Converting From Lotus to Masi Motor, Electrical?

[2.216VTurbo]

So the motor in my 93 RT needs a complete rebuild(and then some) and I have a good running Masi 16V motor sitting in the shop soo... Most of the conversion is pretty strait forward, what I'm wondering what would be the least amount of wireing conversion I'd have to do. My half baked ideas are:

Run the Masi motor off the RT engine harness, the grey plug from the cam position sensor can be extended and plugged into the grey from the HEP and the black plug from the crank postion sensor can be plugged into the black plug from the HEP with the same net effect right? That way the SBEC II ECM would work right? Or is that wishful thinking? All Masi 16V ECM's are SMEC so not like I can just plug and play one from a TC to the Lotus harness.

I do have a complete engine harness from a Masi but then I would have to convert it at the firewall plug(I hate electrtical work BTW). I haven't even compared the how different they may be so I don't have any idea of how many pinouts would need to be changed.

Also I have an SBEC from a 91 turbo shadow that I suppose could be socketed and recal'd for the Masi motor, would probably run the engine as is but the fuel and timing maps would be way off I'm sure.


So which idea sounds least half baked? Any thing else I haven't thought of yet?

[RoadWarrior222]

Well you can get the indexing for the cam sensor right by dickering with the diz, and running off the coilpack, but I don't see how it works for the crank signal, since it's half engine speed... and those are indexed some way before TDC aren't they?

[shackwrrr]

Run the flywheel from The R/T and the 568 and you're set with the crank signal. A custom made shutter wheel for the dizzy would Mimmic the cam sensor. That way you could run the coil pack (or COP if you wire it up). I'm sure the calibration would be somewhat close too.

[Reaper1]

I'm with Ian. That makes the most sense.

I don't think the stock TIII cal would run it very well. You could putter around, but it's not going to make very good power. The ignition advance, pumping efficiency, and fuel curves are all going to be quite a bit different if what I know about the Masi is true.

[Pat]

I'm with Ian. That makes the most sense.

I don't think the stock TIII cal would run it very well. You could putter around, but it's not going to make very good power. The ignition advance, pumping efficiency, and fuel curves are all going to be quite a bit different if what I know about the Masi is true.

I agree. If you get it to work, you likely wont be satisfied with how it runs.

[GLHNSLHT2]

And the question is, How do you get an R/T to run reliably?

[Lotashelbys]

And the question is, How do you get an R/T to run reliably?

Cant be done

[GLHNSLHT2]

That big of a pile eh?

[Lotashelbys]

That big of a pile eh?

Ya and I dont want to argue anymore. I will just drive mine everyday and leave it at that.....

[Lotashelbys]

But,to help Allen out. Do you have a 92 TI SBEC in your parts stash somewhere? If so it would be easy to convert it to that by lengthening and shortening some wires and getting a cal burned for the Masi using that route. The only thing im not familiar with on the Masi is what the coil plug looks like or where its at lol. The 91 will be a PITA to get the cruise to work and such. The 92 would be more plug and play....

[2.216VTurbo]

But,to help Allen out. Do you have a 92 TI SBEC in your parts stash somewhere? If so it would be easy to convert it to that by lengthening and shortening some wires and getting a cal burned for the Masi using that route. The only thing im not familiar with on the Masi is what the coil plug looks like or where its at lol. The 91 will be a PITA to get the cruise to work and such. The 92 would be more plug and play....

Hmm, I like this idea, that shadow turbo *might* have been a 92, I'll dig around and find the SBEC and see what it is. All I remember for sure is that it was a 5spd turbo car. You have me running the Masi dizzy with this method right? I think I would rather do that than try and make the coil pack set up work...

[Lotashelbys]

Yes Alan you can run the Masi dizzy with the TI electronics...

[Turbo3Iroc]

How bad is the engine that you are considering this swap? Do you really not want it to be TIII anymore or would a shortblock help you out?

[2.216VTurbo]

How bad is the engine that you are considering this swap? Do you really not want it to be TIII anymore or would a shortblock help you out?

The cylinder head shop that has done dozens of heads for me in the last 15 years uses bead blasting to clean the heads, I saw that the oil galley plugs weren't removed but since I was distracted by my personal life drama I ran it anyways. The motor lasted less than ten miles before it lost major power and was low on oil pressure, brought it back to my shop & pulled the pan and the bearings are wiped out. I surmised that some blast media got flushed out of the oil passages from the head and badly scored the crank. Cams are hard to turn in the head as well so they are likely damaged some. It's no secret that I find the TIII motors to be less desireable to maintain and work on than the Masi 16V motors, so no, I'm not gonna try and fix it at this time. Shame that I just ported and polished the head, used a FWD perf ported Ex manifold and installed a S70 turbo all for naught The RT may look a little odd with Maserati on the valve cover

[GLHNSLHT2]

damn that sucks. Any way for you to get them to compensate you some? Maybe you can put on one of those prototype VC's that don't have Maserati written on them?

[iTurbo]

Have you taken the valve covers off the bad TIII yet? I've had rocker arm failures before that got metal all over the place. This has happened to me three times.....once on each of my Spirit R/Ts that I only discovered shortly after buying them, and the third time it happened to me during my ownership of the red Spirit R/T (2nd time for this car).

The last time it happened I got really lucky and found it before any major damage. You couldn't hear or really tell anything was really wrong despite the rocker arm failure and the engine running on 15 valves. The engine sounded fine when I pulled it out and disassembled it, but the crankshaft still had to be turned .010/.010 at machine shop. Cam lobe on offending rocker was wiped down to the base circle.

At any rate, I think I'm going to pop the oil galley plugs off of all the blocks (TIII or not) I have awaiting assembly and bring them to the car wash for a high psi flush.

[Turbo224]

Ha ha, im surpirsed you didn't start this swap a lot sooner!

[turbovanman²]

I agree with Jackson, run it as T1 setup per say as it uses a dizzy, you just need to extend or shorten some wires and then you can make a custom cal, use a normal coil.

Ya and I dont want to argue anymore. I will just drive mine everyday and leave it at that.....

Ditto, my damage is self inflicted, lol.

[Reaper1]

The coil on the Masi is the standard oil-filled coil. You could easily change that to the epoxy E-coil to shorten the coil wire and the primary wires. Come to think of it, that may be something I do to mine!

[86Shelby]

Would it not be possible to simply use a TI harness, add the wires for the intake temp sensor and use the SMEC that you and Rick have installed on a few Masis for more performance? Maybe it was a Daytona TII SMEC? I might be out in left field...