A slow methodical approach is good. You're making it happen and you'll have it up and running before you know it!!

Because he will have developed Alzheimer's......

Because he will have developed Alzheimer's.....hey, wait a minute?

There is no cranking advance that I remember. When confirming the timing for the first time, just set the entire spark map to 12 degrees. This way you don't have to worry about the MicroSquirt changing the timing due to RPM or MAP fluctuations. Then start the engine with your timing light attached. Set your timing light to 12 degrees, and use the Trigger Wizard to adjust the Offset Angle until you see the ZERO mark on the fan.

gas is in the tank.

Need to rig an inline fuel pressure gauge to make sure I have pressure set correctly. And then I can pressurize the system and look for leaks.

Zach

Is it important to measure fuel pressure at the rail, or is any point aft of the fuel pressure regulator acceptable?

Zach

No, before the fuel pressure reg. Basically the rail is the best point.

Aft is in after the FPR you wont have the right pressure....? The FPR should be the last component the fuel passes before going back to the fuel tank. At least this is how I'm setting up my system...

Yes I mispoke.
Plan was to put the gauge into the short peice of hose between the drivers side rail and the FPR. Trying to use the nipple in the rail would make the gauge very hard to read.

Looking good....

You want to set "base timing" first. If you have your trigger wheel set up the way Megasquirt recommends, your base timing will be at 10*BTDC.

You will want to mark 10* on the fan. Once the engine is running this is the first thing you want to set. This is done in tuner studios by changing "base timing" to +10 and moving the numbers up and down ( don't remember the box that the numbers are changed in) until you see your 10* mark come around to the 'V" in the fan housing. This is very important, Otherwise your timing WILL be way off, the computer WILL be lost and you will never get the engine to run correctly.

Ask me how I know.

Also, in later versions of, MSII and MSIII, you can change cranking timing and WU enrichment timing.

REMEMBER this is theMicroSquirt firmware. So menu options and settings are drastically different. If you haven't played around with it, TunerStudio completely changes depending on what firmware is installed. It's actually pretty annoying.

Tried to start it tonight for giggles.
No dice.

No fuel leaks that I could see. But also no indication that the system was actually pressurizing. The gas tank made some gurgling noises after the pump would run.

No clue if the pump is wired backwards or the lines under the tank are kinked or some other issue. Only had 5 minutes to play before I got called in for parenting duties. Really need to get that pressure gauge put in...

Got fuel in the tank?

Good luck, you are closing in on it.

Gotta cycle the key a few times to purge all the air.

I have Mark's sensor/wheel but my base offset timing is set at 62 degrees. Mark has told me to set it closer to 290, but, I never had any luck with this setting. Not sure how to explain it, but, my car runs very well.

Cool. The gurgling I was hearing was likely air getting forced into the tank through the return line. Which would indicate the pump is working properly.

Going to hook an inductive timing light to one of the stubby plug wires to mKe sure I am getting spark.

Going t try and get her fired up this weekend, if I can squeeze in some time. This weekend is f¥€king packed.

Okay, few steps forwards!
and one biggie back.

Fuel system is pressurized, with no obvious leaks. Fuel pump now sounds a little labored, and not just like its free wheeling. No clue how much pressure it has built (those parts come in tomorrow) but it sounds pressurized, and the tank is not gurgling when I turn the key.

Oil pressure warning light went out. YEAH! Which means I was cranking the engine enough to send oil through all the oil lines into the AUX cooler and then to finally build pressure. And no obvious oil leaks (which is meaningless until the engine fires.)

But I'm not getting any spark. Inductance timing light does not flash at all when cranking. I did not expect to have the timing right, but I did expect to at least see some evidence of sparks being thrown.

Obvious possible fault will be the plug I wired into the crank wheel wires. Will have to check them. If thats not it, more digging will be needed.

Zach

You should see cranking RPM on your laptop.

Nope, the tach in TunerStudio does not budge. Just tested that.

Crank fire wires?

ZAch

Under Ignition Setup -> Base Ignition Settings, try flipping the Ignition Input Capture. If it's falling edge, try rising edge. This is how you 'flip the VR wires' in software.

Nope, no dice there either. (handy having a laptop while standing at the car...)
Click to view attachment

Are these correct?

I am going to check continuity just make sure the pins in the plug are actually mating as expected.

Zach

Check the Dual MultiSpark Ignition Options Menu
Single Crank Wheel Input
Enable Auto Trigger
Offset Advance 0.0

after reading the pages with various information here, my acquired 71 1.7 has a megasquirt installed. After the car was not running because of broken rear suspension (which is almost done fixing it) what i did is just install a battery and started the engine with just one time turn on the ignition key, the engine run and immediately went around 700 to 800 rpm. Amazing megasquirt!!! But since i have to drop the engine to fix the suspension, now I don't know if after putting back those several wiring if the car will still run. I have no idea on this MS specially I'm not the one who installed it.

Here is the picture of my MS system. I beleived it is MS III.


Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Mark what are the flow rates on your injectors? And do you happen to know the plenum volume for a 1.8 plenum?

Zach

23.8 pph @ 36.5 psi, so you'll have to scale down and approximate for the low PSI, or raise your fuel pressure before you start tuning. You can do either (I've done it both ways), but running higher fuel pressure is generally better because it improves injector atomization.

Can't help on the plenum volume.

Does plenum volume include intake runners? I suppose I could just fill it with water and measure that.
Won't THAT be a fun task.

I've never done all that. I don't even know what section you're looking in

General fuel setup. One of the fields is plenum size in CC.
Sounds like I don't need to worry about it.

back on the bench again. :-/

After weeks of connecting, I plug in this morning and suddenly nothing. Only difference was that I put my battery on a charger last night due to all the cranking yesterday.

Get frusterated, and hook up the ECU the Mark lent me - boom. Connection. I have to reload settings, but it connects instantly.

So now i have my ECU out of the car trying to get it to connect again in lab conditions.

A few days ago I tried to load the new firmware, but that operation errored out. I am going to try and redo that on the bench, and hope the new firmware expunges some of the gremlins that have been plaguing me.
Zach

Yeah, incomplete firmware upload can be a bad thing.

I found that Manifold Displacement setting, but it's greyed out for me. I tried flipping a few settings to see if I could find out why yours is available, but nothing I changed to enable that setting. I think this is all tied together.

Did you get the latest firmware from http://www.useasydocs.com/details/usv3code.htm as well as the INI file?

It can, and I guess (am hoping) this is a result of that. But in the past a bad firmware updates have shown up immediately, not a few days and a dozen restarts later.

Zach

Hi Zach,

Until you are getting an rpm reading to register in Tuner Studio you will not get a spark or any fuel spray from the injectors. During cranking you should see an rpm reading of a few hundred rpm.

Until you solve that issue the car absolutely will not start. Even iif your settings related to crank angle, etc. are off you should get an rpm reading. The possibilities include a bad crankshaft position sensor, bad wiring between the sensor and the MS ecu, incorrect position sensor settings in Tuner Studio and finally a bad ecu.

There is really no point worrying about other possible problems until you have a working position sensor.

I've been through this,

Darryl

What is the difference between the MSExtra firmware that comes loaded on the v3 units and the BG 3.83 firmware? The unit Mark sent me still has the MSExtra firmware and I'm afraid of briking the unit if I try and update it to the 3.83.

I have a feeling my unit got bricked when I tried to load the 3.83 firmware and it errored out... Its not responding on the bench. At all.

Also, how can I test the crank fire sensor without dropping the engine and pulling the doghouse? I am getting zero indication of engine speed with either my unit (before it stopped working) and the spare unit.
I probed the plug, and the plug has continuity for the blue wire, white wire, and shield. I also double checked to make sure I did not cross wire the plug - and I did not.

So the fault is either at the sender, or at the harness ampseal. Tonight I'll check continuity between the plug and the ampseal pins, and HOPE its my issue. If its not I have a long and frustrating night ahead of me.

Zach

Have you tried measuring the voltage off the sensor while cranking? Even with a digital Peter you should get a signal. I do have an oscilloscopebifbyou need to borrow one.

Do this.

http://www.useasydocs.com/tachref.htm

It's a special firmware install that ONLY tests the trigger wheel. So you don't have to configure anything, or worry about settings. You just run the program, crank the engine for 30s, then analyze the results.

That page isn't exactly clear, you have to load the S19 firmware file onto your MS first. Just like loading any other firmware, use the MS Downloader program.

Sorry, Pound per hour

Eh, not comfortable with this. I'm using the "loaned" MS unit right now as mine is dead. I don't want to turn the one you loaned me into a brick, especially sine I am not sure why the first one failed.

I'll test with a multimeter first.

Zach

Nada.
No change in voltage.
time to start digging...

Use the tooth analyzer.

Where I am now.
tooth wheel to sensor clearance.


Plug:


When I crank the engine, sometimes I get a burst of activity on the tach for the first quarter second of cranking. It will flash ~325 rpm and then the signal will drop to zero. Not all the time, but some of it. Usually the tach just stays pegged at zero.

Right now I have the car up and front tin and fan off. I'm not sure I have the clearance to remove the doghouse.

I can pop the plug end off, but getting to the bolt/screw that holds the shield wire will be really hard w/o removing the doghouse.

does the sensor require 12 volts to operate? or does it generate it own voltage via the trigger wheel? I may be able to test the sensor in place and see if its the wiring.

Herb, if you could come up for a day, i'd really appreciate the guidance from someone who is not feeling his way around in the dark like I am.

Zach

Oh, by the way. If I need to flip the trigger wheel, now would be the time to tell me. lol.

It is so whiskey time.

Zach

The gap there doesn't look close enough to me.
Should be well under a mm from my experience.

The fan hub alignment pin should be roughly lined up with the missing tooth. Which means when you flip it, the missing tooth stays in the same place. But it really doesn't matter where the missing tooth is once you get it running.

There are only a few possibilities if you are not showing a tach signal. You have eliminated the ecu as being the problem by swapping in a known good ecu. There are three other possibilities:
1. Bad wiring between the sensor and the ecu.
2. A bad crank position sensor.
3. The sensor could be positioned incorrectly. Too close or too far away.
4. The wrong sensor type specified - VR vs Hall.
5. Incorrect setup of the conditioner circuit.

In TunerStudio you can look at the Logger to view the CPS input pulses. I found this helpful.

Where do you set the senor type? I'm looking for that as it is real possibility.

Zach, I would swing by but am flat out until after the 14th. you should have it running by then.
picture of what I just installed yesterday..a little close so I spaced it out by 1 very thin washer. running the sensor and wheel on my drill press, I can generate a pretty good signal at a pretty good, 1/4 inch gap.

Click to view attachment

Zach's got a Digital Peter? Cool!

Didnt you hack the sensor wires and then reconnect them? IIRC, there was concern that the signal would be goofed up from this maneuver, unless I am mistaken.