matts 94 mx-3 gs build. MOARRRRR GOODIES

[mx3matt]

its fun but stressful.

one thing i screwed up was vacuum source for the ecu, used the old cruise control source off the front runners. everytime vris hits the map sensor goes apeshit and motor starts buckin and kicking so i've got to find a better source then that.

so tonight i'll wire in the wideband and redo the vaccuum, clean up the wiring and try and get it dialed in a bit better.

[mx3matt]

Got the idle at 180f degrees at 950rpm with an Afr of 15.5. Idles still all over the place when the motors cold.

starting to feel a bit more dialed in and starting to make some good power.
Runs really rich at any speed when im pushing it(9.5-12.9 afr).
Really enjoying playing with everything but it's definitely a lot to take in and I've had a headache for 2 days lol

[mx3matt]

So a bit of an update.

I made a big rookie error and fixing it has made ms. Glorious!!!!!!!

So I ordered the megasquirt with external iat not realizing they set it to run that way out of the box. So I opened up the megasquirt to add on the external wideband and realized the jumper for the iat was set to external, switched it back to vaf and voila started idling better, cruise is great, mileage is better as well. I've had it installed and running since Wednesday night and used up almost 3/4 tank to 100kms of driving lol.

Put almost 100kms on it last night and was just a tad over 1/4 tank used. Still heavy but a major improvement over and the initial run.
I've started making some safe power too...... Pulls really hard from 4000-7000 and doesn't feel like it's running out steam like it used to, afrs sit between 12.9-14. It does bog slightly when you first hit the go pedal.

Cruising in the city isn't optimal and runs really rich(11.5-13.5) when i'm wot from a stop to 60km/h but when I cruise at 60 it sits fairly steady at 14.6-15.2.
Idles is now steady at 950 @170f
@ 150f its 1100
@ 140f its 1150
Anything under that when has it running at 1350-1400


I do advise that unless you really know what your talking about don't rush into it.
I've realized I initially was in way over my head but I'm grasping it a lot better now, in the end you'll learn so bloody much about how all the different aspects of an engine tie in to each other......and its a he'll of a lot of fun lol.

[mx3matt]

so i wanted to post up my basic setup and hopefully get a lil feedback.
i have datalogs to but those can come later.

theres not a lot of n/a megasquirted mx3's around so its been tough finding info and anything to really compare to so thats been tough. i cant stand probetalk but i've been able to find 2.5 info so that'll help when the swap happens. only reason i havent swapped is because i'm using the k8 as a test platform to better learn and use MS.

the info i have been able to compare with the probe guys is the info that really confuses me right now. most of them are boosted but there ve tables at idle and low rpms are sooooo much lower then mine. obviously at higher rpms when boost is hitting they are gonna be vastly different.

the past 2 days i've had a bit of trouble getting motor to fire up in the morning, sputters and coughs then stalls unless i play with the pedal. once it finally does start up it cold idles at 1700rpm. once its gets to 120-140 degreesF it hunts between 1000-1300ish. when its hits 180 its purrs at 750-800rpm at 13.1-14 afr.
this morning i pulled out of the drive put it in first, hit the gas made it to about 1500rpm in first when it cut out bucked and stalled. then would crank for 10 secs and putt putt till it first up and immediately cut out. didnt have time to screw with it so unplugged it and ran stock ecu, cranked for may half a second and first up and idled beauty. i'm obviously clueless with this squirt but if i'm ever gonna understand it i've gotta do the research and ask questions.

[mx3matt]

so this weekend I'll be deleting the vaf and charcoal canister. I've got the megasquirt running pretty decent right now, a but rich in a few spots and lean in others. Definitely feels a lot more powerful best way I can describe is is smooth power. Gotta test the vris to make sure it's actually working cuz it feels that smooth.

I know fowljesse spark advance table runs into the 40+ degree range and I used it as a starting point but I've only gone as far as 38.5 but no knocks and I'm currently running 89 octane. If everything goes smooth with the vaf delete then i'll start getting a bit more aggressive with timing and I'm considering having a few dyno pulls done to see where I'm at pre swap. I'd have to do that before next sunday cuz that's when she's getting an upgrade.
Not gonna lie I'm a Lil worried about the power upgrade.......i got a speeding ticket and a warning already and the extra torque gonna get me in trouble lmao.

Just gotta learn to get off the go pedal and I think it'll have ok mileage. Gotta start working on a emissions map too because it's an etest year for me.

[mx3matt]

so today sick with the flu i stupidly decided to tackle the vaf delete, i decided against the charcoal canister delete for now after doing a bit more research on the benefits.....as it stands my mileage was bad enough so it just wasnt worth it for me to take the risk of removing it just for a bit more engine bay.

so i tried a new product called fusewire, its a aluminum type solder that'll hold 13000psi of tensile strength. this is what my finished product looked like.




i'm really impressed with this stuff, took a bit to figure it out but it seems super strong and really workable. i ended up installing the iac sensor crossed threaded so i'll have to replace it when i rework a serious intake. i had to really muscle that sensor on and the "welds" didnt budge.

i've got a lot of finetuning to do to the table due to the incresed airflow, i'll do that over the next few days and see where i'm at power and mileage wise. my mileage this week was awesome now that i figured out the mapping a bit better. my idle is much smoother but i still havent figured out closed loop idle values and ended up running pwm warmup only for now. i've got idle advance engaged so when i put electrical load on at idle it bumps the advance which in turn slightly bumps the idle to make up for it. not perfect but acceptable for now.

[mx3matt]

so i finally got my buddy to come out and spend an afternoon working on getting better tables for spark and afr's and it turned out i was dumping fuel in a lot of places because i was just not understanding the tables properly. tonight i spent about an hour really building a fairly safe tune i took it for a drive and it much smoother now, a lot less powerful by the feel of the butt dyno so tomorrow night i'll take it back on a highway run tomorrow night.

right now while cruising at 60km/r in 3rd at 3000rpm-ish i'm sitting at 16.6-17.2afr's
i cant hear any knock and ms isnt sensing any knock either.....tempting me to add a bit more timing but still happy to see those numbers knockless on 87 octane. now i'm really excited to see some mpg increases!!!
when i'm heavy on the pedal i'm seeing 12.4-14.1 afr's so very safe but way too rich and i dont like how spread out the afr's go, so i'll spend tomorrow night tightening that up and trying to lean it up to about 13.2-13.5 under heavy load and hopefully make some more power and really see what this stupid k8 can really put out.... damn thing just doesnt wanna die.

probably a good thing after opening up my project DE intake mani the other night.
here's a couple snaps of my first look at the inside.

nasty throttle body


intake caked


the intake ports looked like that too. i'll have the updated pics at some point next week once i've finished cleaning, and grinding off the rest of the casting marks and paint it up so i throw it on the motor. sunday we'll be changing the timing belt and water pump hopefully.

and it'll be ready to go into it's new home which needs to happen soon cuz my parents bought a new house and i wont have any fun money due to moving expenses, downpayments and furniture purchases.

but good news is i'll have my own garage for the first time in forever....... my parents new place up just north of campellford has a 48x36ft main garage thats a workshop for our shared 1964 galaxie 500xl. and about 30ft down the road from that is a 25x22ft garage for me to work on anything i please......so stoked. theres a small oil furnace in both garages too so winter work will be easy.
so that means i'll finally have somewhere to park a winter beater so i can park the mx in the winter, and have enuff room leftover for maybe a streetbike project.

[mx3matt]

so today i'll be redoing the wideband ground direct to the ms as i've read more and more that having it grounded elsewhere could be causing my afr difference's between the sensor itself and the what megasquirt is seeing.
I'm afraid to add any more timing or run any leaner until the afr's read the same between the gauge and what tunerstudio displays.

really surprised how good the k8 feels under acceleration, taking highway ramps under full throttle in 2nd and occasionally third causes major traction issues and i've never had that before. off the line i can get complete wheelspin in 1st, tire chirp in second.

last night i went for a cruise with a couple friends, one drives a 06 mazda 3 and the other drives a 02 protege 2.0, absolutely spanked the protege and stayed with the mazda3 so my powers definetly up a bit cuz before megasquirt i could stay with the protege and got walked by the mazda3.

[marcdh]

great work, you never truly learn MS until you get it and need it to work haha Keep it up, interested to see how the k8 does!

[mx3matt]

So heres the sequence of s--- that happened today. Grounded the wideband to the ms and had the same .5-.7 difference between the ts reading andmy wideband. Adjusted the calibration till they both matched.

Initialized the launch control made some cool flames then was letting it idle for awhile to see how ve analyze would set up the idle. Cameback out no more then 4-5 minutes later to a giant smoke show and a blown upper rad hose and 230 farenheit overheat
Shut down the car and went and picked up a new rad hose from partsource.threw it on started right up and idled nice.after putting somewater on the belt to clean the coolant off the slipping belts.
After about 2 minutes of idling normal it cut right out and wouldnt fire back up. Left it for a smoke break cameback and it fired up normally lasted about a minute and stalled again. Noticed multiple clicking noises from the msbox and a rough surging idle right before the stall. The ecu made the same clicking noises right before every stall.

I dont even know where to start now...... took apart the caseand didnt see anything burnt, gonna go back out now and see if its still having problems.

[mx3matt]

So it started right up and idled beauty for about 45 seconds. Then clickclick click and stall. The wiring for the hei got coolant soaked when the hose burst so I'm wondering if the resistor for tachsignal is screwed up because when the ecu starts clicking the tach goes apeshit up and down in no relation to actual engine speed. Im worried the ecu is damaged but I'm waiting for a reply from stratified before I go any further.

Also noticed that when the vehicles off the tps bounces from 1%-4% back and forth and the map sensor appears to be seeing that.

[mx3matt]

so i was able to get a datalog and it ran for almost 5 minutes.
watched my datalog and noticed i had sync loss a total of 9 times(reason 11) which indicates too few teeth before second trigger.
i'm reading that it could be a cam sensor so tomorrow i'll spend some time seeing if a wire cam loose of something.

[mx3matt]

how prone is the cam sensor in the disty to failure, i'm getting reason 11 repeatedly and causing 9 counts of sync loss and then won't restart for a few minutes.

looks like i'm gonna have to pay stratified to talk on skype to help me out.

[mx3matt]

still can't figure out why it won't stay running.

looking more into running coilpack or cop but i'm so frustrated at this point that i've thought about picking up something more reliable and parking this till i can figure it out or break down and throw money at some one to fix it, even considering parting out at this point.

here's the pics of the rad hose that f'd everything up.




and started looking at cop's at work.





really interested in having the ecu upgraded to run cop's but not something i can do myself with my current skills, stratified isnt giving me much info without paying 80/hour for it so i'm trying to figure this out on my own. apparently the ecu comes ready to to install wasted spark but havent been able to see how......havent found any good how to's either.

[WhiteFinish]

Have you tried to reburn your firmware?