MegaSquirt Acid Test - 3000 mile trek, Have soldering iron - will travel Options

[3d914]

Well - I just got back from a 3000 mile trek from Phoenix to Illinois & back. This was my acid test for the Megasquirt. It performed quite well - though not without some problems.

First I'll say that all these problems arose only because I switched out the stock Ignition with a Permatune CD unit before the trip. I didn't have any real time to test it prior to the trip.

My son and I set out on Sunday, but bearly made it an hour north of Phoenix before the fuel pump & MS both crapped out from the heat. Thankfully I had my PC and could connect to MS and determine that the Injectors circuits weren't firing. Also the Fuel pump was spinning, but when I pulled a hose it only trickled out onto the road.

I thank God that just as my son and I started hoofing southbound to a rest stop some miles back, a couple from Mesa stopped on the southbound side and waved us over. They even dropped us at our front door. Got the car towed back to Phoenix that afternoon.

Needless to say, the fuel pump was toast, as was the R10 resistor and the 4N25 chip in the MS coil circuitry. It took three days to locate and install the replacements, but we were back on the road Wednesday afternoon.

I had to bump the 390 Ohm R10 resistor all the way to 1.0K before it would run without getting too hot. Even at that it still was discolored and starting to break down by the time we drove 1000 miles. So in the motel in Wichita I bumped it up to a 1.5K. This worked well for the remainder of the trip to Illinois.

All would have been well for the return trip, except that I made the mistake of installing the cover on the MS, as I had been driving without it to aid cooling. I could tell the resistor was starting to crap out again as the car behaves much like one that is suffering from vapor lock. So we found a station in Oklahoma that had a seating area, plugged in the soldering iron and went to work.

My brohter (in Illinois) suggested putting two 1-watt resistors of 1.0K ohms each in place of the single 1/2-watt. Since I wasn't using the D8 diode, I decided to replace the jumper with another 1.5k 1/2-watt along with a new 1.5K 1/2-watt R10.

This worked quite well with no excessive heat - and would have seen us the rest of the way home had one the solder joints not broke loose. The weird part was that I didn't know at first whether the fuel pump had overheated and I was getting vapor lock. The new resistors still looked fine and didn't appear to be overheating. Since the solder joint was on the back - it was only because I touched them that I noticed one of them moved. But now we're stranded miles from the next rest stop. So we waited about 20 minutes to see if it would start. Nope. Then miraculously with one more crank - it started. We went about one mile and it started to cut out again. So I'm on the shoulder of the road, coasting, trying to start it. Again it starts up just long enought for us to make it to a rest stop 2 miles down the road.

So picture this. I have an extension coard running from an outlet in the men's restroom with my soldering iron plugged into it and resting on a rock. I've pulled the MS unit out to re-solder the faulty joints. My son is holding the circuit board while I'm repairing the solder joints. I'm just glad no one reported us to homeland security.

That's all it took. The rest of the trip went flawlessly - mechanically speaking anyway. Now I just have to plan on relocating the fuel pump to the front to prevent future FP overheating. This wouldn't be a problem, but since I've re-installed the AC compressor - it seems to aid in transferring too much heat to that corner of the engine bay.

All in all a fun little adventure.

Enjoy!

[corpselaurel]

Great post! Are you using the MS for fuel only? or MSnedis/spark. Where did you put the MS?
I love it on the gti 16v and will soon put it on the 914 too.

So picture this. I have an extension coard running from an outlet in the men's restroom with my soldering iron plugged into it and resting on a rock. I've pulled the MS unit out to re-solder the faulty joints. My son is holding the circuit board while I'm repairing the solder joints. I'm just glad no one reported us to homeland security.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/party.gif) That is funny as hell!

[3d914]

corpselaurel,

Yea - I thought so too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

I'm only using the MS. I'd like to upgrade to the MS II with ignition control, but have to wait to see how that shakes out.

I mounted mine in the trunk. Here's the link to the posting with the pic: the link

Sounds like you're sold on the MS if you're putting it in both vehicles. I have no desire to back to stock setup.

Enjoy!

[MarkV]

Gerard,


Thats a great story. 3,000 miles, I worry about driving mine across town.

You should buy one of those butane cordless soldering irons, they work great.

[corpselaurel]

I love the MS. BTW, I don't know if you know or not but with a reflash and a tiny mod to the MS board it can control spark (dizzy or edis). You don't have to get ultraMS or MS2. We took the dizzy off the 16v and put the ford electronic distributorless ignition system. Hardest part is mounting the trigger wheel and the sensor. The rest is a few wires.

[3d914]

corpselaurel,

This is the first I've heard of this mod, but I don't hang around the MS message board very much. Can you point me to some details on what this mods consists of?

Thanks,

[corpselaurel]

corpselaurel,

This is the first I've heard of this mod, but I don't hang around the MS message board very much. Can you point me to some details on what this mods consists of?

Thanks,

I will try to help as best as I can.
megesquirtNedis
megasquirtNspark
Install Page

The ford EDIS is cheap and reliable (yes I was surprised to hear ford and reliable in the same sentence (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ) I can probably get you an edis setup if you can't find it locally.

MegasquirtNedis"
What is it?
A DIY project based on Megasquirt and MegasquirtnSpark
It uses the Megasquirt hardware with firmware changes by James Murray and Dave Haynes.

Features
Fully mappable fuel and timing (two channels of fuel in bank fire)
Controls Ford EDIS ignition module for wasted spark distributorless ignition
Rev limiters soft (retard) and hard (fuel cut)
Can be installed on most even fire 4,6,8 cylinder 4 stroke automotive engines
Two configurable outputs (e.g. fan switches, shift lights)
Programming and datalogging via laptop
MAP based, no air flow meters required
See also the Features page from the Megasquirt link above

When to use it
If you already have EDIS on your car
If you have a distributorless wasted spark ignition system on your car
If you already have a 36-1 trigger disc fitted
If you want to do it anyway...

When not to use it
If you don't have 4,6,8 cylinders or your engine is odd-fire.
If you have a working distributor with signals compatible with MegasquirtnSpark - use that instead and keep your dizzy.
If you need very high rpm. Zoltan reports a 9000rpm limit, (Mark Gearhart has tested ok to 8800 in practice)
If you want an afternoon bolt on project - this does require work."