My Megasquirt project continues.
After months of work and lots of hair pulling, I finally got the EFI system installed and working. I had a few significant problems; some I created and some were the vendor's. I finally got those worked out and the engine running.
Over the last week or so I worked on the fuel tables and fuel enrichment maps. I haven't got much road time yet - tough to do in the winter.
Since Monday was a holiday(and it snowed) I decided to hook up the ignition portion, and get rid of the distributor.
I'm using an EDIS8 style coil pack in wasted spark mode. The Megasquirt ECU controls the spark directly. That gives me complete control of the spark, including dwell, spark duration, advance, etc. I can even use a secondary spark table for vacuum or low load advance.
I built the wiring into the harness, and installed the harness a month ago. For wiring, it was simply a matter of plugging it in.
I had to build a rack to hold the coils. It went into the same area as the
oil:water seperater, so I incorporated that into the bracket. One of my goals is to make this easy to tear down.
I made new cables, using a MSD 8.8mm universal kit. I've been using those for years with good results. I don't like using a ready made set, I like to run them my way.
Then it was time for the moment of truth. Based on past experiences, I was actually kind of dreading this. I figured it would take me at least a week just to get the engine running. I left the distributor in place, and only unplugged it. I even kept the old cables.
I plugged in the lap top, primed the pump, and turned the key. It fired right up! I was shocked; well not really shocked. But certainly surprised. The idle's a smidgen rough, and there's an intermittent miss I need to work on. But it actually runs pretty good. I'm pretty impressed.
I have a bare distributer in the basement. I'm going to cut the top off and put it back in to drive the
oil pump.