It's alive!

  • Thread starter Thread starter James Sweet
  • Start date Start date
J

James Sweet

Well today I went about wiring up the ignition to Megasquirt. Nothing is
finalized, there's wires draped all over at the moment but the 242 fired up
this afternoon and runs as well as it ever has. So far I'm only using MS to
run the ignition, but once my gaskets show up I'll start stripping the K-jet
parts and let MS take over the injection as well. Once I got everything
wired up I tried to start it but could only get a few pops and sputters.
Scratching my head, I fiddled with settings in the computer for about 10
minutes to no avail, then saw the intercooler to throttle body pipe sitting
on the garage floor, oops, it might work better if I put that back in. After
that it fired up on the first try. It sure is a cool feeling to be able to
punch values into the laptop and see the engine respond immediately. I'll
post an update on the project the next time I make significant headway. In
my installation I'm using a hall sensor distributor from an LH-Jet 240, an
ignition power stage from a 740, and the stock 240 coil. I need to scope the
primary to optimize the dwell, then I can fiddle with the advance curve. Not
sure, but I could swear the throttle is more responsive than it was with the
original setup.
 
Well today I went about wiring up the ignition to Megasquirt. Nothing is
finalized, there's wires draped all over at the moment but the 242 fired up
this afternoon and runs as well as it ever has. So far I'm only using MS to
run the ignition, but once my gaskets show up I'll start stripping the K-jet
parts and let MS take over the injection as well. Once I got everything
wired up I tried to start it but could only get a few pops and sputters.
Scratching my head, I fiddled with settings in the computer for about 10
minutes to no avail, then saw the intercooler to throttle body pipe sitting
on the garage floor, oops, it might work better if I put that back in. After
that it fired up on the first try. It sure is a cool feeling to be able to
punch values into the laptop and see the engine respond immediately. I'll
post an update on the project the next time I make significant headway. In
my installation I'm using a hall sensor distributor from an LH-Jet 240, an
ignition power stage from a 740, and the stock 240 coil. I need to scope the
primary to optimize the dwell, then I can fiddle with the advance curve. Not
sure, but I could swear the throttle is more responsive than it was with the
original setup.
Click to expand...

Congratulations! Let the tuning begin. How cold does it get in your part
of the world?
 
Congratulations! Let the tuning begin. How cold does it get in your part
of the world?
Click to expand...


We get down into the 20s on occasion, but winter is usually in the 30s.

I definitely need to work out some bugs still, the car idles nicely, well as
nice as it did before, control pressure regulator is shot, but under load it
misses badly and is not drivable. In a bit here I'll go try bypassing the
ballast resistor which I think may still be in the circuit, and if that
doesn't fix it I'll try a coil with the capacitor on it from a 740, the 240
coil lacks that. I think the timing is ok, can't find my timing light but I
wouldn't think it could be off enough to cause those symptoms.
 
We get down into the 20s on occasion, but winter is usually in the 30s.

I definitely need to work out some bugs still, the car idles nicely, well as
nice as it did before, control pressure regulator is shot, but under load it
misses badly and is not drivable. In a bit here I'll go try bypassing the
ballast resistor which I think may still be in the circuit, and if that
doesn't fix it I'll try a coil with the capacitor on it from a 740, the 240
coil lacks that. I think the timing is ok, can't find my timing light but I
wouldn't think it could be off enough to cause those symptoms.
Click to expand...

This is in the wings.

http://www.1320video.com/MSMeeting.php


Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca

void _-void-_ in the obvious place
 
Boris Mohar said:
This is in the wings.

http://www.1320video.com/MSMeeting.php


Regards,

Boris Mohar
Click to expand...

Cool, I figured it out, I had overboost protection enabled but set to 16 psi
absolute, oops! No wonder spark was having issues at low boost levels. Runs
great now, can't wait to get fuel switched over as well, goodbye clunky old
K-Jet.
 
James said:
Cool, I figured it out, I had overboost protection enabled but set to 16 psi
absolute, oops! No wonder spark was having issues at low boost levels. Runs
great now, can't wait to get fuel switched over as well, goodbye clunky old
K-Jet.
Click to expand...

I'm watching your project with interest. I like tinkering with things
technological and this looks like a fun project. Reasonably inexpensive too.
You're up Seattle way, aren't you? Do you have to pass smog? Will the
Mega pass or can it be tuned to pass?
Probably, no way down here in CA. Heck, they fail you if you have the
wrong color hose clamp on the heat riser...*g*
 
I'm watching your project with interest. I like tinkering with things
technological and this looks like a fun project. Reasonably inexpensive
too.
You're up Seattle way, aren't you? Do you have to pass smog? Will the Mega
pass or can it be tuned to pass?
Probably, no way down here in CA. Heck, they fail you if you have the
wrong color hose clamp on the heat riser...*g*
Click to expand...

Yes, Seattle area. MS should pass emissions, I'd be shocked if it's not
substantially cleaner than the K-jet, at least that's what I'm aiming for.
The car has been running rich for a long time due to issues with the
mechanical injection, if I lean it out so the cruise mixture is good it
won't start cold so this has to be an improvement. Only one more year that I
have to pass emissions until the car is too old to need that but I still
want it to run clean. Nice thing about EFI is there's no compromise, it can
be tuned to run clean and economical at cruise, and go rich under hard
acceleration. K-Jet is a marvel of 1960s engineering but compared to modern
EFI it's a complex and difficult to diagnose mechanical nightmare with lots
of high precision difficult to find parts. My experience with it has been
that it always runs, but never runs quite right.

Do they look under the hood there? Here they put it on a chassis dyno and
stick a probe in the tailpipe and another device on the gas cap to check the
vent. Seems silly to do anything more, if what's coming out of the pipe is
clean, who cares what's under the hood?

Today I started stripping the K-jet and associated wiring from the engine,
much of the wiring literally crumbled as I removed it. I picked up a load of
heatshrink tubing and spools of new wire and have been building an entire
new harness from scratch. Hope to have it running in a few days and then I
can start the tuning.
 
James said:
Do they look under the hood there? Here they put it on a chassis dyno and
stick a probe in the tailpipe and another device on the gas cap to check the
vent. Seems silly to do anything more, if what's coming out of the pipe is
clean, who cares what's under the hood?

Today I started stripping the K-jet and associated wiring from the engine,
much of the wiring literally crumbled as I removed it. I picked up a load of
heatshrink tubing and spools of new wire and have been building an entire
new harness from scratch. Hope to have it running in a few days and then I
can start the tuning.
Click to expand...

I totally agree... all that matters is what comes out the tailpipe but
California figured out profit is more important.
You bet they look under the hood, and test the gas cap, and dyno it.
They look at everything first, then they run it on the dyno to test it,
Then they check the cap, then they fail it because the heat riser tube
(one of the things they looked at first) has a tear in it or the gas cap
didn't hold vacuum.
They take your money and tell you to come back when it's fixed.
Then they take your money to test it again...

Years ago, we had a '74 truck with a 350 in it. Bought it new and put
100k on it towing.
Rebuilt it. Put a peppier cam in it, pistons, carb, and headers. Pulled
way better and got better mileage than stock.
To pass smog, we had to put the air pump back on it. I welded nuts to
the headers and screwed the air pump manifolds to them... they didn't go
into the headers but they looked like they should.
It passed smog with way better numbers than it ever got stock, got way
better mileage... and was totally illegal as far as smog laws are concerned.
Silly, isn't it.

Have fun with your project and post some results when you get it dialed.
 
It passed smog with way better numbers than it ever got stock, got way
better mileage... and was totally illegal as far as smog laws are
concerned.
Silly, isn't it.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is. I had a 1970 145 that had been modified in the dim past with
headers to accept a Weber carburetor. The jets hadn't been selected right,
so when emission testing began in Arizona it was found to produce 5% CO.
However, there was no legal way for me to fix it; it couldn't be practically
returned to stock and changing the jets - now that they were part of the
car - was illegal.

Somebody once described the process to me in a way that made sense. We ask
our lawgivers to create laws for us and they respond to various pressures to
make laws that benefit them the most, politically or economically. Then the
laws are administered by bureaucrats whose primary purpose is to secure
their own future. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Mike
 
Michael Pardee said:
Yes, it is. I had a 1970 145 that had been modified in the dim past with
headers to accept a Weber carburetor. The jets hadn't been selected right,
so when emission testing began in Arizona it was found to produce 5% CO.
However, there was no legal way for me to fix it; it couldn't be
practically returned to stock and changing the jets - now that they were
part of the car - was illegal.
Click to expand...

It wouldnt have taken much rocket science to look up the weber jet tables,
and select acouple of idle jets and / or air correctors more suitable for
your engine based on where the mixture was rich, and the current position of
the idle mixture screw, to have passed the emissions test if not on the 2nd
try, but the 3rd.

Tim.
 
Tim.. said:
It wouldnt have taken much rocket science to look up the weber jet tables,
and select acouple of idle jets and / or air correctors more suitable for
your engine based on where the mixture was rich, and the current position
of the idle mixture screw, to have passed the emissions test if not on the
2nd try, but the 3rd.

Tim.
Click to expand...


The point was not that it couldn't be done or was hard to do, but that due
to the way the laws work, it was not legal to do.
 
James Sweet said:
The point was not that it couldn't be done or was hard to do, but that due
to the way the laws work, it was not legal to do.
Click to expand...

And who would know?

Tim..
 
Tim.. said:
And who would know?
Click to expand...

It probably wouldn't be discovered, but if it were the penalties for
violation of even dumb EPA rules are draconian. The official stand in the US
is that penalties are to punish, not destroy, but several US agencies are
known to crush people with penalties of hundreds of thousands of dollars and
many years in prison. The EPA and OSHA (in particular) have no difficulty
levying six or seven figure fines on individuals. They seem to view any
infraction as flagrant disregard for all that is holy.

Mike
 
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