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Turbo K-Jet to MS

BryantTF242

New member
Joined
Jun 14, 2011
Location
San Jose, California
Hey all, been doing some more work the car lately, 1982 242 Turbo, and am getting sick of the limitations and sensitivity of K-Jet, I just slapped in a rebuilt b21ft built by a race shop with upgraded internals years ago that my buddy never used, and would like to get some more fun out of it. Everything on the car is stock except the engine, cam, and full RSI suspension.

I live in California (smog check heaven) and would like to add the ability to have more power, efi, while keeping it low profile and stock appearing to pass smog (assuming I could tune it to have similar emissions). I'd also like to keep the stock ignition system to keep things simple.

I've been looking at Microsquirt and megasquirt to run things and Microsquirt seems like a good basic format to add good tune-ability at a not so steep cost. Any thoughts? Links to builds or chiming in with personal experience would be great.
 
What are your power goals? You can have a lot of fun with kjet if you learn what it needs to make some power. That being said above about 200 something hp with all the experienced people here they can help you make a lot more power with efi. Of course a bunch more power means some driveline enhancements for handling the power. So you have to make a decision on power and how far you want to go.
 
Looking to get to 250hp+, I want good power but I want to keep the reliability. Will most likely swap to a t5 trans, the m46 in It now has seen better days and will likely not last with any more power. Currently running 12psi
 
my red 84 242 turbo was mega squired when I got it but not tuned. still have not had time to do the exhaust and head down to Kenny's. might follow that program with the 80 242.
 
With a good tune on megasquirt you would be able to achieve that. There are some threads here where people made about 270hp with a good tune on a bascially stock block B21FT. The most recent I recall is by Kenny(linuxman). Hank Scorpio also did a thread on kjet to MS and made about 270hp.
 
More than likely unless you are looking for features that it doesn't support. I suggest making a list of the features you want and see if the microsquirt will work for you.
 
Not looking for anything crazy, rev limiter and possibly 2-step, and trying to utilize stock ignition or another distributor setup, just has to look stock, and fuel control and tunability.
 
Also what would be best, a 8' harness or 30", assuming for a 5 dollar difference might as well get a longer one and trim it down than not have enough.

Think I'm going to go with Microsquirt. Just read all it's capabilities and it seems to be a good option.

Now I'm going to have to go collect a new head, intake, injectors and all the sensors lol

Any tips on what works good with these? (TPS, MAP, and a way to read crank position)
 
Technically there is no legal way [at least in a smog county] to get Megasquirt to be smog "legal"

Best bet would be to LH/EZK swap it, get it ref'ed and do a plug and play MS setup between smogs. Theres other ways too, like swapping in a D24 to never smog it again. I've also honestly just drove into a smog station with a 2.2 swapped car 240T running stock breakerless and they did not ask any questions since it looked factory and the tech had no idea how it was supposed to actually look.

If you go through the effort to MS it, it's worth it to change over to have control of the spark side of things too even if it adds a slight bit of complexity.
 
Technically there is no legal way [at least in a smog county] to get Megasquirt to be smog "legal"

Best bet would be to LH/EZK swap it, get it ref'ed and do a plug and play MS setup between smogs. Theres other ways too, like swapping in a D24 to never smog it again. I've also honestly just drove into a smog station with a 2.2 swapped car 240T running stock breakerless and they did not ask any questions since it looked factory and the tech had no idea how it was supposed to actually look.

If you go through the effort to MS it, it's worth it to change over to have control of the spark side of things too even if it adds a slight bit of complexity.

I get smog techs telling me my stock setup isn't right lol I always tell them that's how it's always been and then theyll smog it. Im assuming if i do MS and the tune runs good it should have good emissions right? and appear stock since they don't tear into kick panels and look at ecu's. I wouldnt think they would be able to know if it's supposed to be cis or efi considering they pinch off the same vacuum lines on both my 82 and 90?

I'd be still running a cat and whatnot, and would try and get a 740 turbo airbox to fit so it would all look like it's supposed to be there
 
Here's some links to get you started:
From K-Jet to Megasquirt...a basic installation guide
LH2.4 Install/Conversion. Just 4 wires to make it run
Kjet to LH swap questions
LH2.4 swap, Speedometer
Converting a B21FT intake manifold to a B23/B230 intake manifold
Stealth Megasquirt PNP for LH 2.4

I'm not sure how well the pictures have survived, nor the accuracy of some of the older posts.

To convert to LH2.4, you need a 60-2 tooth flywheel or flexplate and a CPS sensor mounted on the rear of the block.

To convert to Turbo LH2.2, you need a LH2.2 distributor, and should convert to EZ117K turbo.

For MicroSquirt, you need a LH2.2 distributor, or a 60-2 flywheel and flexplate.

For any of them, you'll need a B230 electronic fuel injection intake manifold. If your k-jet head is in nice shape, you can get hole plugs for the k-jet injectors from STSmachining.

Using a factory LH2.4 turbo harness would look the most "stock". The MS harness will look suspicious unless you do a very clean job and run all the wires inside smooth black tubing.
 
I have run MS2 run OBD1 cars through DEQ and been passed.

Even with the laptop on the seat open and running TS!

They look under the car for a converter (with a mirror) and check for a gas cap restrictor and do an idle sniff test and your good to go.

Is Santa Cruz now a controlled county? When I lived in San Jose and went to Santa Cruz (Non controlled county at the time) I would stock up on Lacquer spray paint that was not available in SJ.
 
The B21FT's used sodium filled exhaust valves to help remove the heat. I don't know if the B230FT's used these or std. valves. Otherwise, I don't think there's any difference between non-turbo and turbo heads. I doubt that most folks here with B230's use the sodium filled valves.

On K-jet engines, the k-jet injectors go into holes in the head; on EFI engines, the injectors go into holes on the intake manifold. You'll certainly need to change to an EFI intake manifold. For the head, you can plug the k-jet injector holes if your k-jet head is in good shape (or if you don't want to pull the head at this time).
 
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