Any body making any progress with megasquirt/turbo setups?

[Guest bastaad525]

Went looking thru the archives and found a really long thread with a few of you guys mentioning you were putting one of these megasquirts into your turbo z's. Unfortunately no one actually had one installed and running as of that thread... was just wondering if anyone has gotten one in yet or if anyones getting close. I'm very interested in installing an MS after I get my engine woes sorted out. I've really gotten tired of dealing with the turbo's efi system... and that has also brought back memories of my old n/a zx and all the gremlins I had with that ones efi... I'd rather just get rid of it. I'm being offered a great deal on a preassembled MS but I dont want to dive in until I know installing it is something I'm gonna be able to handle. I've already poured over the MS website and faq's... I gotta be honest I'm not much of a technical person, and those wiring diagrams are intimidating so I'm hoping that some guru's on here have gotten theirs up and running so I have someone to come to for tech help if I get stuck. I already know I need two of those GM sensors, for air and coolant temp... and an 02 but I believe I can just use the stock O2 that's already there. Where are you guys attaching your sensors? The main thing I wonder about now is wiring, I'm assuming that installing an MS will involve some degree of butchering a stock wiring harness for connections? At least for the fuel injector connectors. What else? How much wiring and splicing am I looking at here, as opposed to, say, when we wired the '82 ECCS into the 240z? Any tips/advice/knowledge here is appreciated

 

Also, what's the best place to find one of the old style cheap laptops? I have a feeling you guys are gonna say ebay I'll have to check there... anywhere else? Like any good pc sales websites or anything that deal with secondhand equipment? Something with a possible warranty would be nice.

[Tim240z]

Bryan,

I have a laptop that I can let go for cheap.

IBM 600 pentium II 400

THe battery is dead, so it has to have main power supply hooked up, and it already has the MS software on it. Battery should be easy to source if you need the portability.

You can have it for $150

Tim

[Guest bastaad525]

heheh Tim you should open a store

 

yeah I'd definately need the portability I"m up on the second floor at my apartment... would need a really large extension cord to get power out to my car. Otherwise it sounds like it'd be just what I need. Does it have a brand name on it (gateway, dell, HP) and a model #? Maybe I can look around and see if I can find a battery. Or hey wait... would it be feasible to get an adapter to hook it up to the cigarette lighter in the car? I always forget if the power there is constant or if it cuts out when you try to start the car or whatever.

[mobythevan]

I was suppose to start installing the MS last weekend, but I am waiting on the 240zx throttle body I bought off ebay. Looks like it will be here tomorrow and I have this entire weekend to work on the car. I should be able to get all of the new sensors mounted and work on my wiring. I don't expect to get much further than that, but we'll see. I will have MS running on my L28ET if it takes me until next spring (and it might, who knows)

[Guest bastaad525]

naaaaaah heheh come on you'll have it running on the MS by next monday come on!!! DO IT! j/k

 

Moby are you using the GM sensors that are recommended? will they thread into the head or wherever, where the stock nissan sensors go? If not, how/where will you mount them?

 

Are you doing all the wiring "from scratch" or are you using part of the factory wiring harness? How hard does the wiring seem so far? The unit I want to buy is already assembled and works, so I need an idea of how hard it is to wire the unit to everything else.

 

details details!!! I have a feeling that if I can get this MS installed and just a basic tune this car will run better than it did even when it was brand new and the MS will also be safety insurance for my freshly rebuilt motor... no lean spots!

[z-ya]

I got my Megasquirted NA 10:1 L6 started and idling this week. Amazing how universal this ECU is. Not only did it start right up, but the throttle respose seems pretty decent, even with all the defaul enrichment settings. All I did was set the REQ_FUEL, and a few other basic constants an it started right up.

 

I'm using an early ZX distributor with the stock ignition module and coil. I had to add the "Dave" cap to the ignition trigger circuit because I was getting false triggers.

 

This thing is awesome. Now I need an exaust system

 

Here are a few pics:

 

[mobythevan]

Moby are you using the GM sensors that are recommended? will they thread into the head or wherever, where the stock nissan sensors go? If not, how/where will you mount them?

 

Are you doing all the wiring "from scratch" or are you using part of the factory wiring harness? How hard does the wiring seem so far? The unit I want to buy is already assembled and works, so I need an idea of how hard it is to wire the unit to everything else.

 

I am using the GM sensors as recommended. That way I won't have to use easytherm to recalibrate. I have not mounted the sensors yet. I will re-do all of the wiring myself, shouldn't be that bad.

 

z-ya, did you just use the nissan coolant sensor? Where did you mount your air temp sensor?

[z-ya]

I used GM sensors for both air and coolant. The the same reason you are, to keep it simple. For turbo they say you shoulduse the open air type. I'm using the closed ones for both. I have the air temp sensor mounted in the intake, downstream of the throttle body. Look at the pic, it's the one wit the black and white twisted pair connected to it. The red and black is the coolant temp.

 

Pete

[sims76]

I have been up and running with the MS for months now.

No complaints, it's great.

 

PLEASE somebody post your Megatune configuration files on the Yahoo website when you're finished. I know there are a few of us out there, but people don't seem to do this. I have posted mine here...

 

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/megasquirt/files/Megatune%20settings/

 

I started by completely removing the FI harness and re-wiring from scratch. Time consuming, but not difficult. Make sure you have a factory service manual.

 

You can see pics of some stuff at http://photos.yahoo.com/mls228

 

Good Luck,

 

-Sims

[z-ya]

Sims,

 

Thanks for pointing me to your MS settings.

 

A couple questions:

 

* What value resistor are you running in series with each injector?

* Do you have three injectors on one driver, and three on the other?

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

[sims76]

z-ya,

 

I originally did not have resistors on my stock 2.4ohm injectors. I was using the PWM method. I fried my flyback circuit after about 20 minutes of running. Smoke literally came out of the MS box at my feet! I might have been able to tweak the PWM settings so that this wouldn't happen, but instead I installed resistors and turned off PWM:

 

These were about $25

six 5 ohm (25 watt ) resistors from Digikey

 

They look exactly like the ones on this page:

http://members.shaw.ca/megasquirt/manual/minj.htm

 

To answer your question.... Yes, I have three injectors on one driver

and three on the other with one resistor inline with each injector.

 

Funny thing that I found was when I dismantled the stock resistor pack.

There was 2 resistors with a common ground and the other four shared

a different common ground. I was going to re-configure these, but I cut

all the wires from the leads only to find out that the metal posts on the

stock resistor packs are not solderable. To save yourself $25, just use

the stock resistor pack and turn off PWM.

[z-ya]

I'm running 5 Ohm resistors in series now, so I should be safe turning of fPWM.

 

Did alternating vs simultaneous injector staging make any difference? I've been running simultaneous so far.

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

[sims76]

I'm running alternating, but didn't notice any difference the few times that I switched to simultaneous.

[Guest bastaad525]

This is the kind of info I was looking for

 

Z-ya - looking at that pic... okay those are the GM sensors... I followed the wires, one is bolted in in the thermostat housing, and one is bolted into the intake manifold? Do I have that right? So these GM sensors will thread into these spots or you had to re-tap the holes to accept the GM sensors? Are those sensors really less than $8 a pop ? What about the connectors for these sensors?

 

sims76 - about starting from scratch, what about connectors? I'm guessing you had to at least cut/retain the connector ends for the injectors and the TPS and splice those into your self made harness? Or did you buy seperate ones (motorsport sells them dont they?)? If not, what did you do for these connectors?

[DatsunBoy77]

I am going to start on mine soon, i just have to figure out how to do ignition. I am tryin MS'n'S but would like to go DIS, but that probably wont happen. What is everyone else using for ignition.

 

Ryan

[z-ya]

Yes one goes to the T-Stat housing to measure coolant temp, and the other is in the intake to measure air temp. I had to re-tap bot the T-Stat housing and the intake manifold. It's a 3/8" NPT.

 

For turbo applications they recommend using an "open air" sensor for air temp. It uses the same connector as the other one. You can get the connectors at Autozone, but they are kind of pricey. I used some used Nissan ones that were in good shape.

 

Like Sims76 said, you are better off making up your own new harness, rather than try to use old wiring. It's not too hard to do.

 

Pete

[Guest bastaad525]

yeah I figured on not really using any of the actual stock harness other than just cutting off the connector ends for like the injectors. That's the question I keep asking, if I'm gonna need a harness to cut up for that specific reason.

 

About tapping those holes... unfortunately I dont have the tools to do that... could I use something like a thread adapter? I've seen something like that before, when I bought an adjustable FPR, all the threads were in standard measurments so I used adapters for my metric stuff. So could I use an adapter like that for the coolant temp? And you're saying the air temp should just be open to air? As in, not bolted in anywhere?

[sims76]

sims76 - about starting from scratch, what about connectors? I'm guessing you had to at least cut/retain the connector ends for the injectors and the TPS and splice those into your self made harness? Or did you buy seperate ones (motorsport sells them dont they?)? If not, what did you do for these connectors?

 

I bought eight new connectors off ebay for $25. Six for the injectors. One for the water temp sensor. One for the air temp sensor. They didn't have the nice boot over them so I made my own out of large heat shrink tubing. By the way, I'm using the stock Nissan water temp sensor and a KIA air temperature sensor (which incidentally accepts the nissan style connector.)

 

IGNITION: I couln't get a good signal from the stock ignition. This was the last piece and I got lazy, so I bought an MSD 6A from summitracing.com. Works great. It took longer to mount it than it did to hook it up.

[SleeperZ]

And you're saying the air temp should just be open to air? As in, not bolted in anywhere?

 

I would think this should measure air temperature INSIDE the manifold?

[sims76]

Check out this link for pics of how I mounted my air temp sensor in the "homemade pvc cold air intake."

 

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mls228/lst?&.dir=/Zcar&.src=ph&.begin=9999&.view=t&.order=&.done=http%3a//f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mls228/lst%3f%26.dir=/Zcar%26.src=ph%26.view=t

 

or this

 

http://photos.yahoo.com/mls228