1QuickT-A

iTrader: (12)

We want to put together a cheap Turbo setup using an extra motor that I have laying around here. I know "cheap" and turbo don't really go together, but I can't afford to do it like some of you guys have done SO give me your thoughts (and prayers.. lol) on this setup..

I thought about Megasquirt only because its kinda cheap, rather easy to use and it would be easier since this is NOT going into an Fbody car. I also know a guy that has a good bit of experience with it. How well would it work on a turbo/lsx setup is the question?? Would I be better off with just using the stock pcm and HP Tuners? BS3 or Fast is out of the question totally.. What would be needed to make the Megasquirt work??

IF and WHEN we do this I will probably use a Malibu or Regal body. The engine would be a 37X (.040 6.0L block) with copper gaskets and probably a cheap ported set of 6.0 heads. Plan to use a Victor Jr or GMPP intake with an elbow. We plan to use truck manifolds flipped and probably a T-76 or MAYBE an 88... I have no clue about injector size either?

Lets converse!

JoeyGC5

iTrader: (24)

Parish and the Omaha guys have been doing well with it for last couple of years.

1QuickT-A

iTrader: (12)

I totally forgot about Parish using Megasquirt.. Maybe he will chime in..

LSJM1

iTrader: (15)

Using a victor or gmpp intake with an elbo and all that is not cheap. Cheap is using the truck intake that is what I'm doing.I think I'm going to use stock pcm with a SD tune and run e-85 with 83lb injectors.

will62085

iTrader: (4)

megasquirt II all the way. I never had any issues with mine other than lack of experience. It has a pretty steep learning curve, but once figured out, i could not ask for more!

mightyquickz28

iTrader: (8)

Will62085, what did you use for a trigger? Did you go with the 36/1 wheel or adapt your intake to use a distributer or ???? I have a MegaSquirt II sitting right beside my laptop and I really would like to use it to fine tune my upcoming setup. Can you impart any wisdom on setting one up? I went to their website and tried reading the monstrous volumes of people putting MS on basically every internal combustion engine since the dawn of man. Not too much there for 'us' though. Sounds like you and a couple of others have figured it out.

valiant65

Megasquirt is what I have on my mind too. I have understood that the problem with it, is triggering or controlling the stock coils.

http://www.msextra.com/ms2extra/MS2-Extra_LS1.htm

1QuickT-A

iTrader: (12)

How did Parish do it on that Ford Fairmont they put the Turbo 5.3L in??

will62085

iTrader: (4)

I use a 4x obdII crankshaft position sensor (96+LT1) to trigger mine. Im sure the crank or cam sensor on an LS1 can be made to trigger one as well?? I have not messed around with LS1's too much so im not very familiar with the sensors and such.

mightyquickz28

iTrader: (8)

Will62085- Just went to your 'turbo buildup' page. Nice! Was that dyno graph with the Megasquirt in place? Pretty outstanding power at such low RPM. Do you still have your Megasquirt "STIM"?

1QuickT-A

iTrader: (12)

Some of the mustang boys are using Megasquirt with a MSD crank trigger setup and LSX Coil Packs.. But there is obviously a way to make the MegaSquirt work on a LS engine because parish already did it..

mightyquickz28

iTrader: (8)

There's a guy/company that sells a modified stock PCM for the LT1 faithful that has Megasquirt II installed IN the PCM itself. No crank trigger is need. Just unplug the old PCM, install this guys and hook up your vacuum tube to the built in MS MAP sensor. He's obviously found a way to get a 'soft' signal from the Optispark. It's near plug and play but he really wants a pretty penny for the setup. I guess it's a question of paying it all up front or wasting a lot of time chasing down parts, asking questions, trying this and that till you ultimately achieve what this guy was able to do. I wish I could afford his setup but I just can't at this time. I'd love to know how he was able to do it. Maybe if about 6 of us went together and bought ONE of his boxes, then took it apart to see what the guy did, we could get an idea of what to do for our own setups.
Dreaming out loud,... hehehe.

Ryan K

iTrader: (11)

I setup a friends car to run the megasquirt for fuel control and the factory PCM for all of the other engine functions (timing, IAC...). Its been working flawlessly for two or so years.

They definately have there advantages of the the stock computer for fueling.

Ryan K.

will62085

iTrader: (4)

Yes the megasquirt II was in place then. It was driving a 12v cylinder coil directly via the VB921 high current ignition driver circuit. needless to say, this was not enough. Just after hitting 14psi (about 4200rpm) the spark blew out. Plugs gapped at .030. The only way to get enough power to the coil was to increase the dwell time, which inevitably burnt up the vb921.

I've since hooked the vb921 output to an MSD box which charges the coil, not more load on the MS, and not more spark blow out! There is plenty of info on adding MSD to your spark controlled MS on msefi.com and megasquirt.info

Yes i still have my STIM board, i've built two more MS's for friends cars and i used the stim on each. It is definitely a good buy

Zombie

iTrader: (2)

I'm running an MSII but i'm only using it for fuel at the moment because I want to retain the factory ECU's excellent knock detection ability until I see more progress on the MSII knock detection.

The MSII will drive the LS1 coils in a wasted spark setup without any trickery. There is info out there on how to set it up.

bigturboz28

Currently using MSI with no issues, with the new firmware (y) you can use the stock LS1 cam and crank sensors to control the coils directly in wasted spark mode. Do a search for "mobythevan". Megasquirt is very reliable and easy to use, and you can't beat the price!

markp03

iTrader: (4)

my buddy runs it with his ls1 with a whipple superchager and nitrous which is running on e85. no issues works great and he loves how when he is driving to the track he can pull fuel while crusing and get 35+ miles to the gallon on e85.

night ryder

iTrader: (20)

im going to be running the MSI and lsx msd box. i have run the msI on a few cars, and have nothing but good things to say about them

mightyquickz28

iTrader: (8)

Got any pictures of the trigger for the MS? Are you using the 36/1 wheel?

mobythevan

iTrader: (6)

The only problem I am having is controlling 150 pound injectors with the low resolution of MSI. My idle surges like a monster truck, but otherwise runs awesome.