Getting aggravated, thinking MegaSquirt

[90TurboVan]

Don't bother with the HEP, TPS is it. WOT during cranking will cause a no fuel condition. Unplug the TPS and I bet it'll start. Direction does matter on the HEP, but if you have spark, it should be good.

[jonnymopar]

So if I unplug the TPS (if that's the problem), it should start, just with a code, right? Hmm... my female companion is working late tonight... car's already in the garage...

[turbopac]

Im in warren right on the R.I. MASS line yeah lets all get together maybe this weekend?I dont know leme know.. Ill check back later thanx

[89Waredaytona]

any news??? i would like to see this car someday...lol

[jonnymopar]

Yeah me too grrrrrr. Just an update, the car has a stock 1989 TII SMEC and the stock 2-bar MAP in it.

I just came home after working on it. Come to find out, I plugged in my Snap On scanner and looked at all the sensors individually. With the throttle closed, the TPS was reading 4.4V! I reached over and moved the throttle, and at WOT, I'm getting 1.1V. Damn computer thought it was WOT when it wasn't. I switched the 5V and sensor ground wires and now it's working properly. Fuel injectors are pulsing. All other sensors check out ok for the most part. Coolant temp gauge is reading a little high for some reason, but I can worry about that later.

Two or three times today, the car would idle very poorly for about 10 seconds and slowly die. It *sounded* like it was only running on 2 cylinders. I'm still getting inconsistent spark and I just don't know why. I checked the codes and I was getting 12, 23, 24, 26, and 54. I had the CAT and TPS unplugged for a bit, so that's where the 23 and 24 came from. The 26, I dunno, it might have something to do with the fact that I'm using high impedance injectors that require only 25% of the current that the stockers needed.

Code 54... aaaa yaay more distributor issues. I read up on it and I guess this code is thrown when the computer sees the reference pickup, but not the sync pickup. I cleaned the contacts and put some good dielectric grease in the connectors and it didn't make any difference to the way the car was acting. Just for the hell of it, I checked continuity once again to both pickups and everything ohmed out fine.

Side note, I pulled the spark plugs after it had done the 10 seconds of stumbling thing. Completely soaked. I cleaned them out with compressed air and reinstalled them. After working on it for about another hour, I pulled them back out again and they're soaked again. No idea what's causing it.

Tomorrow it continues. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Insight that has been already shared IS greatly appreciated! Thank you for the TPS tip! Even though the car still doesn't start, it was definitely pinned wrong.

[speeduphoria]

sure its not way rich?

what fuel pressure?

[90TurboVan]

Distributor on the cam spins in the opposite direction, did you swap the black and gray wires? That would cause the 54.

[jonnymopar]

Rich? Yes, it would appear that it's pig rich. I didn't know if it was just because all it's done so far is crank and not run. I've got a stock Neon fuel rail with an Aeromotive 1:1. The adjusting screw is just about backed out completely from the AFPR. Fuel pressure while cranking is around 28-30psi.

As for swapping wires, I didn't have to re-wire or lengthen anything going to the distributor. The connectors are exactly the way they always were. Are you saying I should swap grey and black? I was under the impression that nothing had to be done to the hall effect pickups because they're just on-off switches and the direction of the distributor wouldn't matter.

[90TurboVan]

So, if you spin it backwards, the black and gray waveforms would be switched. You need to swap the signal wires between the connectors (not the orange or black ones).

[jonnymopar]

... mother of god... you're right. I completely forgot that the pickups on the HEP are NOT 180 degrees from eachother and it WOULD matter. My thinking was that the pickups were orientated directly opposite eachother. When people were talking about the direction of the distributor having an effect, I was thinking about the pickups individually and the shutter wheel passing through them in either direction would produce the same results. I swear, I'd love to get people together that have done this and do a good write up, everything from wiring to machining the adapter.

Well, I guess I'm getting closer still. I should have a chance to try this out this week. Again, everyone, I'm very grateful.

[jonnymopar]

!!!!! IT RUNS!!

I had it up and running yesterday! Switched the signal wires on the hall effect pickups, roughed in the timing, and wham, came right to life! I just switched pins 26 and 47 on the SMEC bulkhead so I didn't need to cut any wires.

Thank you for all the advice everyone. I've got some cleaning up to do, but she runs good. Nice and smooth. Good healthy spark now. Only code 12 and 26 came back, which again, I think that code 26 has to do with the high impedance injectors. However, I haven't switched the SMEC over to Cindy's custom one, so maybe she did something about the code 26 in her code.

Thank you everyone. Swapping a few wires just saved me over $500. Gotta love it. I'm gonna throw some axles in it and see what happens on the road soon.

[turbokid]

Sounds great! Glad you fixed the problem. Hb some vids =)

[jonnymopar]

Wish I had something to take videos with! Even a sound clip. Right now I'm playing with my FWD Performance 2.4 calibration and the car is acting weird. I switch back to the stock TII SMEC and stock MAP sensor and it runs fine. I'm getting in touch with Cindy about it to see if I'm just missing something.

[jonnymopar]

Here's a quick video. Turns out my girlfriend's camera takes video. It's in QuickTime format and I hate that. If anybody has a way to convert it from MOV to a better format, let me know.

http://www.highbrowmedia.com/jmopar/itruns.mov

Getting in touch with FWD Performance hopefully Monday about the computer. I've been sick for a few days, so it felt good to get out in the garage this afternoon. This video is with the stock TII computer and 2-bar MAP. Nice and smooth. Pardon the wiring mess. I had it all torn apart trying to diagnose it earlier and I haven't cleaned up yet, nor have I made a mount for my coil (you'll see it wrapped in a rag over on the right).

[jonnymopar]

Took the video down because I think it screwed up my webspace bandwidth. This might be easier:

YouTube - SRT swap