mobythevan

Check the sticky post about MegaSquirt'nSpark installation, it has info on hooking up the distributors. I am still having one problem with the spark control section, it is only affecting my cranking timing to start the engine. I should have that figured out before too long. The HEI module is only about $15 for the cheapo units at autozone. If you use the HEI module I believe it has a transistor inside to fire the coil, so I am not using the ignitor transistor anymore. Yes, that is correct. heh heh, yeah I sold mobythevan (named by my cousin when he owned the 68 chevy van) but all of the screen names have stuck. It is just easier than changing my identity everywhere. I had a lot of fun with that old van....

I test fit the seats in the other car when I mocked everything up, with the hoop leaning back they fit OK. From other pictures I saw it looks like most people have the hoop standing up straighter which puts it over top the seats, then I could see how the seats would be too far forward for anyone. This way it puts the seat a couple more inches forward than I would like, but I set in the car before welding everything in. They hit the main hoop with it leaning back so it won't help to put the center brace back any farther. I drink a lot of beer at times, but I remembered at least three rules about roll cage installation. Make sure the seats fit, make sure the door bars clear everything, and make sure the mounting location for the harness is above your shoulder or if you crash you will be short enough that seat location won't matter anymore. This cage is just in my 240 L28 turbo car. I am putting a full tube chassis in my other car.

Well, it is in and I like the way it turned out. The funniest part was watching my brother weld the plates at the firewall. He was laying in the car backwards with his legs stuck through the back of the rollcage and his head at the foot pedals. Times like that made me glad he was doing the welding. We also had to repair the rust at the front of both floor pans. I think a small child could have fallen through the drivers side. Man I am glad that is over, this was one project I wasn't looking forward to. Now I have to fix the rust hole under the battery and the rest of the car is really solid.

Awesome! Good luck with your tuning. Great news

I looked at that mounting location for a while because I have a second shell that is totally stripped in the garage. I did all of the test fitting in that one. I just decided to put it in the seat belt pocket, I am not worried about being legal for the track. I think it will still be safe because I will put some aditional bracing around that pocket and the bar. I was going to check at an offroad 4x4 shop for the nerf padding on the bars. The car feels like it is getting closer to being finished now. Later today we may weld the sump into the extra gas tank I have and add baffles to support the turbo engine. Good luck to you other guys that pick the S&W cage, I am happy with it.

After 9 straight hours of welding and cutting today, the rollcage is almost finished. I think it went pretty smooth for a weld in cage. I had my brother do the welding and I did all of the fitting and cutting. We got everything except the bars that go next to the doors installed and welded up. In the morning we are going to finish those, I don't have my digital camera right now to take pics but I will take some when I get it back and put them up. I went ahead and placed the hoop into the seat belt pockets and leaned it back a little for clearance on the seats. This was one of the bigger projects I wanted to get finished this winter and it looks like we will have it knocked out in a day and a half. Now I have to get the 240mm flywheel and ACT clutch installed.

I added some of the prices to the install guide in the turbo section here. You are most likely looking at $250 to get MS installed. You can save money if you don't buy the relay board and the stimulator board. But then you can't test MS until you install it on the car and the relay board is handy I think.

I have a problem where I can't get my cranking timing and my timing when the engine is running to both be correct. I can only get one or the other to be set correct. I must have something set up wrong in the trigger and cranking settings on MSS. I posted on the MSS yahoo group to sort this out and I will update the install guide when I get it working right. That is why my idle was rough. Now the idle is real smooth, but the cranking timing is up at like 20 degrees instead of 5 degrees? I new something was wrong when the engine was cranking way too easy. Oh well, its a learning process.

No problem, I hope more people get interested in MSS now. I can't wait to get the car tuned up, but the temp here last weekend was around 10 degrees so I didn't want to open the garage to run the car anymore. I'm going to look at a few junkyards today for some more parts I need to finish this stage of the project.

This is the area where I need some info from other guys because I am only aware of 2 different dirstibutors on turbo engines. You either have an early one with the CAS on the carankshaft or a later one with the CAS in the distributor. I used the later one with CAS inside. If the CAS on the crankshaft uses an optical sensor it will be easy to adapt my install to use it. BTW, see my other thread titled installation guide.

UPDATE area to curb confusion(maybe) First, This entire document was written when my engine was basically stock(L28ET in 240z). This should be a good starting point for people and then you can re-tune as you do upgrades. My current setup is beyond this, I now have 450cc injectors among other things(see bottom of the post for my latest configuration and settings). I have not owned a z car for several years now so keep that in mind when asking me z specific questions. use the tables in this guide for stock type settings use the download for modifed settings(if your setup is similar to mine) I am removing references to the old magnus code and recommend everyone uses MSnS_Extra029y4 code for MS1 installs. Use the jpeg settings to enter your setup into megatune. The MegaSquirt'nSpark (MSS or MSnS) Install Guide First of all the basics and disclaimers. Use this information at your own risk, don't assume that I know the best/easiest way to install MSnS. MegaSquirt (MS) is a fuel only computer that you build yourself from a kit and install on your car. MSnS is a version of code that runs on MS hardware and gives you the ability to control ignition with a two dimensional map based on RPM and manifold pressure. This document assumes you are using MS v2.2 hardware and MSnS_Etra029y4 code. Here are the links to the MS and MSnS websites that will answer all of your questions about buying, building and testing the computer. MegaSquirt Main Website http://www.bgsoflex.com/megasquirt.html Car Craft MegaSquirt Article http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0403_mega/ New Link (8/10/2004) MegaSquirt Consolidated Forum http://www.msefi.com New Link (10/10/2006) MegaSquirt Extra Forum http://www.msextra.com/index.php Now that you are more familiar with MS and MSnS you will realize that MS does not support sequential fuel injection or wideband oxygen sensor or coil on spark plug ignition or any ignition for that matter or knock detection. MSnS does support ignition, but it is a simple scheme and does not support coil on spark plug or EDIS, etc. MSnS-Extra has support for more features like EDIS, AFR target tables, etc. Be sure to read up about MSnS-Extra, because it is constantly being upgraded. Even with these short-comings MSnS can be built and installed for around $200 and gives you batch injection like the stock ECU and distributor ignition like the stock ECU. But now fuel and ignition are fully programmable and since ignition is based on manifold pressure you can retard timing with boost. And, you get rid of the flapper AFM, that has to be good. In case you missed the order page the breakdown on price is: MS partial kit ---- $50 MS Relay board - $15 MS Stimulator --- $20 Parts(Digi-Key) ~ $100 Aluminum Case ~ $25 Sensors (CLT,IAT,O2,TPS) varies for your install So TOTAL cost of MS is at least $200 and maybe over $300 with the cost of sensors depending on your application. To run MSnS code on MS hardware you have to give something up for ignition control. You give up Fast Idle (FIDLE). FIDLE now becomes the ignition output trigger with MSnS. Other than that, the board still works just like it did with MS code on it. You use MegaTune to change all of your fuel settings like you always did. You also use MegaTuneSS to change your ignition settings. You can only run one of these programs at a time, so you have to bounce back and forth to set up fuel and ignition. If you only want to use MS instead of MSnS, then things become easier because you can just trigger MS from the coil or from tach output of an MSD unit if your using one. Downloading MSnS on your MS hardware First, go to the msefi extra forum and download the MSnS_Extra029y4. One misconception that I had was that to download new code on the MS board you needed the motorola programmer. That is not true. If your motorola processor has been programmed once(all of them are if you buy from Bowling and Grippo) then it has the bootloader code on it and now you can download new code using the download batch file. When you build MS add a 2 pin header at location H1, the boot header. This will allow you to easily use a 2 pin shunt(like on PC motherboards) to download new code to your MS hardware. Start the download batch file and follow the instructions. Once the MSnS code is downloaded you can re-test your hardware with the stimulator board if you have one. The only thing now is that FIDLE will function as ignition output. Also, the center LED on the MS box use to be the warmup indicator, but now this is connected to ignition output as well. So you have an indicator that your ignition is firing, at least at the computer side. Now you have MSnS tested and ready to install in the car. I'll assume you have used MegaTune to set your base fuel settings using engine displacement, number of cylinders and injector size. Also, you have used MegaTune2.25 to set up an initial timing table. Set MSnS to used time based cranking. Install MSnS in the car (specific to 83 280zx turbo in 73 240z) These installation instructions come from my specific installation onto the 83 280zx turbo engine in a 73 240z. It is probably important for you to know that I did the swap first with the stock ECU and had the engine running good in the 240z before I started the changeover to MSnS. Also, I had removed the EGR, AAC, VCM, charcoal canister, and other stuff I can't remember right now. The stock computer ran fine with all of this removed. I did have the usual problem where the car ran better with the O2 sensor disconnected, so I ran with it disconnected on the stock computer. Hopefully that will give you a little background on where my engine was prior to the MSnS changeover. If you don't have an 83 turbo distributor (a distributor with the CAS inside) then you have to decide how to trigger MSnS. If someone confirms that the CAS on the crankshaft is an optical unit or not then we can come up with similar ciruits to try(Below is the quote from Tony with the newest updates for using the 81 CAS). Otherwise if you have an older distributor from an NA car, you may want to try the variable reluctor schematic to trigger MSnS. As soon as someone else confirms if these other trigger circuits work, I will etch them in stone here in the install guide. First thing I did was remove the AFM, stock ECU and the 83 turbo wiring harness. I just had the EFI wiring harness from the 83 turbo car, some people rewire their whole car for the turbo swap so this part is open to interpretation. I bought six 6ohm 25watt resistors for $6 and made my own dropping resistor pack to use with the low impedance stock injectors. The MS manual explains how to use pulse width modulation (PWM) or dropping resistors. I also built the MS relay board which is very nice because it gives me a relay for power to the MSnS computer and a relay for the fuel pump. It also has a relay for FIDLE, but that is no longer used with MSnS. You will have to get the other basics set up for MSnS to work (this is the stuff you would have set up for regular MS). This includes the coolant temperature sensor, intake air temperature sensor, oxygen sensor, fuel pump, injector wiring, TPS, MAP sensor, etc. I took an injector harness from an 85 olds V6 engine to use on my new harness for MSnS. 240sx TPS wiring My 240sx TPS has 3 wires coming out of it to a seperate pigtail connector as well as a connector built onto the TPS sensor. The connector on the TPS sensor does not plug into anything. The wires that come out to the pigtail are connected to the relay board as follows: Red to Vref White to TPS Black to TPS ret I am using the GM 4 wire heated oxygen sensor. I am using the GM air temp sensor the MS manual recommends. I used EasyTherm4 to recalibrate to use the head temp sensor on the turbo engine. The Calibration values to use the CHTS are as follows: 14F=9K 68F=2.5K 122F=.84K Here is a link with easytherm calibration values for the 280z coolant sensor: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=123905 Once you have all of that connected then your ready to trigger MSnS. The following schematic shows how I connected MSnS to be triggered from the 83 turbo distributor. It was brought to my attention by another MSnS installer that the pullup resistor on the MSnS trigger(tach) line should be 1K instead of 2K like I use to have it. This will give a better trigger signal during cranking when the voltage can sometimes drop to around 9 volts. The schematic is updated to show this value of pullup and I am using a 1k pullup. Also, I should mention that I am using the trigger circuit on the MSnS hardware just like the assembly manual tells you to complete it for using the stimulator board. Diode D8 is shorted out and a jumper is installed from XG1 to XG2. *see the note at the end of the document for a quick explanation of how pullup/pulldown resistors work and why you need them DIZZY WIRE COLORS!!! if you use the wire at the dizzy, versus after the 4 pin round connector: Dizzy side ------------ Harness Side Red (12v) B/W White (MS trigger) G/B Green (not used) G/Y Black (gnd) Black In case your wires are unplugged from the base of the dizzy, here is some info from Mack: These schematics also show How to connect to the GM 4 pin HEI module to fire the turbo coil. The HEI module I used was the Sorensen part number EL102 from advance auto. You can also get the Wells part DR100 from autozone. Both of these are around $13. I plan to use an MSD 6A unit down the road, but don't have specific install info for that yet. MSnS only outputs a trigger pulse for ignition, it cannot fire the coil directly or control dwell, but a GM HEI module or an MSD 6A will do both of those. MODS YOU HAVE TO DO FOR MSnS TO WORK THESE MODS DO NOT REQUIRE SOLDERING NOTE in the schematic that you have to add a pullup resistor to the TACH signal from the turbo distributor and another pullup resistor to the FIDLE signal on the GM HEI module. Beside the jumper to connect IDL to FIDLE, these are the only 2 pullup resistors you have to add to get MSnS to work with the L28et engine. For testing purposes I added the 1K pullup on the CAS signal between the tach input on the terminal block and the 12volt supply for the injectors. Since I didn't use all four of the 12volt terminals supplied for injector power, I had one left over to easily connect the pullup resistor to. I added the 1k pullup for the ignition output between the FIDLE terminal and the 5volt TPS reference volatge terminal. The TPS reference is just a 5volt source. On the relay board I inserted a wire with spade connections in place of the FIDLE relay so that the IDL signal from the computer gets jumpered to the FIDLE spot on the terminal block. That way I can use the terminal block FIDLE connection for my ignition module trigger. ********************************************** Other options for your 2 pullup resistors: When removing the FIDLE relay and installing jumpers/pullup/pulldown resistors have the relay board schematic handy. Depending on your specific installation you may not need a pulldown resistor, but these instructions will give you more flexibility and cover more installations. Go ahead and install a shunt on jumper J1 in the 2&3 location so that Pin 3 of the relay socket becomes ground for a possible pulldown resistor. Pin 1 of the socket is already 12v for a possible pullup resistor. Now, if you want a pullup on the FIDLE line you can just add the resistor between Pin 1 and Pin 4 of the socket. If you want a pulldown add the resistor between Pin 3 and Pin 4 of the socket. Check out the injector section of the Megamanual for more info on wiring and sizing your injectors. One important thing with the GM HEI module is that is gets grounded by bolting it down in the GM distributor. So make sure when you connect it up to ground it good by bolting it somewhere. I bolted a ground wire to it for testing. The sorensen unit has a ring of metal that comes out of the plastic and surrounds one bolt hole to help ensure a good ground. Make sure to bolt the HEI module to a solid piece of metal or to a heatsink and use heatsink compound on it. It can generate a lot of heat. Having the invert output setting wrong will cause the module to overheat. Also, leaving the ignition switch on for long periods of time with the engine not running may burn out the HEI module. Also, if you use the GM 4 pin HEI module, go into MegaTuneSS under trigger and cranking window and make sure the invert box is NOT checked. At first I had this box set to invert the output and it caused my cranking timing and running timing to differ by 20 crank degrees. ********************************************** COIL wiring in the 240z Like I said, I used the stock 280zxt coil. The schematics only show how to connect MSnS and the HEI module, but doesn't show all of the existing wiring in the car. My Turbo coil is wired as follows: Black White (BW) wire connected to coil + HEI module connected to coil + (as in the schematic) coil + is connected to a condenser condenser black wire then connects to the base of the distributor coil - is only conected to the HEI module as in the schematic The BW wire provides 12 volts to the coil when the ignition switch is turned on. The 240z originally had a ballast resistor to drop the voltage to the coil, I removed that so the turbo coil really gets 12 volts. Also, my Tachometer works with this setup, but I do have a 73 240z which rumor says that the 73 tach is different than earlier 240z tachs. Variable Reluctor Distributor If somebody wants to be a lab rat, I think the following schematic is one way you could trigger MSnS from a variable reluctor type distributor (like a GM distributor). Somebody let me know, but I think the 77 vintage of datsun/nissan distributor is a VR type, I don't have one on hand to check. BTW, this schematic is directly based off the schematic on the MegaSpark user group. To give credit where it belongs. So now you have MSnS installed in the car and it is triggering, verified by watching the fuel injector LED flash or the RPM gauge in megatune. Also you are getting the coil to fire using the GM module, MSD 6A, or some other ignition module. Setting the Timing for MSnS First, set the engine to TDC on number 1(make sure your on compression stroke). Now turn the crankshaft back by hand to what you think is 50 or 60 degrees BTDC. Remember, you need to provide a trigger from the distributor at least 5 degrees before the maximum advance you will use. In my case I figured I wouldn't use more than 45 degrees timing, so set the crankshaft to 50 degrees BTDC. The timing marks on the stock crankshaft damper only show 30 BTDC so I eyeballed it and guessed where 50 would be, this does not have to be set close and you'll see why. You got it set to about 50 or 60 BTDC, now loosen the distributor and turn it by hand with MSnS powered on until you see the middle LED come on. Tighten the distributor. I had someone crank the engine while I held the timing light and checked the timing during cranking. On my table cranking is set to 5 BTDC. If the timing is not right you adjust it in MegaTuneSS under trigger and cranking. Here you change the trigger angle setting until your timing is right. So it doesn't really matter if you got the crankshaft set at 70 BTDC, because you'll fine tune it in the trigger angle. If for some reason you don't get is set enough BTDC, then some of your high advance numbers in the table will not work because the computer will not have enough time to get triggered and then re-issue the output ignition trigger. It is really easy once you start working with it and realize how simple the setup is. Here is a picture of the MegaTune software, it includes my settings to get my engine started. ____________________________________________________________ Here are the settings I have in for the fuel portion of megasquirt, these are before tuning so only use to fire up your engine, then do your own tuning or risk pre-detonation and disaster. My ignition table is just a simple one based on some that James put up in the forum. Notice it just does a simple 1 degree retard as the boost climbs(should have been around 1degree per 1psi). The contstants are based on stock injectors and stock 2.8l engine size. The volumetric efficiency table is based on other peoples dynos of the stock engine at 10psi boost. I am currently running 10psi boost and stock injectors, haven't got the 450cc injectors on yet. My accel and decel enrichments are not quite right. But this should give a good starting point if you are around 10psi boost and stock setup otherwise. http://album.hybridz.org/data/500/8239megatune_my_constants.jpg Fuel Decel should be set to 100% in enrichments window(wrong in this picture) http://album.hybridz.org/data/500/8239megatune_my_enrichments.jpg http://album.hybridz.org/data/500/8239megatune_my_ve.jpg Fire the Engine So now MSnS is all set up, your timing is correct and reflects what is entered in the table. Your base fuel settings are entered and your ready to fire up the engine. Have the MS tuning section of the manual handy. Follow all of the usual precautions, have a fire extinguisher handy, remember to remove your grease rag from the air intake pipe and let her rip. I am sure this install guide will skip a lot of information, so I will update it as new information becomes apparent to me. The post is unlocked so I can add updates. If good stuff gets posted in replies to this thread I will merge it into this top post so people won't have to read through 50 replies to find something. Good luck and get that MSnS running. ____________________________________________________________ *Pullup/Pulldown resistor quick course You use a pullup resistor to get your line(or pin,connection) to some voltage (5,12, etc). Suppose you want a pin to have 5volts. If you just add a wire to 5 volts there is nothing to limit the current and if the pin happens to be an input to a transistor that is switched to ground then you have a short to ground from 5 volts and you burn stuff up. So instead you add a resistor to the 5 volts and the resistor will limit the current according to ohms law. Current is voltage divided by resistance. If you put a 1k ohm resistor to 5 volts then if the pin is switch to ground by internal electronics it can only draw 5 milliamps max(the resistor current-limits the path). A pulldown is similar except that you want a pin/wire connected to ground and you want the path to be current limited. To size the pullup or pulldown correctly you should know what the circuit is that you are adding the resistor to. But as a general rule you can use a 1k resistor for 5volts and a 2k resistor for 12volts. That limits the current to a few milliamps which is conservative. Sometimes the circuit may require more current to operate properly. For the pullup resistors I am just using 1/4 watt resistors. I=E/R I=12v/1k I=.012 or 12 milliamps P=I*E P=.012*12v P=.144watts little over 1/8 watt I=current E=voltage P=power R=resistance One person used a pullup resistor valued at 1 watt and this apparently caused his setup to burn out HEI modules. ____________________________________________________________ Below in the zip file is my newest MSnS settings for all the changes I have made to my car. Not to be confused with all of the other setting listed in this document which are for the stock swap. The caveat is that the VE map bins support up to around 18psi boost, but I have only tuned with my wideband to 14psi, so above that is un-tuned. And my wideband tuning was a "rough in" so do yourself a favor and use these settings with caution. I am also running with O2 correction turned off for now and decel fuel cut set to 100%. The current configuration of the car is as follows: stock replacement fuel pump from autozone stock FPR stock turbo 14psi boost GM HEI module for ignition with zxt coil 60mm 240sx TB SAAB 9000 intercooler 3 inch mandrel exhaust JSK fuel rail DSM 450cc injectors stock intake manifold, ported for 60mm TB DSM BOV if that matters IAT sensor before TB in j-pipe using stock air regulator to do fast idle control with coolant running through it JSK TB spacer to allow stock air regulator hookup http://www.reynoldsanddanielle.com/pictures/CarStuff/MSnS/MOBY/msns_settings.zip

Do you mean the 81 sensor that is on the cranskaft? I think that is what you mean. The sensor that is in the 83 turbo dizzy works, not sure how to connect to the 81 type that is on the cranshaft, but we should be able to figure that out. Yeah, trash the AFM and go to no air sensor. The system uses MAP sensor on the intake manifold and doesn't need any kind of air flow meter or mass airflow sensor. BTW, I've got the FAQ 90% finished, I'll have the first draft of it on in a couple hours and we can start adding all kinds of stuff to it.

This is part of what I'll explain, I had the same questions when I started. The MSS code just downloads onto the MS board using easytherm as the downloader. MSS still functions just like MS, you use MegaTune to do all of your fuel settings, except fast idle output is now used for ignition output. So you lose fast idle control. You also use MegaTuneSS, which lets you set all of your ignition stuff. You have to bounce back and fourth between the two programs to tune fuel and ignition. The MSS guys are working on one MegaTune that will include fuel and ignition settings, but this is a minor inconvenience. That is it, uses regular MS board with no mods. You have to provide a fixed trigger from the dizzy because you are setting a table of timings in the computer now. You have to use some kind of ignition module to fire the coil, the ignition output is not capable of firing the coil directly.

Thanks guys. I am going to write up a FAQ about installing MSS, hopefully that will help get other people over the hump with MSS. The MS manual is very good, especially in the area of assembling the unit itself.

Got MegaSquirtnSpark running on my L28et tonight. First try it fired right up, with the temperature of the block at 36 degrees F. It is only idling around 400rpm right now, but thats not bad for no adjustments to anything!! I know squat about tuning engines so I will just follow the MS manual and see what happens. It was super easy to time the spark with the stock 83 dizzy. Just got to TDC on number 1. Then turned the crankshaft back to what looked about 50 BTDC to me. Then started cranking and changing the crank angle value in MegaTuneSS. Three changes and it is right on. I just used base settings for fuel in MS and that was it. Fired right up. I started it four times to check various things and now I'm ready to get idle set and start some real tuning. If somebody else could have given me the knowledge I learned on the install so far, I could have one of these up and running in about 3 hours. That would all be wiring. Since I didn't know anything it took me about 12 hours to get it started(all wiring and prep work and trying to figure out how to trigger MSnS and fire HEI module). Right now I am using the 4 pin GM HEI module to fire the turbo coil. I'm stoked now because all of the hard stuff is done and MSnS works.

I don't get any time during the week to work on the car, but I am confident I will get it running this weekend. I solved the hard problems last weekend with supplying the trigger to MSS and being able to fire the coil. I'll let you guys know when it fires up. So far everything is going really smooth.

AS for megasquirt itself, how to build, test, and tune is covered very well in the manual. The more interesting details that you would probably want are the specifics for installation on z cars. I am installing it on the 83 L28et engine so I can fill in the specifics about that. In particular, how to trigger MS, maybe how to wire MSD unit to it or the GM HEI module. How and where to connect sensors on the engine for it to work. Using squirt'nspark code to control ignition. I can put the info I know together once I am completely finished with the install. I am sure you will want someone else to add details on using MS with non-turbo engines. More specific, how to trigger MS with other distributors than the 83 turbo type. Where you may want to locate sensors for non-turbo, etc. I don't think it would take a very long document to cover the details of installing MS on a turbo or non-turbo z car. I think the bulk of details for MS are covered in the MS manual.

You just had to go and do that didn't you, now I have to update the spreadsheet Well, anyway the standard o-ring size is 14mm used by Bosch, Lucas, etc... I don't know how many other sizes exist, but hopefully the jsk rail is based on 14mm, that would make injector selection easier.

Your O-ring fuel rails are based of 1G DSM injectors right? But a person should be able to use just about any o-ring injector. My spreadsheet of obscure facts says that typical o-ring injectors use a bore of 14mm. The length of the injector and connector location may vary. But if its a side feed injector with 14mm o-ring (assuming the JSK rail uses 14mm) then worst case you only have to re-work you mounting method for the fuel rail so it sets higher. Does that sound right.

I really need to get a fsm, I think my father-in-law has one though. Post them in this thread if you don't mind, then anybody else reading this will have access to them. Thanks

Bernard, you said that you got temp measurements from the CHTS? Can I get those from you so I can use easytherm and re-calibrate to use this sensor? That would save me some time. Thanks

I did a couple tests and the ECU will not fire the HEI module directly, you have to have the pullup resistor. I didn't like the idea of pulling an micro-controller pin up to 12 volts so I pulled it up to 5 volts now and that works fine. I'll look at the data sheet on the micro-controller and see what the pin specs are, but will likely just stick with a pullup to 5 volts.

I got the 4 pin GM HEI module firing the coil now. I am using the relay board with MSS. I removed the fast idle relay and then put a jumper in place that connects pin 30 in from MSS to FIDLE on the terminal block. That way I am getting the FIDLE signal straight from the ECU. Then in MegaTuneSS I set the output to be inverted. I connected pin W of the HEI module to ground. I connected Pin G to FIDLE at the terminal block and put a 1k pullup on this pin to 12 volts. Connect pin B to positive coil terminal and connect this terminal to switched battery 12 volts. Connect pin C to negative coil terminal. Fire in the hole All I have to do now is get the MAP sensor hooked to the intake and set my intial timing of CAS to the MSS. Should be fired up tomorrow night or Tuesday. So far so good. Bernard, let me know if you get your working.

I figured out the first piece of business on how to trigger MS or MSnS with the 83 turbo CAS. I couldn't figure out what to do with the GY and GB wires so I searched around and found the following info on zcar: This came from jt240z so give him credit: ---------------- I can't tell you about the 81 trigger wheel, but if you use an 82 or 83 turbo distributor, you can get some benefits that are not available from the 81 crank trigger. The 82/83 distributor has a built in optical crank angle sensor that is well adaptable to after market systems that use a home and trigger configuration. You need to install the VG30 trigger wheel from any 84 to 89 300ZX or Maxima, but what you get is a true #1 cylinder "Home" reference. With the crank angle sensor in the distributor you get 720 degrees of engine rotation for each 360 degree of trigger wheel rotation. This allows for a unique #1 cylinder identifier. The original trigger wheel in the 280zx turbo does not uniquely reference the #1 cylinder. That's why you need to change the wheel. The 81 distributor has no optical sensor built in, which is why they use the crank trigger wheel and pick-up. The 82/83 distributor is a direct drop in replacement for the 81 distributor. With the above configuration you can do sequential fuel injection and sequential ignition. There are two rows of trigger slots on the trigger wheel. The outer track gives you 360 slots (each gives 2 degrees of crank resolution) while the inner track has 6 slots (one for each cylinder). On the 280zx trigger wheel all six slots are the same size (about 2 outer slots wide 120 degrees apart) but the VG30 wheel has an 8 or 9 outer slot width for the #1 cylinder while the remaining 5 cylinders are the same width as the 280ZX. The optical sensor output gives a low to high transition when the slots are open (light goes through). There are 4 wires (Black, Black/White, Green/Black and Green/yellow I think). The Black/white wire gets +12V (IGN) while the Black is Ground. The Green/Yellow is the 360-slot output and the Green/Black is the 6-slot output. Someone please correct me if I have them reversed. The optical outputs need a pull-up resistor in order to go high. Most ECU's that support an optical trigger have internal pull-up resistors. You can verify the outputs by using a DVM and a 2K-ohm pull-up resistor. Just connect the output to the 12V line through the pull-up resistor and measure the voltage across the resistor. When you rotate the distributor shaft, the voltage will rise and fall as the windows pass through the optical sensor. It will be obvious which is the 360 slot v/s the 6 slot output. Some ECU's (Haltech E6K, E11) have direct support for this type of trigger (Nissan Trigger). I hope this is of some help. ------------------ So , given that info I put a 2k pullup to 12 volts on the GB wire and triggered MS from the GB wire. Looks like it works great. I'll let you know if I get the car running tomorrow. I still plan to use the gm 4 pin module to fire the coil.

I'll let you know on Monday what I find out