Engine and Transmission Tech

Well I finally got around to building a cam sensor set-up for the 215. I plan on up-grading to Mega-Squirt III when it comes out. MS III will be a sequencial injection system with trim table adjustments for up to eight injectors. Sequencial systems require a cam signal to tell the ECM if the # 1 cylinder is on a compression or exhaust stroke.
The sensor/drive is a combination of a Buick dissy and and Ford 3.0L V6 cam sensor/oil pump drive. The bottom half is Buick to fit the motor. Top half is a Ford cam sensor to provide the signal.
I cut the top off of the Buick dist and the bottom off of the Ford unit. Then machined both pieces in a lathe so that they fit together with a press fit. Then secured them together with loctite and a set screw.
The upper bushing was shortened and a couple oil holes were drilled in it. The OEM Buick oiling felt is used to lube the upper end. The shaft is a cut down Buick dist shaft with the Ford single tooth trigger machined and welded to the top of the shaft.

Bill







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2009 02:09AM by MG four six eight.

Some more pics

Completed assembly




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2009 02:07AM by MG four six eight.

Very cool mod, Bill. The stub sure looks familiar. I've still got to cut the spiral grooves in the upper bushing in my mod to keep it oiled. Thanks for the tip!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks Nic, I still have my old drive in the motor for now. Probably wait untill MSIII comes out before I install the cam sensor drive. Or untill the next time I drain the coolant. On my set-up the drive is under some coolant hoses/tubes that have to be removed to get the oil pump drive out.

Bill

Very nice execution Bill. Here's another:



I was looking for a detail shot but haven't found it. This was a cut down Buick distributor, probably taller than your hybrid unit. But it's gone to Hawaii now so I'll have to make a new drive. I'll be running the same old MS-II so I won't need the cam sensor. But I can see where the upgrade would help, especially the injector equalization. Plus, not having to use your dual tables for that it shouldn't be very hard to dedicate one set of tables to e-85 if someone wanted to. Did they ever get the ion detector knock sensing working? I know the idea was that it would give real time results on individual cylinders so that you could tune each injector with hard feedback data. If the autotune feature has ever gotten refined properly that would make manual tuning almost a thing of the past.

Right now I think you are probably closer to the cutting edge stuff than any of the rest of us, please keep us updated on how it's all working if you would.

Jim

Jim
Not sure about the ion detector sensing. That is similiar to what is used in the GM ECO-TEC engine managment system. I havn't checked lately, I do go to the web site from time to time, to see how things are progressing along though.
They were looking for some beta-testers. However I'm more at home with tuning the car, then the "software/hardware engineering" thing! So I probably wouldn't much help to them at this stage in the game.

Bill

Yeah, that beta testing can be a real headache sometimes. They're an eclectic bunch. They really need individuals who see eye-to-eye with them. I tried but just never really made the grade. I'm a lot more hardware oriented whereas they are broiled and basted in software so we never quite meshed. Oddly they seem to have the attitude that anyone can do hardware and everyone should be able to do software. My opinion was (and is) that few people are really good at either one and should therefore be valued for their particular skills and their weaknesses should be overlooked to some degree and supplemented whenever possible.

I still think it's great what they've been doing, but the core group is the only part that really has any cohesiveness. It's not like this group at all. The beta testing that I did was productive for me, but my results were dismissed and no serious effort was ever made to look into the glitches I uncovered so they were never resolved. Whether they still exist in the new revisions is hard to say. Likely as not it takes a particular combination of hardware/software to duplicate it.

But it's probably best to stick with the released code since it'll be fairly stable and reliable.

Jim

Hey Bill, that's some nice design and execution there! I barely recognize the old Buick dizzy, you do very nice work!
Look forward to hearing more on the MSIII and seeing it in action...

Mike

Thanks Mike! At this point I'm waiting for MSIII to be released. When I get one installed, I'll let you know how well the system works.
Bill