inconsistent spark?

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ditchdigger
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inconsistent spark?

Post by ditchdigger »

Ok I have had MS2 on a Ver.3 board running on my turbocharged Fiat 843cc motor for about a year now. Ignition is being handled by EDIS. Not sure what MSII firmware. I can't find any where in tunerstudio or Megatune that will tell me but it is whatever "current stable" firmware I loaded on 2 years ago or so.

The problem. Spark is inconsistent. By that I mean part of the time the car runs fantastic. Gobs of power and torque, excellent fuel economy and just all around awesome. But 1 time in 3 the car runs like crap with low load and part throttle misfires that get bad enough to cut spark altogether just long enough to trigger the blow off valve to open. If I keep trying to accelerate it will get past it and pull hard again. At cruise the misfire is bad enough that the car sounds like a modded WRX. You know the sound I am talking about.

Sometimes I can turn off the car and restart it and it will run great again. Sometimes turning the car off when it is running well and restarting it makes it run terribly. There is no rhyme or reason.

And the really odd part. It will not exhibit this behaviour when the computer is plugged into MSII so datalogging is fruitless.

Tips?
ditchdigger
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Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by ditchdigger »

Not sure why this was moved here as I am not running extra code. Reposted it to the MS2 ignition section.
ForumAdminTeam
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Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by ForumAdminTeam »

ditchdigger,

Your post was moved because you did not indicate which code you are running (and you still haven't). This is required if you are asking for troubleshooting or tuning help. You are not allowed to re-post topics, this is cross-posting.

Forum Admin Team
ditchdigger
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Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2005 2:09 pm

Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by ditchdigger »

The second post that appears to have been deleted did have the code rev.

Am I allowed to post in the ignition section again?
ditchdigger
MegaSquirt Newbie
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Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2005 2:09 pm

Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by ditchdigger »

Firmware is ver 2.88

Thanks
ditchdigger
MegaSquirt Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2005 2:09 pm

Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by ditchdigger »

I drove around with the laptop in the car and as soon as it started misfiring or whatever I hooked it up and started datalogging. I tried to tap the marker before I would accelerate so I knew it would happen.

After this I shut the car off, restarted it ten minutes later and it was fine. I have that datalog as well if anyone cares to look at it.
DonTZ125
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Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by DonTZ125 »

Now that you're legal :D , let's see if we can't help you some. It almost sounds like you're losing phase without losing synch, which is always a bad thing. Can you give some more info on your set-up? You say you're running EDIS, so I assume you have a 36-1 w/ VR sensor. How many cyls? Firing pattern? Look at your set-up, and try and determine some way that your sparks could get out of order - because that's sure what it sounds like!
ditchdigger
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Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2005 2:09 pm

Re: inconsistent spark?

Post by ditchdigger »

The motor is an 843cc inline 4cyl. Firing order is 1-3-4-2. 36-1 wheel is mounted on the crank pulley. Junkyard sourced EDIS module,VR sensor and harness from an escort. The coil and plug wires were new no-name parts store bits. It has been in and running for well over a year with this problem starting 5-6 months ago. I did the diode tach interface to make my 40 year old Fiat tach somewhat work.

What other info do you need?
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