Megasquirt/EDIS Project

I've been planning this project for almost a year and it looks like I'm finally going to start the major portion of the install this weekend. Talking to other X1/9 owners I've found there is a lot of interest in this even among those who have no plans to do it themselves so I thought I'd start a thread documenting what it takes and how it's done.

Today I got baseline numbers on a Mustang Dyno so I'll be able to track the exact changes (hopefully improvements) to the performance. Currently I'm running stock L-Jet without closed loop control (no O2 sensor). The engine has been modified. The bottom end is a stock 1500cc and the head is a shaved (approx .060") 1500cc head ported with a Delta A16 cam set up with 4 degrees advance. I've installed an IAP header with a stock muffler (for now). The engine runs well, pulls strong to 6000 RPM and has excellent low end power. The idle is inconsistent and rough and no amount of adjustment has been adequate in addressing this problem.

Now for pictures because otherwise it didn't happen



The long flat torque curve kind of impressed me but the car has excellent drivability so it didn't really surprise me. Peak HP was 90 which was roughly what I expected. A/F ratios are a bit crazy and MS will solve that problem.

The first order of business will be to clean up this disaster.


I'm going to be removing the entire L-Jet wire harness and replacing it with a new one built from a MS pigtail harness from DIY Autotune. The double relay will be gone and all the unnecessary complexity that goes with it.

Here is the "before" picture of the engine bay.



More to come. Hopefully in the next few days.

Great Project

I am very interested in this. I have all the parts for a FI conversion minus the MS. This is in the future for me.

Looking greatly forward to following your progress. Thanks for taking the trouble to get baseline power and AFR numbers, as well as before pics. This thread will undoubtedly be a great reference.

How are you intending to measure inducted air mass?

Really looking forward to following this. I want to update my X so I can use similar mods to up rate the engine and get drivablity (at or off idle).

I also would like to go to FI on my 124 Coupe (but not use all the seemingly clunky hardware from the Spider) and this seems like it could be a good learning for that as well.

Baseline!

The thing that surprised me is that, despite the shaved and ported head, the cam, and the exhaust header, your baseline numbers are barely 10% better than stock.

///Mike said:

Looking greatly forward to following your progress. Thanks for taking the trouble to get baseline power and AFR numbers, as well as before pics. This thread will undoubtedly be a great reference.

How are you intending to measure inducted air mass?

Click to expand...

MS uses an on board manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor and throttle position as well as an intake air temperature (IAT) sensor.

Dan Sarandrea said:

The thing that surprised me is that, despite the shaved and ported head, the cam, and the exhaust header, your baseline numbers are barely 10% better than stock.

Click to expand...

It's my understanding (and I could be wrong) that a stock X1/9 will typically show around 70 HP on the dyno I used. If that is the case than the increase is around 25%. Had I run the car on a Dynojet centrifugal dyno I may have seen closer to 100 HP. I used the Mustang dyno because it is an eddy current constant load dyno and will allow me to fine tune the spark curve later. You can't really do that on a centrifugal dyno.

10% better than stock, or 10% better than what was 'claimed' for stock?

What does a stock F.I. 1500 running correctly really put down at the rear wheels? Are there any dyno examples out there? The only dyno sheet I found in a quick search was from a lemons car that 'bikesandcars' posted last year. They started at 65 hp, and finally tweaked and fine tuned to 83 hp.. it had a cam in it as well (from elgin) and presumably a very free flow exhaust. (1300 or 1500 in the Lemons car? Of course that would make a difference!)

http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/8783/

I know that many are disappointed when their car gets on the dyno or drag strip and lays down a number much lower than expected. This car looks like it laid down 10% more than a tuned up Lemons car... and was being fueled by a factory 'tuned' computer that is running blind. I'm thinking it wasn't too shabby of a showing.

Now to see what the Megasquirt can or can't do with it.

Like Mike I'm curious how you are going to measure the air?

Keep in mind that every dyno will give different numbers and a dyno can give different numbers depending on how it is set up. I plan to use the same dyno after the MS install so that the comparison will be relevant.

Apples to Apples

I guess my mental benchmark is the 75HP that a stock 1500 FI car is supposed to put out as reported in most publications of the day (for example, Road and Track road tests).

I don't know if these quoted figures are at the flywheel or at the rear wheel, which I understand is also refered to as bhp or brake horsepower.

As an academic exercise it would be nice for someone with a bone-stock 1500 FI car to provide a stock baseline on the specific dyno you are using.

Are your reported baseline figures flywheel HP or rear wheel/bhp HP?

AFAIK it's WHP since that is where the dyno reads from. I forgot to ask them if it does a correction to estimate flywheel HP. My guess is that it does not.

I looked at the thread with the LeMons car dyno. It says that they ended up with a little over 70HP stock once the timing was set properly. They were running on a DynoJet which is know to read somewhat higher numbers than the Mustang dyno I used.

This should be interesting to follow since I did essentially the same project about 18 months ago. Our engines are fairly similar in spec except the cam - currently a PBS SX1 - and mine is bored to 87mm. I may have a bit more compression.

I'm still working on the tuning - the ignition being somewhat more of a challenge.

How are you tuning the ignition?

The old-fashioned way. Butt-dyno, ear, trial and error. I'm more concerned with drivability - especially throttle tip-in for the time being.

I'd like to get a few extra HP, but what I would really like is to get more MPG.

Sorry to throw names around, wasn't Bernice looking at making a stock looking plug and play, or was that someone else?

Ed

Plug and Play

John Allen was the fellow working on this but to date I have not seen any progress. I think he made 1 or 2 control brains that just plugged in Mapped and all. That was over a year ago. Possilbly he will chime in and give us an update.


I did my car over a year ago. The 79 1500 with shaved head, 9.2:1 compression, 40-80 camshaft, Headers and at the time a 36 DCNF Weber. The issue I had with the car was poor idle and High Fuel consumption. MegaSquirt gave me a smooth idle and higher Miles per Gallon. The only issue with MegaSquirt is that it is 3 dimensional. Okay what does that mean? Take a length of string and shape it to write your name. Simple with a little bit of effort. Now do the same thing but stand it up so it only rests on the bottom part of the letters. Not so easy.

Every set up is a bit different, camshaft, compression, exhaust, intake manifold, injectors. When you load the MegaSquirt program all you have is a straight length of string. Yes there is a manual, but it is a big manual that covers the very concept of fuel injection, Air Fuel Ratio's, injectors and injector timing, latencey and some how you have to start entering information to make a fuel map that will govern the engine at all RPM's and load. It can be a bit daunting. When starting the car for the first time what you are looking for is a smooth idle at a correct Fuel Air Ratio, do this with the doors open, because you will kill a lot of brain cells long before you get a smooth idle. Then when you are there and you think, hey this isn't that bad, put the car in gear let out the clutch, give it some gas and watch it drop off and stall. Why? because the Fuel computer is only programed to idle, not move out the car under load, the tuning begins. It takes a while and there will be always just a little more fine tuning to be done.

I don't regret doing this one bit, just realize this isn't a bolt on drive away in an hour or two venture. The system is so flexible it can accomplish more than the Bosch L jet could ever do, it just takes a while to get there and to get there understanding what is required will be the biggest obstacle before you get the bugs worked out.


TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

The Hardware

Megasquirt needs a few things that the L-Jet doesn't have or does have but isn't ideal for using with MS. The throttle position switch that L-Jet uses tells the computer when the throttle is closed and that is it. MS works best with a true position sensor (TPS). Also the intake air temp sensor (IAT) that the L-Jet uses is built into the air flow meter which will be removed. As far as I know there is no direct bolt on TPS but there is one that is easy to adapt.

This is a Bosch 0 280 122 001 TPS with an adapter plate I made from 1/4" scrap aluminum. It was very easy to do. I built a cardboard template and then made the adapter using nothing but a hacksaw, bench grinder, file, drill and thread tap. This TPS is cheap and easy to find. It is used on 93-94 Hyundia Scoupe, 95-96 Kia Sportage (P/N 0k247-18911), 94-95 Saab 900, 91-95 Saab 9000 (P/N 88 57 195) and too many Volvos to list from the early 90s to the mid 2000s.





The best replacement for the IAT in the air flow meter is a GM unit. These are cheap and readily available. I got mine with the proper connector from DIY Autotune. Here it is installed in a 7" long 2" ID ABS pipe that will replace the air flow meter.



The Megasquirt unit I am using is a v3.57 with MS2 processor running MS2-Extra 2.1.0 firmware from DIY Autotune. I kind of wish that I had built a v3.0 myself just so I would have a better understanding of the internal workings but the v3.57 SMD board is more user friendly and saves a lot of time. The hose coming out the side goes to the on board MAP sensor and will be connected to manifold vacuum. This, along with the TPS and IAT is how MS measures air flow into the engine.



This is the connector pigtail I will be using to build the new wire harness. The wires are labeled every 4 inches so it's pretty fool proof.



MS2 Extra firmware supports closed loop idle control. This will allow the computer to adjust idle speed to compensate for changing loads on the engine. I will be using a Bosch 0 280 140 512 (VW P/N 034 133 455B) two wire pulse width modulated (PWM) idle valve. These are quite expensive but can be found used on eBay for very reasonable prices (under $50). I'm really hoping closed loop idle works out well since idle is my biggest problem right now. Here is the valve.



If you are building a wire harness you will need a bunch of wiring terminals and connectors (not to mention a laundry list of tools).



Also some 1/4 tinned copper tubular braid comes in handy for shielding certain wires.



There are many ways you can go with the ignition system including just leaving it stock. If you want to have complete control over ignition timing (this is were the real power gains come from) you will need something MS can control. I decided to go with Ford Electronic Distributorless Ignition System (EDIS). It is an extremely reliable wasted spark ignition system from early 90's Ford Escorts (US Market) that is simple to connect to MS. It only requires crank trigger but you will need to have a trigger wheel and sensor mount made. Here is the coil and main controller.



And here is the trigger wheel. I don't have good picture of the sensor yet. The stock Ford trigger wheel almost fits the outside of the non-A/C pulley. I had this one put together by Ray at Performance Apex. I would have rather had the trigger wheel on the back side but that was more fabrication than it was worth.



I also made an adapter to connect both coils to the tachometer. The Megamanual explains how to do this in the EDIS section.



This is a distributor blanking plug. This one is for a DOHC so it will need to be trimmed down to fit the SOHC block. It is important to use this because it holds down the oil pump gear. If you just cap the hole the oil pump won't work and that is bad.



That's about it. I'll be using the stock L-Jet coolant temperature sensor (CTS), injectors, fuel pump and all the intake hardware.

Very cool...

Thanks for showing us the parts. Almost starts to make sense... :hmm2:

Look forward to seeing how your fast idle circuit works out with that unit. I used the Bosch step-up solenoid as fitted to the later X's with AC, but i'm not very happy with the results.

Looking good!

I'll tell ya

Mark Plaia did a hell of a job tuning the MS1 in Il Mela Verde. He did most of it offline with a wideband sensor and MegaLogViewer. It idles almost embarrassingly smooth for a 1300 with BVH and a hot cam.

If/when the Uno turbo motor gets done, I'll be starting the same learning process with an MS2.

Finished the EDIS harness

Tonight I finished the EDIS harness. I plan to install the EDIS and start the car with the L-Jet just to make sure the EDIS is working properly. I don't want to be troubleshooting ignition problems when I'm trying to get the MS running.





Also, there is one piece of hardware I forgot to mention before. I have an Innovate LC-1 wideband controller installed. I don't have a good picture of it but you can kind of see it mounted to the side of the carbon canister.



I wish I hadn't gone with the Innovate. It has the wires built into it and I routed them along the factory harness behind the coolant tank, air filter and along the bulkhead into the spare tire well. If/when it fails it's going to be a pain to replace. Also, after I bought it several experienced tuners told me that Innovate controllers are not very good. Next time I'll permanently install an O2 extension harness from the rear of the engine compartment to the spare tire well and get a different controller that will attach to it inside the car. I'd probably go with a PLX Devices unit.