ok, forget the tuner. i got the ms. back from terry and the tach spikes had vanished. i realized the code was set to 420a instead of off and that was the issue. i turned it off just to check and the little green ball jumped around and the engine stalled. thanks terry. so now i want to set up the spark and i'm not sure how to make it work. i thought i had it all turned on but it wont spark. idk?

I didnt do anything at all. Well come to think of it I loaded my map into it so i could start my car. Which setting is different? I didnt do a thorough walkdown of all your settings, figured tach spikes would either be the board or the car.

As far as the spark....refresh my memory. Did that MS have the internal ignitors? If you dont know, look at the db37 where the harness plugs into it. look right below it, if there are little screws there, then it has the internal ignitors. If not then your setup for an external ignitor.

How are you wired right now under the hood as far as the coil?

Terry

at first i wired it with the mitsu ignitor but then you said i don't need it. i'm using the stock ignition now but i want to use ms. i had the two ignition wires (gnd) from ms ran directly to the coil while keeping the factory positive signal to the coil. it wouldn't spark but i didn't change anything from when you sent the ms back to me. you don't use the ms spark, huh?

I do use spark. If yours has the internal ignitors I might have hooked the factory coil up since mine is setup very differently. With that being the case your spark outputs would have been tested on the bench.

You should have spark just fine with that if you have it wires and setup properly.

On a second note, there is no way you have an adequate fuel map to be ready to start running spark. I suggest you learn to tune first. If you think you have a good map, then set the MS to run Open loop at 30% throttle and you will see just how bad your map is.

i don't have any nb o2 sensors in my exhaust anymore. i run the wb all the time. for some reason when i wire the analog nb wire into the ms it reads much leaner than it really is. i don't know if we could adjust sensitivty or something on the o2 input. i'm also not sure if i wanna run the ms spark after all cause i read that its only good to 16psi and i'm at 15 now and want to hit 20 next w/e. i'm gonna use a snow kit if the ms wont do it. my tune is really smooth.

Originally posted by eclipserst3
i'm also not sure if i wanna run the ms spark after all cause i read that its only good to 16psi and i'm at 15 now and want to hit 20 next w/e. i'm gonna use a snow kit if the ms wont do it. my tune is really smooth.

You'll run into that problem with most any EMS. It's not a limitation of Megasquirt, it's a limitation of inductor based ignition systems. To circumvent the problem, you'll just need to upgrade to a capacitive discharge ignition (CDI) used in conjunction with MS.

the 15psi was corrected a long time ago. The CDI ignition fix is very old and now outdated. The fairchild ignitors have been tested to 22 psi and function correctly at 10 ms dwell. the flipside to these ignitors is that they have no current limiting, which means if you adjust the dwell to high, you can damage the MS due to its lack of ability to carry that much amperage.

Check to see if your spark output is inverted. It needs to be. All MS's i have built in the past year with internal ignitors have the Fairchild ignitors.

I feel that the ISL9V5036P3's lack of suitable current limitation is unacceptable; in fact, that's one of the principle reasons why we exclusively use the Bosch BIP373's. As you mentioned, they can damage the MS circuitry, but also the coil with too much dwell. Ten milliseconds of dwell is more than enough to fry a stock coil. Irregardless of the ignitors, inductor based ignition systems still have limits, and CDI's aren't "fixes" but upgrades.

10ms has proven itself and the neon board has yet to see one damaged at 10ms.

cdi ignition doesnt really do much for you. multiple sparks only benefit in the lower RPM range. With the adjustable Dwell there isnt a requirement and the Upgrade value i small. Sorry Paul but its proven, i argued it too and Shawn McHenry proved me wrong on another board you belong to.

I must've missed that argument... I'll take a look for it.

what would i look for when checking to see if it's inverted?

I ran the Crane CDI box on my RS-T for years and never had a misfire. I had all kinds of issues before that with the MS at 13+ psi. Even though 10ms is proven to not damage coils, it's my opinion that trying to charge the coil longer for stronger spark is not the right way to go about it. Each coil can only take so much charge time before the limit is reached. The rest is heat buildup. I've never seen any coil that takes more than 6ms to charge, unless its a super huge coil with a lot of inductance(which the stock 420a coil is not). The 420a coil is fully charged(or should be charged) with no more than 3.5ms. Any more than this is wasted in heat. Those ignitors, even though capable of 10ms, doesnt mean much, since they current limit.If you could measure it, you would find actual charge to be much less then 10ms because of current limit.

To me, it makes more sense to use a CDI box that will provide 300+ volts to the coil primary, instead of 13 or 14 volts. Now the coil does not rely on dwell charge time with all the voltage it could ever need. the coil is charged basically instantly, and can jump a pretty huge plug gap, even with high cylinder pressure and super rich AFR's. Of course, the CDI box's are not cheap, and the more robust ignitor may work just fine, as it's been proven of course. Just my thoughts.

well, i'd like to try the ms for spark being that i bought it and all, i'm just not familiar enough with the unit to make it happen. btw, can the blaster coil handle any more abuse than the oem?