Who wants to Megasquirt, full sequential fuel/ spark a 68 charger! This Guy!!

[elacruze]

I'll be selling these as soon as my port injection system is on.

you could also just use actual carbs for throttle bodies with a port system, just don't put fuel to them.

[redmist]

That's really interesting to see it start and run, and the engine bay looks damn cool!

What's left to do before it is test driven?

All I need to do is hook up the throttle cable, and Lokar kickdown linkage and I can drive it. The throttle cable I got out of the saturn was WAAAYYY to long!! So back to the junkyard for a shorter one.  other than that, all just little fixit things here and there, Cable tie wires, looming, and thats about it.

[redmist]

Alright,  I robbed a throttle cable out of a Chevy Caprice, and it was the perfect length. I opened the hole in the firewall, and the Chevy cable snapped right in, and the retention clips hold it perfectly. My peddle will have to be extended for throw, as i can only achieve 60% Throttle with it's current throw. Interesting enough, the stock pedal is not in line with the stock firewall hole. It's as if it needed extending from the factory.

Anyhow, it's hooked up and functioning.

The Lokar kickdown cable I modified by slipping a Saturn throttle cable inside the sheath (Saturn cable is silly long, so perfect for kickdown cable.) It was the same length as the Lokar. I then attached the Lokar stuff on the trans side, and still need to hook that side up. The engine side is all done though!

The little clip that is holding the two cable together at the back of the manifold came off of a Ford Econoline Van.   

Junkyard Speed!!





I have also been playing with timing tables, and 02 Sensor correction factors. I got my idle enrichment, and idle compensation valve dialed in. It starts, and goes to 1050 RPM's during warm up, and slowly tapers off as temperature increases to 900 RPM final idle setting after warm up enrichment, and Idle air control valve are all done doing what they do.   

[Budnicks]

  Sound great, I'll keep watching....

[Musicman]

Very Cool! 

[GPULLER]

^^What he said^^

[ChargerD100]

Redmist i may have to get with ya my dad is talking bout doing this to his 71 duster

[redmist]

Hey no problem!

I have been driving it around the last few days, and I must say, it's the first time I have driven the car and not worried about it. Not checking gauges, listening for noises, Just cruising, AFR gauge right at 14.5:1 down the freeway, LOVE IT!

I still have some warm up stuff to tune, and need to get the VE map tuned in the high rpm areas, but it's 100% driveable : ) I also got all the wiring loomed up, and covered. I will post a video tonight of the logging function and just how useful it is...

[JimG]

I saw your post on Moparts and jumped over to see how you were doing.

How difficult was it to get the spark table built? Did you find a similar one and copy it as a starting point, or did you make it from scratch?

Thanks!

Jim

[Ryan]

Very nice job 

[redmist]

I saw your post on Moparts and jumped over to see how you were doing.

How difficult was it to get the spark table built? Did you find a similar one and copy it as a starting point, or did you make it from scratch?

Thanks!

Jim

I made it from scratch...

I know what the engine likes because I had it dyno'd and played with the timing. Basically you can just mimic what your distributor did, and just use that if you want. I did just that, I know the engine wants 35 total as thats what it made the most torque on, and I know it wants 21deg's at idle, so all in by say 2800 or so, and interpolate back down to 21 from there. I will post some pictures here is a bit.

[redmist]

Ok, Assuming you are running an old school dizzy with no vacuum advance, a spark table to simulate that directly would look like this:



Nice and easy right? My car would run just fine on the above, so I started with the above map, and added in some "vacuum advance" and ended up with this map here:




Bumped the timing up at idle, added some higher timing in the lower KPA areas for cruising, and as you can see at full KPA (full throttle, full load) my map is super simple just like the first one. the above one has changed a little since I have been driving it, but it gives you an idea...

Oh!  "3D" maps!

They help a bunch for smoothing out your maps.

Here is the first map in 3D:



And my current map in the car in 3D... Take note that I added a little more timing at 700 RPM's so it builds a little kicker ramp in the 3D map. the reason I did that is so when the car is loaded down from an accessory or the likes, and it draws down to 700 RPM's, it will hit this little advance of timing and correct itself back to 900RPM target RPM.   

[JimG]

Thanks for the explanation. That's sort of how I figured it would work, but it's nice to see the semi finished product all laid out.

Reading your posts make me anxious to get moving again on mine. Unfortunately, I've been working (at the job) a lot and haven't done much. Every time I need inspiration, I come back here and read your thread. It never fails to get me fired up again.

Keep the thread going! 

Jim

[redmist]

Alright,

I have about 200 miles on the car since getting it running, and have been tuning using the AutoTune function for my VE map.. it works great! It sees a spike or dip, corrects it, and burns it to the ECU Automagicly. I have had to tune out a hot start issue, and that's where the logging function helps. I literally fixed the issue in under two minutes while sitting in my car with a laptop at a gas station.

So the car was heat soaking after sitting for just a couple minutes. When I would go to restart, it would not light off! I would have to give it a bunch of air to get it to catch and then I was back in business. I pulled into a gas station, purchased a soda, got back in the car, and it wouldn't start. No worries!!! Lets check the logs!

Problem found, Re-mapped real fast, and fixed.... FOREVER. No popping hoods, twisting screws, changing jets, I just moved some dots on a graph, and clicked burn.

Anyhow, Here is a video showing the logging function and how I used it to fix the problem I was having. I don't know how the FAST systems could possibly compensate for these types of issues, perhaps it's less of an issue on a more conservative engine. The MS3X gives you this flexibility for issues like this though, and that's nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZUNXc3pEk

[Musicman]

I am going to run it on wasted spark for a while and sort out my fuel maps, then I will switch it over to sequential spark after that.

Forgot to ask... have you made the switch yet?

[redmist]

I did sir!!!

Last night real fast. I was a little worried because my timing was 360 out on my first attempt. I corrected that, but left it in Wasted COP and never switched over. Now that i have it running decent, I went out last night, opened my laptop and switched it over to full sequential spark.... Held breath, turned key and it fired right off! The idle was noticeable smoother than in Wasted COP. I let it run for about 30 seconds and turned it off. I want to check timing again with the switch, but I think I am good to go!

So as of now i am full sequential spark, and fuel...   

[Musicman]

Well alrighty then... glad to hear it, good news indeed! Congratulations!

[Tilar]

I was a little worried because my timing was 360 out on my first attempt.

Ok, I haven't been feeling up to par the last few days and may be confused here, but wouldn't 360 out on timing be right on the money? 

[Tilar]

Anyhow, Here is a video showing the logging function and how I used it to fix the problem I was having. I don't know how the FAST systems could possibly compensate for these types of issues, perhaps it's less of an issue on a more conservative engine. The MS3X gives you this flexibility for issues like this though, and that's nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZUNXc3pEk

Wow, Times have sure changed since I started playing with engines.    That is very cool!

[JimG]

I was a little worried because my timing was 360 out on my first attempt.

Ok, I haven't been feeling up to par the last few days and may be confused here, but wouldn't 360 out on timing be right on the money? 

I think he meant that the cam sensor (distributor) was 180 degress off, which is 360 degrees of engine rotation.

[redmist]

I was a little worried because my timing was 360 out on my first attempt.

Ok, I haven't been feeling up to par the last few days and may be confused here, but wouldn't 360 out on timing be right on the money? 

I think he meant that the cam sensor (distributor) was 180 degress off, which is 360 degrees of engine rotation.

Correct!

I know my trigger angle offset is around 42deg from top dead center, but if the cam position sensor is 180 out it's in the wrong function. So two ways to fix it, open software and add 360 to the 42deg (thats what I did) or spin cam sensor around 180..

I might fix it via CAM sensor down the road just so I don't have 402deg trigger angle showing in my software.

[grnfsh]

Redmist,

Great stuff here. I've been researching EFI for a while now. You may have talked me into MS. I came across this thread in a search for more info on the eddy intake manifold. I have a cuda and my concern for the intake is hood clearance, but it doesnt look that tall in your pics. How tall is it in relation to your old traditional set up?

[grnfsh]

Also, another question..

may seem crazy but I assume are you using any sort of MSD or ignition box ? Or does MS take care of all of this?

[redmist]

It's much shorter than my old performerRPM/carb/drop base air cleaner by about 1.5 inches. Plenty of room.

Also yes, Megasquirt takes care of all of it as long as you set it up to do that. Coil selection, and how you are going to activate the spark will matter. Honestly the LS coils I used are the easiest to make work. Its a simple wire it in and go deal. A person could stash all of the coils under the intake manifold if they wanted to keep them off the valve covers. Or on the fenders, or wherever you want honestly.

[grnfsh]

It's much shorter than my old performerRPM/carb/drop base air cleaner by about 1.5 inches. Plenty of room.

Also yes, Megasquirt takes care of all of it as long as you set it up to do that. Coil selection, and how you are going to activate the spark will matter. Honestly the LS coils I used are the easiest to make work. Its a simple wire it in and go deal. A person could stash all of the coils under the intake manifold if they wanted to keep them off the valve covers. Or on the fenders, or wherever you want honestly.

Awesome!  Thanks dude, I'm sure ill have more questions later but I'm putting together a parts list based off this thread.  Going to save my questions till the end because I usually find I can answer my own if I just dig enough. 

One thing though, the injectors.  How did you know to use those injectors? I imagine raptors are hard to come by in junk yards so i've been searching for a database of cars or trucks that will have stock injectors that will work that i can find in a junk yard. Seems about 42-45lbs is what I would need. You sure got lucky with a set of free ones, injectors arent cheap.