I'm bait for EFI, I'm just too scared. Help me get over my Megasquirt fear

[woldson]

Enough!

 

Josh, you pull the trigger on this or not.

 

Seeing you shave those rods down made me cringe, you push forward on

 

your own accord!

 

and really were very successful.

 

 

You really need to stop the drama, "it" will never change, only you.

 

In the wise old words of some old fart;

 

 

crap or get off the pot!

 

Stop sucking at the tit of those that have and be one that has!

 

Peace out.

 

As for Rolling parts, sir, your value is in your triumphs, not dismay, everyone has failed.

Sharing your feats and basking in your knowledge, dedication, "stick to it", blazing new paths, is what this site is here for.

 

Yep, sometimes you fail,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

 

Ain't it grand!

[S130Z]

Just to throw this out there, I just finished my install yesterday and have a fairly good base tune. GO TURBO!!!!! This is the first turbo car I have ever "experienced" and I am never going back. I'm only on 5psi at the moment, but it beats the hell out of any N/A combo I have experienced. It put me out of my daily driver for 2 weeks(due to other stupid ZX issues), but I could have done it in 2 days if there were not some minor issues that came up.

 

What I need to get at here is if more power is what you are seeking, go farther than just MegaSquirt on an EFI conversion. Turbo is amazing and with the correct planning and reading you can do an entire motor swap, with an extra hand, in a couple days. If I could fly out to Texas and help you, I would. The experience for me has been amazing (even after all the unfortunate events that happened) and I am not even close to the end of the journey. With MS you will never get board and there are always things to upgrade. I say do your EFI swap, get familliar with MegaSquirt, then go Turbo!

[josh817]

Just to throw this out there, I just finished my install yesterday and have a fairly good base tune. GO TURBO!!!!! This is the first turbo car I have ever "experienced" and I am never going back. I'm only on 5psi at the moment, but it beats the hell out of any N/A combo I have experienced. It put me out of my daily driver for 2 weeks(due to other stupid ZX issues), but I could have done it in 2 days if there were not some minor issues that came up.

 

What I need to get at here is if more power is what you are seeking, go farther than just MegaSquirt on an EFI conversion. Turbo is amazing and with the correct planning and reading you can do an entire motor swap, with an extra hand, in a couple days. If I could fly out to Texas and help you, I would. The experience for me has been amazing (even after all the unfortunate events that happened) and I am not even close to the end of the journey. With MS you will never get board and there are always things to upgrade. I say do your EFI swap, get familliar with MegaSquirt, then go Turbo!

Never! I love my stroker. I believe in power that can be hooked up and realistically as a student I can't afford whopping tires to hook the power up. Woldson, I'm getting off the pot, if you need to take a dump, now is the time because I will back for this... Although, it would make sense for me to get that non-webbed intake and throw it in storage. I see the prices are going up for those things. I have the webbed type sitting in the garage right now. Perhaps I cut the runners off of it right around the injector and then TIG weld some long straight runners onto those so it resembles Johns yellow race car, or was it Pauls race car?

 

And hey! I like my rods! These 2000 Roadster ones aren't turning out as nice as my L24 ones. They're heavy. Like 840 grams, stock is 912 grams... I didn't know I made you cringe, oh you'll hate this then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I'm going to invest my left over insurance money in this "ex SCCA" 280 that has a stroker in it, ported head, LSD, suspension stuff, headers, and a set of twin round tops, and spare parts. His price is under $1400 and if I get a nice LSD, another 5 speed, a ported head, and a stroker motor (tear it down for the crank, rods, and pistons), sell the car as a roller to someone for like $200. I'm a happy man! Woohoo!

 

Thanks guys for the pep talk. It still scares me but now I consider the task a more reasonable one. I'll play with Megajolt for now and if I want to switch to MS then I wil already have all my wires for the coil pack, VR sensor, TPS, etc.

[Guest Rolling Parts]

Best of luck on ya,

Like Jnenifer Beals in Flashdance; you gotta follow take passions and make it happen...

[Tony D]

The first rule of any project is to have clear goals in mind and stick to them.

If you have changed things several times, it's because you failed in the most basic stage of planning of the project: Clear Goals.

 

Don't blame a product for not fullfilling every possible whim you may have down the line. If that is the case, I can call SDS a poor system because there is one sitting in my shed that is fuel only. I didn't buy it, it came in a box of other stuff. And there is sits until I figure out what it's good for, but for me... why bother with it? Does it make the SDS somehow bad? I don't think so. Just misapplied.

 

And when something is misapplied, it's the engineer in charge of the product upgrade who's to blame, not what they chose. I get to ask that question, and point that finger a lot in my job...usually the project engineer comes back to the what the customer 'thought' he wanted. But you can't blame the customer.

 

Yes, yes you can!

[josh817]

The first rule of any project is to have clear goals in mind and stick to them.

If you have changed things several times, it's because you failed in the most basic stage of planning of the project: Clear Goals.

 

Don't blame a product for not fullfilling every possible whim you may have down the line. If that is the case, I can call SDS a poor system because there is one sitting in my shed that is fuel only. I didn't buy it, it came in a box of other stuff. And there is sits until I figure out what it's good for, but for me... why bother with it? Does it make the SDS somehow bad? I don't think so. Just misapplied.

 

And when something is misapplied, it's the engineer in charge of the product upgrade who's to blame, not what they chose. I get to ask that question, and point that finger a lot in my job...usually the project engineer comes back to the what the customer 'thought' he wanted. But you can't blame the customer.

 

Yes, yes you can!

I didn't fail the most basic stage, I just stumbled over more information, and more good deals. I changed my headers because I found member on here who was selling his 1 5/8" primaries headers. Change my ignition because thats cool, etc. Keep in mind, during my build I was poor. I was more than poor, I was in debt to my financier, my momma. Costs were kept to a minimum, time was of the essence. I regret that, because my port job was decent right until you hit the most important part, the bowl. And then I didn't purchase atleast ARP rod bolts, and Datsun rod bolts suck.

 

thats why I want to get this Z for $1400, maybe if I can talk him down to something even less! Who knows, it may have forged pistons and some super cool rods. It'll have a V07 crank, LSD, ported head, and a "Stage V" cam. I don't think I will use that cam though. MSA Stage IV to Stage V goes from .495" 290º to like .560" 300º... Depending on the port job on this head. I may touch it with my own tools, but if it looks nice I'm going to say no way, this is too nice. We have to machine shops, 1 for general block boring and crank turning, and the other that does custom stuff. The custom stuff guy has a 5 axis CNC machine and he said if I come in with a ported head he can like scan or do whatever with the port, and then have it on file so I can just bring heads to him and he CNC ports it. I don't think I could bring in people from here or anything to have their heads CNC ported. I don't even think CNC porting is that much cheaper than hand done port job... Meh all I'm saying is that there may be another stroker motor going into the car...

[FlatBlack]

Josh, I've never driven a stroker L28 and probably won't ever get the chance, but like S130Z said, you MUST try a terbeaux-flavored L28 one day.

 

It completely woke up my F54/P79 and feels like a completely different car. It also helps having all those extra fun noises when you're driving around

 

Best of luck, good luck with school!! [i should FINALLY be graduating next May]

[josh817]

Josh, I've never driven a stroker L28 and probably won't ever get the chance, but like S130Z said, you MUST try a terbeaux-flavored L28 one day.

 

It completely woke up my F54/P79 and feels like a completely different car. It also helps having all those extra fun noises when you're driving around

 

Best of luck, good luck with school!! [i should FINALLY be graduating next May]

Let me show you something :]

 

I came from a turbo car. I've experienced the driving. Carpet jumbled up on gas pedal, went to shift, no rev limiter, knocked ever since.

[Tony D]

Profiling the intake and exhaust ports of a professionally ported engine would make a nice CNC program to have for a racer in case he needed to duplicate a build for consistency.

 

CMM tracing is likely what he did to the head ports. I had access to one of those machines, then they closed the division and I wasn't allowed to bid on any of it...

 

>:^(

[Tony D]

This may sound bizzare, but make the plan, and stick to it.

You'll find you don't change parts hardly at all once the plan is made.

And consistency of the goal means you don't have to worry about 'upgrades' later on.

 

My MS1 car does everything my goals for the project require. Wants versus Needs. You simply and rationally need to put those down and confirm each part as to it's suitability to the build. A 'Pro and Con' column if you will. If the part being considered has too many cons, or can't rationally be justified then it's a 'Want' and not a 'need' for the build. Truthfully, EDIS on a N/A engine not turning above 7500 rpms is more of a 'want' than a 'need' from where I sit on the pro and con ledger.

 

If you change your mind, it's not constancy of purpose. As some would say 'your water runs troubled'---get some piece of mind and settle your mind to think clearer about the goals you set for the car. If you can't you will be in a constant state of flux, confusion, and angst. Who needs that?

[PanzerAce]

So can tell me what the deal with this microsquirt box is? It *seems* like it takes a bunch of the guess work out of things, entailing only that I connect the correct sensors to the correct wires...is this correct?

 

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems from reading that I could actually install all of the MS equipment, wire up all the senders, and get used to the read-outs, trouble shoot most things, etc, before swapping over the actual EFI hardware, correct?

[Tony D]

Yep... If you install GM style sensors, and a dual TPS from a KA engine that has both Switch and Sensor, you can dry run the whole system and datalog it while still running on the stock EFI system.

 

On a carb system it would take some more setup, but it could be done as well.

[josh817]

Yep... If you install GM style sensors, and a dual TPS from a KA engine that has both Switch and Sensor, you can dry run the whole system and datalog it while still running on the stock EFI system.

 

On a carb system it would take some more setup, but it could be done as well.

Yay for 300zx TPS on a Weber throttle shaft! Requires one 4-5" piece of right angle aluminum, one aluminum rod about 3" long. Drill and tap rod for M7 threads. Either use a lathe or hand file the other end so that it fits into TPS. Drill proper holes on angle iron and install on the 2 screw holes used for the idle adjustment screw. They should be open on the firewall side since the linkage is on the left side of all 3 carbs. Get 2 more idle adjustment screws or find a source for metric hardware.

 

Install >> exert pride >> profit

 

300zx automatic transmission TPS has the TPS reading on the pigtail and the switch (I guess this is for full throttle) on the plastic shell itself. I like how mine turned out, looks very clean!

/win!

[FlatBlack]

<----- Fail.

 

I came from a turbo car. I've experienced the driving. Carpet jumbled up on gas pedal, went to shift, no rev limiter, knocked ever since.

 

Did not know that. Do you know what modification I have to prevent that? No carpet

 

Here is a quick cross reference from the micro-squirt to the other MS units if you want to see the pros and cons of doing one or the other!

 

[i got rule-tagged, I'm thinking it's because I got on my terbeaux soapbox ]

[Tony D]

You can add a GM 'slot style' TPS on the linkage shaft of the triples as well, and make it very unobtrusive. Just file the end of the shaft, or stick in a small flat adapter and then bolt the GM unit over the top of it.

 

There's a million ways to do it. Kinsler makes a 'TPS Mount' that is actuated by a crank, so you simply hook up another arm to your linkage setup going to where you mounted the TPS Mount, and you're set. They have CW and CCW rotation models. Its for guys converting their Hillborn/Kinsler/Enderle MFI setups to EFI and need a way to mount the TPS without altering any of the bodies. Works if you attach it to the bellcrank on the firewall, as well!

[cygnusx1]

The 280ZXT worked FINE with a SINGLE coil, and conventional spark distribution.

 

..until the 280ZXT dizzy takes a random crap. And when it does, it craps in random failures, which mysteriously disappear after 20 minutes of cool down. For the price of a new/rebuilt ZXT Dizzy you can get about 5 EDIS setups in a junkyard. Besides, EDIS can throw a spark...lightning bolt, 2"+ long easily. It's not COOL. It's HOT!

 

 

 

mmm hide injectors UNDER my Canon intake and put in a dual system....Triples or EFI with the flick of a switch! How James Bond.

[Tony D]

..until the 280ZXT dizzy takes a random crap. And when it does, it craps in random failures, which mysteriously disappear after 20 minutes of cool down...

 

After 250,000 miles. That's an unfair characterization of the 280ZXT CAS. When the EDIS unit is 30 years old, we'll see how they are holding up.

 

Guys change the ED12-80 to GMHEI modules all the time due to cost, but it's not like the E12-80 is a 'failure prone' item, it did last what...25, close to 30 years? I am using a Performance GMHEI on my MS-n-Se and it shoots 4" blue-white sparks no problem. Don't need an EDIS for that! A whole $40 new. No trigger wheel hassles, no complexity. SIMPLE.

 

They would last another what? 25 years. Pretty good payback IMO.

 

The symptoms of the failure make it pretty clear to diagnose with the Freez-It.

[josh817]

Yah I'm running a Warner HEI module. Lifetime warranty from O'Rileys!

 

http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com/articles/tech_hei.html

 

However, I like EDIS because I can change the ignition events and it gives me a rev limiter. Good rev limiters are like $100 right? I spent $100 + $80 for my Megajolt. The other great thing is the 0-5v input. I can have a datalog of TPS, RPM, ignition, and AFR. I'm glad I did TPS rather than MAP because it will really help to see what percentage I'm at compared to the AFR. Should show my what jets are screwing up and stuff.

[letitsnow]

Yah I'm running a Warner HEI module. Lifetime warranty from O'Rileys!

 

http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com/articles/tech_hei.html

 

However, I like EDIS because I can change the ignition events and it gives me a rev limiter. Good rev limiters are like $100 right? I spent $100 + $80 for my Megajolt. The other great thing is the 0-5v input. I can have a datalog of TPS, RPM, ignition, and AFR. I'm glad I did TPS rather than MAP because it will really help to see what percentage I'm at compared to the AFR. Should show my what jets are screwing up and stuff.

 

What do you mean by change the ignition events? With a lowly turbo dizzy you have just as much control over spark timing. If you have MS/megajolt already, edis will LIMIT your rev limit options compared to a dizzy or MS driving coils, you can't do spark cut with edis.

 

IMO, the hot setup for wasted spark is a 36-1 wheel triggering the MS directly and having 3 ignition drivers in the case.

[Tony D]

Got to agree, MS-n-Se allows full timing curve programability in a 3d map according to MAP and RPM. There is a soft and hard rev limiter in the same program, first retarding the timing, then cutting fuel.

 

The datalogging is the same with the correct O2 sensor. Matter of fact, people I know have hooked up their MS boxes and used them as a datalogger to build a spreadsheet for some troubleshooting. You can datalog AFR, TPS, RPM, MAP right out of the box.

 

You probably need to do a bit more research if you missed these facts already. I don't know about megajolt, but if you have one, and can set it up and use it I'm darned sure you can run the simple MS-n-Se software and set it up as well.