Megasquirt Anyone ??

[DodgeZ]

I thought we heard about this 5-6 years ago?

What we need is a wiring harness for plug and play megasquirt

[Force Fed Mopar]

I thought we heard about this 5-6 years ago?

What we need is a wiring harness for plug and play megasquirt

I was just thinking this today, after talking to a guy who bought just that for his Conquest TSi. I think it'll go on my development list

[crusty shadow]

I thought we heard about this 5-6 years ago?

What we need is a wiring harness for plug and play megasquirt

The problem with that is anyone who wants to make them will have to make 30 different harnesses to adapt MS to the different body styles, because while one person might want to use the stock configuration with Megasquirt the next guy may want to run full sequential multiple coils, crank trigger etc. A vendor would have to make 4-5 different adapter harnesses for each body style and be able to support multiple configurations, was it originally a logic module car, SMEC car SBEC car etc. that represents a pretty large investment in time and money- just the cost of wire and connectors will run several thousand dollars then you have R&D time for each harness, having multiple vehicles handy to test fit and run the system on etc.

The other major issue is that the wiring on all these cars is 25-30+ years old at this point. Corroded wires, corroded or worn out pins, worn out or broken connectors, failing sensors etc will create a MAJOR headache for a vendor who sells them as they will be inundated with calls and emails requesting tech support because something isnt working right after the install only to have the problem be traced down to a loose pin, poor connection , wire that has broken inside of the insulation etc.

The best option would be a pre made crank trigger kit that simply bolts on to the front pulley hub and a bracket to mount the sensor to. beyond that the best option for almost every single install will be to wire the system up from scratch for each install with all new wire, connectors etc. Yes it is more work than just dropping in a new computer and plugging it in but the end result is more than worth it when you arent being held back by ancient wiring thats giving you problems where you will be tearing your hair out thinking the MS is a piece of crap when you just have a bunch of faulty connections in your factory harness.

That being said- I've Megasquirted every TD that i have owned, learned a lot along the way, and i have what is the most radically Megasquirted TD out there- full sequential injection, crank trigger with cam position sensor, distributorless coil per cylinder ignition - pretty much every option you can do with the system. If someone wants to install one of these on a more stock configured car with batch fire injection, single coil with distributor it should be doable by most people if they are willing to take the time to sit down, understand basic fuel injection and plan things out and then do the install and end up with a successful running install.

I've said this before and i'll say it again- if you dont think you can handle the wiring then you really have no business trying to tune a full stand alone engine management system period.

The wiring is NOT that hard. It's not something you can get done in an afternoon, a day or a weekend if you want the system to actually work correctly. If you go to the MS forum a lot of the questions and problems in the support section end up coming down to poorly planned or hack job installs.

The last tutorial for installing MS on our cars was written almost 10 years ago, the system has evolved significantly since then as that was based off the MSI and MSII systems which are obsolete and no longer made. What is needed is a more up to date step by step tutorial for a basic MSIII system using the stock fuel/ignition configuration on these cars, the end user can then make modifications to how its configured from there.

[ajakeski]

Maybe someone with a lot of MegaSquirt knowledge will write an updated tutorial.

[Force Fed Mopar]

The problem with that is anyone who wants to make them will have to make 30 different harnesses to adapt MS to the different body styles, because while one person might want to use the stock configuration with Megasquirt the next guy may want to run full sequential multiple coils, crank trigger etc. A vendor would have to make 4-5 different adapter harnesses for each body style and be able to support multiple configurations, was it originally a logic module car, SMEC car SBEC car etc. that represents a pretty large investment in time and money- just the cost of wire and connectors will run several thousand dollars then you have R&D time for each harness, having multiple vehicles handy to test fit and run the system on etc.

The other major issue is that the wiring on all these cars is 25-30+ years old at this point. Corroded wires, corroded or worn out pins, worn out or broken connectors, failing sensors etc will create a MAJOR headache for a vendor who sells them as they will be inundated with calls and emails requesting tech support because something isnt working right after the install only to have the problem be traced down to a loose pin, poor connection , wire that has broken inside of the insulation etc.

The best option would be a pre made crank trigger kit that simply bolts on to the front pulley hub and a bracket to mount the sensor to. beyond that the best option for almost every single install will be to wire the system up from scratch for each install with all new wire, connectors etc. Yes it is more work than just dropping in a new computer and plugging it in but the end result is more than worth it when you arent being held back by ancient wiring thats giving you problems where you will be tearing your hair out thinking the MS is a piece of crap when you just have a bunch of faulty connections in your factory harness.

That being said- I've Megasquirted every TD that i have owned, learned a lot along the way, and i have what is the most radically Megasquirted TD out there- full sequential injection, crank trigger with cam position sensor, distributorless coil per cylinder ignition - pretty much every option you can do with the system. If someone wants to install one of these on a more stock configured car with batch fire injection, single coil with distributor it should be doable by most people if they are willing to take the time to sit down, understand basic fuel injection and plan things out and then do the install and end up with a successful running install.

I've said this before and i'll say it again- if you dont think you can handle the wiring then you really have no business trying to tune a full stand alone engine management system period.

The wiring is NOT that hard. It's not something you can get done in an afternoon, a day or a weekend if you want the system to actually work correctly. If you go to the MS forum a lot of the questions and problems in the support section end up coming down to poorly planned or hack job installs.

The last tutorial for installing MS on our cars was written almost 10 years ago, the system has evolved significantly since then as that was based off the MSI and MSII systems which are obsolete and no longer made. What is needed is a more up to date step by step tutorial for a basic MSIII system using the stock fuel/ignition configuration on these cars, the end user can then make modifications to how its configured from there.

I think you're misunderstanding what plug-and-play means... or at least misunderstanding what me and DodgeZ are talking about...

[contraption22]

I think you're misunderstanding what plug-and-play means... or at least misunderstanding what me and DodgeZ are talking about...

Going by the other megasquirt PNP systems that are currently available, I am assuming you mean a Megasquirt ECM that plugs directly in place of the Chrysler engine controller (logic module, SMEC, SBEC)


Plug n play for a 8v 2.2 wouldn't be a great move IMHO. You'd still be relying on OE hall effect system for timing pickup.

What you really need is for somebody to start selling bolt-on crank/cam sensor kits, as stated above. That's the trickiest part of getting MS to work on an 8v.

[crusty shadow]

On mine i made a jig to hold the trigger wheel in the correct position on the crank hub then welded it together, fabbed up a simple bracket to hold the crank sensor. for cam sensor input i cut the vanes off of a TBI shutter wheel and welded a half moon style shutter wheel to it and used the stock HEP sensor for signal. i've been wanting to modify the distributor a bit more and completely replace the stock hep sensor with an adjustable universal one since the stock ones are so failure prone.

the only vehicles i can see that would be true plug and play candidates would be logic module cars. not too sure how nicely the stock power module would play with inputs from MS though.

[karlak]

I am looking at going MS on a TIII. Would love to be able to use the stock sensors but they don't play well with anything but stock ECU.

[bakes]

Im looking into mspro 3

[moparman76_69]

Using the factory hall effect is a known quantity at this point isn't it? Seems like making adapter harnesses to go from the chrysler connector to the megasquirt plug would be the way to go. Problem would be having donor plugs to make the harnesses. At least for LM cars. SMEC and SBEC could technically use a connector off a tbi ecu.

[A.J.]

One of the biggest selling points for me on MS was getting a brandy-new harness and connector ends. It was such a relief to know I had fresh wires and connectors. It took me about 8 hours to separate the engine harness from the body harness on my van and about another 8 hours to wire in MS. MS is very friendly to the 2.4 so I had that in my favor. I think Crusty Shadow was spot on with everything he said in his first post except for, "i have what is the most radically Megasquirted TD out there" but that can be a discussion for another thread.

[mopar-tech]

I want nothing to do with the ignition being triggered off the oil pump gear, too many failures seen the last few years and the cause of the Reliant's last engine to fail.

[Aries_Turbo]

if i ever go ms, id run a crank trigger and possibly use the old school transmission side cam seal from a smog pump car and fab up a cam position sensor up there. only issue, the engine stays running if the oil pump gear nukes itself.

it wouldnt be a terrible idea to run the cam position off of the original HEP like crusty shadow did because all that does is tell the MS what cylinder they are at and the crank trigger determines the ignition events and if the car shuts down if the oil pump gear nukes, that isnt a bad thing.

then again, an oil pressure switch or some kind of MCU taking oil pressure and RPM readings and comparing to a table can shut down the engine if needed too.

Brian

[crusty shadow]

except for, "i have what is the most radically Megasquirted TD out there"

don't be too sure about that

The way i have mine set up is i run a 36-1 crank trigger and a half-moon aka "polling" shutter wheel on the distributor. On that setup the MS doesnt use the cam sensor to determine timing accuracy, its essentially an on-off signal that tells the MS where the engine is in the cycle. 2 rotations for a complete engine cycle, the MS just needs to know which one it's on, but still uses the crank trigger exclusively to determine timing. also eliminates issues with timing belt flex and gear lash at the distributor affecting timing accuracy.

[ohiorob]

got my MS3X and stuff a couple weeks ago. looking forward to finely take control of my tune

[Ondonti]

Would be cool if there were later style sbec male and female connectors available to wire your own intercept harness. Last intercept I did was through the engine harness connectors. Cool that I can completely remove it in 30 seconds.

[contraption22]

Would be cool if there were later style sbec male and female connectors available to wire your own intercept harness. Last intercept I did was through the engine harness connectors. Cool that I can completely remove it in 30 seconds.

That would be nice, but it is also nice that a MS install would give you the forced opportunity to replace the engine wiring. It my case, I pulled a Super 60 harness out of my car to install megasquirt. That harness was ONLY 15 years old with few engine hours on it, and in very good condition. Most of the cars we are working on are knocking on the door of 30 years old, and could really use fresh wiring. I can imagine pulling my hair out trying to figure out a problem with my newly installed engine management system and tracing it to a wiring issue.

[contraption22]

got my MS3X and stuff a couple weeks ago. looking forward to finely take control of my tune

Sweet! I'm no expert, but I am happy to share my experience with the 2.4 build.

[ohiorob]

Sweet! I'm no expert, but I am happy to share my experience with the 2.4 build.

Thanks!

[Motorbreath]

Hello all, recently picked up my old TD craze and looking into doing a megasquirt system for my SC. its a socketed 87 LM, if anyone has a tune for 83lbs injectors, wideband, 3bar i would buy it for a start. mptune would probably suite my needs.
But I have a little Toyota that needs stand alone. I currently I have a lot of 2.2/2.5 stuff and not too worried if i make a mistake and lose my stock extras motors. but the Toyota I only have one to learn on, not a 2jz but 3sgte st205 parts aren't easy to find.

I've been trying to learn as much as possible about tuning. its been very informing and feel like i wasted the last 10 years of my life by thinking it was black magic.
what I've learned so far is use a 36tooth cam wheel and ditch the distributor.
and you can blow the ---- out your stuff if you choose to. Its dumb like my cnc machines, it will do exactly what you tell it to do.

hope to be able to help the community and get some help in return. I'm going to need it.
my talents for trade or help are,

design with solidworks
program with mastercam
I excel on haas/okuma machines but can program and run any cnc