Steve Lovelock
|
| posted on 24/5/06 at 04:49 AM |
|
|
Real life cars with throttle bodies and megasquirt
Hello,
Before I start on the road to buying a set of bike TB's and a megasquirt system to power my car I am interested to know from someone who has
actually done it what the end result is like. Most posts I read are from people who are either working on the system or have finished it but not the
car, ie they are not living with it on a day to day basis. So the main questions I have are:
What is it like to have a car with a bike TB & Megasquirt set up?
What are the little problems that are not generally discussed?
How much did it cost (including rolling road time etc.) to get up and running?
I ask because a complete Jenvey / professional ignition system can often be had for £1200ish and I am wondering if it is better to see the bank
manager and save the grief. For the record I am thinking of fitting a 16V redtop engine. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
nre
|
| posted on 24/5/06 at 07:42 AM |
|
|
I'm not on Megasquirt (I'm running an emerald), but other than that my experiences are relevant, and I run my car every day on the trip to
work. I've still not finally sorted a light throttle stutter, but think it is due to the coarse resolution of the TPS load sites at low
throttle opening- MS is configurable in this regard so should help. I have spoken with Emerald who have suggested a software fix.
Have a read of THIS for more info...
Hope it is of use. Link to the conversion costs seems to be broken, but the cost of all parts for the TB install was under £600. By the time I sold
all my old carb bits, net cost was nearer £270 :-)
Cheers,
Neil
[Edited on 24/5/06 by nre]
[Edited on 24/5/06 by nre]
Sylva Mojo Zetec on GSXR750 throttle bodies...
www.mymojo.co.uk - Facebook feed
JPSC Forum - A dedicated forum for discussion on all things relating to Jeremy Phillips designed cars
Including the Star, Leader, Striker, Phoenix, Fury, Jester, Stylus, Mojo, Riot, J15 & Vectis
|
|
|
COBB
|
| posted on 24/5/06 at 10:50 AM |
|
|
Sorry, this is a bit of a long one for my second post!
I have just finished installing Megasquirt on my Pinto'd Tiger Cat.
Its took me about 3 months to get all the bits together and install it.
I wouldn't quite say I was living with it day to day but I am progressively starting to use the car for more often and for longer runs as I am
still tuning the map, various settings and sorting out niggles I have with the install, but I hope this is of some help!
>What is it like to have a car with a bike TB & Megasquirt set up?
When it works its great. A lot easier to start, sounds awesome (no air filter fitted at the moment so you get the full induction sound!  ), better
pickup when accelerating. As I was previously using a single downdraft carb, I have also noticed an increase in power but I am still to get the full
effect as I just realised at the weekend that I was only getting 70% of the throttle.
What are the little problems that are not generally discussed?
I think the major issue I had was how much time it took to trawl through the MS forum to get all the information about settings, etc. There
doesn't seem to be a single easy reference points for this information but I suppose thats part of doing it if you are not going with an off the
shelf product.
The mechanics of putting the system together was straightforward and logical for me once I sourced the various bits, but I would say that you need to
be sure in your abilities before tackling the install as it can be testing at times!
How much did it cost (including rolling road time etc.) to get up and running?
I have spent about 450 quid getting all my bits together. I could have spent less but I wanted to certain things in a specific way which ended up
costing me more cash. I would say that this price does not include the manifold (I made this myself) and the price of the Wideband and Controller
which I will use for the tuning.
I may go for a rolling road later to tune the ignition (currently using Megajolt until I get the fuelling sorted on MS) and get an idea of the power
difference from when using the downdraft but that will be later in the year.
>I ask because a complete Jenvey / professional ignition system can often be had for £1200ish and I am wondering if it is better to see the bank
manager and save the grief.
Depends on what you want to do. I am an engineer by trade and like to do engineery type things in my spare time therefore I saw installing MS as a
challenge and learning experience. If you don't want this type of experience and the hassle involved, I would just pay the cash (there has been
the odd time when I wished I had!) and get the Jenvey, Alpha, etc. system.
Cheers
Bob
|
|
|
BKLOCO
|
| posted on 24/5/06 at 02:49 PM |
|
|
OK.
Again I'm not running the system day to day as it is on the toy car and only gets used in dry sunny weather.
I'm not running individual throttle bodies. I have a single throttle and home built plenham with port injection on a 2.0L Zetec.
I wanted to do this as much for the experience as for the cost saving both of which are considerable.
I haven't kept accurate records but the whole system has cost less than £500 including the wideband lambda setup.
If you go this route there is no need to use a rolling road to set the system up as the latest versions of MS have an auto tune feature that is
inbuilt.
I have an electro mechanical background and quite a lot of experience with electronics as well.
As has allready been said the task of building the system is not that hard. Neither is installing it physically on the car. There is however an awfull
lot to learn regarding configuring ans setting the system up. With little knowledge of fuel injection systems initially it was a very steep learning
curve.
The system itself is I believe superb once you get to grips with it.
It starts my engine reliably first turn of the key.
With minimal tuning at home in my garage I was able to pass the fairly strict SVA emissions test for cat equipped post 95 engines.
I am now in the process if fine tuning the upper end of the map but the car is perfectly drivable as it is.
The ammount of reading you need to do is quite daunting and some of the required information is difficult to find.
If you are technically minded and have a will to learn then Megasquirt will teach you a great deal about your car.
If you want a quick fix then it is not the way to go.
Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want!!! 
|
|
|
paulf
|
| posted on 24/5/06 at 07:02 PM |
|
|
As the above posts , I have found it an interesting challenge to build and fit it .It was easy to get my crossflow running and roughly tuned and it
now performs better than with the original downdraught carb, but i do need to get a wideband sensor to finish setting up for maximum power.
I built the ECU from scratch and sourced parts over a few months and my total installation cost was about £200 , I am an electro mechanical engineer
by trade so found it easy apart from the amount of reading to sort the different options and tuning modes etc.
I am using a seperate Megajolt for ignition but would go for the later options of megasquirt and spark with either a seperate edis modiule for
ignition or the additinal ignition control circuitry, if i hadnt of had it fitted already.
Paul
|
|
|
darrens
|
| posted on 24/5/06 at 07:39 PM |
|
|
Hello,
Sorry to hijack
BKLOCO, where abouts did you get your wideband lambda sensor from as I'm trying to source one at the moment.
Currently building MSII V3 at the moment, going well, but as said lots of stuff to read.
Cheers
|
|
|
nre
|
| posted on 25/5/06 at 10:07 AM |
|
|
Bill Shurvinton is your man for widebands. Just do a google for his name and you'll find him!
Neil
Sylva Mojo Zetec on GSXR750 throttle bodies...
www.mymojo.co.uk - Facebook feed
JPSC Forum - A dedicated forum for discussion on all things relating to Jeremy Phillips designed cars
Including the Star, Leader, Striker, Phoenix, Fury, Jester, Stylus, Mojo, Riot, J15 & Vectis
|
|
|
.jpg)
.jpg)
