Brad here is my Megasquirt Info Options

[DNHunt]

Here is a link to a web page on my install. Dave's 914 Megasquirt Conversion. I've been trying to get info that may help others up on it. I feel that the values listed in the tables will get most 2.0 L type IV's running. All, including, mine will need more tuning.

I've had it running for about a month on the MS and I'm gaining confidence in it. Went to the breakfast in Seattle on Saturday and it ran well albeit kinda rich. The enrichment for air density as the intake air temperature rises is still not right so it is too lean right after warmup enrichment but too rich when fully warm. When I get that figured out I should be able to lean it out more. Still, I travelled about 80 miles without a missfire.

Some of the guys that drove it and might want to chime in.

Dave

[Brad Roberts]

Thanks Dave.

In the near future... the plan was to have MS boards professionally soldered and new wiring harness' made for a nice conversion similar to yours. The factory MPS's are unobtanium and the other parts are very very expensive. The plan was to offer this setup as a "option" to people who want injection and dont want to replace all the good factory pieces they may already have (injectors..blah blah) I was trying to hold out on the project until MS came out with the ignition piece also (crank triggered)..I was semi disappointed that they used Ford components to makeup the ignition. Typically ALL parts stores carry GM injection pieces...before they carry Ford pieces.

Thanks for your post.


B

[Mueller]

Dave,

looks great, good job....

I had the v1 MS on my 914 last year, drove it about for a few weeks and f'd up the engine....almost a year later, i hope to have the same motor (only better) installed in another 914 soon


Mine ran way, way too lean, but still started and had a perfect idle.

[Bleyseng]

I rode in it so I got to see the A/F mixes as we (Zach Yeager and I) drove around. The A/F at partload ran at about 13 to 1 mostly and at WOT it was at 12.3 to 1 which is ok but a little rich. Seemed to have good power to me. Zach is going to dump his dual Webbers on his 2.3 and go to dual TB with MS.
Geoff

[Brad Roberts]

Geoff, Mueller,

Do you see any reason why we shouldnt move forward with a legit replacement ??

Mueller,

I was serious about the Dyno. The tanks go up soon. John is talking about hiring a EX Garret turbo guru (he worked for Garret 15+ years) who happens to be best friends with a head honcho at KKK also.


B

[DNHunt]

Geoff;

I know the car is running rich. The plugs look it, and the exhaust is way sooty. My concern with quoting Air fuel ratios right now is that the O2 sensor has never been calibrated so I would say it runs rich at part load and richer at WOT.

I've chased all the bugs except for the fact that the Air fuel mixture richens excessively as the temperature rises. I chose to run it rich at full warmup so it would not be lean as it is getting there.

My plan is to tweak the air density corrections by fooling the ECU into thinking that the intake air sensor changes more slowly, then retune the fueling map to run leaner at full warm. When that is done I'd like to drive it for a while then get a dyno done and post the results (Enrichments, VE table, Constants, Code, .inc files). Timing all of this depends on how long it takes to solve this and the usual demands from family and wife. Don't want to hear "You love that car so much why don't you sleep with it."

Brad;

Have you looked at an ignition called MegaSpark. It is programmable and uses Megasquirt electronics to fire an MSD 6A. Looks easy but no knock sensing or ion sensing. I'm thinking that may make a good project for me next winter. I felt the MSD ingnition did more to improve the way the car ran than the Megasquirt. It instantly provided more torque and smoother idle.

Dave

[JWest]

Dave, thanks for that link to MegaSpark. That is exactly what I was looking for, but somehow I missed it. I knew about the Megajolt and "lite", but I really just wanted to use a locked out distributor on my projects, but have a tunable advance curve.

[Bleyseng]

Dave, installing MSD 6A didn't do jack for me.
How high revwise can you run the fuel map? Does the engine run out of fuel like with Djet at 6k?
I wonder how friendly the Megasquirt is the more cam? There might be some hp waiting there for us to use vs the weak stock cam.

Brad, I really think this is the cheapest and best FI replacement for Djet cars. Dave's car ran great just quite abit rich and needs dyno time to sort it out. Joe S was there lookin at it and is thinking of rewriting some of the assembler language to help out.

Try to find a OEM MPS nowdays, hell even a good used MPS is getting harder. I have one left out of 6 that I collected, sold off the rest to guys who needed em. The rebuilt we know are not the best and the tooling to build diaphrams would cost a lot of money.

With the Megasquirt people could install the kit and then dial it in to their own motor. Can't beat that!
Geoff

[Brad Roberts]

The Megaspark is exactly what I have been "waiting for". The plan was to get rid of the dizzy completely. I dont want a worn out dizzy firing anything again (not even locked out). We will have to discuss how to go about placing the magnets in the fan or something. I know its very easy to trigger a MSD box (just went over this last night on the phone)


Geoff,

Did you increase your plug gap or just leave it stock when you installed the MSD ??


B

[Mueller]

Brad....yes, I do think it's a sellable item...I already have one sold to a fellow overseas (verbally of course) once I get one complete.

It is to go into a 2.4 (?) Type IV in a beautiful 550 spyder


What I'd like to know is the cost of the Megaspark beyond the MS based hardware....are the MSD parts expensive?

[airsix]

The Megaspark is exactly what I have been "waiting for". The plan was to get rid of the dizzy completely. I dont want a worn out dizzy firing anything again (not even locked out). We will have to discuss how to go about placing the magnets in the fan or something. I know its very easy to trigger a MSD box (just went over this last night on the phone)

Brad,
This was the bane of my PEFI install. I know Jake Raby makes a billet mount that goes under the cooling shroud to hold a hall sensor over a disk behind the fan. The disk (with magnets mounted appropriately) replaces the spacer normally found there.

I fought with setting up a crank trigger for weeks and finally said "screw it" and put the dizzy back in - locked and with a Crane optical pickup. Instant success. Not nearly as cool as distributorless, but at least now I can drive the car. If I was keeping the -4 for the long-term I'd work it out, but with the -6 waiting in the wings I'll just run it like this and save the fancy stuff for the 2.7. It will be a whole lot easier to set up a crank trigger on a motor that doesn't have the end of the crank burried in fans and ducting.

The method I tried first was to mount magnets in the rolled rim of the fan pulley. I mounted the hall sensor on a custom mount on the front of the cooling shroud. The problem (I think) was that the hall sensor wants a nice tight 3mm air gap between it and the flying magnets. This was easy to set static, but once the engine was running it was impossible to hold a constant air gap because every time the alternator kicked in the fan pulley would flex. Not much, but enough to get misses.

I think going with a Jake Raby style mount behind the fan would be the only reliable way to get the job done.

-Ben M.

[Brad Roberts]

Thanks Ben.

Great info.

Ok. So a dedicated NEW billet housing that slips into the stock dizzy hole with the pickup in it will work just fine.... Something duplicated or bought in mass from MSD. The Billet MSD dizzy is not that expensive.

Maybe people would be happy to just have it and deal with a 30 year old dizzy.

I'm starting to sound like all the other 914 people... run with it Mueller. Let me know how it turns out.


B

[Mueller]

I'm not a fan of the factory fan, too much mass to turn,
I'd rather see it:

1) Replaced altogether and replaced with a horizontal fan
(expensive, cannot keep stock FI plenum)

2) The steel belt ring replaced with a lighter aluminum unit. Then a magnet could be fab'd into it.
(not cheap)


Got a part number for the MSD unit and a list of the other MSD stuff that goes along with it?? (tach adapter or something like it)

Mike

[Brad Roberts]

Duping the base is childs play..

Billet VW Type I Engine (Air Cooled) - PN 8485

I need to keep my big fat mouth shut and not lead these people to think its going to be built.

B

[airsix]

Thanks Ben.

Great info.

Ok. So a dedicated NEW billet housing that slips into the stock dizzy hole with the pickup in it will work just fine.... Something duplicated or bought in mass from MSD. The Billet MSD dizzy is not that expensive.

Are you guys thinking about marketing a kit, or just putting together instructions?

I would recommend:

level I - Megasquirt, Megajolt, harness, cheap locked vw dizzy w/ Crane optical pickup and shutter wheel installed. And an ignition amp (anything will work. $19 HEI amp, junkyard amp, whatever).

level 2 - same as above but instead of dizzy, you get hall sensor & Jake Raby mount, sensor wheel for behind the fan, two ignition amps, two twin-post coils, and an expanable freeze-plug for the dizzy hole.


My system is running very well with a locked dizzy and crane guts. I know it's not optimal, and I'd prefer distributorless, but for $45 total cost it's hard to beat. I'll shoot some video of a timing light on my fan @ 6,000rpm. You'll be impressed.

For distributorless, I can't see a better way to do it than what Jake Raby is doing with his behind-the-fan mount. Buy the mount from Jake (it's only fair - he designed it, or licence it from him and cut your own), get the hall sensors and magnets from SDS, make the trigger wheel (simple) and you're good. Grab some off-the-shelf ignition amps and coils (KIA has some inexpensive dual-pole coils & amps) and you're good to go with distributorless for probably $200-300.

Just some ideas. I would LOVE to see a plug-and-play PEFI solution for the 914. If done carefully I think you could make this available for less or equal to the cost of a carb conversion kit. Do that and you've just caused a serious paradigm shift. Resurected 914's will start popping up all over the place.

-Ben M.

[Gint]

level I - Megasquirt, Megajolt, harness, cheap locked vw dizzy w/ Crane optical pickup and shutter wheel installed. And an ignition amp (anything will work. $19 HEI amp, junkyard amp, whatever).

level 2 - same as above but instead of dizzy, you get hall sensor & Jake Raby mount, sensor wheel for behind the fan, two ignition amps, two twin-post coils, and an expanable freeze-plug for the dizzy hole.

I can't seem to find that on my menu...

Baaaaaaa!!!!

[JeffBowlsby]

So who will be the first to have me fab up the prototype harness fo this puppy...?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[airsix]

So who will be the first to have me fab up the prototype harness fo this puppy...?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Jeff, for two years Iv'e been wondering "What the #3!! is he waiting for?". I would have thougth by now you'd have perfected the design and had an exchange program in full swing.

If people could buy a megasquirt that came with a 914 harness and a decent tuning map already installed I bet they would come in droves.

-Ben M.

[SirAndy]

If people could buy a megasquirt that came with a 914 harness and a decent tuning map already installed I bet they would come in droves.

i know i would (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

[Brad Roberts]

I'm unscribing from this thread..

Somebody run with it.

B