Finally... Microsquirt'd MB 190E has commenced

I've been planning on doing this for something like 2 years now.  Gradually accumulating new parts as budget allows, hitting the local pick-n-pull when the right vehicle rolls in, fab'ing stuff as needed so I can be as ready as possible once I actually take the car off the road.  Well, that day finally happened on Saturday.  I've never done any standalone ECU stuff before, so this is my project to learn on.  Since the 190E ignition and fuel systems are basically completely separate, I'm starting with a fuel-only setup.  

So, on to a few pics, starting with a stock (afaik) M102 engine that made a whopping 130hp new.  

Let the disassembly begin.  After pulling the battery, the air cleaner was next to go, which then reveals the fuel distributor.  These are continuous injection systems, so it's pretty much entirely mechanical save for the electric fuel pump and the cold start injector.  I've heard that once the car was running, you could disconnect the computer and it would be fine.  Never tried that though.  Anyway, the mess of hard lines running everywhere is the fuel distributor.

Much to my amazement, after hitting everything w/ a brief blast of penetrant, every bolt and nut came off without any real issue.  The car was challenging to get started from cold, but once it was warm, it idled and ran super smooth.  Now I'm sort of amazed the thing ran at all, as virtually ever air & vacuum hose under the air cleaner was badly cracked or split.  So what isn't OBE as part of the MS changeover will be getting fixed.  

Amongst the stuff I'd been amassing from the junkyard, I pulled an intake manifold off a 190, and a fuel rail and injectors from an '03ish Saab 9-3.  By some miracle, the injector spacing on the M102 engine is identical to that of the Saab.  Another miracle, I thought the injector bosses on the manifold would need to be remachined to get the tip of the injectors to sit at an appropriate spacing, but somehow that seems okay too.  Most miraculous of all was that I stumbled on this nugget that the 9-3 fuel rail would work (thanks Google search).  I had previously fab'd some mounting adaptors that would get the rail to mount to the 190 manifold, and I've already tested it for leaks at the injectors, so I think that is good.  After getting everything taken off, I went ahead and hung the manifold on the head to see how it would look and fit and nothing fouled, so it looks like I'm good there too. 

I've got a throttle body from a Mercury Sable (integral TPS, right size, easy to get to at JY) to use, so next up is to fashion an adapter to mount that on the manifold.  It will have to sit up about 2-3" both for the throttle body spring to clear the runners, and since the mounting patterns are not identical.  From there, it will get a 90* elbow to a Ford MAF w/ IAT, then to a cone filter behind the headlight.  That's the plan at least.

Will be following along here. Looks like a fun project.

I’m in as well, thought of this many times since the fuel distributor is the cause of death for these cars.

Following this. I'm looking to MS my 95 s600.

Got a little more work in.  First, here's a closer pic of the fuel rail mounted on the intake.  I've run mineral spirits through the rail and injectors, fired each one and checked for leaks both at the injectors and at the mounts, so hopefully this is good to go. 

I think I can salvage the fittings from the original flex hoses that connect to the hard lines (below) for the fuel supply and return.  Surprisingly, the supply line fitting did not have a hose clamp or a crimp or anything on it.  Just appeared to be the hose pushed onto the fitting.  I found some fittings meant for 5/16" hose with a pushlock-style barb going to an AN-6 connector, so those are on order and should allow me to connect up the fuel lines without touching the original MB hard lines, which is nice. 

I also fab'd up the needed TB adaptor.

I'm surprised at how nicely it slots into the intake.  The TB side of the adapter is rotated relative to the intake side so the throttle return spring assembly can sit in the space between the runners, which gives me another inch of clearance to the hood for an elbow for the air tract. 

Nicely done!

That's awesome that the Saab rail fits. I wonder how that was discovered?

Run_Away said:

That's awesome that the Saab rail fits. I wonder how that was discovered?

No idea.  I figure either someone spent a LONG time wandering a JY measuring the injector spacing on virtually every 4-cyl in the yard, or someone happened to have both sitting in the shop and by pure coincidence noticed they seemed to have similar spacing.  However it happened, discovering it certainly made that part of the swap way easier than I expected when I first thought about going this route!

I like your TB idea. It'll probably be more reliable than my remote mount TPS linkage thing... Is your car manual or automatic? If it's auto, how will you control the bowden cable? 

Where did you get those fuel fittings? I could use some too!

The race is on, let's see which 190e will be MS'd first! 

Rocambolesque said:

I like your TB idea. It'll probably be more reliable than my remote mount TPS linkage thing... Is your car manual or automatic? If it's auto, how will you control the bowden cable? 

Where did you get those fuel fittings? I could use some too!

The race is on, let's see which 190e will be MS'd first! 

Factory manual (yay!).  Honestly I would not own a 190E with an auto, manual totally changes the character of the car.  I've forgotten, have you finished your manual swap?

That fuel fitting I actually salvaged off the original flexi hose in the engine bay.  One of them (supply I think) didn't even have a clamp or a crimp or anything, just the hose pushed on.  Other one I had to take the cutoff wheel and plyers to the crimp housing, but once I mangled it enough to remove, I just cut the hose off and cleaned up the fitting.   Uses 5/16" fuel hose fyi.  

I'm alarmingly close to having the mechanicals sorted.  I've got various parts/fittings coming in over the next couple of days that I think will let me button up that side of things.  Then I can start on the wiring harness.  

More updates!  First up, the idle control valve.  Originally, the 190 had the ICV nestled in between the #3 and 4 runners using a rubber boot and basically a friction fit.  The "new" ICV is a similarly ancient Bosch unit off a Volvo, but it's a 2-wire unit, which should be easier to make work with the Microsquirt.  Unfortunately, it's a little larger in diameter, so I had to do some trimming to the rubber boot, but it fits in the same spot (at least for now).  

As a friend and I were discussing where to locate the port to feed air to the ICV, he noticed that the original Mercury TB had a spot on the side for its ICV, and there was a nice relatively flat area with a fairly healthy amount of material that could maybe just be tapped and a port there installed.  So, a little milling, drilling, tapping, and a Summit Racing order, and that's what I had.  

The original required the air for the ICV to take a 90* turn, but since I was now using the side of that, I did a little porting to give it a clearer shot.

I've ordered some random molded hoses to see if I can use them for the hose runs, so the copper elbow setup is temporary (I think). 

With that mostly sorted, it was on to the air intake tract.  The plan was to put a filter behind the DS headlight, mount the MAF (from a Ford ... Focus?) and its tube directly to the end of that, and then run a couple of elbows and tubing to get to the TB.  First up, a clearance test.  After being reasonably certain I was at least close on clearance to the hood, I dabbed a bunch of anti-seize (mostly because of its color) on the top of the hoses, and shut the hood.  Opened it back up, and success!  Nothing transferred onto the hood, so there's clearance.  I can kinda reach my fingers up there from under the car and it feels like I've got at least a finger width. 

Happy with that, I went ahead and measured and cut the Al tubing and put it together.  I'll have to go back and do some DIY bead "rolling" on each end, but for now it's good enough.  This whole thing will come apart and go back together numerous times before I try to fire the engine. 

I've got a few little brackets and fittings to make, but I'll probably push forward with starting to make the harness since I think I've got everything situated basically where I want it. 

Minor update.  Did some searching on Summit and Rock Auto and found a couple of OEM hoses that I thought I could use for the ICV routing.  ICV intake is now done.  Of course, on the one hose that I want the mfr sticker to stay on for a little while so I can record what I used, it falls off as soon as I touch it, so I had to tape it on temporarily.

Fab'ing up the adapter where the output of the ICV goes into the intake was delayed by an angle grinder issue, but that's next.  Might be a bit of a lull in progress for the next week or so as I've got other stuff I need to do that has to be ready by the end of next week, so this will have to take a back seat.  But it's time to start making the harness 

MAF? What sorcery is this? 

I've never tuned a MAF engine - just Alpha-N or MAP.  Can you describe how one would configure and tune an engine using MAF for load? 

Mezzanine said:

MAF? What sorcery is this? 

I've never tuned a MAF engine - just Alpha-N or MAP.  Can you describe how one would configure and tune an engine using MAF for load? 

 

 

Are you asking for MS specifically?  Or MAF in general?  

MAF in general is pretty easy- since you just translate the air flow to individual cylinder estimates, and inject that amount of fuel.  You can also use that individual cylinder estimate to calculate load, which is a great input for spark advance, too.

I understand the basic principle of how MAF works, I just didn't know anyone used it for standalone systems...I was under the impression that the MAF itself was black box and it wasn't known how to use the signals it produced. Do you need to be selective in choosing a MAF to work with (aside from intake pipe diameter)? Are they like MAP sensors with a specific operating range? 

So the MS community speaks MAF and can translate data into a load table? That's amazing. I don't have any need for anything like this anytime soon, but it's useful to know. 

NorseDave, love the progress and your fabrication work is looking really good. Nice find on those AIC hoses. 

In reply to Mezzanine :

Ah...

Older MAFs are easy to use- put 5V in, and the voltage out is proportional with the air flow.  I think you may be confused with some modern digital MAFs, which have a different signal.  Still, if you know how to read that digital signal, it's pretty easy.  One does need to flow it, to get an accurate transfer function, but i think there are places that do that.

As for MS, I'm not 100% sure about all systems, but I do know that Microsquirt DOES have MAF as part of it, and the software is very similar with the rest of the families.

(I seem to remember that the Electromotive box I have also supports MAF)

I'm interested in this, too.  

I should put a disclaimer here - I have never, ever played around with any standalone ECU's, be they MS, Electromotiv, Motec, etc.  So, once I get past the fab'ing and wire harness'ing, it's all new to me.  As alfa pointed out, though, Microsquirt has MAF support, because if it didn't, I certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble of actually trying to use one!  I'm 95% certain the one I grabbed from the JY is as alfa described.  I'd have said 100% before his post! 

Long story short, stay tuned.  

Get it, tuned??!!  

How are going to do the PCV system? I tried figuring something out last weekend but didn't really find a solution. It's a pain because all the ports (valve cover, intake manifold, isv) are 3/4" but the damn PCV valve orifice thingy is 5/8! I tried cutting  and matching the oem hoses but didn't find the winning combination yet.

Another minor update.  Resolved my grinder issue (involved using a grinder to free the hub on the ... grinder), so I was able to fab up a little fitting for the ICV inlet on the intake manifold.  Thr original fitting ran horizontal parallel to the head, so with the fuel rail there, it no longer fit.  Actually maybe it still fit, I don't remember, but it wasn't going to fit well.  So I made a new one.  Apparently I did a less-than-stellar job transferring the original's pattern, so I had to, err, adjust the mounting holes for a better fit.  

 One of the molded hoses I ordered required only some trimming to length and snipping it in the middle to change direction in order to feed air from the ICV to the intake.  

Mechanically, I have a few brackets to make, I need to put a bead on the various metal pipes, and I have to sort out the throttle cable, but other than that I'm cautiously optimistic that side of the build is done.  

Also, in what seems like something out of a fairly tale, I discovered that there is a SCREW TERMINAL with switched 12V power located on the outside of the fuse box, accessible by removing the aux relay box in front of it and then pulling off its little cover.  So, I believe I can get switched 12V without cutting into any wiring at all, which I am thrilled with!

Rocambolesque said:

How are going to do the PCV system? I tried figuring something out last weekend but didn't really find a solution. It's a pain because all the ports (valve cover, intake manifold, isv) are 3/4" but the damn PCV valve orifice thingy is 5/8! I tried cutting  and matching the oem hoses but didn't find the winning combination yet.

Crap, forgot to mention that one.  I think I'm just going to run a catch can and get a port welded on to the intake tube.  My car either has an oil leak at the valve cover, the vent system was spewing oil, or both, because I would always have oil up around there, and everything under the original air filter housing was filthy from oil.

Edit - but if I stick with my current intake tube, I'd have to take it somewhere to get welded because I can't (currently) do AL.  Or I could just do a steel tube and do it myself.  I'm loathe to get this far and then have to pay someone to add one stinking port! 

If the tube is thick enough you could drill and tap a fitting instead of having someone weld it.

Continuing the trend of minor updates, started working out the wiring runs for the harness.  I had an enormous spool of stiff-ish wire languishing on a shelf, so I used that to mock up the routing to each component that requires wiring.  I put a label on each one and left ample slack on both ends (I hope!), so the plan is to pull the labeled wires out and then build the actual cable runs using that as a length template, which should save much walking to and fro.  The MS and PDM will go in the area where the battery lives.  Having converted from the ginormo MB battery to a lawn & garden battery, I have tons of room in that area.  

What are those blue fittings on the fuel rail? I remember when I got the rail from the junkyard, the Saab had some sort of push to connect fitting I had never worked with before. Isn't the return port 1/4"?

Rocambolesque said:

What are those blue fittings on the fuel rail? I remember when I got the rail from the junkyard, the Saab had some sort of push to connect fitting I had never worked with before. Isn't the return port 1/4"?

Yeah, by the time they got to the 9-3, Saab was owned by GM, so stock it has the usual GM push-to-connect fitting.  Russell makes an adaptor so you can switch over to AN fittings.  A quick perusal of my purchase history says they are Russell 644110, 644120, or 641300.  Honestly don't remember which, I did the fuel rail work like a year ago 

Trying to gradually check off the various boxes.  Main focus recently has been wiring.  I've got about 80% of the harness built and terminated on the sensor/actuator end, planning on trying to get it running while all the wiring is unsheathed, then once I know I haven't screwed something up I'll go back and de-pin stuff, slip the sheathing on, heat shrink it, and then put it back together.  Worked out to 2 branches off the main trunk, 1 down the center of the engine feeding the injectors, ICV, coolant temp sensor, and MAP, and a smaller one on the driver's side feeding the TPS, ignition coil, and MAF/IAT.

The "convenient" switched 12V screw terminal on the outside of the fuse box turned out to be a bit more involved than I expected.  Once I got the fuse box loose and could move it around, I discovered that while the space for a screw terminal is there, there were no threads.  The other terminals in use had a funky thing that slotted between the box and the back of their respective bus bar that was threaded.  Since it's captive, it wouldn't spin when tightening/loosening the screw.  I ended up making a little bar with an M5 nut welded on that could slide behind the bus bar, and after much fiddling, I eventually got it to fit and was able to screw together the M5 screw, ring terminal, bus bar, and aforementioned nut-bar-thingy.  No pics. 

Finally made a mount for the MAP sensor.  I employed some Binky-style CAD and worked out the bracket first, then put the welder and grinders to use.

It's mounted on the firewall, making use of some existing holes that help secure the original wiring.

And I believe the engine side of the wiring is now done, at least until I get it running or find I've made a mistake somewhere.  Once I'm comfortable that it's working, I'll disassemble and put some heatshink / sleaving on it for protection and purty-ness.