Megasquirting my 4AGE

[Vertigo]

Hey guys. Finally got an ECU, a Megasquirt, and Ive now got it wired correctly. Doing some bench testing.

I have the 4AGZE CAS, Nippondenso 24/1, which Ive modified by removing one tooth on the 24-tooth wheel, according to the instructions given by the seller. Ive wired it to only use the signal from that wheel. No matter what settings I use in Tunerstudio, spinning the CAS by hand results in zero RPM.

Any ideas?

[matt dunn]

Are you sure that is what you are meant to do?

Not familiar with megasquirt, but most aftermarket ECU's have 24 +1 which is two signals ,
a 24 tooth signal and a single tooth signal.

Unless you have two signals you probably cant run sequential injection, or multi-coil/wasted spark ignition.

[Vertigo]

By removing one tooth, you are simulating a second one-tooth wheel, so wasted spark works fine.

Im pretty sure my wiring is correct, and that its a misconfiguration in Tunerstudio.

[whynot]

I had my mega squirt running fine on an unmodifiesd 4age 20v dizzy. I still have the tune on my laptop if you want me to send you a copy

[Vertigo]

Actually nevermind, got it working.. there must have been loose wiring, nothings changed!

[Vertigo]

Ok, attempted to swap over to dual coil packs today. Didnt go very well.. It seemed that the ECU was getting RPM signal from my CAS, but would not trigger the coils. Have since given up and reinstalled the distributor, back to bench testing.

Have taken the hood off the ECU to see the LED's signifying ignition events, and yep, they dont seem to be triggering.

Can someone who has done this before verify my settings?

[Vertigo]

Update, ECU seems to be getting an RPM signal, but fails to trigger ignition events. Im sending it back to get Bosh heavy duty igniter drivers installed, so I can ditch the external igniter and charge the coils directly from the ECU. One less point of failure.

[mega4a]

have you been in contact with teamjelly. jared from tga? he tuned my megasquirt . hes on trademe really helpfull. im using a 20v distributor in my 4afe its been modified with a couple teeth grinded of from memory. and from what ive herd the megasquirt ignitors are crap. and your better off using the external ignightor.

[Vertigo]

Yea. Jared is the dude I bought from. He is also the one that suggested replacing the igniter drivers in it with Bosch units.

[Vertigo]

Anyone know how to go about testing my twin coils? Ive been looking for a manual describing the process, but having no luck.

Ive measured 2-3ohms between the terminals of the coils, but no continuity at all in the secondary windings.

[mega4a]

Jared is a real good dude. you could send the dizzy and your ecu to him and he'll modify it and get it working.

i have been looking around to learn how to test the coil pack to see if its causing a break down in the spark i watched few youtube videos which show you how to test the resistance between the banks of the coils (Subaru coil pack with ignitior built in 4 pin in my case) using a mutlimeter doing this will give you an idea if the coil pack is stuffed if you can find out what the factory resistance specs for your coil is.

[sergei]

The "twin coil" (waste spark) should have a diode in them, thus making standard resistance test inconclusive (try swapping probes around...).

[Vertigo]

Thanks. Pretty sure the coils are gone. Ive arranged some known working ones to replace them.

[Vertigo]

Alright, my Megasquirt is back with Bosch direct coil drivers, and Ive just tested with my new coils, and Im getting the same result - no spark at all. Really at a loss to explain this now, because the wiring is very simple now - grounds to one side of the coils, and driver lines from the ECU to the other. I should be getting spark when I spin the CAS.

What is going on here?

[edwagon]

Alright, my Megasquirt is back with Bosch direct coil drivers, and Ive just tested with my new coils, and Im getting the same result - no spark at all. Really at a loss to explain this now, because the wiring is very simple now - grounds to one side of the coils, and driver lines from the ECU to the other. I should be getting spark when I spin the CAS.

What is going on here?

Just checking.....

Are the Drivers switching +12v?

Or switching earth?

[whynot]

Is the mega squirt registering rpm on the laptop? I have done a bit on these ecu's but not setting many up. Are you still set up as dual dizzy? I don't recall needing that setting before for wasted spark.

[Vertigo]

Yep its detecting RPM fine, dual dizzy is enabled as recommended by Jared, so Ill trust him on that. Think it depends on the configuration of your CAS, mine is 24 tooth missing 1.

Im _fairly_ sure that the outputs are +12v - with a multimeter I can see voltage spikes between the terminals when I turn the CAS, so I think thats right. The coils just dont seem to be responding to it.

[whynot]

Most ignitors are switching to earth. You can always substitute the coils for a lamp to place a load on the ignitor and as visual confirmation of the igniter firing. Could also be the dwell time not set up for the coil and ignitor combo.

[Vertigo]

Im assuming they switch 12v, but could well be wrong. Double checking with Jared now.

[Vertigo]

Yep, so that turned out to be the case. Upon applying 12v to the coil terminals, I now have spark, woop. On the bench, spinning the CAS gives spark, but in the car its very intermittent. I think I need better shielding.