Loren's V8 S10

[Loren]

Uh... well, it's only autocrossed once, and nobody got any photos of it!

Here's one from January 2016. Right after I bought the Corvette wheels, but before the suspension was reworked. (it's stiffer and less low in the rear so that it tows level)

[blacksheep-1]

You will need a road race oil pan to fix that forever style, maybe with a swing pickup, or, has been stated an accusump.
Let me explain how much I like accusumps, during qualifying at Daytona a few years ago we ran over some junk in the bus stop, it ripped an oil line off of the mustang, the car made it around NASCAR 3/4 before the driver noticed all the bells and whistles going off, he clicked the engine, and pulled into the pits. We ran the computer stuff and the engine NEVER lost oil pressure...
Phoenix runs accusumps on everything they build.

[Loren]

The S10 is back from "the shop". (Joe's garage) 95% of the Megasquirt wiring is done, and it's setup to be "swappable" between the stock ECU and the Megasquirt.

We've gotten as far as to verify that the MS is powering up and communicating with the tuning laptop, and we're seeing some sensor readings. But, there's either a wiring or configuration problem (I'm betting I have some settings wrong, but it's possible that I specified some incorrect wiring) that's not letting the RPM signal get through to the MS. Without that, no start.

I'll think on it a bit, double check my wiring logic, double check my settings and play with it some more when I get a chance. Meanwhile... the stock ECU is still plugged in, and it's running like normal!

13 months later. I haven't touched it. Just handed the truck off to Andy LaChance. He's got plenty of MS experience and much more motivation than I have. He's going to get it up and running on the MS for me.

Then I can FINALLY get some tuning done on it and make it more pleasant to drive!

And then... maybe that will inspire me to start giving a shit and doing some other improvements to it?

Meanwhile, it's been running realiably, if not spiritedly, for the past year. I don't drive it much. But, when I need it, it's there.

[Loren]

And Andy already has it running on the MS. I'm not surprised. It just took a little bit of troubleshooting that I was too lazy to do. Apparently, for the Microsquirt, you're only supposed to connect one of the two crank position sensor wires. I did both, that's why there was no signal. Once that was sorted, it was just a matter of fiddling with the fuel settings to get it to start. Typical new ECU setup stuff.

Glad to be past that hurdle! Andy will probably sort out some of the other MS add-on stuff while he has the truck. Like getting the fan control working, the wideband, etc.

I'm excited about the truck for the first time in a very long time! I get to actually TUNE it! And it will actually rev past 5500 rpm!

[BrilloHeadBen]

Every time I saw it in your driveway, I was kinda surprised it was still there. Glad to see it might actually get driven again!

[Loren]

Oh, it gets driven from time to time. It's been in "spare vehicle" and "occasional use pickup truck" status. It was just starting to make me angry every time I drove it. You can feel it's inherent desire to run like the wind, but it just... can't.

Now I have control. It will bend to my will.

But, I still can't autocross it due to the non-baffled oil pan.

[BrilloHeadBen]

Accusump all the things!

[Loren]

Baby steps.

[Loren]

Got the truck back today. And even with it just barely tuned enough to be drivable, it's WAY better than it was! No coughing and sputtering. Just smooth acceleration and running.

While Andy had it, he also wired the fan to be controlled by the MS, wired the wideband to the MS, and found a bad vacuum line that was keeping my dash vent system from working properly. Andy is the man!

Now that all that is working, maybe I'll get the AC fixed?

Kudos to Joe Brannon. All of the wiring he did for me was spot on! There was only one error, which was duplicated. Both the cam and the crank sensors were wired as VR sensors, when they're not. The crank is a Hall sensor, and I think the cam sensor is an optical sensor, but could also be a Hall. Anyway, doing the parallel installation, they both just needed that one wire to "sense". My mistake, and a pretty easy one to fix.

Lots of tinkering to do now!

[Native]

[Loren]

Ugh!

I learned yesterday that my trusty old Windows XP laptop that I've kept at a "garage laptop" for years simply because it's the last laptop I've owned that had an actual 9-pin serial port... now has a temperature-sensitive serial port. It almost caused me to "brick" the stock ECU in the S10 trying to reprogram it yesterday! Fortunately, there was a "recover PCM" option that I was able to use to get it back later in the evening after it had cooled down.

Went out to play with it some more after lunch. This is becoming a frustrating proposition!

Once again, after a while, the serial port started getting flaky, and then quit altogether. (same thing it did yesterday) And, the cooling system in the truck is barely adequate for the 383... so, while fiddling around with idle settings and stuff in the driveway, Idling up at 1,000 instead of a proper 750-800, I forgot to monitor the coolant temp... until I heard coolant spewing from the overflow. Completely pegged the coolant temp gauge at 250. Fortunately, I now know that gauge reads 15 degrees high, so it was actually "only" about 235. I gathered up all of my power cords and stuff, and went for a short drive with LOTS of coasting, and it cooled back down.

So... to get my idle and start-up stuff tuned is going to be a hassle due to engine heat management. And, I probably need to set up a new "garage laptop", and I'll have to use one of those stupid USB to Serial adapters.

Maybe it's time for me to upgrade my main laptop, and just use this one for the garage?

It's always something.

[twistedwankel]

Kind of sad I gave away a perfectly good old laptop last winter with a serial port I never used. Sat in our closet for years. I think it ended up being scrapped? Life is all about the timing.

[AScoda]

time for some big honking electric cooling fans

[Loren]

time for some big honking electric cooling fans

Yeah, either more fans, or just a proper fan shroud to make the single fan more effective.

It's on the list.

It's a long list.

[Loren]

Ordered a USB-Serial adapter. And found a better power cord for my old laptop so that it actually charges the battery. (it's an old Dell... it doesn't like aftermarket chargers for some reason) So, maybe I can keep using my old laptop for a while longer.

Might get in some tuning sometime this weekend.

[Loren]

Connectivity would be nice.

My new USB-Serial adapter cable came in Saturday. Installed drivers. No connection. To anything. Grrrr. And I was so gung-ho about this that I disabled the drivers on the on-board serial port, so it also doesn't work. Grrrr.

After much research and fussing about, I ended up updating all of the drivers on my old laptop. Everything was dated 2004-2007... Dell had updated drivers from 2013-14 for almost everything. That took a while. And then I manually loaded the driver for the new USB-Serial adapter, and it appeared that all was well...

Today, I took it out to the truck and tested. With the on-board serial port, I can connect to the stock GM ECU (through a fancy tuner box/cable thingy that came with the truck). And with the USB-Serial cable, I can do the same. No problem. But, neither of those serial ports will connect to the Megasquirt.

So, I still don't have connectivity, but because I *know* that the on-board serial port was compatible with the MS because it worked before, and I *know* that port isn't dead because it just connected to something else... at least now I know I have a MS problem!

I just ordered a Microsquirt comm cable. A regular Megasquirt has an actual DB9 9-pin serial connector on it. The Microsquirt, being small, just has a pigtail coming off of the main harness with a 1/8" stereo phono jack (3 wires). And there's an adapter cable that plugs into that to get you out to a DB9. That cable is jammed through a very tight grommet with an AC line... and it's possible that it's been damaged. It's also exposed and running about 6" from an exhaust header.

I'm hoping that cable is the problem. If it's not, then I'm left to assume that I've damaged something inside the Microsquirt. Regular MS, I'd just find the bad part and replace it. Not so easy with the Microsquirt, I'll likely have to send it in for repair if it's bad.

Connectivity would be nice.

[Native]

That's a drag.
Fingers crossed for the cable.

[Loren]

New cable = good connection.

Now all I need is some time and motivation.

Played with it for 5 minutes when I tested the connection. Current problem is just gaining enough control of the idle. Stock ECU is controlling the idle valve. Seems to be doing okay with that. Once it warms up, it tries to settle down to the 875 that I set it to. (once I get everything stable, I might try to get it lower than that) But, the MS is controlling timing. And I want to use the "idle advance" control, which means that the MS needs to know that the engine is idling. I think I'm going to have to lie to the MS and just make it think it's fully controlling the idle. Then when the RPM's settle and TPS is at zero... it will know it's idling, and I can control idle advance in the proper way.

Once I've got a happy, stable, and recoverable idle, THEN I can start driving and tuning!

[AScoda]

Wait, wut?
Did I miss something?
Why is the stock ECU still doing anything? You have both ECUs connected?

[Loren]

Trying to keep things as simple and cheap as possible. The stock ECU runs the gauges, the ABS, and who knows what else. So, it's still running those things, and it THINKS it's still running the fuel and ignition. The GM idle control valve is a stepper motor, not easily controlled with the MS, so I opted to let the stock ECU keep controlling it.

The MS controls ignition, fuel injection, and cooling fans.

To completely eliminate the GM ecu, I'd have to put in aftermarket gauges (or us a tablet to display data from the MS), and I'd have to fit a MS-friendly idle control valve. And I'd have to eliminate ABS (which is presently unplugged, anyway). Wouldn't be impossible, it was just easier to do this way. Plus, I'm still backwards compatible. I could switch two connectors and have it running on the stock ECU in about 5 minutes.