Tune 'n' 'charge 'n' tune

[Loren]

And I've ordered the Megasquirt!

[Native]

And I've ordered the Megasquirt!

...backordered until May 4 at the earliest... how ironic.

[Lava Speed 05]

Race cars don't need no soft top. Matt finally got his megasquirt figured out on his turbo. Boosted is boosted, right?

Haha the only thing I have figured out with the Megasquirt is that I have no flipping idea what I'm doing. [emoji23] Oh and the tune I have is half for a turbo car and half for a non-turbo car... I'm sure my pistons and rods hate me while I fumble around Tuner studio and online trying to create a good base. [emoji90]

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[Native]

Megasquirt has shipped.
(and I replaced that heater hose last weekend).

[Native]

And Megasquirt has arrived.

(DIYAutotune shipped it priority to make up for the backorder. Classy.)

Gonna aim for next weekend to do the install.

[Loren]

Yeah, they're good folks. Let me know if you need a hand, or moral support.

[Native]

Thanks, man. I may well...

[Rawkkrawler]

I will be out of town this weekend, so if you don't end up doing it this weekend let me know, I'd like to learn a few things. I'm looking at doing a Holley Sniper EFI in the near future.

[Native]

Mike, installing it is literally a matter of removing the stock ECU, mounting the new box, plugging in the stock harness, and running one vacuum line. And connecting the wideband, which is also one wire, I believe. And one or two other simple odds/ends. You won't miss much...and I do hope to get to it this weekend.
After that though, all bets are off, and you're more than welcome to check it out. As long as you don't mind being led by a blind man...

And not sure if you know or not, but right now Drew and Matt are both fooling with the same type of computer...

[Lava Speed 05]

Well that's on a car that has an ECU made for it. Going from carburators to fuel injected for his car will likely require some more wiring.

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[Loren]

I will be out of town this weekend, so if you don't end up doing it this weekend let me know, I'd like to learn a few things. I'm looking at doing a Holley Sniper EFI in the near future.

Personally, I'd opt for some good ol' inexpensive, easily attainable, reliable STOCK fuel injection parts from whatever fits, and do a Megasquirt.

It's really not that hard to do. You know your way around an engine, and can fabricate any brackets that you might need easily enough. The rest is just wiring, and then tuning. The Holley kit might be a little easier, but also a lot pricier, and parts when you need them won't be stock Ford parts. And you'll still have to tune it.

The beauty of the Megasquirt is in its flexibility. Your Holley kit is a one-trick pony. It is what it is. Once you've got a Megasquirt on the car, you can do ANYTHING with it. Want to improve your spark at 7,000 rpm with sequential coil-on-plug ignition? No problem. Wanna fit larger injectors or jack around with your fuel pressure? No problem. Wanna upgrade from TBI (bah!) to proper port fuel injection? Absolutely no problem. Better-than-stock idle control. Any sensor you want to put on the engine can be supported and used. (oil temp? exhaust gas temp?) You decide you want to add a turbo later? No problem!

You can do a basic MS installation and control any TBI "carb replacement" that you can come up with. (plenty of them out there in the junkyard) It'll do what the Holley Sniper will do. But, it can do SO much more than that.

Sorry for the threadjack, Steve!

[Native]

On May 7th -

Gonna aim for next weekend to do the install.

OMFG who was I fooling??

Well, only 3 weeks later, the deed is done. MS is in the car, laptop silliness is figured out, software's loaded, and with a little gas pedal it starts, and then kinda even idles by itself. I managed to get it to idle well enough to set base timing, and adjust said idle. Just moving it around the driveway I can see AFRs are all over the place, but at idle it's right about 14.5ish.

Next is to reset the 02 sensor outputs (the gauge gets WB info but the computer is still reading a narrow-band signal) and get that to communicate with the MS (which should be one wire connection and just a few computer keystrokes - lol). And install the intake air temp sensor and ditch the MAF. Gonna aim for next weekend...

[Loren]

I'd hold off on the MAF. You're running PnP right now. You could put the stock ECU back in and drive if you had to. As soon as you pull the MAF and start messing with wires, you don't have that easy PnP any more.

Leave it. Set up the WB and start tuning.

Get comfortable with the MS. Develop some trust in it and your tuning skills. Then move forward.

[Native]

Sage advice.

[Native]

Got to fiddle a little today.
Reset the base timing - it's correct now. 'Squirt sees what the timing light shows, and when it's allowed to control the advance, the settings match. So that's good.
Set up the wideband, too, which involved moving a couple grounds around. Tucked away all the wires.

It idles poorly - won't stay running unless I gently let off the gas as it settles. Drop the throttle and it dies; tricky to restart, but will. I guess keeping it running is the next step.
I was able to do a quick data log when I moved the car in the driveway. Looked at it briefly for funsies, then turned it off.

And so on...

[twistedwankel]

Guess Steve won't be bringing the Miata out this Sat. It's a long tow home.

[Native]

Indeed.
Miata won't be out for a while. I don't work fast...
But I am pretty tickled at what I've managed to accomplish so far. Thank goodness for the knowledgeable folks around here and the internet.

[Loren]

Yeah, a Megasquirt project can be a very fulfilling experience if you go about it the right way.

Let me know the next time you have time to play with it, maybe I'll come stand over your shoulder?

Or... Ben and I are probably going to pull the engine out of the FASTiva on Saturday the 24th to replace the leaky rear main seal. Come by then if you can, maybe we can spend a minute or two on it.

[Native]

pull the engine out of the FASTiva

Oh, dear. You and Ben have my deep sympathy. I may come by and lend a hand, but won't know til it gets closer. Will let you know.

Thanks for the offer of help with the MS. I'm gonna fiddle with it a bit more myself before I hit you up. But, it's only a matter of time before I do.
And for what it's worth, as it sits, driving it is pretty tricky - can't let go of the gas (other than very gingerly) or else it dies, and trying to catch it other than "just right throttle" runs it right away lean just long enough to kill it quicker, or rev the snot out of it. I'm thinking the acceleration and deceleration enrichments need a tweak, and before I try that, I realized I hadn't yet done the TPS calibration procedure.

Oh, and natch, the clutch travel/engagement is making all suggestions of a dying/dead slave cylinder. I actually have a new one around. Somewhere.

[AScoda]

MS idle tuning is like rocket surgery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ