Embarrassingly enough, is appears as though the microsquirt doesn't have the ability to set off a stock coil of any vintage. The fine folks at VW make a couple things which play nice with the microsquirt and are also relatively affordable. I have a wasted spark and single coil setup coming. I hope to just get it running on a single coil first and go from there. It looks like my crank signal is pretty nice, so I'm thinking this will be the final hurdle.
OK, I have a VW coil pack which will serve as both the ignitor and coil. It will do wasted spark, which is all I have the outputs to do at this point. It takes a different terminal for the coil end than our cars.
Does anyone have experience with rolling their own plug wires? It seems straight forward, but I haven't done it and I'm not sure where I should put the coil in this thing. All input is certainly welcome.
shucks, i wish I knew what state you were at for what you knew about what the microsquirt can do.
yeah it can only do (oops edit) HIGH impedance injectors and it needs a coil driver module or something like LS coils or honda k series coil on plug that have a built in coil driver.
Brian
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hopefully you didnt cook the logic level coil signal driver with trying to hook up a stock coil.....
Brian
Last edited by Aries_Turbo; 11-10-2023 at 05:45 PM.
Originally Posted by turbovanman
I used 420A coil wires.
I ran LS coils and wires. Cheap, easy to find replacements if I ever had an issue.
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I don't think I fried the Microsquirt, as it's still doing something when I run the volt meter across the terminals. I should have probably just gotten an ignitor and hooked up a neon coil, but it appears as though all I need to do is source some 4mm diameter terminals for the coil end of the wires, and I should be able to make my own set easily.
I would have gone with the LS stuff, but I don't have enough outputs left to do COP. There are several things I would have done differently at this point, but I like what I have, so I guess that's what counts.
you should be able to use 2 spark output channels and do wasted spark COP with some resistor changes on the logic outputs to the coil triggers.
Brian
Interesting. So what would I need to buy to accomplish this? Would I need to make a bracket to hold the COP pieces?
if doing coil on plug try to avoid the coil to plug connectors that are made of springs threaded into one another
look for a more solid solution
I replaced all the spring style connectors in my 01 ford f150 with a set of granetelli 3/8 spiral stainless steel connectors
basically a length of stainless boat winch cable with a plug wire terminel crimped at each end and a r-i collar mid length
turned out after 15-16 years of driving the truck, it had a "fuzzy" feeling I didn't realize it had...until it was gone.
https://granatellimotorsports.com/i-...-28-1697s.html
spendy but probably the single best thing I did to my truck .. other than lower it 4 inches
also
in 14 so years.. my truck went through 16 ford coils.. 15 just died , one by one the last one busted when the plug blew out
so I bought msd's.. no expectations except I wasn't buying a single one more..from ford
I think..those spring connectors, are the fault
thinking how high amperage cables can move when the current first goes through them..then thinkin there's 16 little springs threaded together making the connection
bouncing away merrily as the truck rides down the street in addition
so...
how variable do you think the resistance in those connectors..might be??
some use toyota yaris coils, some use honda K series coils, etc. they just have to be logic level triggered coils. and yeah you would need to make a bracket to hold them.
i did read of some making some resistor changes to the MS itself to trigger 2 coils at the same time though im not sure this is necessary and a would be a bit of a pain on a surface mount board like the microsquirt.
Brian
Interesting. I think I'm going to track down a source of terminals for this VW coil. If I can find them, I can make wires easily and it would be a super simple conversion at that point. If I can't come up with something in a week or so, I'll go a different direction. I plan on taking another trip to the parts store today to see if they can pull a few things for me to see if they'll work.
Good news. LS coils use the same diameter terminal. I think my quest to make some wires just got easier. Perhaps Jegs will talk to me in a real way now if I need assistance?
I made some wires this evening, and I'm hoping that the signs of life I detected when trying to start the car were not just a fluke. If anyone is interested in seeing the files, let me know. I see that they're not a supported on here, so I'll have to figure something else out.
Man I haven't been on the forums for a few months. This is pretty cool to see the progress. If you are finished with the wiring harness and have a picture or can get one, I'd like to see it. I just did mine and know what a pain it was to get all that done "right". Had to redo a few things because it fits differently out of the car than in the car. 😞
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Well, at this point, it's a bit of a rat's nest as I attempt to fit all of the final components in. The coil unit is sitting on the T stat housing, and the fuses with relays are flopping about. There are quite a few things I will do differently with the next car, but it looks like it will all clean up very nicely in the end though.
It fired just a few times today, but it seems almost as though the timing isn't right. I can't seem to get it going. I'll see what the megasquirt guys say and go from there.
I changed out the wasted spark coil in favor of the single coil. That made a big differnce. It fired up and ran today for a few seconds before dying. It didn't sound too terrible. However, I've once again lost RPM signal. I'm going to install a crank trigger and go from there.
Does anyone have a particular sensor they would recommend?
I'm thinking about this trigger wheel, but I'm not sure how to mount it on a non common block engine just yet. Some long spacers to keep it off of the pulley is probably all I'll need.
https://www.ampefi.com/product/8-1-4...trigger-wheel/
I have that same crank trigger wheel. Wayne was selling adapters to run it on a common block. see if he still has some remaining units. he was selling sensor brackets too and they work. be careful if you are running super high RPM. the sensor bracket will need some additional bracing if you experience a resonance that oscillates the sensor and allows it to touch the trigger wheel.
Brian
I just ordered that wheel. I'll need to measure one of the non-common block pulleys to see what the pattern is, depth, etc. I'm thinking about some studs with spacers to make an easy mounting solution for the wheel. It's really too bad that I don't have access to a lathe.
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