any problems getting these here in Aus. Worst case the dealers should carry them.
Based on your description, the ABZ unit being the same as a 20v component, give or take some offset, then the ones you have are what I was referring to. I do like your engineering solution around the durability concerns of the ABF/KR distributor housing and possibly the lack of replacement parts.
I'm lucky in that I've got a very good specialist distributor rebuilding shop nearby so they were able to supply me bushes and seals that are readily available. There shouldn't be anything in that dizzy now that can't be sourced reasonably easily now. The housing is much heavier than the OE version and has more support for the bushes. Hopefully the extra bearing support will make them last longer. I'm not sure if the extra metal will make the seal any hotter. It's all very experimental, I've never had any formal machining training let alone studied distributor design! I'm planning on routinely replacing the seal each season, it makes a much bigger mess than you'd think would be possible which might have something to do with my oiling system too.
Hi, I realize this is an old thread, but I was wondering if you have thought about selling these? I would be interested in buying one so I do not have to drill and tap my exhaust camshaft for the kits that are currently out there: https://usrallyteam.com/index.php?m...ucts_id=2136&zenid=st23jm9odd5cp8jlqsd7pfal51 Thanks, Michael
The skill in measuring and designing this is even more important than the manufacture. Fair play. Respect.
