Super Blue

[67cheby]

WOW....great stuff !

[67swb72klb]

count me in cool 4 speed on the column

[Portmod7]

And, a FEW more. I promise these are the last ones.....

[Portmod7]

AND, as of last night, I got my MegaSquirt-II v3.0 ECU all assembled and tested out successfully! This has been a really cool project so far. It's not for everyone, but if you like concentrated, tedious, precise activities and your hands don't shake to bad, I encourage you to give it a try. I bet I've easily got 10+ hours in this thing (not counting a "pretty major" ordeal that involved a brain-fart which led to soldering a 16-pin chip in the wrong direction and took me probably 6 hours overall to correct). I worked on it in the evenings after work, as much as the wife would let me get away with. The actual heart (daughterboard) of the ECU is not in this picture, and you don't actually assemble it yourself because it is so intricate, but it just plugs into the 40-pin socket you see that's empty just to the left of center.

I set it up to use (2) MAP sensors, one for a real-time barometric correction, and the standard one that would be used to monitor manifold pressure. It's also setup to run an idle air control stepper motor and all of my ignition timing curves/adjustments will be handled by this baby too. I think those are all of the options I set mine up with. These things are really cool. You can build them to fuel inject your moped if you want to. AND, if you want to change something down the road sometime, just open up the box and get to melting some solder.

The next step is to figure out where/how to mount the box, and get the wiring harness built. I ordered the pigtail of wires that plugs into the box, but I've got to run them and terminate them myself. Then I'll have to see if I can actually get this thing to do what I want it to. That ought to be an adventure, but based on my experience so far, entirely doable.

As I said, I really have enjoyed this little project. If I do another fuel injection project in the future, this will definitely be high on my list of options for the electrical side of it.

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

WOW....great stuff !

Originally Posted by 67swb72klb

count me in cool 4 speed on the column

Thanks guys!

[gringoloco]

Rust repairs look good! You're putting in some time, for sure
Posted via Mobile Device

[tantrumpipeline]

I'm in to watch this build, cool start

[Bennett68C10]

Very nice, I'm in to see how his turns out
Posted via Mobile Device

[TchncnDen]

When I started my build I looked into the Megasquirt and found it really interesting. I really wanted to do a Northstar engine for the wow factor but I decided to go the easy way and through in an LS. Since I went to school for electronics I had to download the source code, schematics, instructions and everything else they have on their site,which is a LOT. It's just so cool I'm sure I'll have to get one someday just to play with.

[JamesRKing72]

Wow, Nice looking truck. Great job on all of it so far. Rock On!

[Tyler71385]

I'm in. Looks great. Love the racing goodies!!

[Tinkermc]

looks like some of these things are real time consumers

[thor]

gettin' after it!!!

[oldblue1968chevy]

love the 4spd on the tree!!!! any more pix of the floor job?

[67c10rustbuket]

Love that watts link and the pinion mounted park brake, well I love all of it!

[Russ.W.]

Originally Posted by Portmod7

I custom ordered some mechanical push/pull (or commonly referred to as Morse cables) in the lengths I needed. I added a cable to control my parking brake while I was at it. Then I built all my brackets and connected the cables to my controls and the transmission.

I think it turned out pretty cool. It's definitely going to be different. Shifting it right now, without the engine running or the truck going down the road, it does really really well. I took the column apart and cleaned out all the gunk, relubricated everything. Then I made some adjustments to the linkage. I can go from 2nd to 3rd with no problem, and in a hurry. For those of you used to shifting on a column, you know that can easily be a problem. Getting hung between gears is common, mine doesn't do that. I can also make a 3-2 downshift equally as well.

That's a fantastic idea. I think I might implement a similar system in mine when the time comes.

Do have a question for you - looking at the image, you have the cables routed towards the rear. Wouldn't facing them forward, to the direction of the column levers give you a better shift? As they sit, it looks as if you'll have to route them back with a rather sharp u-turn.




Great build thread mate. Best of luck!

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

Rust repairs look good! You're putting in some time, for sure
Posted via Mobile Device

It's coming, slowly but surely! I am dying to drive this thing!

Originally Posted by tantrumpipeline

I'm in to watch this build, cool start

Originally Posted by Bennett--G4L

Very nice, I'm in to see how his turns out
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by TchncnDen

When I started my build I looked into the Megasquirt and found it really interesting. I really wanted to do a Northstar engine for the wow factor but I decided to go the easy way and through in an LS. Since I went to school for electronics I had to download the source code, schematics, instructions and everything else they have on their site,which is a LOT. It's just so cool I'm sure I'll have to get one someday just to play with.

So far, I'm having a lot of fun with the MegaSquirt. We'll see how I feel when it comes time to actually use it. I think by the time I get it figured out, I'll have learned some very valuable information about fuel injection.

Originally Posted by JamesRKing72

Wow, Nice looking truck. Great job on all of it so far. Rock On!

Originally Posted by Tyler71385

I'm in. Looks great. Love the racing goodies!!

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by Tinkermc

looks like some of these things are real time consumers

Yeah, big time! Not to mention EVERYTHING I do seems take at least 3 times longer than the normal person. Takes me forever to plan out anything, then I measure 10 times to cut once, then I realize after I cut that I "burned an inch" when I took measurements, and forgot to burn one when I cut. Ha ha, it's always an adventure!

Originally Posted by thor

gettin' after it!!!

I'm ready to burn some rubber!

Originally Posted by oldblue1968chevy

love the 4spd on the tree!!!! any more pix of the floor job?

Not really. I am TERRIBLE about getting pictures. I can tell you that the first thing I did was cut most of the original with a plasma torch, as close to the factory seams as I could get without messing them up. I pulled the majority of the floor out of the way (also cut it in half from top to bottom) so I could get a little more "personal" with the seams where I wanted to be a little more careful. Then I used a screwdriver tip/shaft with the handle cut off as a chisel, sharpened, and wedged in the seams to try and cut any connections between the floor and the rest of the cab. You've got to be careful, sometimes your chisel will blow out the sides of the seam. Depending on the direction it blows out, it may or may not damage good sheet metal you intended to keep.

Another thing that actually helped me is that the forward part of the floor that you leave in place and turns into the firewall was separating from the base of the kick panels (you can see it in some of the pictures). So I was able to hook the front edge of the floor into the joint on the cab, and the separation at the kick panel afforded me a little flexibility to help get the rear of the floor into the rear of the cab. Hard to explain, it'd be a lot easier with pictures .

I also cut the floor braces down on the cab, I couldn't get the floor to wiggle in there with them the factory length.

I did it all with the cab on it's back like in the pictures, and used an engine hoist to lift the floor in and out. I can't even count how many times I installed, removed, and installed the floor to get it fitting like I wanted. I didn't make any modifications to the floor or anything like that, it just took some gentle massaging on the existing sheet metal in a few areas.

I drilled holes in the flanges, and spot welded the front seam, the rear flange in the back of the cab, and along the rockers near the weather stripping lip. The inner rockers came out a little short, but not anything I couldn't make work.

Hope some of that helps. Let me know if you have any specific questions, and I'll try to help.

Originally Posted by 67c10rustbuket

Love that watts link and the pinion mounted park brake, well I love all of it!

I'm reserving judgement on the park brake, but hopefully it will be a good piece. I'm thinking I may have to make some modifications to keep the caliper a little more square with the rotor, but we'll see.

Originally Posted by Russ.W.

That's a fantastic idea. I think I might implement a similar system in mine when the time comes.

Do have a question for you - looking at the image, you have the cables routed towards the rear. Wouldn't facing them forward, to the direction of the column levers give you a better shift? As they sit, it looks as if you'll have to route them back with a rather sharp u-turn.






Great build thread mate. Best of luck!

Thank you!

I gave them enough extra length and the distance over to the top of the frame where I ran them is far enough that the bend isn't to severe. You would be really surprised how tight you would have to make the bend to start noticing a bind in the cable, I know I was. They operate very well just like they are.

For example, a "small oversight" in my design, where they are mounted to meet up at the column is actually directly over the driver-side frame rail, and the forward mounted cable has a sharper bend in it than I would like to see to clear the frame, but luckily it doesn't seem to affect the cable. I can't feel any difference in the shifting effort between the two cables. LUCKY!

One problem I can see with mounting them forward is that the bellhousing would be in the way. You would also have to bolt the shift arms on where they are pointed down to maintain the same shift pattern as stock on the column. The shift pattern isn't really a big deal though, just personal preference, and you are doing all custom stuff anyway, so you could just as easily build it into your design.

I bet if you did route them forward, your cables would be much shorter and have less bend, I bet they would move exceptionally free. I am very happy with the way mine came out though.

[Portmod7]

Not much progress to speak of. The wife's days off have been falling on the weekends lately. I try to schedule my "me time" activities for the days she works since she ends up working a lot of weekends, that way we still get to spend time together, AND I get my projects, ha ha!

She worked yesterday (Labor Day), but I messed around with friends most of the morning, then had some other errands to take care of, but I did get a LITTLE progress made on the truck.

After staring under the dash for probably over an hour, I finally decided to mount my ECU in the glove box. It seems like the best out of sight and easily accessible place to me. I like where member "BuckSS" mounted his under the glove box, but I didn't have the motivation to build a bracket, and I was having a hard time visualizing how I would fit the glove box back in. Bottom line, I think I just got lazy.

I pulled the glove box out so that I bolt through a couple strips of 1"x1/8" flat aluminum to help reinforce the back of the cardboard. My ECU is really pretty light, so I don't think I'll have any problems with mounting it to the cardboard. It really seems very sturdy. As you can see, I ran the wiring out the side of the box toward the center of the truck. I plan for the harness to come through the firewall behind the engine near the distributor. I'm hoping it will be pretty hidden from the casual observer. I'll be using a drop-base air filter housing to hide my throttle body, so hopefully the modern fuel injection on my "old beat up truck" wont be too noticeable.

I also started trying to figure out where to mount my coil and fuel pressure regulator, but didn't get anything done that warranted taking pictures.

This may be the last bit of progress for a few weeks. Headed to England for vacation on Sunday. I've only been out of the country once to go into Canada for a couple hours, so this ought to be a heck of an experience. My wife went once when she was 12 or 13, hopefully she remembers enough to keep us out of trouble. Plus, she and her parents have friends over there that we are meeting up with for a little bit of the time we are there. I don't really know what to expect, but I'm hoping to have a good time!

[CLTBurban]

Subscribed! Great work so far!!!

[Portmod7]

Alright, we've been back from the UK for a couple weeks now. It was an AWESOME trip! I encourage anyone who thinks they might want to go, to GO. The picture is the Irish Sea the evening before we came back home. It's BEAUTIFUL over there!

I managed to make a little progress on Super Blue the last couple of weeks. Not much, but it's something. I'm really good with things that have a specific place they need to go. But when it's something like an ignition coil or fuel pump regulator that can really be mounted anywhere in the vicinity of the engine, I have a REALLY hard time committing to a spot. I'm always thinking, "well what if there's a better spot... what about over here... yeah but if I mount it there I'm not sure I like the look...". So to have these two done is a huge load off my shoulders, I can stop thinking about it.

I really wanted to hide the fuel pressure regulator. I didn't want it hanging off the fenderwell or firewall with a mess of hoses running between it and the engine. But it also needs to be accessible. So I built a bracket out of some scrap aluminum I had laying around and mounted it right next to my throttle body. I didn't get a picture with my air filter base, but it's a drop base and covers up the entire throttle body, and now the fuel pressure regulator. You'll have to really look to tell this truck is injected. I like that. I also ran the fuel lines down the back of the engine to keep them out of sight, keep the front of the motor looking clean. Once it was mounted, I took the whole thing to a buddy that runs a hydraulic shop, and had him make up some hard lines to make the connections.

The coil bugged me forever, and I'm still not 100% sure I like where it landed, but it'll be good enough for this truck. I wanted to hide it too, but I just couldn't find anywhere I liked. I wanted to put it on the intake somewhere, but I had a hard time finding room. So it ended up on the firewall. I used some well nuts and aluminum spacers from the "hard to find" drawers in Home Depot/Lowes along with some aluminum angle(this particular coil did not have upper mounting holes, just the shiny "Z" shaped brackets you see the mounting screws going through). I think the whole assembly will be receiving a coat of flat black before it's over, it sticks out like a sore thumb right now. I'll also have to add a ground wire from the frame of the coil, the well nuts insulate it completely from the firewall.

Next step is laying out the wiring harness for the ECU, and the additional electronics (fans, fuel pump, and headlight harness). Oh boy! It's still not bodywork and paint, that's a good thing!

[67cheby]

Super clean mounting work !

[missinfishin10]

Looks Great! Im subscribed.

[NewType72]

diggin this great work always wondered how the true racers would twist their taste into these trucks of ours

[Painter D]

Nice work

[Portmod7]

Originally Posted by 67cheby

Super clean mounting work !

Thanks! You lucky dog, I bet you are having a BLAST at SEMA! Definitely a lifetime achievement, I hope you're living it up!

Originally Posted by missinfishin10

Looks Great! Im subscribed.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by NewType72

diggin this great work always wondered how the true racers would twist their taste into these trucks of ours

Thank you! Race cars are a ton of work, hopefully I don't have TOO much of that built into this truck so I can enjoy driving it when I get "done", ha ha!

Originally Posted by Painter D

Nice work

Thanks!

_________________________________________________________________

Got a little more done on the truck finialy. My injection harness is terminated and I put together a relay/fuse setup to handle getting the power to it all. Before this, my automotive electrical knowledge was very limited. But I've been reading, and Googling, and reading, and googling, and I've learned a lot. So it's been good.

All the different sensor connectors are a puzzle to figure out, but luckily I only missed one, the MAP connector. So I have the correct one on the way. I've also got some braided wire loom on the way to wrap everything up in black to clean things up and hide it a little bit.