T4 stock cooling--Crank trigger/CNP or COP using Megasquirt

[supaninja]

PD have you thought about running ethanol? With 30% IDC's on pump you got plenty of overhead. It's the equivelent to 105 octane.

[Piledriver]

PD have you thought about running ethanol? With 30% IDC's on pump you got plenty of overhead. It's the equivelent to 105 octane.

E100 Not practical, but I had E85 very much in mind...

I got all excited about E85 pumps popping up all over until they discovered that food>great race gas, as you might put it.
I have one ~usable E85 pump about 20 miles off my commute... I really don't see any more being put in.

homebrew E85... Ethanol mixed with racegas... is still a ~110+ octane possibility should I ever desire to go there...
But anything I build needs to run on pump fuel, I don't have the budget or shop setup to support a race car at the moment.
(They DO sell 100 octane boat fuel at the local station tho if needed in a pinch)

[supaninja]

when I say ethanol I mean e85

The way I did it in my honda and i'm going to do it in the notch is to store 2 tunes, one pump and one ethanol. If for whatever reason I can't get to a e85 pump before I run out of gas then I'll switch to the pump gas tune after I fill her up, and drive her easy till that tank is used up. I like how Mario did his switch

[CobraJet]

Thanks for sending me a link to this thread Piledriver!

Could a stock FI distributor be used as your cam postion sensor? Doesn't it already have some sort of a pickup on it?

[Piledriver]

Thanks for sending me a link to this thread Piledriver!

Could a stock FI distributor be used as your cam position sensor? Doesn't it already have some sort of a pickup on it?

Sorta, it actually has 3 points in it, one for the coil, and two for FI timing.

It would be better to grind off 3 of the lobes on the points cam and use points, or pop 3 of the magnets out of a pertronix/compufire, and replace the springs on the advance weights with safety wire or such. Sacrifice a 009, they are good to this at least.

You could instead fab up something cool, neat and compact using just the very base of the distributor and a hall sensor sticking out the side, with a "wheel" with one toof.

But---It is VERY handy having a pointer for valve adjustments...
I have considered getting one of those otherwise useless clear distributor caps just so I don't have to ever take it off.

[CobraJet]

Would an MS1 work as ignition timing only with the flywheel as a trigger wheel and no cam sensor?

[warp]

Yes if the ignition is configured as wasted spark and the flywheel has the correct trigger pattern.

[CobraJet]

Would I be better off with EDIS or using COP?

[Piledriver]

Either will work fine, COP or "native" waste spark will be easier to troubleshoot if needed, as you have direct control and there is no "black box" doing magic things.

Direct also allows the diags to "see"/log the wheel sensor output for troubleshooting, with EDIS it goes straight to the black box and the rest is a (fairly well documented) mystery, but still not visible w/o an oscilloscope.

Direct fire also allows you to use a Hall sensor, rather than a troublesome and noise-sensitive VR setup.
(although the EDIS VR setup seems far more robust than the one on MS3x boards, I use a LM1815 circuit, seems very good)

With direct control. MS2 at least will allow you to fire the coils X number of times at Y rate for testing without ever turning the crank.

...Plus, it's the "official" recommended method now.
EDIS was the ONLY way to go crank triggered on MS at one point.
Now it only makes great sense if you already have a Ford with it installed (IMHO)

I like my LS2 coils, made many things much simpler. No additional drivers required if used in waste spark, and even if you needed to add one, a 2222 LED driver circuit + a 1K pullup resistor will work fine.
I'm actually using a 4 channel ignition driver board with pullups on the outputs, as I originally had "normal" coils.
very bullet proof that way, and if I ever want to change back to try some different std coils, I snip a 1K resistor.

(LS2 coils are 5v logic controlled, active low, AKA 5v pulldown, and have overdwell protection etc built into the coils)

[CobraJet]

Thanks for blazing the trail Piledriver!

It looks like this is what I'll be going with, you've talked me into it. Now I need to start collecting a few parts.

Parts that I think I need:
MSx What do you think, will MS1 work well here?
COP's
Flywheel sensor and home made mount
Wiring loom to connect it all.
Some way to connect my PC to the MS box. I saw a wireless bluetooth somewhere. Has anyone tried this?

Anything else you can think that I need?


BTW, lots of COP's on Ebay. Will the Motorcraft ones in the picture work alright? Do you have to mount a COP or does it simply hang off of the spark plug?

[Dale M.]

I would go MS 2 on VER 3 board.... So much more versatility and features, specially if you uses "EXTRA" wiring and mods and programming....

MS 1 is ok but its sort of like EDIS it works and is ok, but limited...

Dale

[CobraJet]

I would go MS 2 on VER 3 board.... So much more versatility and features, specially if you uses "EXTRA" wiring and mods and programming......

Dale, what do you mean by "EXTRA" wiring?