[Outlaw]

Thank you Outlaw. Fuel economy is my preference on the moment. As like to do few long trips this and follow years. I will stick with EFI only, but want to get MegaSquirt 3. Was checking prices and controller itself cost over 1100$ on ebay and 565 Pounds on uk Mega Squirt. Can you Please tell me were you got your? And were you got all the sensors?

565 pounds sounds about right. I paid in the neighborhood of $700.00 A year or two ago for mine. It all depends on what version you get. I originally got the version that was assembled, but without the MS3X expansion card. I later added that for easier spark control if I remember correctly...

I bought all of my MegaSquirt stuff here: http://www.diyautotune.com/

As for the sensors, I bought a lot of stuff on eBay, and some at local parts stores or even one or two items at salvage yards. Oh, and I just remembered that I forgot to answer one of your earlier questions. GL 1800 injectors perfect for a project like this. But, only if you're doing port injection. If you go the throttlebody route, as I suggested, then you only need two injectors but they should probably be a higher flow rating than the GL1800 injectors. There is a calculator on the MegaSquirt site to help you figure out what flow injectors you will need.

Good luck with your project.

 

[GL1500 Aspencade 1995]

565 pounds sounds about right. I paid in the neighborhood of $700.00 A year or two ago for mine. It all depends on what version you get. I originally got the version that was assembled, but without the MS3X expansion card. I later added that for easier spark control if I remember correctly...

I bought all of my MegaSquirt stuff here: http://www.diyautotune.com/

As for the sensors, I bought a lot of stuff on eBay, and some at local parts stores or even one or two items at salvage yards. Oh, and I just remembered that I forgot to answer one of your earlier questions. GL 1800 injectors perfect for a project like this. But, only if you're doing port injection. If you go the throttlebody route, as I suggested, then you only need two injectors but they should probably be a higher flow rating than the GL1800 injectors. There is a calculator on the MegaSquirt site to help you figure out what flow injectors you will need.

Good luck with your project.

Thank you. Is not better going way similar to yours? Wont be easier to control mixture with individual injectors and as close to cylinder as possible? Is not possible to add 6 injectors into original gl1500 intake manifold? I do realize your knowledge about injections :claps: I only started investigate and have hundreds of questions to answer my self.
I want to do a nice job and that never will be thinking to redo it. I expecting to gain some fuel economy with it. Did your mi/gal improved after conversion? As I reading more about it looks like very good idea to have your ignition under control is well. Thank you for the site, will check it.

 

[Outlaw]

Thank you. Is not better going way similar to yours? Wont be easier to control mixture with individual injectors and as close to cylinder as possible? Is not possible to add 6 injectors into original gl1500 intake manifold? I do realize your knowledge about injections :claps: I only started investigate and have hundreds of questions to answer my self.
I want to do a nice job and that never will be thinking to redo it. I expecting to gain some fuel economy with it. Did your mi/gal improved after conversion? As I reading more about it looks like very good idea to have your ignition under control is well. Thank you for the site, will check it.

It's really all a matter of what you want to do. I did make my project harder, and more expensive than it had to be. That's why I was recommending the throttle body injection. In theory, it should be a lot easier than what I did. If you want to drill the stock manifolds for injectors, you could probably do that. Although, it won't be easy. You'll run into clearance issues with the plastic ducting coming from the radiator fans (I found this out first hand). In fact, the stock manifolds are a bit taller in that particular area, so you'd probably have to drill from either the back (putting the injectors under the manifold, which I can't recommend, and to be honest, I'm not even sure they'd fit there) or drill at a 90 degree angle from the outsides. This puts your injectors squirting at a 90 degree angle to the intake ports in the heads. I'm not sure if that would be a problem or not.

I did realize an increase in fuel economy. My bike went from averaging 38 mpg to averaging 40+ mpg, with my best ever being 42. But, at the time I didn't believe it. I guess I do now. That being said, my bike had issues when it had the stock carburetors, and I do know someone with a GL1500 who has been getting 40+ mpg with the carburetors. What I did gain was better cold starting performance (much better), and I no longer have that off idle hesitation that I had with the carbs.

The best thing I could recommend is to do a lot of reading on the MegaSquirt site. Before you start the project, in fact before you even start buying parts, decide exactly what you want to do. How much effort are you willing to put into it, and how long are you willing to be without the bike? Throttle body injection done correctly should provide years of reliable performance with good fuel economy. There would be a whole lot less fabricating of parts, so less time and less money. But, keep in mind that when you do something like this, you are experimenting. Sometimes things don't always work out the way you (or I) think they should.

As for the ignition, you can always do that after you have the fuel injection working. If you have a problem, sometimes it can be hard to figure out if it's a problem with the fuel injection side of things or the ignition. So, if you start with just the fuel injection then you know that the ignition side of things is fine and you can focus on the fuel injection. It just makes trouble shooting easier. I was hard headed and did everything at once, that caused a few headaches for me but I was able to overcome it. Of course, doing it this way has problems of it's own as well. Such as having to use two sets of sensors. One for the stock ECU, and one for the MegaSquirt. ( I should also mention here that you can go ahead and do all the wiring for the ignition while you're wiring the EFI, just don't hook the ignition wiring from the MegaSquirt to the bike until you're ready for that part. ie: wire the spark outputs, but don't connect them to the coils) You can turn off the ignition side of things in the software until you're ready for that part.

As I said earlier, read read read read.... There is a steep learning curve at first, but the MegaSquirt site is a great source of information. Start with the basics and go from there. If you have further questions, I'll be glad to do my best to help and offer advice. Just PM me. But, remember that even though I've done this, I'm still no expert. There are also a lot of people over on the MegaSquirt site who are far more qualified than I am. Diyautotune is also a great resource. I've talked with Matt a few times when I was having problems, and he was always willing to help.



.

 

[Outlaw]

Just a quick update. I fixed the tach, and completely removed the OEM ECM from the bike. Everything seems to be working just fine without it. Of course, I haven't investigated to see if the cruise control was hooked up to it or not. I'll check into that when I get a chance. If I'm not able to use the stock cruise, I'll just add an aftermarket electronic unit and use the original handlebar controls. That shouldn't be a big deal. I took it out for a spin in the desert after re-assembling it and the tach seemed to work great. I'm not sure about the accuracy, but I think it's in the neighborhood at least. (It should be the same as it was before, as I've basically hooked it up exactly the same way, just not using the stock wiring harness anymore) I went about 150 miles without any problems. Speaking of miles, I started this project at 48,127 miles and it's now got 50,603 on the odometer. So, I've got a grand total of 2,476 miles on the conversion so far. Actually, now that Ithink about it, this photo was taken before I did the desert ride.... So there's a few more than that.

EDIT: I've now had a chance to compare the tach to the MegaSquirt, and they pretty much agree within a few rpm.

 

[ob1jeeper]

Cool Beans Doug… Enjoyed our ride a while back, and it's good to see your blood, sweat, and tears, turn into tears of joy…

 

[Outlaw]

Road Test

I managed to get a few days off about two weeks ago, and decided to take the Goldwing on a trip. So, I threw a cooler on the back, packed up some bare essentials and rode up to northern Arizona for a few days of camping and exploring around the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

I made sure to take my laptop with me, just in case I needed to make some adjustments, and it's a good thing I did. Turns out that for some reason the MegaSquirt isn't making the proper adjustments for altitude and I had some problems. Luckily, it wasn't anything that a few adjustments wouldn't fix. This turned out to be a valuable learning experience. I've since done some more research and have a good idea of what my problem(s) may be. Yes, I'm pretty sure there are at least two. One with the MAP sensor (probably hose routing) and one with idle control (IAC valve control to be specific). I won't know for sure until I get back home and make some changes.

Right now I am utilizing the MAP sensor on the motherboard of the MegaSquirt. Mainly I did that because it was easy at the time and I wanted to get the bike running ASAP. But, now I'm thinking that I could be having problems with obstructions in the hose routing. It's a very long hose and there is a lot of room for problems there. I still have the option of using the sensor that is built into the throttle bodies, and I may just give that a try.

The other issue I was having was that the bike did not want to idle at high altitudes. Opening the IAC valve at idle made a huge difference, but then it would idle too high at lower altitudes. What I need here is a variable condition with the IAC valve at idle. I've found something in the software that appears to do just that. So, I'll be playing with it the next time I get back.

Here's a few photos, just to prove that yes, I was crazy enough to take it out into the middle of the desert by myself in 110 degree plus heat. The nice thing about this is that now I'm no longer concerned about where I mounted the MegaSquirt. There were no overheating issues. If it's not going to overheat and shut down in that weather, then it's not going to be a problem.


This is the Navajo Bridge, right along side the newer version that is designed for heavier loads.



And here's a few shots of the bike in various places. I tried to shoot a video of me riding through the Glenn Canyon recreation area down by Lee's Ferry, however my GoPro died on me. Unfortunately, I think that is a permanent death. I'm going to have to replace it.












They really need a sign for this?



What a perfect way to start the trip! Stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours on I-17 in 110 degree weather, no less. Turns out an RV caught fire and burned to the ground.



I camped at the Jacob Lake campground. Really nice place.

 

[Bellboy40]

Great pictures Doug! I'll bet you were feeling sorry for all those people cooped up in the cars with their a/c going, huh. :ROFL: Seriously, I love riding in that country. Nice looking camp site.

 

[ob1jeeper]

Cool beans… Keep plugging on it Doug. I have no doubts you will get the issues resolved.

 

[rgmr250]

...I made sure to take my laptop with me, just in case I needed to make some adjustments, and it's a good thing I did. Turns out that for some reason the MegaSquirt isn't making the proper adjustments for altitude and I had some problems. Luckily, it wasn't anything that a few adjustments wouldn't fix. This turned out to be a valuable learning experience. I've since done some more research and have a good idea of what my problem(s) may be. Yes, I'm pretty sure there are at least two. One with the MAP sensor (probably hose routing) and one with idle control (IAC valve control to be specific). I won't know for sure until I get back home and make some changes.

Right now I am utilizing the MAP sensor on the motherboard of the MegaSquirt. Mainly I did that because it was easy at the time and I wanted to get the bike running ASAP. But, now I'm thinking that I could be having problems with obstructions in the hose routing. It's a very long hose and there is a lot of room for problems there. I still have the option of using the sensor that is built into the throttle bodies, and I may just give that a try.

The other issue I was having was that the bike did not want to idle at high altitudes. Opening the IAC valve at idle made a huge difference, but then it would idle too high at lower altitudes. What I need here is a variable condition with the IAC valve at idle. I've found something in the software that appears to do just that. So, I'll be playing with it the next time I get back.

Take a look at this 4BAR MAP sensor:
http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/mapdaddy-bar-map-sensor-with-barometric-correction-p-117.html
"with one primary 4-bar MAP sensor for standard MAP Sensor duties, and a second for realtime barometric correction so that your fueling calculations will stay accurate in the event of an elevation change (mountain runs anyone?)"

Re the IAC, if I recall correctly you only really have adjustment for coolant temp variance for the enrichment. Upgrading the MAP sensor, however, might help with the IAC problem. Also, check out this page if you haven't already: http://www.diyautotune.com/tech_articles/megasquirt_idle_tuning.html

I found that having a 'valley' so the low spot is the target idle RPM, and then having it ramp up about 100 RPM lower will help, then if the RPM's drop, it will add more fuel, which will increase the RPM's and keep it from dying. It's a bit tricky as this ramp can actually cause hunting and surging if it's not done right.

Here's a link to the forum posting (almost 30,000 views) with a bit of megasquirt experience I had, although it's mostly about the Mazda B2200 that I put a 5.0L V8 into and did the megasquirt controller (I opted at the time for the version that I build myself from scratch, although I often wished I'd gone for the prebuilt one to ensure that issues I was having weren't related to a bad soldering job etc on my part) for: http://www.mazdatrucking.com/forum/showthread.php/3804-5-0-build-thread

 

[JimnWendy]

I can't believe I sat here for 2 and a half hours reading from start to finish. What a fantastic post full of pictures and enough technical detail to keep it interesting and enable me to understand the problems and solutions you found. Many thanks for taking the trouble to share your project.....:bow::bow::bow:

 

[rgmr250]

I can't believe I sat here for 2 and a half hours reading from start to finish. What a fantastic post full of pictures and enough technical detail to keep it interesting and enable me to understand the problems and solutions you found. Many thanks for taking the trouble to share your project.....:bow::bow::bow:

I'm glad it was interesting/entertaining enough that you were able to get through all the postings. It certainly was a fun (although sometimes frustrating) project that lasted 3 years for me, and I learned a lot from it. At the end, though, I realized that what I'd built wasn't really my 'goal', but rather the process of building it and the challenges that went with it - once i'd done pretty much everything I 'wanted' to do to the truck, I lost interest and traded it for another project (2005 Ford Ranger which had an engine swap but the electricals/harnesses were all messed up), which I then sold and moved on to motorcycle projects - I've owned 10 motorcycles in the last year, 4 of which I still have (my son has had 7, 2 of which he still has).

I've had a few other B2200 owners that put V8's in their trucks tell me that they used it as a guide - although I must admit it's all over the place and I can't imagine it being a great 'guide', but there are some good tidbits of interesting info/experience in there.

I'm just hoping that there's something there that's helpful to Outlaw in his EFI conversion project, which has been very interesting to follow.

 

[Outlaw]

Take a look at this 4BAR MAP sensor:
http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/mapdaddy-bar-map-sensor-with-barometric-correction-p-117.html
"with one primary 4-bar MAP sensor for standard MAP Sensor duties, and a second for realtime barometric correction so that your fueling calculations will stay accurate in the event of an elevation change (mountain runs anyone?)"

Re the IAC, if I recall correctly you only really have adjustment for coolant temp variance for the enrichment. Upgrading the MAP sensor, however, might help with the IAC problem. Also, check out this page if you haven't already: http://www.diyautotune.com/tech_articles/megasquirt_idle_tuning.html

I found that having a 'valley' so the low spot is the target idle RPM, and then having it ramp up about 100 RPM lower will help, then if the RPM's drop, it will add more fuel, which will increase the RPM's and keep it from dying. It's a bit tricky as this ramp can actually cause hunting and surging if it's not done right.

Here's a link to the forum posting (almost 30,000 views) with a bit of megasquirt experience I had, although it's mostly about the Mazda B2200 that I put a 5.0L V8 into and did the megasquirt controller (I opted at the time for the version that I build myself from scratch, although I often wished I'd gone for the prebuilt one to ensure that issues I was having weren't related to a bad soldering job etc on my part) for: http://www.mazdatrucking.com/forum/showthread.php/3804-5-0-build-thread

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm quite familiar with the pages in those links. I guess you could say I have them on my speed dial.

As for the MAP sensor, I didn't know about that. If I read correctly, it seems to be for correcting a problem where the engine was originally started at one altitude, dies at another altitude and then is re-started while still moving. Apparently with a single sensor and then engine still turning over even though it isn't technically running, there would be vacuum and therefore the initial air pressure reading would be incorrect. This makes sense, but I'm pretty sure it's not my main problem.

I think I've got a problem with the way I designed my air supply at idle. I'm using the IAC to determine the amount of air that goes to the motor at idle even when the engine is at operating temperature. (the throttle plates in the throttle bodies completely close when you release the throttle. There is no throttle stop) Possibly the IAC valve isn't functioning correctly (isn't consistent at where it stops), or the resolution of the valve just isn't there. Maybe a more precise remote needle would solve this problem. Altitude shouldn't be making as big a difference as it is at idle. And, I've noticed that some days even in the valley it idles better than others. When I find some time, I'll be playing with it again. Meanwhile I plan on doing some more research. I'll get it eventually.

Your project looks interesting. I haven't had time to read through it completely, but I have a friend who owned a B2600i for better than 20 years. In fact, some of the photos in this thread probably show it. I passed your link along to him. Hope you don't mind.

 

[Outlaw]

I can't believe I sat here for 2 and a half hours reading from start to finish. What a fantastic post full of pictures and enough technical detail to keep it interesting and enable me to understand the problems and solutions you found. Many thanks for taking the trouble to share your project.....:bow::bow::bow:

Thanks!!! I'm glad you found it interesting. Now if I can just work out all the kinks, I'll be happy.

 

[KEVLAFLEUR]

Cool trip to the north rim area! Just made that trip with my family this Memorial day. Even stayed at Jacob Lake campground. Definitley recommend this area.

 

[Clacquam]

Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to on board video of a ride when you get it running smoothly.

 

[SCB]

Thanks!!! I'm glad you found it interesting. Now if I can just work out all the kinks, I'll be happy.

Can't believe it's been a year since we last heard about this project. Just wondering if the kinks have been worked out and we have an actual EFI GL1500 running around out there.

Steve

 

[AZgl1800]

it is running fairly good per the last communication from him, but alas, he has not been back to report on it anymore.

 

[Outlaw]

This project has been on the back burner for awhile now. I've been enjoying some time actually riding instead of working on bikes. Eventually, I'll get back to it.

 

[mrjay62]

WOW !
This was a great read!
Im so impressed with your project!
And here I thought I was doing good with getting old bug guts off the plastic!

So glad you took the time to share the whole process!

Thank you and Good luck!

Jay

 

[tjernagel]

I'll have to loan you my GL1500 to mod it! That's a lot of work. Great job!! It will be cool to see it complete.