Anyone running a Megasquirt on a 3vze? Just thinking about future projects.....

 

A search revealed a several threads about it from years ago, but only a couple people seem to have it installed on a 3VZ-E.

I have an MS-I/pcb V2.2/MSnS-E/4-bar MAP sitting in a box. I need to get some more ECUs for all the EFI projects I have planned.

 

my guess would be a bad idea, they have a bad head gasket design in the first place so i would guess a mega squirt would do nothing but bad things for it, but its a try, GO FOR IT!!!

 

I have to disagree, I think having full control over the mixture would be a good thing for the head gaskets and make power. The stock ECU is emissions oriented, old technology and it really does not do that great of a job. With Megasquirt the cold start injector could be eliminated, so you actually get proper cold starts, and you could run a wideband O2 to keep the mixture where you want it. Ditching the AFM to run MAP based tuning would free up some power for sure.

I am just wondering if there are any gotchas for running MS for fuel only, or if it is preatty easy.

 

Well, the 3VZE originally had computer-controlled ignition. Using the MS to control only fuel would require a carb-style distributor or rigging up the stock ECU to control only spark....and without going haywire.

 

How does the ECU control timing, just for knock control, or all the time? MS can do ignition too, I am just trying to keep it simple. I need to do some more reading.

 

The stock ECU controls ignition all the time. It uses lookup tables and input from the knock sensor(and maybe the ECT/IAT sensors too) to adjust the timing.

I know MS can also control ignition; I'm just saying that you will have to make even more changes to use MS without spark control.

 

lol. Just got back here and my post is gone. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Didnt mean to.

 

You have an ECU that controls all of the vehicle functions. Not sure why you are wanting to throw MS into the picture. For me MS is more for old vehicles that did not have an ECU/FI or for modified engines with turbo/SC.

I would just get a programmer or something if you are just wanting to play with the fuel/air mixtures.

 

On top of that, it would be illegal to do so anyway.




Fred

 

I get instant notification didn't receive one with anything but the above text in it, so I think it was probably lost in one of the glitches the forum was having yesterday and not deleted.

 

Has anyone had any luck with a programmer on a 3vze?

 

Is a programmer the one with the preloaded programs you just flash your ECU with ? If it is I don't believe the Toyota computers can have their flash/eprom written to. You need to go stand alone or use piggy back computers.
I'm using an FTC and O2 calibrator from URD. These piggybacks have to be setup and tuned by a Windows based computer.
In my opinion if your going to use a stand alone or piggy back you should address the motors weakness first. Getting air in and out of this motor which requires some head work and headers.

 

And for the amount of time and resources that's going to take, look for a 3.4 and do the swap. Tuning the 3.0 will produce minimal results vs. the amount of cash spent.

 

I agree that using a standalone on a relatively stock 3.0 is not going to produce gains that are worth the cost in money and time.

MegaSquirt is a good, flexible, and relatively inexpensive system, but Toyota put more R&D into optimizing the 3VZE's computer strategies(for the engine's intended purpose) than any one of us ever could.

 

as said before, you CANNOT "tune" a toyota ECU... at least these older ones... you can have them reflashed by JET Performance chips and have them tuned for your specs, but its costly, and as said before, the gain is minimal... the only way to get "major" gains from the 3vze is to do heavy head work and try to bump up the airflow...

 

Wait, if JET can reprogram it, that means it can be tuned. Has no one besides them bothered to "hack" the factory software? I know Ford, GM, Honda, and Nissan are pretty well documented...

At which point a programmable ECU becomes worthwhile.

 

I can imagine the megasquirt adding some driveability features to any of our engines- 22re or 3vze. But it would be more useful in moderate to highly modified engine configurations such as cams, compression ratio or forced induction.
For one, it can power an idle speed servo and control the idle speed independantly of engine temperature, etc, and in doing so, do away problematic AAC/IAV and the a/c idle up valve. Also, it can be programmed to respond to the knock sensor and incrementally retard timing rather than dropping timing to the baseline each time detonation is encountered or delegate timing retard control to an MSD or similar controller for use with boosted applications (supercharger / turbocharger).
Also, injection could be changed to bank fired, or even full sequential, instead of batch fired and that alone should help emissions as well as power output, but might require higher flow injectors to ensure adaquate fuel could be injected just before the intake valve opens, but this may not work well on a 22re since the 22re only has one distributor pickup to detect when to fire whereas the 3vze has two pickups, one being used by the ecu for crank angle sensing.
As mentioned, with a wideband O2 sensor the fuel mixture could be more accurately controlled but one has to remember that the stock catalytic converters in our vehicles requires the mixture to oscillate betwen lean and rich in order to function correctly.

 

Has anyone had any luck with a piggyback on a 3vze?

 

from all the research ive read, its damn near impossible... that why JET flashes the whole ECU instead of reprograming specific parts of it...

exactly my point, but im not sure if theres anyone (on these boards at least) who has done that much work to their 3vz, so the actual gains are unknown... it may work wonders...