Converting to Megasquirt

[AceOfHearts]

Its been a plan of mine for ages to get the Chimaera converted to run Megasquirt fuel and ignition. I know people have many opinions on ECU's, but I want a DIY system that I can fit and tune myself, and don't have thousands to spend, hence my choice

I want to go the whole hog and remove the dizzy, AFM, and totally replace all of the engine bay wiring loom as it is so old and crusty I have no confidence in it. Also when I plan to supercharge in the future it means I am ready to map and make the most of the conversion straight away.

Who is the best to buy the kit from (I am interested in buying the whole kit from one source to avoid any compatability issues)? ExtraEFI and Megasquirt-V8 have come up in google searches but i know little of either company.

Any other tips and info welcome

Edited by AceOfHearts on Monday 8th September 05:41

[AceOfHearts]

Cheers for all the info guys, lots to look at

Thankfully I already have a y-piece from Clive that has a wideband bung welded in, so I think that will be the first thing I get as it would be interesting to see what the 14cux is doing at the moment.

Loom wise I would probably be happier to make the loom myself, I notice their are kits on the megasquirt v8 site but the shop is closed at the minute, so don't know how much they are but they look like a good option.

I have looked at the American site, but can't see a lot of the rover v8 stuff I would need, and tbh think it would be easier from a UK company.

From the looks of things I am looking around £600 for the ecu kit, a couple of hundred maybe for the loom and another £200 or so for a decent wideband. Need to start calling around when I get home and get some proper prices and some bits ordered up

[AceOfHearts]

That would be great but I'm in the lake district until Sunday night

[AceOfHearts]

AEM wideband bought and fitted, very nice bit of kit.



Have also just ordered a full MS2 setup from Phil at ExtraEFI and Shaun will be making my new wiring loom!

Should be an interesting experience but still a bit nervous about the mapping. Sure it will be fine once I get stuck in though

[AceOfHearts]

I have but I want to learn how to do it myself really. I deal a lot with computers and PLC's at work but car wise I have only ever mucked about with carburetors so EFI is something I would like to learn.

[AceOfHearts]

sgrimshaw said:

AceOfHearts said:

I have but I want to learn how to do it myself really. I deal a lot with computers and PLC's at work but car wise I have only ever mucked about with carburetors so EFI is something I would like to learn.

You are not far from Shaun, I highly recommend that you either take the car to him or get him to come to you for a tuning/education session.

His rates are extremely reasonable and his knowledge is second to none (IMO).

From the experiences on here I will ask him about tuning when he gets in contact about the loomthen Where is he based then?

[AceOfHearts]

Everything is here now, just waiting on the loom.

Will start fitting up on Friday. I have to pull the radiator to fix a leak so will get the crank pulley off to fit the trigger wheel. I have found the video online about fitting the trigger wheel to a pre-serp RV8 engine, is it the same for the serpentine belt?

Another question is I have a dizzy plug from Phil, but reading online it looks like they can only be used on certain engines as the distributor drives on some are used for the cam. Anyone know if my 1995 Serp is suitable?

[AceOfHearts]

Got a lot done today with my mate Jon. We got the leaky radiator out (which is leaking in more places than i realised so i think an ally one is on the cards now). We also fitted the trigger wheel and crank sensor, and removed the entire loom from the car. Looking very bare in the engine bay now, i will get a photo tomorrow when its light. Everything went very smoothly and was quite enjoyable.

Now i have a big pile of bits ready to sell once the new loom arrives and the car is fully up and running. Just need to sort out a coil pack bracket now

[AceOfHearts]

Yes i am looking forward to fitting the new one

[AceOfHearts]

Ignition leads and crimping tool bought. Also got some stainless steel to make the coil pack bracket on Thursday. New aluminium radiator also ordered whilst the old one is out.

Old ignition parts now in the classifieds

[AceOfHearts]

Old one recored was very similar money, my mate with an s3 has just had it done there. I have had rads fixed by Herts rads before and they have been good. I might keep the old one as a spare just in case though.

People have done well with Aaron radiators so fingers crossed

[AceOfHearts]

Got the coil pack mount made up today and mocked up the Ka HT leads ready for shortening once my crimp tool arrives. Need to get some more stainless bolts to mount the coil packs properly but I will do that at the weekend. Not looking too bad mocked up though

[AceOfHearts]

Little update today whilst I'm still waiting on the loom. Since the plenum was off it seemed a good opportunity to replace the fuel hoses and I also got the correct bolts to properly mount the coils to the new bracket.

My MSD ignition lead crimper had also turned up so I shortened my Ka ht leads and added number indents to each. The new crimps actually turned out really well and it's a satisfying job to do yourself

[AceOfHearts]

[AceOfHearts]

I was just recommended the Ford coil pack from ExtraEFI so that's what i went for, plus they are cheap and supposedly reliable. I don't really think i would want to go at the back of the plenum anyways as my car is very tight back there and the coil packs and leads are nice and accessible on the side of the plenum, plus there is plenty of space there for them!

The only real downside is it is not as 'neat' but i would much rather it be easy to access if needs be (and its still a lot neater than the old dizzy)

[AceOfHearts]

Sardonicus said:

Chuffmeister said:

Critical for the 500 as it was externaly balanced. You need to send it to an engineers with the trigger wheel so they can balance the pulley and trigger wheel to the same offset. It is likely that unbalancing the crank would increase the chance of the crank snapping.

Good call I didn't read that post you could probably get away with it on the non TVR cranked/500 cars its just one tooth and before i went for the rebuild this is how I ran mine however I did retain the factory balancing (trapped studding under the dirt deflector) I removed the shield outer edge so my balance offset was very minor, its your call hope this helps

As above I did a lot of reading on here and I am going to run the pulley without balancing as I haven't found any reports of problems in the 4.0. I am looking at getting a bigger engine built next year so will get it all balanced up then

[AceOfHearts]

estutjaweh said:

Just out of curiosity...

...how important is it to have the crankshaft rebalanced after fitting the trigger wheel? I havent seen one report of an engine being removed and stripped for this so I guess its not too bad.
Do any of you mill the pulley wheel back to retain the overall weight once the trigger wheel is fitted?
Is it literally a bolt-on and ignore the slight inbalance issue?

and finally, if any of us were considering going this route, how much does a conversion with all the parts actually cost (not including a rolling road mapping session)?

The total for mine is about £1100, which is including all of the parts, the wideband and mapping. This could be done cheaper but i have had the loom and ECU professionally built to save hassle and reduce the chance of any problems.

Couple this to the fact i have already sold the old ignition parts for £150 and still have the old ECU and loom to sell (which should get another £100 or so) I will end up all in around the £850 mark.

[AceOfHearts]

Little bit more done today, cleaned the air filter and re-oiled, and cleaned out the air filter area behind the grill whilst i had space with the rad removed. I also got the AFM replacement tube cut to size and fitted and mocked up the new radiator to make sure it all fits ok.

Going to get some new fan mounting plates made up and new stainless bolts before i fit it fully.

Next up is to cut back the old carbon canister breather from the engine bay and fit it with a small filter at the back of the car

[AceOfHearts]

The loom turned up this week so i cracked on with fitting it today. Have got about half the engine bay hooked up and also have routed the loom into the car. I have mounted the new ECU and fusebox under the dash as it seemed the neatest and most secure place for it. I have routed the cable so that the laptop lead is coiled up inside the glovebox so can be just pulled out to connect.



Also got the new rad properly mounted with new stainless steel fan mounts which i made

[AceOfHearts]

Well the car is now fully together and ready for mapping (which will hopefully be getting done at some point next week)

Only little hiccup I have to sort is that I foolishly wired the wideband feed to the wrong side of the fuel pump relay so with the battery hooked up the lambda is constantly on, so i will sort the out tomorrow and should only be a 10 minute job. My welding is not too pretty on the air inlet temp sensor bung as well but its not too bad considering this is the first time i have ever welded stainless with my mig.

Good thing is the car cranked and everything seems good so fingers crossed there are not too many issues when Shaun turns up.

Getting excited now

I will get some finished pics tomorrow