So I finally bit the bullet and decided to upgrade to sequential injection and sequential ignition on my Megasquirt II. I could have bought MS3 and be done with it, but I’m tired of buying new Megasquirts everytime I want to change something :)

Anyway, the following notes are only useful if you have a running MSIIextra with Ford EDIS and going to MSIIextra by using the OEM 4age 20V distributor guts to get the crank and cam angle signals. These modifications also include going to sequential Coil-over-plug (COP) ignition with 1AZ COPs (Hopefully they fire with 5v+ triggers)

To do all the sequential stuff, you first need a second VR conditioner to give the MS ecu a cam position sensor. The MS ecu needs a second VR sensor because with just the crank sensor (36-1 crank sensor on the Ford EDIS system), there is no way the ecu can figure out which cycle a particular cylinder is in. The second VR sensor on a single tooth wheel in this setup tells the ECU which cycle a cylinder is in.

I wanted to build my own LM1815N VR conditioner, but I decided to buy Stratified Auto’s SMC version of the VR conditioner. It’s very slick and installs easy. I’ll post more details once I get the chip soldered in and tested.

Anyway, the following is just the plan… I’m still waiting for the 2N4033 transistors for the ignition outputs. Hopefully that’ll come in the mail soon!

Ahh, first post… Just had a cool couple of beers and enjoying my escape from the daily stresses of work, friends and family ;) This is where I spend many nights working on my never ending project car. I actually did have the AE86 running this summer, but the Blacktop 20V 4aqe engine sorta blew up.

Well, technically it didn’t blow up, I just don’t trust it because the crank to flywheel mating surface is totally eff’d. I wouldn’t want this car to leave me stranded on road trips or even daily driving in rush hour! I had this engine running on a pretty good megasquirt tune, it was scheduled to be brought down to Drift Office in Seattle for some dyno tuning (I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to spark tables). It was a fun summer tuning from almost scratch to a daily driveable map… It was worth it.
Anyway, the engine on the stand on the right of the pano picture is my newly purchased Silvertop 20V 4AGE engine. I plan to swap that into the AE86 and run the same Megasquirt II ecu but with some changes:

• Rework the water lines – I made my own rear waterline kit out of a block of aluminium, but the heater hose outputs aren’t in the optimal place, plus I drilled the head for the water to flow… I want to keep it simple, and buy Sam-Q’s rear waterline block and then run the 16v water pump with all the 16V accessories.
• Re-wire a new harness – This will be version 3.0! Version 1.0 was wired for EDIS on Megasquirt I which didn’t run very well, Version 2.0 was Megasquirt II with Ford EDIS and Version 3.0 will be Megasquirt II with sequential ignition and sequential injection!
• Update the MS2 ECU to support sequential ignition and injection – Really looking forward to going sequential. I’ll do away with the hokey crank trigger wheel (although I know it’s more accurate than a cam wheel, but I prefer seeing a cleaner pulley wheel without a trigger wheel) and use the OEM silvertop ECU for the 24/1 dual wheel triggers.
• Run a vacuum manifold – I bought a Golden Eagle vacuum manifold in hopes to balance out the vacuum between the throttle bodies. The Silvertop is an AFM based engine and the Blacktop is MAP. I’ll be converting the Silvertop to output a MAP signal to the MS ecu for the fueling/ignition algorithms.
• Toyota 1AZ Coil over Plugs – My girlfriend’s car blew up last year and I robbed the COPs from the junk engine. Hopefully they work with the MS! Can’t wait to do away with the distributor and run COPs for that uber-clean look.

That’s all the engine things I’m going to work on, there are a few other odds and ends that I would like to accomplish over the winter.

• Replace the fuel level gauge – It’s amazing how much you miss it when it doesn’t work!
• Replace the clutch to a more reasonable street clutch – Six puck unsprung clutch is NOT for the street. It’s horrible for stop and go traffic and parking lots.
• Move the Innovate wideband gauge over to the other side of the dash – For some reason I put it on the left side and the oil pressure on the right. While I’m tuning alone, it’s nice to have the wideband gauge in view so you can watch when the engine is dangerously lean (or rich)
• Rewire the gauges and other custom accessories with Japanese standard connectors – I plan on buying a whole bunch of Japanese standard connectors instead of splicing with solder and heat shrink.

I’m going to try to document the changes and upgrades through this site. Stay tuned for articles on the above task lists.