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Sun Dec 05, 2004 7:30 am

Ok i have to say most of the old school vw drivers will not take on efi .they the price is to high .so why not a junk yard set up .I went to a junk yard an fond a 98 vw golf 2.0 and stipped out the engine harnes the injectors and the throtle body and the ecu.Ihad to get an after market fuel pump whitch was $270 .i took it back to the shop to start on this project .All i had to add was a fuel rail and injector bungs $52.first i marked out where i would like the injetors to sit on the type 1 end casting then i tig welded bung on to sit the injectors in .Then fuel rail took the drilled two holes one size for fuel and the next size for the injector seat .Then run fuel lines from the front to the engine twice ,the distributor had had to be mest with to keep the oem trigger.this took two days to do but was cheap and it works ok this hole project cost $334 and i was up and running on a 1600cc engine. this is not a high perfomance set up this was just to see how cheap it can be to get efi up and running .it is up to you to step your game or not

Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:08 am

Sounds cool, sounds like ya did a good job. Would consider it myself, if I could weld :P. But, why? If you've got your carb running good, then why bother with EFI on a stock motor? Just wondering.

Sun Dec 05, 2004 12:28 pm

:wink: :idea: i just had an old bug just sitting in the back of my mates shop .so just to see what i can do. i did it on my time we are now doing brake on it to take it out on a road test .it sounds good and pull well for a stock 1600 but the brakes are so bad they pull you al over the road come time to stop.we are going to turbo it soon and go to the dyno with a new clutch .i am looking for 90 to 100hp or blow it up what ever comes first.this is only a test .on a good engine i only use emeraldm3d for management. www.emeraldm3d.com :D

Mon Dec 06, 2004 9:36 am

www.megasquirt.info
about $200 for everything to build the controller.
sensors can be GM pieces which are everywhere for cheap to free.
tune it on the fly with a laptop.
still requires the welding etc unless you buy injector bungs (I think MSD is where we got them) and epoxy them into drilled holes. or just find an EFI bug in the junkyard it has everything you need for injectors and fuel supply.
A friend of mine with mechanical ability but zero electronics exposure built his in about 12 hours and it works great. just follow the directions.
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Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:00 am

i did take a look that megasquirt efi set up .it look good!but D I Y electrics i do not think the man on the street is up for all that work .But it did not have any picks up for crank or distributor trigger how do you send a signal to trigger the injectors or coil packs?.i think that it is a good set up if you have time and the electrical know how :wink: :D

Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:32 am

I have electronics know how but my buddy has Zero. I was not involved at all in the making of his. he just ordered the stuff and followed the manual. from what I have seen the manual and the product is very well developed and there are lots of people willing to help on the megasquirt forums. I would say if you can learn to solder reasonably (not hard to do) and follow directions you can build it.
The basic setup is fuel only and takes it's trigger from the coil in the same way a tachometer does. this works great for fuel only setups. there are a bunch of options for fuel and spark, when you do that you need some sort of crank trigger or distributer with an optical pickup or reluctor wheel. this can be done without much trouble or expense. I plan to try using an A2 golf optical pickup since the distributor body looks almost identical to the bug. But I will hook it up "fuel only" initially and use the stock ignition system as a trigger.
There is talk of doing boost control and other fancy things as add ons to the base code in the megasquirt computer. if you don't know how to do this just wait, this stuff is becoming available for download as guys get it developed for their own setups.
Perry

Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:33 am

oh yea and you can buy the megasquirt assembled from third party vendors. still really cheap, I think around $400.
Perry

Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:56 am

i am not putting the unit down .would like to know if it is a piggy back or full stand alone .it has all the stuf there. at $400 why are vw peeps not all over it .All the guys i talk to at shows and stuf say efi is out of there price bracket. but you have put it out there that this is not the case.So will i see more vw guy& girl on the efi tip? A new set of carbs are way up there in price now .with that unit they can use old carbs and intakes just add a tps and injector bungs and fuel rail plus what sensor they need to get running.i am all for efi an have bin from 1995 when i got my first turbo set up it would be hard to go back to carbs niw . :D 8) NOTE WITH ANY EFI YOU MUST TUNE IT on the dyno one time .unles you swap out injectors

Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:43 am

It's a complete stand alone unit. it compares favorably with the big expensive systems. I have experience with haltech and electromotive tec II, and Megasquirt is better than the haltech by a long shot, and with spark control almost the same as the electromotive but 1/10 the cost.
I've seen a lot of VW guys doing the EFI thing, mostly on buggies and golfs though. they designed MS and offered it to the public for cheap in an effort to educate gearheads about how great and easy EFI can be. But there are still a lot of guys who think of it as a black box and are comfy with carbs, which is fine. I only use it when there is a need for the control it offers, like in boosted engines or applications where I want it to run consistantly all the time like my wifes car.
Dyno time is not a requirement, but helps. I have had more luck tuning as a passenger while a friend drives than on the dyno. most dyno guys setup full throttle and ignore the daily driving part of the fuel map. There is some software out there for MS that watches the o2 mixture values and tweaks the fuel map as you drive to try and build a better fuel map over time. I haven't used that but it should help get your setup fine tuned if you don't know what you're doing. plus there's a lot of aircooled vdubs out there with MS that would share their fuel maps with you to get you in the ballpark. it should be noted that setting up a good set of carbs will cost the same tuning time, except that a jet change cannot be made while driving by a few key strokes on a lap top. :wink:
now I'm sounding like a commercial, I'm gonna quit posting to this now, but I agree with bug man nrg, if you want a good running setup and are considering big dual carbs, think about EFI. it'll be cheaper, you can tune it for free (ever buy jets for a pair of Dellertos?) and in the end if you play with tuning enough you'll get a better end result.
Perry

Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:54 pm

I could not put it any better ,yes you hit it on the spot .i have efi on my 2054 turbo with 8 injectors and a t04e 67 putting down 300+ at 18lb boost
my best i have run is 11.32 @126mph i am looking for some one to help me with my grip problems at the 1/8 mile when the boost controler kicks in at the 1/8 im at 24lb boost at this piont the car will try to step out of shape