Hey there,

this is my first topic here, so i will use it for a short intro.
My name is Thomas, i am from Germany and my car is a Dax Rush wich was build by my new friend Yavor from Bulgaria.
I got this as replacement for the motorcycles i had and wich i sold due to family growth :-D



This is the car





The setup is:
2.0 L Ford Silvertop with Turbo conversion, running on injection, controlled by a Megasquirt using the original Ford sensors and the Ford EDIS ignition. The loom was a original mondeo one wich was stripped down to the minimum.
2 Fuel pumps for fuel delivery

Since i got the car in July i really struggle with bigger and smaller issues. Most of them got sorted out (most of them electrical), but one big problem remains:

The car starts very well. After a short warm up phase the car runs very good on idle too. I can go for a ride and the engine feels very strong and runs clean. After a short while (max 10-15kms), no matter if i rev hard or go easy, the car will start to hardly rev up (rattle and shake like a bag of nuts) and after some seconds, the engine dies and i am stuck on the road. i can wait a while to cool down the car and it will eather start again (sometimes), or not.
The front fuel pump was dripping so it was changed to a new one (6,5 bar mercedes benz) and i was hoping to have solved the problem, but this morning it happened again. Stuck in morning traffic in the dark and the rain started to pour down as soon as i was on the side of the road....big big fun.

Infos and ideas:
Fuel filter looks good, first fuel pump was already replaced.
Fuel Pump Relais was not replaced.
Could it be that the oxygen sensor shows strange behaviour on heat and the megasquirt gets the wrong information and misses the right fuel amount?

Thanks in advance to everyone who can help!

could be a lot of things, does the fuel filler cap have a vent ?, if the tank is not venting, fuel wil not pumped from the tank, could be the coils, do they get hot, does it do it if you are stationary, ie sitting there with the engine running and not driving, if not, could be a dry joint in the ECU or wiring and vibration causing it to break down......good luck

What i forgot:

i changed the crankshaft sensor some time ago because i suspected it to be the cause for my problems.
But that didnt help. Maybe one of the connectors has a problem when it gets hot.

Can you not connect a laptop to the Megasquirt and monitor it in real time when this problem happens? It should be pretty easy to identify if you have an anomalous sensor reading or if there is a more physical problem here (e.g. coil breakdown or fuel starvation as said).

Post a copy of your msq and I will have a look to see if the settings that you are using compare well with mine (thinking of dwell time settings etc).

Ventilation of the fuel tank was checked, everything fine.
It also happens when stationary...
I didnt have the coils on the map....
but.....i know this from motorcycles, had a yamaha vmax that made crazy stuff because of a broken coil....!
Good idea.

@DJTom: i actually already did that. Will connect it again and heat it up while stationary.
Last time, the logfile didn't show any suspicious values.
If you want, i can send you my tune and the new logfile.
All i know, when i cooencted the laptop the last time, the values for AFR where going crazy, even if the car was running correctly.
I will try to record that behaviour.

Fire some logs out to us, it will help us diagnose remotely, even if it's not an ECU issue.

Tomorrow is a holiday in germany, i will do a new log tomorrow and post it here.

If you're AFR is all over the place but car runs ok at that moment then lambda sensor may be shot even one misfire could render lambda useless

What coil drivers are in the ECU could be braking down when hot. I had to fit BOSCH BIP ones to sort a similar problem

I wanted to upload my log file and the tune. But i cant figure out how.... any hints?

Ok, i think i got it...

2017-06-10_14.54.29.msl

2017-10-03_08.14.30.msq

The log file is a bit older, but with the same issues. It was a normal ride and the engine dies around 1164....

[Edited on 3/10/17 by Tommes]

So, i did a log right now outside my house with a stationary car.
I started the log after 2 or 3 minutes where the car was already running.

2017-10-03_18.21.04.msl

The engine was running quiet well, afr was not moving at all in the beginnig, a bit strange in between, quiet normal towards the end and totally out of bounds when the engine started to run run like a young bull with a rider on its back until it decided to go to sleep.

Can't view that as soon as I click on it it fulls my phone with stupid adverts

Is the AFR going massively weak or rich when car cuts out?

Damn,

i uploaded the files to my google drive. that should be without ads...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0JoBtrEtZxfTG5UaVp1alZCWm8

AFR goes super lean obviously, up to 17 in between,... i made videos but missed the point where it runs really bad.
at the end: above 17...

If it runs ok until it warms up you could have a look at your temperature sensor settings

Good point.
But the car heats up till the point where the cooler fan turns on (91° i think), cools down to 85 or 86, fan switches off, no issues. The Problems begin beyond that point...

[Edited on 4/10/17 by Tommes]

Are you running it on closed loop fueling?

Is fuel cut on over run set up?

Actually i don't know.
I am just getting to know the megasquirt.
Maybe the tune on my google drive will tell you?
Anyway, i think i am going to replace the old standard oxygen sensor with an innovate wideband sensor i have sitting around from my motorcycle days.

One thing i noticed: i watched the video again and at one point, the noise of the front fuel pump (brand new) changes and gets really noisy. The sound is not very constant, hard to discribe, but it sounds a bit like there is air sucked in.

the pump sound changing and it leaning out to my tiny mind means, there is a restriction somewhere.
you mention front pump, i assume you have a lift pump as well?.
all you need really is a rear mounted HP pump, we have a saying here KISS....keep it simple stupid.

I have a 2 pump setup:
Fuel Tank, external pump, filter, swirl tank, second pump, fuel rail.

any pics of the 2 pumps including the tank outlet hose size ?.
could be the 2 pumps are fighting each other, in reality just the HP one near or in the tank is enough.

No pics at the moment.
The car was running well like that for a long time befor i bought it.
Inner pipe diameter is 10mm.

I just learned, it runs an open loop fuel system.
The oxygen sensor does not communicate with the megasquirt.

[Edited on 4/10/17 by Tommes]

10mm inlet is ok, as i said before, sounds like the pumps are fighting each other, one may be dying and causing the problem now, try a re-plumb with just the HP at the rear, O sensor really does need to be talking to megasquirt otherwise it is just ballast

I want to have the car up and running properly first before starting to think about changing the setup and going closed loop.
So, tonight its all about plumbing i guess....

how about geting a fuel pressure gauge in the line up front and see if pressure drops off, also if you have a pressure reg, is that working ok, some have a gauge on them.

I have a spare fuel pressure sensor and the adaptor for that sensor arrived yesterday. I didnt have the time to install it, yet. But i want to bring it to close to the fuel rail and connect it to the mega.

So, i found some time this morning to get things sorted.
Tank was unmounted and cleaned, just some rubber from seals inside.
The fuel sender has been repaired and should work properly now.

Aaaaand, i propably found my problem. The first fuel pump was not connected properly.
Electrical connections where switched, so the pump was sucking .....
now everything is back togehter. Testing will be done tomorrow....

So,

i have finished my first test ride. 35 kms with slippery roads. The car runs very smooth, no more signs of fuel problems. Fuel pumps were quiet and i am a happy man.

Edit - missed there was a page two. Glad it’s resolved.

[Edited on 8/10/17 by theduck]

as we say here....sorted done mended

But....far from being done...
Friday I have a Tüv date to get the car street legal in germany.
So I am on my way to the garage to finish the meshs for the hood and other small stuff... I think I will start a build thread :-)