MS1 to MS3X Upgrade Writeup?
 

I'm sure there must be one somewhere and I'm sure you guys will beat me up for asking, but I've searched all morning with no success. Yes, I also know RTFM....I just like hand-holdy, pretty picture writeups.

Sub'd for answers.

I believe you will just pull off the MS1 processor, then put in the ms3 processor and the expander board. Then you should just need to move some wires to the new DB37 to use the expander boards outputs.

I know the wikidot has MS2 instructions. I think Brain has some here, too. They are the same for MS3 IIRC. My main question is about using the MS3x. Are the changes the same, or do some of the wires on the main board become unnecessary? As I understand it, the main board becomes mostly redundant with the MS3x expander. It's mostly just a power supply and MAP sensor.

In all likelihood I will end up doing the MS3 upgrade and then later adding the expander, just to spread out the expense. I was just hoping to save a second rework if I manage to buy it all at once.

If you go with the expander board then a lot of the things on the mainboard become unnecessary, if you just go with the MS3 processor then you need all the circuits on the main board. I know when I swapped from MS1 to MS2 I had to redo my spark circuits for sure. Then those spark circuits also worked fine for MS2.

Honestly I would say save up and buy it all at once. It just makes life in general easier.

Assuming you have the MS1, why not sell off the assembled unit, and buy the MS3 kit? If you sell the MS1 for say $250 and buy the MS3 kit for $366 then it'd be cheaper then getting the expander board and MS3 daughterboard. Or am I missing something?

follow my ms2 upgrade writeup, replace ms3 for ms2? add in case?

Time = money, playa. Why do I want to rebuild that board when I already have one that works? Besides it becomes $465 with the expander.

It will cost me $125 more to upgrade what I have, but the time involved will be a fraction. If it takes me a day to build / test / sort the new board then I'm working for $15 / hr. I have no reason to do that.

Right. I got that much. I was wondering what I can skip (if anything) with the expander. Or is it all just the same?

reworking the v3.0 board to support ms3 takes maybe 10-30 minutes-it just requires reworking the crank/cam input.

in regards to adding in the ms3x-the only change would be moving any i/os in the software/harness. like moving all the fuel to the ms3x and running sequential, inputting VSS, etc. most of the effort is going to be in your harness.

but if you're not going to run seq. spark, for example, there's no need to move the spark outputs to the ms3x, or move boost control, or idle.

otherwise, simply change the setting in the software, move the wire from the mainboard db37 to the ms3x db37 in and that's it. all the circuits are building into the expansion board, so you just have to tell the softeware to use those instead of the mainboard ones.

Cool, thanks. COPS or LS coils may come, and then seq spark. I'm mainly after seq. fuel and better idle / resolution. I'm sure I don't really NEED the expander at this point, really. I just want to get it over with.

I ran just the CPU for a while...mainly because the x board wasnt out yet.

then once it was, I bought it and planned on going full seq. were i added the card, move my outputs to the X and had to rewire my harnesses.

IIRC, that's the only thing on my x board right now. EBC and Idle are still on my mainboard. oh wait, no I moved fan control. oh yeah and the a/c feed forward are on the x.

I'll soon input my VSS signal from the cluster and probably get a sensor for my front ABS hub to run traction control.

That sounds like a fun reason to get the expander!