My Microsquirt Conversion, MSQ tuning file now posted Options

[rwilner]

What AFR gauge did you buy...and where are you going to mount it?

Just saw this question

I got the innovate g5 gauge -- $70 with shipping via amazon. I liked this gauge because it matches the style of the VDO gauges. I'm mounting it in my center console, you can see it mocked up in cardboard in the thread above.

[76-914]

Looking good Rich. I had the same staggered 3/2 set up but went to a staggered 2/3 when I found the steering wheel blocked my view of the upper left gage when staggered 3/2. I don't know what it will be for you but sit in the seat and check it out. Measure twice cut once.

[rwilner]

Just thought of something, check the coil ground, as installed, by using an ohm meter between the showing portion of the ring connector and the case. Just to be on the safe side.

I will do tomorrow and report back

Mark
The grounding ring terminals of all four ignition coils ring out to the case. I chose the multi-prong ground spade terminal on the engine block as my grounding test point on the case.

[McMark]

I'm assuming 'ring out' indicates zero resistance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

In which case, AWESOME! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

[rwilner]

I'm assuming 'ring out' indicates zero resistance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

In which case, AWESOME! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

yep

[rwilner]

Just thought I'd post a quick update...

All the work I had planned (and I a bunch I didn't have planned) is done and the engine is going back in on saturday. I'll be posting pics after the engine is back in. If all goes well I should be able to fire my 2.0 version 2.0 engine this weekend! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/robot.gif)

[r_towle]

sweet....

Rich

[sean_v8_914]

that's a good price. what did you pay for the LC-1 wide band controller?

[rwilner]

that's a good price. what did you pay for the LC-1 wide band controller?

Sean,
I didn't purchase this separately, it was buried in McMark's FI package cost.

[914_teener]

that's a good price. what did you pay for the LC-1 wide band controller?

Sean,
I didn't purchase this separately, it was buried in McMark's FI package cost.

This looks like a great set up......keep us posted. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

[rwilner]

I got my engine back in the car. Some questions for the experts:

1) there's a gap between the engine tin and the new seals I installed. Did I install the seals upside down?

2) If so, can I remove, flip, and reinstall the seals with the engine in the car or do I have to remove the engine again to do this?

See pics...

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-k-zsD-wc2X0/TqNs5XGpt2I/AAAAAAAAAXw/TM6cyqnZxWs/s800/gap1.png)

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-a02ZsfitXJ0/TqNs5y6f3TI/AAAAAAAAAYA/HnsflMIEi6I/s800/gap2.png)

[McMark]

The seal should hang down, and there should be a small upturned section. That upturn hooks under the tin. Try that... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[rwilner]

The seal should hang down, and there should be a small upturned section. That upturn hooks under the tin. Try that... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

i love doing things twice!

looks like the engine is coming out and in again today...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)

[rwilner]

Had a fairly productive weekend.

I received Tom's raised fuse block and installed it. It's a raised 4 position fuse block that protects the 4 hot wires connecting to the battery. Installation was a snap while the engine was out, although installing with the engine in place wouldn't be very difficult either.

(IMG:https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-t5Lrfln-NEo/TqTNxgKCfbI/AAAAAAAAAYo/7Bnax_hp-ko/s800/111023_7.JPG)

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-G8RFURDQ2DM/TqTN2moP9TI/AAAAAAAAAZA/LmQzSeuseFU/s800/111023_8.JPG)

After I cleaned up a bunch of gunk I found my GA engine number! Also, check out this SWEET plug McMark supplied to clean up the distributor channel. Style and function!

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-o8GV9mtNdOg/TqTNrRcQduI/AAAAAAAAAZM/dRXKHF3G0jM/s800/111023_2.JPG)

(IMG:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nXqHlYp2NUs/TqTQ1o_lOrI/AAAAAAAAAZY/lqGDlZa8jbY/s800/111023_13.JPG)

My engine impeller was missing 1 fin, so I purchased this very nice one from Mark Heard and popped it in place. Mark also gave me an alternator cooling boot in great shape, which replaced the liquefied one shown earlier in this thread.

(IMG:https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5Gpm2fjzOyg/TqTQ6iKWnkI/AAAAAAAAAZ0/v7J3C74XOQk/s800/111023_10.JPG)

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-cVM0R9wPsM4/TqTQ2nNXbhI/AAAAAAAAAZk/pfQkxrsV1-g/s800/111023_11.JPG)

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-gQ67xEBUe1c/TqTQ1aAYEcI/AAAAAAAAAZU/ShpTy_8w8CM/s800/111023_12.JPG)

(IMG:https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XdZnnnQe-yA/TqTQ5MlBqaI/AAAAAAAAAZs/LybXhwF_Wg0/s800/111023_9.JPG)

I installed a new engine soundpad from AppBiz (highly recommended) and new engine bay seals from Mikey914. I recommend that unlike me, you do not install the engine seals upside down the first time around... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

(IMG:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--fow5GWteyk/TqTNqlARVNI/AAAAAAAAAYI/6iZzg4_calQ/s800/111023_4.JPG)

I drilled a hole in the engine tin to run the wires for the O2 brain. I had to determ and reterm the weatherpack connector to feed the wire through the hole, which was a no-brainer. The O2 brain will mount to one of the transmission mounts. I had to relocate the brain because the O2 sensor wire was not long enough and no extension was available or recommended by the manufacturer. I also built a little harness to calibrate the O2 sensor, which is required every 10k miles or once per year.

(IMG:https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8gFtUU8H_SM/TqTNrRqr9KI/AAAAAAAAAZI/d3i9V6iLpVk/s800/111023_3.JPG)

(IMG:https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-goVOh4W4-94/TqTNyGng3NI/AAAAAAAAAYw/gj7cuclrakU/s800/111023_6.JPG)

Now it was time to lure a buddy to my house with a six pack and put the engine back in the car.

(IMG:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WYDHQcfz3c0/TqTNxSXJK_I/AAAAAAAAAYg/SBFtdZnzy8Y/s800/111023_5.JPG)

Not quite ready to fire the engine, but with some effort this week I should get there by the weekend -- just reconnecting stuff now!

[radmelon]

Rich- where did you place the O2 sensor bung? Did you weld it into the exhaust manifold (F tube) or further down after the heat exchanger? Great pictures by the way. Very helpful!

[rwilner]

Rich- where did you place the O2 sensor bung? Did you weld it into the exhaust manifold (F tube) or further down after the heat exchanger? Great pictures by the way. Very helpful!

hey rad...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png) (or at least, welcome to posting)

I placed the O2 bung at the "collector" portion of my bursch muffler, right before the muffler portion. Here are some pics:

(IMG:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-JHCcvuo2rwg/TsBjCtRBlvI/AAAAAAAAAdI/zgJXJawsIfk/s800/111113_4.JPG)

I coated the weld and bung in hi temp paint to inhibit the rust some:

(IMG:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eWryjk8f8Js/TsBjFUlRtDI/AAAAAAAAAdc/kOr4xwuGyq4/s800/111113_3.JPG)

The guy who welded in the bung is named Maurizio. His shop is within walking distance from my house and he always has a bunch of cool old cars parked in and around his shop. Whenever the sun is shining he drives this sweet 356! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

(IMG:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-sOzzcvNtATQ/TsBjC5G0E7I/AAAAAAAAAdM/HzxYzpikHbw/s800/111113_1.JPG)


Over the last 2 weeks, Mark and I have been working on refining the wiring harness some and getting the settings in the microsquirt controller just right. So finally, this weekend, Rich Towle came over and we got the car started! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

In Mark's words, I'm now in "tuning land" and hope to be (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) by next weekend!

For any future purchasers of Mark's FI kit -- after I get the microsquirt settings dialed in, I will post the MSQ (settings file) in this thread so you can download it, load it up, turn the key and be 75% of the way to a tuned car.

[914_teener]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

Thanks for the update. I was wondering what happened to this install and thread.

[rwilner]

More Progress...

I pulled a plug after my initial tuning efforts. Think it was running a bit rich?!

(IMG:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tgutBC2xy4o/TsZqGcFAs7I/AAAAAAAAAd0/YRfxCfBjfaw/s800/running%2520rich.jpg)

So I began to investigate and found several issues.

Issue 1: My intake air temp sensor was reading as 0 degrees F. This is an obvious cause of rich running.
The MS calculates fuel delivery using a volumetric efficiency (VE) table, where the amount of fuel injected is calculated based on the mass of air being sucked in via the intake. If I had a mass airflow sensor, that would be measured directly. Instead of a MAF sensor, I am using a MAP (pressure) sensor and the intake air temp sensor. The MS uses these two sensors and calculates the air mass using the ideal gas law. Well, 0 deg F air is wicked dense which means lots of fuel.

It was just dumping fuel into the combustion chamber.

I fixed this by RTFM and discovering the MS has an internal biasing resistance of 2490 ohms. I also characterized my IAT sensor in boiling water, freezing water, and at room temp. The results are shown in the attached screenshot:

(IMG:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-SIJ3Fh9yrWw/TsZqGPJxyXI/AAAAAAAAAdw/hks3TlwPGnQ/s800/IAT%2520settings.png)

Issue 2: The CHT was reading as 0 degrees F. The stock CHT grounds against the engine block (like a spark plug). The MS has the sensor ground separated from the dirty engine block ground. Well, that resulted in the CHT reading as an open circuit, since the resistance of the CHT had no ground reference. I was left with 3 options:

1. Tie the sensor ground to the engine ground. This was workable but not ideal because it would introduce noise into all the sensor inputs (TPS, MAP, IAT, CHT, O2). How much noise? Who knows, but if it can be avoided...
2. Find an NTC thermistor with an M10 thread. I think they sell these at the same place you can buy unicorns.
3. Drill out a stock CHT and mount (epoxy) a 2-wire NTC thermistor in that body, essentially turning the stock CHT into a thermowell. The epoxy is thermally conductive but not electrically conductive. This was the best solution.

Mark fabbed up option 3, check out the attached pics. NTC thermistors are COTS that can be purchased inexpensively at places like digikey and mouser.

(IMG:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zCBXLKSUTbk/TsZqGmXeUfI/AAAAAAAAAd8/clSQwOC-bVQ/s800/cht1.jpg)

(IMG:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uwQ8GV3lAEc/TsZqG3FBSiI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/THsIyW9d8_Y/s800/cht3.jpg)

This should arrive today or tomorrow. I will characterize this sensor the same as the IAT, program it in and we should be in business.

I also had to program the LC1 (oxygen sensor brain) to scale properly.

Lesson learned: make sure every sensor is reading correctly and accurately before you even turn the key to start tuning. Seems obvious, but in the complication of getting the engine started, sometimes the obvious can be overlooked.

I have saturday afternoon (55 deg and sunny) reserved for getting this thing on the road and driving, we'll see if I can make it happen!

[ConeDodger]

Rich, I'm watching this with great interest. Marks's EFI system using the Microsquirt ECU is actually a little 'smarter' than SDS. Mine works, but it could be more accurate and tunable. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[draganc]

Great work/job!!

And I'm gald you haven't lost your humor:

"...Find an NTC thermistor with an M10 thread. I think they sell these at the same place you can buy unicorns..."