[BlueScreen]

Hello everyone,

First off, this thread is for a 96-98 GT and not Terminator Cobra. This sub-forum has a lot more activity so I was asked to create my build thread here.

I had an issue with my car, most likely due to weak ignition. I spoked to Ed and we agreed that it would be best to upgrate to a MS3 ECU and IGN-4 coil packs to replace the OEM stuff. Of course, the MS3 opens up a world of possibilities and I want all the bells and whistles, one step at the time.

Here it is

The first thing I did after plugging it in, is upgrade the firmware to 1.5.2. I don't know why it shipped with 1.5.1 since the newer version is older than the release date of the ECU, but it was straightforward. I noticed the radiator fan would come up as soon as I turn the key on. It was not like that with the OEM ECU. It did a lot for debugging, the guys at DIYAutoTune were REALLY helpful and they replied pretty much instantly. Turns out I had a dead transistor and had to ship the ECU back for repair. They repaired it the next day they received it, but the whole round-trip took 3 weeks because I'm from Canada.

Meanwhile, I had the time to install my Spartan 3 wideband controller from 14point7. Allan (the owner of 14point7) was also helpful and answered all my questions. I got two wideband and two controllers, so one for each side. They are wired to the MS3 via CAN BUS. The instructions on how to set up all this were very good. In fact, everything worked on the first try! I emailed Allan to congrats him on the product and instructions and somehow turned a bad day for him into a good day. It's nice to sometime contact the people behind a company to tell them when we are happy, not only when things go bad. I also set up the controller to start heating the sensors when the engine has been running for about a minute. This is supposed to improve the life of the sensor because they won't be hit with cold condensation while they are hot.
Here is the controllers, next to the J&S Vampire. All this is under the passenger seat

Next was tuning the idle. I managed to solve an issue I had with the OEM ECU since I converted the car to an automatic transmission (2016). When it's cold, and I get it in gear, it would stall. I searched for years to open up some more of the IAC when in gear with the OEM computer but it wasn't possible. Turns out the solution was so much easier. I had 14* timing at idle. I bumped it to 18* and voila, no more stalling when cold.
Another thing that helped to stabilize the idle a lot is getting the injector dead time correct. I had not touched this configuration from the base tune by DIYAutoTune and was trying to let VE Analyzer build a VE table and the numbers were all over the place and constantly changing. The car would also backfire, shake, ran terribly. All that was solved by having the correct injector dead time.


Next up was finally getting to the ignition. Once again, I listened to Ed's recommendation and got MSD 8.5mm wire for the Ford/Hemi pro stock.
I decided for fun to test the wires with an oscilloscope and compare them to the OEM wires. I was quite surprised at what I saw, and have no explanation for it. If someone can enlighten us I would be glad.

MSD wire is the yellow line, OEM wire is the blue line. I simply sent a 5V square wave using an Arduino and measured at the other end of the wire. The patterns are completely different and I would love to know why, and I know one is more desirable than the other.

Fitting-wise, I had issues with cylinders #2 and #3. There was no way the tubes would clear the Kenne Bell inlet, even cut at the shortest. I ended up removing the boots from the OEM-like wires, and used them on the MSD wire.

I went ahead and measured everything, made the wires, and checked the resistance (under 50 ohms per foot all the time), but after I had 6 wires all said and done, the seventh one had resistance in the kilo-ohms, sometimes even mega-ohms. It took me a couple of minutes to figure what was wrong. Turned out the wire wasn't crimped at the assembled spark plug side from MSD!

This is what it should look like

I assumed this was a fluke and proceeded to the next one. Same thing! I lost confidence, and good thing I did, all 8 of them weren't crimped! It's quite a job to remove the insulator and put it back in place, especially when the wires are fully assembled and the tube has to come from the side where it's not crimped before installation, except now it's crimped. There was a lot of grease used to be able to slip everything back into place which doubled the time required to do the job that was almost finished. I don't know if they are designed like that (I hope not), or if someone didn't do his job on my particular set. Learn from my mistake and check yours!

Here's the bracket I made to bolt the driver-side coil-pack since OEM is 4 bolt and those are 3 bolts, and not at the same location.

I already had a custom-made bracket for the passenger side coil pack, I simply had to drill 2 more holes (and reused one)

I have two pressure sensors ordered (one for fuel pressure and the other for oil pressure). I will keep this updated as I work on this project. My plan is to use the option connector on the MS3 to wire those sensors.

MegaSquirtPNP by DIYAutoTune.com

MegaSquirtPNP Plug-N-Play Standalone Engine Management Systems by DIYAutoTune.com

www.megasquirtpnp.com

Pin A will be ground, pin B will supply 5V to both sensors, C will be signal from the fuel sensor and H will be oil pressure.

That's it for now, I appreciate feedback, suggestions, comments, questions, etc

 

[eschaider]

Great documentation Michel and excellent clear, well-framed photography. Something to check if you have not already done so is the Ignition Setup Wheel Decoder which is the first item under the Ignition Settings drop-down menu.

Set your timing to 10˚ BTDC in the timing table and then adjust the Tooth #1 Angle until your timing light says the timing is at 10˚ BTDC on the damper and timing cover marks.

The screenshot above shows a red box around the variable you want to adjust to establish a correct 10˚ BTDC reference. This is important because when you begin to set max timing you want to know what you are commanding in the ignition table is actually what the engine is getting. It will save on pistons, even for n/a engines. The entry in this field was correct for the in-house test vehicle they developed the base tune for but probably not for your engine. BTW this metric can change with dampers so always validate it if you upgrade these components.

In the FWIW bucket, 397˚ will get you in the ballpark but you will still need to massage it to get the timing light to exactly show 10˚ BTDC. When you first start, set the timing table to 10˚ in a 3 x 3 block of cells around idle that makes the job easier and also makes idle nicer. 18˚ is way too much for idle and in fact, is probably less.

 

[BlueScreen]

Adjusting the tooth angle is 100% in the TODO list. I've seen MalcolmV8 video on how to do that, and adjust latency too =>

I already got MSD timing tape at the same time than the wires. The problem is that I have a 7.25" Innovators West crank pulley so I had to grind down the timing mark on the timing cover, and there's barely any lip on the pulley for me to place the tape on. I will need to figure out how to do this. Instead of changing cells in my timing table, I will use the fixed timing option in the upper right of your screenshot.

I agree 18* is much higher than any other car I've seen. 14* was fine for the many years my car had a manual transmission, but since I swapped a 4R75W in 2016, I got an issue with the engine stalling when I put the transmission in gear with the engine cold (under about 100F coolant). When in gear, the engine see an higher load than when in neutral, and something has to change to accomodate that, except the ECU is for manual transmission and doesn't know when it's in gear or in neutral. I've found that bumping the timing solve the stalling issue, but it may be a patch and not the correct solution. If anyone has a better solution, I'm all ears and will be thankful.

 

[eschaider]

Adjusting the tooth angle is 100% in the TODO list. I've seen MalcolmV8 video on how to do that, and adjust latency too =>

I already got MSD timing tape at the same time than the wires. The problem is that I have a 7.25" Innovators West crank pulley so I had to grind down the timing mark on the timing cover, and there's barely any lip on the pulley for me to place the tape on. I will need to figure out how to do this. Instead of changing cells in my timing table, I will use the fixed timing option in the upper right of your screenshot.

You are going to be facing two different challenges, Michel. The first is the spacing of the timing marks on the timing tape. For a 7.25" diameter damper like the Innovators West, it means each degree of crank rotation is equal to 0.0632" on a linear scale. You get to that dimension by taking damper diameter * PI and dividing it by 360. The marks other than zero are interesting but of no value because going forward you will always set your timing with the Tuner Studio. The only ting you will use the timing light for is verifying your 10˚ BTDC position/ mark.

I think MalcolmV8 has a video on a way to set this. If he doesn't the technique you want to use is to find TDC using a TDC stop tool. Mark TDC on your damper. Take a small sharp-nosed chisel and place a mark at TDC on your damper. When you set timing you want this mark to line up with the 10˚ BTDC mark on your timing cover.

Another way to do this is to mark the 10˚ BTDC mark on the damper instead and then line this up with the TDC mark on the timing cover. If you go this route, remember 1˚ of crank rotation on the damper is 0.0632 inches, so 10˚ is 0.632". Put a little Dykem on your damper on the BTDC side of the TDC mark. Get your dial calipers out set them for 0.632 inches. Place one edge of the ID measuring edges of your caliper at TDC and the other will be at 10˚ before TDC. Use the calipers to scribe a line in the Dykem. Verify your work and then take a small sharp-nosed chisel and place a mark at 10˚ BTDC on your damper. The TDC approach is faster and easier than the 10˚ BTDC approach and subject to fewer errors.

Now when you adjust your #1 Tooth Angle in Tuner Studio keep moving the angle number, up or down until your newly located TDC timing mark lines up with the cover 10˚ BTDC mark. Viola! you are done. Do this before you get down the road on the basic tuning process. It will save you untold hours of retuning. BTW you are correct about using the fixed advance timing tool in Tuner Studio. This is how you want to set it up for establishing your 10˚ BTDC timing mark;

I agree 18* is much higher than any other car I've seen. 14* was fine for the many years my car had a manual transmission, but since I swapped a 4R75W in 2016, I got an issue with the engine stalling when I put the transmission in gear with the engine cold (under about 100F coolant). When in gear, the engine see an higher load than when in neutral, and something has to change to accomodate that, except the ECU is for manual transmission and doesn't know when it's in gear or in neutral. I've found that bumping the timing solve the stalling issue, but it may be a patch and not the correct solution. If anyone has a better solution, I'm all ears and will be thankful.

There is a simple fix that DIYAuto has for the auto transmission engagement stalling issue and I don't recall what it is but if you give them a call they will point you at it.

BTW check out Malcolm's video on electric fan control using a Ford Fusion fan controller. Very clean, and well thought out, like everything Malcolm does. When you are done it is a dirt cheap excellent improvement in fan control and the MS3Pro has all the necessary supporting software to control the fan using the Ford Fusion fan controller. Click here => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbegCfF26yk

Can't wait for future posts. Very nicely done and documented, Michel

BTW for those reading this, Malcolm is a DIYAutotune dealer so when you go to buy one of these things give some consideration to using him. He has made significant contributions to the community and your business helps him continue to.

 

[eschaider]

Michel, I meant to comment on the yellow oscilloscope trace for the MSD Wire earlier and got distracted.

That trace looks like a damped sine wave. I am not a EE so my EE knowledge is quite limited. That said if the end of the plug wire did not terminate with a ground, is it possible to have an electrical pulse 'echo' up and down the wire with diminishing amplitude on each pass until it dissipates to a zero value?

 

[BlueScreen]

I got the fuel pressure hooked up this week-end. Very straight forward install. The calibration supplied with the sensor was spot on. I had it adjusted to just bellow 40psi on a mechanical gauge, and the reading with the new sensor was 39.6psi, it doesn't get much better than that. It was not my intention to install this sensor right now, but I had a clearance issue between the finger pull for the spark plug wire and my fuel fitting over cylinder #5. My solution to push this fitting toward the front of the engine was to install a fitting there with the 1/8 NPT thread for the fuel sensor.

(and yes, the clip on the sensor plug broke on me the first time I clipped it on. Frustrating considering it was $20 just for the connector and wires and it broke before I could connect it one time)

The bad part was what should have been the easiest. The cable for the Bluetooth adapter ends with an M12 connector, while I have an M8 connector on the MS3. Who would have thought that an MS3Pro EVO would uses a different connector than an MS3Pro PnP? I will try to return it and get the one from AMP EFI instead, if the shop that made the adapter doesn't have one with the M8 connector.
Left is the connector at the end of the Bluetooth adapter, the other one is the correct one for my ECU.

Zeroing the tooth #1 angle is the next job on the list. I borrowed the timing light that my dad has since circa 1970s. I'll report back how I did it. My TDC and 10 BTDC mark on my timing cover were grinded down about a decade ago to clear the 10% wider crank pulley so I can't use them. My plan is to use a dial meter inside cylinder #6 to determine TDC. Make a pointer for the crank pulley and mark my 0. Then make a mark where 10* is according to the MSD timing tape and go from there.

Just for adjusting the tooth angle, am I ok to set the timing fixed to 20* ? The car idle better at 20* then 10*, and it's only for the time I get this job done, then I return it to 14*. I don't think it can screw the adjustments.

I contacted DIYAutoTune about the stalling issue, I pretty much had the solution already. They recommend to use closed-loop idle control, so the ECU can auto-adjust to maintain a target idle RPM. They also recommend to bump up the timing just under where the engine idle, which I already did, and use the Idle RPM Timing Correction Curve to add timing when the engine goes bellow target RPM. I already had figured all of this, except one detail: leave the cells where the engine idle to 12-14*. Simple as that.

Finally, about that oscilloscope trace, it was wired like that. 5v from Arduino to wire. Probe at the other end of the wire, and ground from the probe back to the Arduino. You may be on to something about an "echo". When I touched the wire with a finger, the frequency of the waves got longer, and lower amplitude. My understanding is the MSD wire is acting like a capacitor and storing energy and giving it back until it stabilize.

In the FWIW category I compared measurement between the MSD wire and Ford Racing / OEM one.
Wire core is 0.090" for MSD compared to 0.042" for OEM. That's double the diameter!
Total wire diameter is 8.5mm for the MSD 8.5mm, OEM 9mm is exactly also as advertised, 9.00mm

That's all for now, maybe next week-end I can get some more job done.

 

[eschaider]

I got the fuel pressure hooked up this week-end. Very straight forward install. The calibration supplied with the sensor was spot on. I had it adjusted to just bellow 40psi on a mechanical gauge, and the reading with the new sensor was 39.6psi, it doesn't get much better than that. It was not my intention to install this sensor right now, but I had a clearance issue between the finger pull for the spark plug wire and my fuel fitting over cylinder #5. My solution to push this fitting toward the front of the engine was to install a fitting there with the 1/8 NPT thread for the fuel sensor.
View attachment 176427
(and yes, the clip on the sensor plug broke on me the first time I clipped it on. Frustrating considering it was $20 just for the connector and wires and it broke before I could connect it one time)

The bad part was what should have been the easiest. The cable for the Bluetooth adapter ends with an M12 connector, while I have an M8 connector on the MS3. Who would have thought that an MS3Pro EVO would uses a different connector than an MS3Pro PnP? I will try to return it and get the one from AMP EFI instead, if the shop that made the adapter doesn't have one with the M8 connector.
Left is the connector at the end of the Bluetooth adapter, the other one is the correct one for my ECU.
View attachment 176428

Michel, try these guys. While they don't have everything, they do have a lot and at good price points. Click Here => Ballenger Connectors

Zeroing the tooth #1 angle is the next job on the list. I borrowed the timing light that my dad has since circa 1970s. I'll report back how I did it. My TDC and 10 BTDC mark on my timing cover were grinded down about a decade ago to clear the 10% wider crank pulley so I can't use them. My plan is to use a dial meter inside cylinder #6 to determine TDC. Make a pointer for the crank pulley and mark my 0. Then make a mark where 10* is according to the MSD timing tape and go from there.

Try using a homemade TDC stop. See pic below.

Take a spark plug cut off the side electrode and break the porcelain out of it. If you have easy access to a lathe machine the retaining ring off the top of the plug's steel shell and push out the porcelain. Get a 7 or 8 inch long bar of aluminum and machine the end down in a lathe for a slight press fit through the plug shell where the plug tip used to be. Build it to give you about 50 mm or a little more aluminum protruding out the bottom of the plug shell.

Screw your new TDC tool into a plug hole and rotate the crank until the piston gently touches the stop. With a fine tip Sharpie, pick a spot, any spot where you can see your mark, and mark both the timing cover and the damper. Now turn the crank in the opposite direction until the piston gently kisses the stop again. Exactly opposite the timing cover sharpie mark place another sharpie mark on your damper, Now midway between the two Sharpie marks on your damper is TDC. Put another sharpie mark on the damper with the initials TDC. Now you have the engine's exact TDC on the Damper and on the timing cover.

Remember in post #4 we calculated 10˚ to be 0.632" or 16.05mm on a 7.25" damper OD. Measure off 16mm BTDC on the damper, put a sharpie mark there and you are done. Make sure you put it on the BTDC side of your TDC mark, not on the ATDC side of your TDC mark. If you want to make this stuff permanent use an electric pencil to mark the timing cover and a small sharp-nosed punch to mark TDC and 10˚ BTDC on the damper. You are done! Get your timing light and make the marks line up properly by adjusting your #1 Tooth angle. Don't forget to set your fixed advance to 10˚ BTDC. Use a helper to sit in the driver's seat and play with the throttle until you have the correct #1 Tooth Angle if necessary.

Just for adjusting the tooth angle, am I ok to set the timing fixed to 20* ? The car idle better at 20* then 10*, and it's only for the time I get this job done, then I return it to 14*. I don't think it can screw the adjustments.

Yes you can but, it might be easier just to put a person in the driver's seat to keep the engine running.

I contacted DIYAutoTune about the stalling issue, I pretty much had the solution already. They recommend to use closed-loop idle control, so the ECU can auto-adjust to maintain a target idle RPM. They also recommend to bump up the timing just under where the engine idle, which I already did, and use the Idle RPM Timing Correction Curve to add timing when the engine goes bellow target RPM. I already had figured all of this, except one detail: leave the cells where the engine idle to 12-14*. Simple as that.

This is an equally good approach to resolving the idle issue until you get your #1 Tooth Angle resolved

Finally, about that oscilloscope trace, it was wired like that. 5v from Arduino to wire. Probe at the other end of the wire, and ground from the probe back to the Arduino. You may be on to something about an "echo". When I touched the wire with a finger, the frequency of the waves got longer, and lower amplitude. My understanding is the MSD wire is acting like a capacitor and storing energy and giving it back until it stabilize.

I wish I had some insightful commentary on the peculiar scope trace but my EE schooling is over 50 years old and I never used it, so ...

In the FWIW category I compared measurement between the MSD wire and Ford Racing / OEM one.
Wire core is 0.090" for MSD compared to 0.042" for OEM. That's double the diameter!
Total wire diameter is 8.5mm for the MSD 8.5mm, OEM 9mm is exactly also as advertised, 9.00mm

That is interesting. The metric I am most sensitive to is resistance in ohms per foot of wire because it determines how much energy we can deliver to the plug. That said, the damped sine wave still has my curiosity held hostage. It might be interesting to show the scope pic to someone at MSD tech support and get their thoughts?

That's all for now, maybe next week-end I can get some more job done.

 

[BlueScreen]

Update, finally!

I got some time to work in the garage today and got the timing zeroed. I could not have one of those TDC made by a machinist but I know one and will have one made for the future. It took a little bit of time to get the piston at 0* precisely using a dial meter but it worked. Then I made a pointer using a spindle and marked it on the crank pulley. Then I used the MSD timing tape just to find out where the 10* mark is, I could not glue it anywhere. So I did another mark at 10*. Funny enough, when I started the car, it was awfully off the 10*, like, about 10* in the other direction so I knew I screwed up somewhere. I did an easy mistake: 10* before 0, if the engine turns clockwise, is NOT 10* counterclock wise, it's 10* after clockwise. It's counter-intuitive, but it made perfect sense when I realized my mistake. I fixed that up and It turned out the that I had no adjustment to make at all! 10* was exactly at my 10* mark. Then I revved up to about 2500rpm to check hardware latency, it's stayed exactly on the mark there too. So all in all, I didn't had to make any adjustment, but now I'm confident in the numbers I input for timing.

Next week I may try and hook up the oil pressure sensor to the MS3, then all I have to do after is way for April 1st so I can drive on the street and finish the tune.

PS: I emailed MSD about the scope trace, waiting for their reply.

 

[eschaider]

I know the feeling of being on the wrong side of TDC, Michel. I've done it more than once simply because I was rushing and not paying attention. I also believed I couldn't make the same stupid mistake twice — ego!. Hence the origins of my TDC commentary in post #7 above. Hard learned lessons! You had a good recovery, though ... Good job!

 

[BlueScreen]

As fun as all this is, there's always some issue that should also be talked about.

I adjusted timing last Saturday and the car was running quite good. Then on Monday I wanted to check is the speedometer was working correctly, so I jacked up the rear and got the car running at low speed.
Good news, the speedometer works as intended but I will double check the accuracy when I can drive on the street.
Sad news is, the engine was running very badly. Took me a minute, and notice passenger side AFR was in the high 11 because it's warming up, but drive side was in the 20! That's obviously very bad and the reasons why the engine was running poorly. I spent a night diagnosing this, and the tools provided by the MS3 are so helpful! I found out that coil A (cylinder 1 and 6) was not firing at all. Not exactly certain what happened, but after playing with it for some time, it started working again. All 4 coils are working correctly, except that now, the engine won't event start. I'm still trying to figure out what is going on. I put the OEM computer back, and it starts. Runs poorly because no O2 sensors, no MAF and doesn't see cam sensor, but it run.

No sure where to look at next. The car was working just fine, I touched nothing and now it doesn't even start. I had this happen once, and it was because the car ran out of fuel, which is not the case at the moment. I will clean up the spark plugs, they are black and wet and smell fuel, but again, OEM computer is able to start the engine. I'm open to suggestions.

 

[eschaider]

I suspect the reason the OEM ECU will run the engine is that the fuel map is closer to correct. Even with fouled plugs, the OEM ECU should start and run. Your MS3Pro fuel table is probably off more than a little, and with fouled plugs, it makes starting and running quite unlikely. Go to YouTube and search on MS3Pro idle tuning. There is quite a bit of good stuff out there that should get the idle up and running for you. You will still need to do the rest of the map. There are some good videos on that also.

 

[BlueScreen]

I cleaned the spark plugs and the engine started, small victory! I'm back to the issue I had Monday where passenger side AFR is correct and and driver side is in the 20s. I have no idea what could have cause that overnight. I tried to restore the tune to a few days earlier when the car worked correctly and the issue is still there so I don't think it's a configuration in the tune.

I attached a datalog if anyone want to check. The correct extension is mlg, not txt. I had to rename it so it was allowed as an attachment

 

[KEVINS]

Swap the O2's side-to-side and see of the reading follows the O2 sensor. If it does then the sensor is bad.

ks

 

[BlueScreen]

Swap the O2's side-to-side and see of the reading follows the O2 sensor. If it does then the sensor is bad.

ks

I'm quite confident the reading is correct Kevin. The engine runs terribly bad, and I actually have 2 widebands on the driver side, both of them read near 20.
In the past I had the OEM O2 sensors in the front and one wideband on the back. Since the MS3, I changed the fronts one to have widebands on both side, so I temporarily have 2 wideband drive side. I intend to get rid of the gauge and the one in the back next year.

 

[eschaider]

Michel,

Definitely swap the O2 sensors like Kevin suggested. That will quickly tell if you have an O2 sensor problem. Go watch the YouTube vids and then either fix your fuel maps using the knowledge you picked up from the YouTube vids or pay to get the car tuned. If you do neither then your problems will persist.

 

[KEVINS]

If it's a "dead" cylinder (bad coil or injector) then unplugging one at a time while the car is running will tell you which one it is simply by the way it runs and the O2's will change.

If you do this and there is no difference in the way it runs and the O2's never change then the tune is most likely off and someone smarter than me will have to help.

ks

 

[BlueScreen]

I'm back at the no start condition, I guess I need to clean plugs again.

Ed, I did watch many hours of videos before buying the MS3, and much more after I installed it. The idle part of the tune was getting pretty good, it was running smoothly, AFR was correct, etc. To have one side running 20 AFR the next day, on the same tune is bugging me. Paying someone is something I consider but to validate my tune when I'm done with it. I take pride in doing stuff myself and learning in the process. I'm not ready to give up yet.

Kevin, I did unplug injectors on Monday when the car was running poorly. I can't test it right again now but I suspect I would get the same results. When I unplugged #5 the engine died. There was barely any change, if any at all when I unplugged #6, #7 and #8, and that's in line with the reading of ~20 AFR for both wideband I have on that side of the engine. Why do I have 3 dead cylinders is I mistery I intend to solve this week-end.

 

[eschaider]

What happened when you swapped the O2 sensors side to side, Michel? Did the lean condition follow the sensor?

Here is an excellent how to set up your idle tuning vid from Turbine Research. These guys are pretty thorough, succinct, clear speaking, and use good video graphics. Follow their lead, and you should easily put the idle bump in the road behind you. Click here => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifd3JTfnJfs&t=46s

p.s. Use new plugs to establish the correct baseline idle tune. You don't want a tune that is designed to work with compromised plugs.

 

[BlueScreen]

Status report, I had the chance to work on the car today and pretty much narrowed down what the issue is.

First I started by cleaning the spark plugs to be able to get the engine running. Then I swapped the O2 sensors and as expected, nothing changed. It was obvious for me that wasn't the issue, but did it anyway. I failed to mention that I don't have EGO Correction enabled, so the MS3 doesn't adjust fuel depending on the sensors reading. I have two sensors on the same bank, both agree on the reading, and unplugging the injectors on that bank didn't affect anything so I was 99% confident on the sensor, but now it's confirmed, they are OK, the reading in the 20s didn't follow the sensor, it stayed driver side.

Now while I double checked everything. This little window in Tuner Studio was of great help

I tested every coil, every injector, they all worked. I took the compression and it was also good. Then I took the timing light, get the car running, confirmed the timing was correct BUT while doing that, the timing light stopped working. The issue I had earlier this week came back, coil A (#1 & #6) stopped firing, while the engine was running. There is clearly an intermittent issue with this coil that I'm still trying to pin point. In the debugging process I unplugged the MS3, opened it up to check for visual damage on a transistor or something, didn't find anything obvious so I installed it back and boom, coil A started working. This is going to be a hard one to figure out.

I also had the issue of fouled spark plug. I cleaned them up using a blow torch, and had some fuel flames for the one that was in cylinder 1, 6, 7 and 8, the same one that didn't changed anything when I unplugged them while the engine was running. This was caused by fuel stuck in the porcelain. Clearly there was an ignition issue that leaded to fouled spark plug and engine not running.

I 100% agree on tuning with new plugs and not around fouled one. To do my test today I used my spark plug I had last year (I change them every year and keep 2 or 3 years just in case of days like today).
Thanks for the video. I think I have see pretty much every video from Turbine Research including that one, but it's always a nice refresher.

On another note, MSD replied back about my findings with their wire. They were dedicated enough to do the same test on their own, with their oscilloscope. Here's the reply:

"As you can see image 1 is the 5v square wave going into our sparkplug wire (yellow signal) and the output of the MSD sparkplug wire (blue signal).
The blue signal has a an over shoot and as you expand this area of the signal it does have a ring shown in image 2, remember our sparkplug wire is wound and has a ferrite as part of the core and this creates an inductor. We use this inductor to dampen the noise created when the high energy spark created by our ignitions."

Image1

Image2

 

[eschaider]

When you said you had two sensors on the same bank, did you mean you had two bungs available and placed two sensors on the same bank for testing to see if they agreed or were you trying to test and communicate something else. I suspect, but don't know, you were attempting to expose both sensors to the same exhaust to validate their individual calibrations. If that is what you did, I agree that your test procedure shows both to be working properly. Although not the same as switching sensors bank to bank the test results are equally valid and useful. The fact the lean condition did not follow the O2 sensor is good news, Michel. Now begins the search for why one bank is lean, and the other is not.

The next test is to attempt to discover why the ECU is pulsing the injectors on one bank with a substantially smaller pulse width than the opposite bank. I think it would be insightful to hear what DIY says about this peculiar behavior. Although I can't think of a place in TunerStudio to adjust this, that doesn't mean there might not be a software switch available to you that controls this behavior. If there is not then the ECU begins to look increasingly at fault.

While you have them on the phone but as a separate question, ask them about the origin of the on-again, off-again behavior of the one coil pack. If you can find time before calling them, try swapping the coil packs to see if the problem follows the coil pack. If the problem follows the coil pack, it sounds like a bad coil pack. If it does not follow the coil pack, I would suspect the ECU. This test will give them some additional information that might help in diagnosing the origin of the problem. A lot of installs use a single COP per cylinder. In wasted spark mode, it is possible there is a software switch in TunerStudio that needs to be set for the wasted spark configuration. If there is, it is possible that is the origin of the misbehavior. I should have asked earlier, are you sure all electrical connections for the coil are good?

The MSD guys were probably duly impressed with your Sherlock Holmes detective skills. The ferrite core they use as an inductor for RF noise supression explains the damped sine wave. Although I'm not a EE, that is a very crafty way to dampen the RF energy associated with each coil discharge. It just so happened you had your scope's time domain resolution high enough to capture and display the phenomena. They probably never expected anyone to look that close.

Let's give the DIY guys a shot at the misbehavior(s) and see what they can come up with.