I am currently putting the finishing touches on my megasquirt build on my CRX.

I have left out all of the ignition related circuts from my MS box for now... I am really trying to determine the best plan of attack for the spark/crank trigger side of this. I obviously have the option to leave it stock, but at this point it would probably be about as easy to setup 2 coil triggers in the MS and drive some coil on plug coils.

What are the major advantages to getting rid of the distributor's trigger system, and replacing it with a T1 or a AEM EPM? I have a hard time justifying the $300 without some real solid reasoning behind the hate of a honda distributor (other than the fact that I will have about an hour or 2 dialing in the pickup circuts in the MS)

Any suggestions for some COP coils that would work well with the D16A6 head I have?

 

Please... do not run a Megasquirt on a Honda... please. I beg you.

 

Any reason for this? I cant see a coil on plug, stand alone ecu setup being worse than a PM6 with turbo edit and a distributor...

 

Why megasquirt? I've tuned a handfull of cars on megasquirt and had luck,but hondata is like a special gift to tuning. Hondata Works well, super easy to tune and a lot of tuners can tune it.
I can help with tuning it via emails if you would like to stay with megasquirt.


Now back to your original question. How much power are you trying to make? the stock ignition system is good for 600whp+.

With megasquirt you can run waste spark as well, you just have to set it up. Which version do you have of megasquirt?
You can set that up on the Engine Constants tab. Let me know if you need more help with it.

 

I dont need help, just trying to get some opinions before I spend money building it. I have setup more than a few of these and they work ok... and will be more flexable and cheaper than a S300 setup.

 

Its the K.I.S.S. factor... Unless you are going to NEED COP ignition, sequential injection, etc. then there are much better and simpler ways to go about tuning a Honda.

What are the HP goals?

What MS version are you going with?

 

i have a MS 3.0 already loaded up with some real nasty boost code, a boost control solenoid.

HP goals long term are 500whp, but for now I want to stay around 350whp. I already installed my 1280cc low impedance injectors... going to be running E85/E98 fuel exclusively.

In terms of simple or not simple.... I see burning chips, changing my distributor, and spending more money to be "harder" than putting a MS in at the moment... I am not vested enough yet that I cant toss a S300 or a Uberdata in right now, but I just have not seen the major benefit yet.

Current features for a total investment of $350 :

MS 3.0 with boost control/launch control/2step
Boost by gear
coil on plug (budgeting for LS1 coils, but I imagine others are better and around the same price)
Use stock obd0 diz / and most of the stock wiring harness
Real time tuning and scanning on the fly
unlimited extra outputs (injectors, indicators, gauges, n20, etc)

Can a S300 do this? Sure, but for MINIMUM TWICE the money and I dont get COP.

 

Anyone have an opinion on the AEM EPM or the T1 trigger?

 

forget hondata...overpriced junk IMO

why not run ectune or neptune?

MS is a good option on a vehicle with no aftermarket support....with a honda there are so many options to choose and you don't have to hack into the stock wire harness to make it all work.

 

I have half a obd0-1 adapter, so the MS and the PM6 will be easily swapped (if I wanted the option).

Also, its sorta hard to have coil on plug setups without modding some wiring.

So again, any word on the pickup?

 

are they both hall sensors? i haven't looked into those sensors yet but I hate troubleshooting vr signal problems with the ms so I always like to go with hall sensors.

 

How is the disturbutor keyed to the camshaft?
I know of someone that ran a 4g63 CAS in a H22 motor, if the engine uses the same camshaft keyed setup as the h22 then just get a 4g63 cas from a Miata or a DSM.

Though I still don't recommend using a megasquirt over a honda ecu as you gain really nothing other then a lot more headaches.
Trying to get cold starts, driveablity, etc tuning down for everything will be a pain if there is nothing to go off. A stock honda ecu will have that done all you have to do is deal with timing\fuel and just injector parameters for upgraded injectors.

 

Finally have a end to the saga...

i ended up purchasing a AEM EPM to run as a cam trigger. This was easily installed onto the megasquirt directly using no filter circuits on the megasquirt. I then installed 4 LS1 coils using the megasquirt to drive them directly. Currently running MS2 on the latest version, with some 1000cc injectors.

It runs great, has some furious antilag, very easily tuned using the autotune feature in megasquirt. its been very reliable with easy starts and such (which I blame on the mega coils), even on E85/E90.

Timing map is pretty rusty right now in boost, very conservative across the board, but it pulls good on breakin boost... Just putting around with it as I do not have much time to drive it and no plans to race this year.

 

Wow I'm in the middle of a b16 megasquirt with the aem ESP can u help me with the settings and off set I'm having a hell of a time getting this thing running

 

Fantastic ! , alot of people shy away from MS or even AEM EMS as they require a few extra steps to run vs hondata/neptune/etc

To answer your question above, I found the stock trigger pick up creates alot of noise and breaks up in higher RPM ( as low as 7000 rpm , but usually in the 7800 up , but the hotter the under hood temps , the lower the rpm issue) .

Having used megasquirt and Aem EMS with stock setup vs the T1r and AEM EPM , its very needed for reliability. I wont tune a turbo honda on AEM or MS on stock pick up .

Do you need to go COP pr CNP (coil near plug ) no, but once its done, the setup you did is great. I prefer the marine coils over the LS1/ LS2 variant, but each have their benefits ( cost/performance ) .


keep us updated ! .

 

Why? You can use CKP+CYP to run full sequential fuel and spark with megasquirt.

 

Why megasquirt o don't understand very bad choice for honda.

 

Uh? Megasquirt is a great choice for any brand. It works great and it's super flexible and complete.

 

I'd take Megasquirt over Hondata thank you very much.

 

Megasquirt is a really capable system, much more than any Hondata/obd1 ecu based system. There are enough examples of Honda installations out there that you're not reinventing the wheel to run it.

 

Inexperience, fear of (another) 30 year old CKP sensor failure, spent $80 on a NIB AEM sensor. If i had grounded better and used a better input filter setup the first time around i would have had no issues with the distributor pickups to run sequential, and I knew that.

I can run the AEM sensor straight to the board with no filters and its reliable up to unlimited rpm without mods as well.

No regrets going with the AEM then.

I'd like to try again, but only for the sake of it being a fun challenge and I have learned alot about MS during the numerous installs and tunes I have done since.

IGN1a coils are on the list, but it seems awesome as it is right now. My RPMS are staying pretty low for now.

So update on the rest.... I ended up doing an open track weekend and found a random noise issue that would pop up a few times a lap causing a backfire...I am going to change up my currently horrible grounding setup and I assume it will have no issues fixing my issues. Otherwise my boost/throttle setup is very awesome, I am at 18psi on full throttle, and around 10psi at 50% throttle, a really nice thing while navigating a quick roadcourse with the stock open diff (quaife diff on the bench right now). Other than a few stupid issues with brakes and a few turbo studs backing out it was a flawless test of the system. Turbo D turned laps for 20 minutes at a time at 15psi+ without a single hint of heat issues.

Tune wise, it is happy around 11.5 afr, with about 18 degrees of timing on 15psi, on E85. Up to sits around 21-25 degrees in the low boost areas. I might end up going up a bit on this as I expected a little bit more power, and I may be getting a little bit of timing drift.