Electrical DIY Megasquirt II V 3.0 stand alone ECU build.

90stang5speed said:

very good write up mike. will you have to make up the entire tune or do they supply a basic tune to get you started? Just asking because with using my TWEECER RT you just build your tune off the factory ford EEC program. Keep up the good work

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I haven't looked to see if there is a base map yet,...there are plenty of maps out there for just about every engine though,...so I'm not worried about that just yet.
I am gonna build a test stand to fire (and tune) the engine out of the car this summer. By then I'll have the entire engine hopefully built. The 16v Volvo head showed up last week, I have rods, and pistons to order next.

vristang said:

Very cool...
I would like to see more on the volvo head swap as well...

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Thanks, The Volvo head swap is a little bit off, but the prep and modifications to make it work could be the next thing I'll do. It's kind of a wonky project,...and there are a lot of little modifications that have to be made to make it work, so it'll be an interesting transition from the tedious mega miniature junk I'm doing on this project.

Complete! Another several hours (8 total) and the thing is built. It dawned on me however that I never once actually detailed the installation of one single circuit,...so I'll deal w/ that formality now:

There are 4 basic small pieces that you'll deal with throughout the build:


This "starship enterprise" looking thingy is a capacitor. Most of the time it doesn't matter which way it goes,...when it does, the instructions will tell you, (and it wont look like this thing either)



Resistors are dumb circuits,..they just don't care which way they go (as long as you put them where they belong)



Diodes, like the one pictured do have a specific orientation, as indicated by the black band on one end,...they just have to match the silkscreen on the circuit board when you install,.......well,.....like this:



Bend it to fit.



The instructions tell you where to look,......this thing goes in D21.....notice the line on one end of the appropriate slot:



Soldered. The one thing I don't like about the solder is that it leaves a bunch of flux after the solder process,....but I'll deal w/ that later.



Flip the board, and cut off the legs w/ some little snips. Easy?......yeah right.



Then there are transistors, A.K.A litt son of a bitc hes. The leads are sooo close together,...and there are alot of them, this is the one part that will challenge you as to whether or not you are up to the task. They go in one way only, and you are constantly doubting yourself as to whether or not you applied too much solder ( therein soldering two conductors together, and effectively making your 350.00 computer a future pile of crap)

But, I took my best shot at it, and soldiered on,....until I got to the board you see below:



You can see that there is still alot of empty slots ( for other engine/ignition configurations) and I will go back over each step to make sure that I have not missed a step.
All that's left is to mock the thing up, hook up the tester and see if everything works,....I'll spare you guys that step for now,.....(I still have soo much reading to do)

One good thing I learned though,..... I think most believe that this is a system requiring a thorough knowledge of tuning to be able to get your engine running and performing as you need it to, and that's true to a certain extent. As opposed to the mega expensive systems like Holleys' Avenger that self tunes. Turns out,......that all you gotta do with this system is to buy the 69.00 tuning software as opposed to the free download that you get off line,....and you get a realtime analyzer that'll make tuning adjustments for you just like the systems costing 4-6 times as much.......Go figure.

rdharper02 said:

Mike, great write-up. Keep it coming. I may have missed it, but did you find your donor car?

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No you didn't miss anything,...I'm the only guy in the world building an ECU for an engine that isn't in a car that I don't own yet.

RacEoHolic330 said:

I think you just self-certified yourself in soldering after doing all those teeny tiny connections. Soldering a board like that isn't easy. I've fried plenty of transistors in the past. Apparently the collector and emitter don't like be soldered together. Who knew

This system is all speed density-based, right? I'm really digging that self-tuning feature. Never knew that was even an option. Are you doing the whole coil-packs and distributor-less ignition deal as well?

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Yeah, evidently Fords DIS is so simple, (crank sensor only) they recommend it across the board for any engine. I will use the module, and a single 4 tower coil pack. the computer is configured to run it that way. Additionally, I've enabled a on/off fast idle control solenoid that will help w/ cold starts and a/c compressor drag,...so well see.

Next thing is to start up the other progress thread and start building the 16v turbo "banger".

65ShelbyClone said:

One thing to keep in mind with using Ford's EDIS is that you can't totally cut spark with the ECU. It's an OEM failsafe measure to ensure that the engine will still run should communication between the ECU and EDIS module be lost.

And since someone asked earlier, DIYAutoTune provides stock 5.0 base maps for the MS-II on their site. Not sure what could be used for a 2.3T, though.

Also, if you want to be cheap, you can run your .msq and a good log file through MegaLogViewer and it will trim the map based on the datalog just like the live automatic tuning.....without the live part.

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I assume you are talking about limp home mode. Yeah I glanced over that in the instructions. It doesn't make too much sense to me,..If the computer dies ,what's the point of 10* of spark advance remaining if there is no fuel trim coming from the ECU?

As far as any other workaround to get it to make it's own tuning adjustments,...I'm still waay far back from that even being a benefit (although I know it will be when I have a running combo). I've gotta alot to learn about tuning this system (and F.I in general) since this will only be my second DFI system in my otherwise carbureted life. So while cheap is good, cheap isn't always easy, and I need easy

RangerJoe said:

Mike, where have you been? How is the build coming? Haven't seen any post by you in a while. Hope everything is well. Update us.

Joe

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Why Joe,.......I never left. I've probably posted 25 worthless comments since I last completed the ECU. And build?......what build? Everything is going as well as can be expected ,...thanks for asking though.

RangerJoe said:

Glad to hear from you. I have to live through other people's spending. Like yours and Scotts, and the SN95 build that is going on in their forum. Just got to wondering as I sit here bored, with no money to spend.

Joe

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You and me both. I am constantly reminded that I now lack the three things I need to start a new project that'll get finished before the end of the decade. Two of the things I had last time, I had bounties of (Time,....and Capability) the third, (resources) I had only because of the previous project(s).
Now ,...I got none of that,.....( well I still gots my skills)
So I feel ya.

I need a reality series willing to sponsor me a build.