Glad to hear you're progressing well. So am I.
I go all he parts from DIY a couple of weeks ago. They were pretty easy to deal with, no surprises, fast service. And Matt has been very helpfull with all my silly questions. I would recommend them to anyone.
I ordered a MS-II Extra, with 3 additional coil drivers, and dual on board MAP sensors. I had DIY assemble the ECU, using a v3.57 main board. I have no experiance in that sort of thing, and didn't want to screw it up.
I bought their coil packs, with a standard HEI tips; I also ordered a spare for the trunk. And they sent me a few other odds and ends that I needed.
I bought an assembled JimStim board. That gives me the oppurtunity to plug the ECU into the lap top, and play around for a while in the comfort of my living room. I paid for the registered verrsion of TunerStudio - no sense spending all this time and money and going cheap on the software. It really has been enlightening. Learning about the software long before engine start is pretty important. Programming the spare outputs for fan, shift light, and tachometer was pretty easy - just a couple mouse clicks. No external circuits are required.
I spent the last couple of weeks poring over the software and documentation. Before doing anything, I wanted to make sure I understand it well. I have a pile of notes and schematics for referance. I want all this to be well documented, in case I have a problem, or decide to sell the car.
I finished fabing the trigger wheel and Hall sensor mount last week. They came out pretty good, I think. I started with 3/16" steel for the base plate, mounted it at three points, and then double braced it in two directions. Probably a lot heavier than it needs to be - but that helps stabilize the timing. I bought the Hall sensor with a threaded body; setting the air gap should be pretty easy.
Today I finished fabbing the mount for the coil packs. That took a long time. I tried a couple of things, and then decided I didn't like them, and started over a couple of times. It had to be easy to remove for repairs and maint. And I also wanted to incorporate the mount for the air
il seperater. Three bolts, three hoses, and two plugs, and the whole thing comes off as one unit - seperater, hoses, coils, bracket, and base plate.
Tonight I started building the wiring harnesses. My initial intention was to mount the MSII in the same place as the Haltech, and then incorporate the existing harness into the new one. But I think it will be easier to just build a whole new harness from scratch. Then I can mount the ECU in a better spot. I'm going to put Weatherpack connecters in strategic locations to make engine removal a lot easier
I also have an LM-1 I want to use for initial tuning. TunerStudio can read the signal from the LM-1, and make changes to the fuel maps to meet the target AFR. Once that's done, a simple narrow band sensor should work fine for day to day driving. I'm going to put a Molex connecter under under the dash for the LM-1, making it a simple plug in to switch from one to the other.
I'm probably 2-3 weeks away from engine start. No hurrey.