81 l28et help

[thepicklefish]

Ok, so the only l28et i could find around here is an 81 with no harness. I plan to use megasquirt and the ford edis anyways. all the writeups ive found for megasquirt use the 82/83 l28et, so my question is what all do i need to convert my 81 to an 82 so i can use megasquirt n spark?

[cgsheen]

Don't know much of anything about MS, but I can say that the only major difference between the '81 L28ET and the later year engines is the crank angle sensor. On the '81 it's external - there's a trigger wheel bolted to the crank pulleys and a sensor near the A/C compressor - as I'm sure you've seen. On the '82-'83 it's built into the distributor. If MS doesn't use the stock CAS, shouldn't matter a bit... (even if it does, the CAS signal must be the same from either unit... I use a stock '81 harness and ECU on my '83 engine)

 

(The '81 also uses a "package" of dropping resistors for the injectors that is external to the ECU, but that too doesn't matter a bit if you're not using a stock harness and/or ECU...)

 

Otherwise, all the L28ET's pretty much "same same" as far as the electronics go.

[Gollum]

You'll be able to do it, but you can't use the OEM CAS. You'll either want to adapt a more conventional 36-1 trigger wheel with sensor, or find a 82-83 turbo dizzy. Personally, I'd just go with the trigger wheel. If you're going MSII then you don't even need the EDIS module as the ECU can control the spark directly. You'll just need coils, which with MSII you have loads of options there.

 

An over the counter, or ebay 82-83 turbo dizzy can run over $200 in some cases. Considering that, the money spent on a trigger wheel and coils seems like a bargain.