Speeduino Classic Mini SPI
Discussion
Hey pistonheads. Hoping to tap into the collective hive mind to help with a few things. I’ve recently acquired a 1995 Rover Mini Cooper SPI. Love the car as is its brilliant and will soon be better once the suspension has been rebuilt. I am wanting to make the Mini more tuning friendly and I’m aware that the standard cooper ECU’s were conservatively tuned from the factory. This combined with other issues such as lack of accessibility to modify or rectify means that I’d like to get rid of the rover ECU. It also opens the door to making use of any performance upgrades I wish to install in the future.
So what are my options with regards to plug and play or DIY. I’m aware of the Specialist Components kit however this is £1200 before you add VAT and a bit out of my price range at the moment. Mega squirt and Microsquirt are options however I don’t have any information about these fitting to the Mini’s wiring loom and then initial mapping. These are about £400 as is which is more palatable. The option I want to try is the Speeduino path. I can get a kit for £150 and build it and then program it with arduino and tuner studio. This presents the same issue as the megasquirt and microsquirt family in that there isn’t any documentation online of people doing this and integrating it into the car.
Has anyone got experience of doing such a thing and any notes on what needs to be wired into the ecu, either megasquirt/microsquirt or Speeduino as a minimum and how to get it up and running.
Cheers for the help in advance
So what are my options with regards to plug and play or DIY. I’m aware of the Specialist Components kit however this is £1200 before you add VAT and a bit out of my price range at the moment. Mega squirt and Microsquirt are options however I don’t have any information about these fitting to the Mini’s wiring loom and then initial mapping. These are about £400 as is which is more palatable. The option I want to try is the Speeduino path. I can get a kit for £150 and build it and then program it with arduino and tuner studio. This presents the same issue as the megasquirt and microsquirt family in that there isn’t any documentation online of people doing this and integrating it into the car.
Has anyone got experience of doing such a thing and any notes on what needs to be wired into the ecu, either megasquirt/microsquirt or Speeduino as a minimum and how to get it up and running.
Cheers for the help in advance
There are probably other Mini forums, but the Turbominis would have a few guys running MS, with it's dedicated code for the Siamese ports on the Mini, which there are special requirements to help alleviate charge robbing.
Ask there, although it isn't so busy these days. Search too, most the info you need will surely be there.
Although they will not usually be single point injection. I think single point, injecting prior to the throttle blade does also help alleviate some of the issues.
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php
Ask there, although it isn't so busy these days. Search too, most the info you need will surely be there.
Although they will not usually be single point injection. I think single point, injecting prior to the throttle blade does also help alleviate some of the issues.
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php
You'd need to decide what sensors you were going to use. You may not end up using all the OEM sensors.
At a minimum you'll need throttle, crank position sensor, coolant temp sensor. If you aren't using TPS for load you'll also need your load sensor.
You might also want lambda and knock.
Outputs would normally be fuel pump relay, injector, control to coils. You'll also need to power the coils, probably from switched ignition.
Once you've identified all the existing wires for you inputs and outputs and/or added any new ones, you need to connect that to your ECU.
On an older car, I'd start again with a new engine loom rather than try to repurpose the old one. Tracing and troubleshooting dodgy 30 year old wiring with added and redundant wires can be a PITA.
At a minimum you'll need throttle, crank position sensor, coolant temp sensor. If you aren't using TPS for load you'll also need your load sensor.
You might also want lambda and knock.
Outputs would normally be fuel pump relay, injector, control to coils. You'll also need to power the coils, probably from switched ignition.
Once you've identified all the existing wires for you inputs and outputs and/or added any new ones, you need to connect that to your ECU.
On an older car, I'd start again with a new engine loom rather than try to repurpose the old one. Tracing and troubleshooting dodgy 30 year old wiring with added and redundant wires can be a PITA.
I converted my carb mini to injection using megasquirt and an MPi manifold a few years ago. The turbominis forum had all the info needed, including data on the standard sensors. I would assume the spi setup would be less sensitive to injection timing than MPi which may simplify the setup.
I got my megasquirt built from extraefi.
I got my megasquirt built from extraefi.
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