ALFAGTV6.COM

[joey]

i had my kit laying around for ages, but built the main board in around 10 hours total. The stim and the flyback if you need it are a joke, 1 hr max. haven't dont the loom yet tho, that could take a while... but bills diagram that he came up with makes it look easy!!

Z, you're an electrical eng aren't ya? you wont have a problem. BUT i HIGHLY recommend you go with glen. He has everything labelled to both part no and MS manual build code, too easy !

That probably significantly quickened by build time since i didn't have to ID everything. (i only checked res with my DMM)

He may have a delay on getting those kits to ya, he's a busy man for good reason. Check his site.

[bmacf]

In working (still) on MSNS-e spark control this weekend, I just happened to think about something. I have the "manual" timing belt tensioner, not the mechanical tensioner that replaced the hydraulic tensioner. In setting up spark control, there's a lot of moving the crank back and forth and moving the ignition rotor to the right location. This could be difficult if you have the mechanical tensioner because you can't roll the engine backwards without causing problems. Just a thought.

Anybody know if the Milano distributor has mechanical advance, or just vacuum advance. My reason for asking is I disassembled (more like disembowled) a distributor and found what looks like weights and springs, but I didn't think the distributor had mechanical advance.

Thanks,
Bill in Maryland

[bmacf]

Hey everyone, I've had MSNS-e with spark control running for a couple weeks now (using Milano distributor), but I have one nagging problem that persists. I'll go out for a tuning run (not running great yet), come back, shut the car off, go inside to read the datalogs and tweak the maps. Then when I go back out and start my Milano back up, I'll be missing on one cylinder (no spark). I determine this with a timing light - one cylinder won't trigger the light. If I replace the spark plug, that cylinder will start firing again.

These are BPE6 spark plugs. Is something I'm doing with MSNS-e causing them to fail?

Clueless in Maryland

[David]

Bill,

I'm about to go to MSN-e and have been following your progress. I would think MS can't affect the plugs as it is working on the primary side of the coil. Can you swap a plug lead and see if the problem moves as well? Also the timing light not triggering would indicate power not getting to the plug rather than the plug being the issue.

A question for you, I have an Alfa 75 (Is that the US Milano?) 2.5 L distributor and it seems to have 3 wires rather than the 2 as in the GTV6. I'd be interested in your wiring diagram to MS before I start.

I'm upgrading MS to spark on my 3.0L GTV6 conversion using the 164 front pulley and crank sensor.

David

[bmacf]

David, nice GTV6! Thanks for the suggestion on the plug wires. I have a complete backup set and will give it a try. Also, the car has cooled off and I think I'll go out and see if the problem was temperature related.

On the wiring diagram, I posted something earlier but it is out of date. I'll see what I can do about updating the diagram. The wiring is fairly straightforward actually. In the meantime, get yourself a different bosch module: either a 0 227 100 137 or a 0 227 100 139.

Regarding your distributor, sounds like your Alfa 75 (here the Milano) has the proper distributor. I exchanged emails with Steve Rosser and he had a 2-wire distributor - maybe that's something the earlier GTV6's had.

The three wire distributor is fine for spark control (WITH ONE CAVEAT): I burned out the hall sensors in three distributors. I never figured out why (car ran one minute, parked over night, dead the next day). The good thing is that the hall sensor is still available from Honeywell and I've managed to rebuild one of my three dead distributors. I thought that my wiring diagram was providing too much voltage or allowing too much current to the Honeywell hall sensor, but the voltage is 12V and the current is 5 mA (max is 50). Oh well, caveat emptor...

So I'll work on updating the wiring diagram. Perhaps by putting it out there a few alfisti can help me on the last few bugs.

Thanks,

Bill in Maryland

[Steve R]

Now that I've got it running Fuel and Spark via MS here's an update.

Same 3.0 engine as before (cams, headers) except - deleted AFM (hurrah!), 3" inlet incorporating IAT, cone filter with velocity stack, cold air box, 28.6lb high z injectors.

Megasquirt:
MSnS-E s19 v021 ( I think) Will shortly change to latest recommended.
MT 2.25v326 (I think) WIll shortly go to v514.
12x12 fuel
12x12 spark
via welded spare distributor, using stock distiributor VR sensor, VW coil & ignitor (ex scrap yard).

Once I'd read the MSnS info carefully and did some bench tests the mods required were minimal:

1/ VR sensors send an odd shaped AC signal, use trigger "goes low", ie pretty much the same circuit as the stock v2.2 board.
2/ VR sensor has 2 connections, one (on trailing side) must be grounded otherwise the signal is unreadable. The other conector runs to MS via center of coax cable for sheilding.
3/ I'd previously put a larger 0.01uf cap in C12 to help even out rpm signal from the coil. Had to swap this back to 0.001uf - ie same as stock board otherwise MS couldn't read rpm below 300 - ie couldn't read cranking !
4/ I'd previously put a 1600ohm res in R10, swapped back to 390, now running a 270ohm res here as again the MS couldn't see the weak cranking rpm signal.
5/ Spark signal output via FIDLE jumpered as per standard MSnS recomendations, triggers ignitor by "grounding".
6/ Time based cranking, set to wait 4 triggers.

I roughly copied the stock ditributor advance and vac advance curves into an MS 12x12 map and it STARTED FIRST TIME !

I Quickly adjusted the trigger angle via MS and once that was correct (50) and reverted to my "rough" map it purred ! Rock steady 1000 rpm tickover. Quick test drive reveals all is well, now to fine tune.... where's that dyno !