I know how you feel. It feels like the stuff never ends. It took me nearly a year to get my track car running after my engine died last October. I have all of 5 miles on it so far, and still a task list of tons of small things I need to fixed before I really get to drive it. It along with 12 other projects makes it hard to stay motivated and get things done.

One thing that I have found to help some is to make a list of everything you need to do. Be as detailed as possible on it. Try to work on each day, no matter how small it is. So you can cross it off the list and feel like you have gotten something done.

 

I hope your girlfriend heals and recovers as quickly and easily as possible. Hopefully you can see her on this trip.
Good luck with the car situation too.

 

Life does that sometimes and you must prioritize. The car can wait, your GF needs the attention now. And if the car work is stressing you out, then give it a break for 2-3 weeks. If you get downtime, go to the gym or binge watch a new show. unwind when you get the chance and come back when you have the extra energy

 

Posting this to motivate me to button it up:

 

Test fired the car for the first time on the new ECU yesterday. I only idled for about 20 seconds because I have no 02 sensor or other sensors installed other than coolant and crank/cam.

i would have gotten further but my aux relay panel was built (by me) backwards to take a ground trigger when it needs a positive trigger for both relays. So, rather than retrofit I'm building a bussman fuse/relay panel from scratch. I should have gotten the bussed version though honestly. Lots of work to convert this to bussed with wire/splices.

hopefully the car is up and running this afternoon.

 

I built a new relay panel based on a Bussman 5 relay/fuse box. Took me a couple hours. :(

 

Almost done with fuse box:

 

No pics, just a text update.

I was able to get everything powered up correctly last night. Today I should be getting my Microsquit I/O box firmware loaded and connect my MSlabs canbus 02 box talking to my AEM 02 sensor.

If that goes well I will be buttoning up the last of my wire bundles and under hood connectors and trying to figure out why it won't stay running.
EDIT: just remembered. My vacuum line tee was cracked. I'll switch that our first thing this evening.

Then, reassembly! I'll try and take some pics of everything as I finish up.

 

I have an extra air temperature sensor lead built into my harness on a quick disconnect. I don't always plan on running that sensor but I was hoping to maybe use it to do some testing.

I'd like suggestions on where I should add bungs to my system or where I might like to see some data. So far I have:
- Under hood temperature- just a place I can hang the sensor to satisfy my curiosity.
- Bung welded to point about 4" before turbine inlet
- Bung welded to hot side of intercooler inlet
- Bung welded to cold side of intercooler inlet

Currently my AIT is taken from a point just behind my headlight. Adding the bung to the cold side of the intercooler will allow me to move my AIT there if it seems like it gets a better or more reliable reading. Plus, it will allow me to use my two air temperature sensors to evaluate the effectiveness of my intercooler as well as how badly heat soak affects my system.

Are there any points I would like to add a secondary fluid temperature bung? I already plan on running a sensor for Oil temp in the pan and my e85 sensor will give me fuel temperature. Anything else I can plan for?

 

One of the final things I decided to do before putting the car back together was take advantage of my multitude of inputs and outputs and add a dedicated button to trigger SD card logging.

The Button shown below now triggers logging with a two second press (and flashes check engine) and it stops when you press it a second time. I may add a second indicator so I can avoid my Check Engine flashing at me. We will see.

 

So the car is together and I drove it last night.

It's running EXTREMELY rich, or at least it's indicating as such on the AFR gauge. It COULD be that I am losing sync perhaps? I will have to do a tooth logger check to see how it looks. Either way, it stumbles BAD past 4,000 rpm.

IF it is just running rich, this is a new thing. I am running my old VE map from my MS3x as a start point.

I am guessing as a base starting point I should maybe take the entire map and multiply it by .9 or so repeatedly until the idle and cruise areas are somewhat close to the expected AFRs? OR - should I just put in a base VE map from DIYautotune and start from scratch?

Also, I used my timing offset from my MS3x as a starting point as well. Is there any reason you could think why it would need to be changed? I will put a timing light on it tonight to check...

 

Another complaint about my MSpnpPro...

It has knock sensor support built in. My car has a knock sensor built in. The wire goes from the knock sensor to a pin ON the damn ECU.

Knock sensor pin on the MSpnpPro evidently does not do anything.

Really?

REALLY??

So now in order to get my damn knock sensor working in a damn PNP box, I have to run a jumper from a pin on the aux connector to the factory knock sensor harness pin.

I will be pulling the ecu in the next couple days to do this and I will verify that this is the case but WTF DIYautotune? Is it a PNP box or not?

I was wrong. You need to select "internal" instead of on/off.

 

Hmmmm, I did not have to do that on my ms3 pro pnp...

 

Emailed them this morning for clarification... I'll let you know if I get any info telling me I am mistaken. If so, I'll update my previous comment.

Either way, I discovered that my desire to retain the VCTS solenoid in my harness bit me in the ***. My car felt terribly slow yesterday even as the tune started to smooth out. VE analyze live was pulling fuel all over the place in order for it to run. It turns out that my VCTS solenoid was constantly energized and it was preventing the butterflies from opening.

Whoops!

I corrected this issue this morning and now my map needs to add a ton of fuel. However, it's starting to feel like a beast again which is nice.

Side note - my brakes feel horribly weak and the pedal is way towards the floor and mushy. The only reason I am not upgrading to my hawk pads and fresh rotors is so I can left foot brake while tuning without wasting brake life. Once the VE map is fully dialed in I will do the upgrade and be much happier.

What a difference in feel compared to my Fiesta ST though. I love them both, but man this thing is such a different experience.

 

Also another side note - I am having a ton of connectivity issues. When I try and download log files via USB the data transmission is super slow and hangs. When I try and download via bluetooth it goes appropriately fast but if I try and run VEAL over bluetooth I get failure to write errors and everything seems pretty slow response wise compared to USB.

I'll post some screenshots and video when I have a chance but it happened during my commute to work this morning and I didn't have time to really document it. I had to get VEAL working and get in to work.

 

I didn't realize I had my closed loop boost turned on. I did a pull today just to see how it felt and holy ****... I hit 15psi by 3,600 rpm and it pulled like a ******* freight train.

I'm glad I didn't grenade - but it really gave me something to look forward to next year. Wow.

 

I just realized that my 94 NA block doesn't have provisions for a knock sensor :(

trying to to decide wither or not to build my MSM motor after all and sell this one...

 

Use the FM adapter and thread it into a PS bracket hole on the side of the block.

 

Are you sure it doesn't have it? My 95 block does.

 

I'll check. I believe the block I am using is a 94. If not I will use the FM adapter but I hear it doesn't work as well.