Megasquirt Installation Continued

THINGS TO BE AWARE OF
The following are some items that are specifically mentioned in the Megamanual and all documentation to be aware of, for your own health, and also to reduce frustration. I was plagued by these, for not spending the time in the first place to sort them.

• Well charged battery - My battery was pretty dead on even starting, after sitting for a month, let me down a few embarassing times.
  --- All charged up now, much better.


• Good Earth system - My earths were OEM, and well dead after 20 years of use, one started smoking on subsequent starting/cranking. Since replaced, but something that should have been done earlier. --- Made new earth lines for block, starter, head, and added one for alternator mount, seems to make starting easier combined with charged battery. Looks pretty.


• Good Fuel seals - I had incorrectly fitted the injectors and had a pretty big fuel leak, took a few goes of taking the rail in and out to get it all bedded in and seated correctly. Only leaked when car was running though, so something to bear in mind if it all checks out under the initial pressure check.
  --- No issues with this since, blocked cold start injector feed holding up still.


• Using dubious equipment - The 2TGEU ignitor+coil had been outside in the elements for a while, should have just used the 4AGE coil from the start.
  --- 20/1/04 - Still haven't got it sorted, but updated Ignition section, another coil required.
  --- 10/2/04 - Sorted with Bosch GT40RT from wreckers.


• Make sure you've got an inverter if running a laptop - That way no problems with flat laptop batteries, and peace of mind.


• Run shielded tach wires, shield pickups from distributor, shielded TPS if possible. It's worth it, if only for TPS sensitivity.


• Run the high resolution code, so if using Low impedence injectors, use resistors with them.


• You might want to have a second car to drive round in every day whilst your tuning the MS, and sorting out initial problems.


• I quite recommend having a cheap palm computer or similar once up and running. You can leave it in the car, and you can make little adjustments as you go.
  
• Too many things at once - I was changing head gasket, turbo setup (NA in interim), radiator, lots of wiring, and to MegaSquirt all in one go... probably not a good way to go, for sanity reasons. But I guess it does give one the chance to do something different if one thing gets a bit hard or monotonous.

Well, I've finished the install, not necessarily completely. But I got some good use out of it.

I changed motor to 3TC, a 1.8 litre pushrod motor made by Toyota as well, and so continued to usethe Megasquirt ECU on that motor. Then a 3SGE 2.0 litre twin cam motor was fitted and the Megasquirt ECU setup on that motor. Then I changed back to 4AGE and that's where I am again now.
Megasquirt is certainly Versatile.

Thanks again for everyone's help with this project.