Safari Turbo/Megasquirt Fuel Injection Project

[Clonebug]

116,850 Miles

I am now over 3000 miles for the season and I just changed the oil and filter along with checking the valves and adjusting them a small amount. Some were slightly snug and a couple were slightly loose.
We are heading on our 25th anniversary trip across the mountains to Winthrop and Leavenworth this coming weekend. We have 5 days to just take it easy and cruise around.
We do have a forest fire at Diablo dam that has closed Highway 20 which we need to take to get to Winthrop but if needed we will have to go the long way around and go down Highway 2 and 97 to get there. It adds around 3 hours to the drive but we will survive.......
This is just a relax and take it easy vacation so we might drive and we might just hang out locally and relax.

With the new front tires installed last month the buggy drives like a dream and I am really happy with how the new tires feel. It doesn't turn any harder but it is much more stable and doesn't have near as much of the "Go where you point it" feeling anymore. I'm really happy and it makes it much easier to drive than the skinnier tires were.
I went from a 155/80-15 to a 205/60-15..... tires are within 0.10" of each other so ride height hasn't changed.

[Clonebug]

116,981 Miles

Heading out tomorrow for our Anniversary trip. The fires still have Highway 20 shut down so we will have to go the long way around.
So it will be 289 miles instead of about 175 miles to get there.
Oh well...I'm off for 5 days so we don't care.....the weather is going to be great and cruising in the buggy is one of my favorite things.
I'll wash it tonight and clean the windshield and off we go in the morning. We will stop for coffee and just take it nice and easy the whole way.

[GS guy]

Safe travels and enjoy the ride Clonebug! Looking forward to pics and full trip report!
Jeff

[slayer61]

Been said many times... getting there is half the fun!

Travel safe!

[Clonebug]

Mileage, 17,718

Drove over 660 miles for our Anniversary trip and all went well.
Took the long way around to Winthrop due to Highway 20 being closed so it was a 6.0 hour drive instead of a 3.5 hour drive. Due to the smoke in the air it was on the cooler side so we wore sweats and long sleeve shirts for most of the drive.
The buggy drove beautifully and cruised with no effort up the pass and everywhere. Here is a shot of the Digital dash while cruising the freeway.
This is a typical view of the dash while driving and the numbers are what I usually see while driving in the temps we were seeing.



This is east of Leavenworth heading to Wenatchee going through apple country........



A view of the Columbia river from the east side heading north......it's a beautiful drive......



The motel was close enough to town that it was a 5-10 minute stroll over a nice walking bridge with lots of deer to see and take pics of. This was one of two bucks hanging around.....my wife took a bunch of pics of the deer so I borrowed this shot.



We stayed for two days and just relaxed and walked around......Visibility was really low and the rating for air quality was in the 430 range if anyone knows what the means.
I forgot to cover my buggy with a tarp but did put the Bimini on and here is how much ash fell overnight.






On day three we headed out back to Leavenworth via Lake Chelan. Here is a view of the lake visibilty.... This lake is 1.75 miles wide at this point and we could see maybe a 1000 ft at the most.



Leavenworth was much better due to an off shore wind blowing the smoke away so visibility was much better and we could at least enjoy being outside. We did our walk in the park in the morning, some shopping and then some dinner and good beer of course.
All in all it was a nice trip and we made it without any issues.
It did suck to have to work the last two days of the week and next time I'll just take the whole week off instead.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Did you get any of the thunder and lightning then rain today? Nothing like the Florida and other places in the "States", ... just not as much fun when driving around in an open toy or do you have now have a top and side curtains to help you in this trip.

Lee

[Clonebug]

Mileage, 118,427

Had a fun but long day yesterday.
Took my buggy for a long drive to help Mario do some dyno testing on a stock 1600 DP in 4 different scenarios.
Put 191 miles on the buggy and the drive home started at about 10:15 pm till 11:45 pm.
Checked my lap time on the digital dash when I was in Bellingham and it was at 69 minutes so I probably made the trip in about 95 minutes. I forgot to check it before I shut it off. My speed was 75 plus most of the way on the freeway there and back and the buggy just purred like a kitten.
Highest oil temp was 197* F. and highest cruise head CLT's were about 233* F.
Most times at slower cruise I see 205* F. head temps and 179* F. oil temps.
The ambient air temps were around 57 degrees when I looked on the way to Monroe.

All in all a great time and learned some interesting stuff. You can see what we accomplished by checking out theDubshop's FB page.

[KoenigsTiger]

Hi Clonebug,

I haven't been following your Thread closely...

What kind of cylinder head temperature monitoring system are you using?

Thank you,
Gene

[Clonebug]

Hi Clonebug,

I haven't been following your Thread closely...

What kind of cylinder head temperature monitoring system are you using?

Thank you,
Gene

I use the Dubshop's modified GM coolant sensor that is mounted on the #2 cylinder tin bolt. It really is only for warmup and does not show a true head temp in the same sense as a plug mounted thermcoupler.
I have watched and logged it for enough years now that I can tell when my engine is getting warm. Oil temp is a good indicator that the engine is running hotter.
200* F . CLT is a normal operating temp for my area that I live at normal local driving speeds. 230*F is fairly normal when I bump up to 70 plus mph cruise speeds for any distance and 235-250 is attainable if climbing long grades in 100* F. plus ambient temps.
My oil temps are usually 170-180* F. in normal driving. I'll see 200* is the ambient temps are pushing 100* F. The absolute highest oil temp I have seen was 214* F. while climbing a 6% grade for 20 miles at 60-65 mph in 100* plus ambient temps.

[KoenigsTiger]

Yes, I think I have asked you this question before.

I use the Dakota Digital gauge and Cylinder Head Temperature Sender/sensor under the #3 spark plug. It maybe accurate but, it climbs to 400*F on the highway pretty quick...

Thank you for the quick response.
Gene

[Clonebug]

Mileage, 118,466

It's October and my buggy driving is slowing down. I have taken the buggy to work just a few times in the last couple weeks due to rain and fog in the mornings.
It looks like this week I might get a couple days of driving but my driving time is limited. It is getting colder in the mornings and if it's damp I just don't really feel like driving in that weather.
I'm guessing maybe 50-100 miles more this year.. I have 4600 plus miles on for this year so it's been a good year of driving considering we didn't have any long trips. Even our anniversary trip was shorter due to crappy conditions with heavy smoke.

It's time to start thinking about my Winter 2023 upgrades.....I have an idea or two that I might try to incorporate. The buggy is running great and really doesn't need anything but you know I just can't leave it alone......I have to do something........

[KoenigsTiger]

Hi Clonebug,

Where is you IAT sensor located?

I have a stock 1970 Bug 1600cc w/ a small turbo with MS2, I have the IAT close before the throttle body.

I am just street self tuning, with help of Autotune. It will autotune to 14.7 in cool morning the air, but will lean out 15.5 in the afternoon.

What afr do you usually cruse at?

Do you use "MAT / IAT Correction Table"?

I am not having much luck with adjusting the MAT Air Density Table...

Do you run EGO Correction?

Thank you for you help,
Gene

[Clonebug]

Hi Clonebug,

Where is you IAT sensor located?

I have a stock 1970 Bug 1600cc w/ a small turbo with MS2, I have the IAT close before the throttle body.

I am just street self tuning, with help of Autotune. It will autotune to 14.7 in cool morning the air, but will lean out 15.5 in the afternoon.

What afr do you usually cruse at?

Do you use "MAT / IAT Correction Table"?

I am not having much luck with adjusting the MAT Air Density Table...

Do you run EGO Correction?

Thank you for you help,
Gene

I've run anywhere from 14.1-15.5:1 AFR at cruise. Currently I'm running 14.7-15.1:1 and I'll probably leave it that way. It's really smooth and the transittion seem to work well.
My IAT sensor is in the intake center section just to the right of the TB Tee. It's been in that position since I went EFI.

I Don't know if I set up my mat/IAT correction.....I think it is still at the default setting or whatever Mario set it up to.
I have my AFR table set in zones.... cruise is one AFR, idle is another AFR and boost is yet another AFR.

My ambient temps range from a low of 40* F. to summer temps of 100* F. plus. I don't notice any change in AFR because of it.
I run MS3PRO-EVO.
I do sometimes run EGO... but other times I don't.........

[KoenigsTiger]

Thank you for you help, I'll try make my own thread asking for help. Maybe some gurus will chime in

Thank you,
Gene

[Clonebug]

Mileage 118,488

The buggy has been sitting for over a month since the weather has gotten too cold and wet for driving.....I must be getting old.......
It actually has been below freezing for a few days and before that it hasn't been very nice. Winter is definitely coming.

We spent some money a month or so ago and I got my wife a nice travel trailer for our next phase of life. We sold the Family Motorhome as it was very old and I was sick of looking at it and working on it.
We ended up buying a nice Outdoors RV 21RBS Creekside that is 5 years old and in beautiful shape. I figure the Wife has traveled to California with me 4 times in 7 years and done a lot of buggy stuff so it's now her turn to have a nice RV and we will go camping for the next few years. I owe her that at least.
That doesn't mean we won't make a buggy trip again but it might be a couple years.....She will get to pick the vacations for a while.
We were supposed to go on a big trip this past year but with inflation and everything else....along with outrageous prices.....I told her she could take the money from a vacation and put it towards a trailer........so that's what we did. Once the motorhome was sold we found a trailer within a month.

So......back to the buggy.

I have spent some spare time out in the garage when it wasn't too cold and I've rewired the PMU16 into a second HD20 Deutsch 31 pin plug. I have been able to clean up some of the wiring but without starting from scratch...I can't get it too pretty.
I did remove a bunch of the 4,6, and 8 pin Deutsch plugs to clean up under the hood. I might do some more later.

I was quite tempted to upgrade to the new PMU24DL but I'm have a tough time convincing myself it would be worth it. I would have to sell this PMU16 and the selling market is not that big.
The PMU24 would give me 8 more programmable outputs that I could put to good use. What it does is take eight of the inputs and make them inputs/outputs through the software. They can only handle 7 amps but that would be no problem for me.
Looking at my output screen the only thing that pulls over 5 amps are the headlights. The fuel pump pulls 3.5 amps but everything else is almost very little draw.
I could eliminate my VW headlight relay and the relays that run my water injection and and clean up under the hood even more.

Maybe I'll get a nice Christmas bonus that will allow me to justify the price.

Here is a pic of the new wiring.........



I don't have a decent pic of the before with all the other connectors.....oh well........it does look a little bit better.....

Not sure if I'm going to pull the body this winter....the engine has been running strong and the last oil change and valve adjust did not show anything funny. A couple valves were slightly tight and couple valves were slightly loose, there were no issues with the valve guides that I could see... all looked to be in place so I ran it again... I think I have a couple thousand miles on this oil change. Total mileage for the season was 4663 miles.

If I come across some money for an upgrade I might buy a nice set of ported heads from someone like SL-1 racing. That would be an interesting addition.....since I've never had any decent flowing heads installed.

I'm pretty happy with the output of the engine......anything else I do is just going to raise the $$$$ to hp ratio higher than it already is.