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Long Trips

wildmanben

wildmanben

Active member
Joined
Jan 1, 2003
Location
Atlanta, GA
Well I guess I'll start things off in here. This August I'm going to be attempting a 600 mile trip in my MSnS'd car. Have any issues come up concerning long trips? Specifically, are things known to get too hot or fail on the MS board when running for a long time? I'm really interested in getting myself prepared for the worst. Would it be a good idea to stick a mushroom fan on the MS case?
Let's have this thread be open to things that break/fail on megasquirt with time. Thanks!
-Ben
 
Whoa, a new subforum.

You could always build an extra MS box, flash it, and be ready to go; much like some bozos recommend with GM HEI units :roll:

The one place I have experienced a few failures is with wiring in the engine bay. It'd be a smart idea to bring a bit of wire/solder/flux/iron/power inverter/bosch 2-pin plug (like injectors) JIC you need a roadside repair.

More importantly, it might be good to plan your trip through MS-friendly locales, in case you have to put up a distress call.

You might get a better cross-make set of responses at msefi.com ; for my 2c, I wouldn't sweat driving my MSnS here there and everywhere. Most days, I leave the laptop at home, and it doesn't even cross my mind that I have aftermarket EMS.
 
hey Ben, I'm under the impression that these things are designed to be run continuously... assuming they're not parked next to the heater core or next to the exhaust manifold.

but a 600 mile trip should be good for datalogging yes?

Mike
 
When I built mine I left it on 2-3 days straight. Worked fine.

When my 242 went XC it was left "on" for 7-8 days. The MS survived fine (attaboy kenny) but the hall sensor in the dizzy gave up for ghost. Im sure being powered w/out ever moving for that long did it in. Surprizingly the MSD and coil survived.

I wouldn't worry about it to much. I did a couple 3-400 mile (round trip) drives in my 242, all was fine.
 
I drove about 300 miles in one day. Didn't have a single hiccup. Longest continuously I ever logged though.


And hey, new subforum.
 
Sweet new sub forum, this rocks.

Two weeks ago I did 1200 miles in three days, the only proplem I was having was a hot starting issue. Get the car good and hot, shut it off, then it won't start again for 10 minutes. Then it's fine. When I got home I changed my hot start cranking pulsewidths (richer I think) and the problem was GONE. I brought the laptop on the trip but didn't need it, though when I got home I realized that I didn't bring the serial cable or power inverter! Duhh.
So yeah, bring the laptop incase you need to do any tuning changes, and make sure your wiring is good. You shouldn't have any problems. Never has my MS really died on me or complained at all, it's been installed for over a year on my daily driver.

John
 
Never has MS failed me, in a way that wasn't due to my stupidity. Before I built the flyback circuit, I killed the early flyback mod and it left me walking. Now the thing's a rock. I've done thousands of miles in town and one bansai 700 mile run from Bellingham to Calgary. If I couldn't kill it on the floor for 10 minutes climbing the Coquihalla, I ain't gonna kill it ever. Most of youn's ain't using the PWM injector drivers, so that's one less thing to worry 'bout. Chicken****s.

Heat kills, so keeping it off your firewall is a good idea. Mine was mounted right on the firewall, right behind the downpipe, and it got hot but never died.
 
Right, my own stupidity has left me stranded a few times. Always easy to fix though.

My MS is mounted in my glovebox. It does get hot in there. I don't think the MS board itself really puts off alot of heat, if any, so you're just trying to keep the heat away from it. Mounting it in a more open place with airflow might make it last longer, in the long long long run.
 
I've put a few 170 mile trips on the car since MS and not once has it or the wiring ever been a problem. Do MS boards get hot? I don't recall that mine has ever felt warm or hot.
 
The Aspirator said:
Right, my own stupidity has left me stranded a few times. Always easy to fix though.

My MS is mounted in my glovebox. It does get hot in there. I don't think the MS board itself really puts off alot of heat, if any, so you're just trying to keep the heat away from it. Mounting it in a more open place with airflow might make it last longer, in the long long long run.
Click to expand...
what about cutting a small hole in the top and mounting a tiny PC fan?
 
I was thinking about the fan idea, cause I recall Rob [volvorules] had his MS fail on him on the way to SE 3.0 and it is kind of worrying me because in a week or two right after I break in the new engine I gotta drive the 240 about 750 miles back to California and I want it to be trouble free [to save myself from trouble I'll be running with kjet ignition]
 
Brickster151 said:
I was thinking about the fan idea, cause I recall Rob [volvorules] had his MS fail on him on the way to SE 3.0
Click to expand...
Yeah this is exatly what sparked my worrying. I doubt I'll have any issues and all of the above seems reassuring, but Rob's issues still worries me a bit.
In an attempt to keep things cool, I have it wired so that all injectors are wired to both banks, and it's set to alternating. I'm hoping that alternating banks like this would help keep things cool, but I really don't know enough about the inner workings of the MS to know if this would do any good or not. But hey, won't do any harm.
-Ben
 
I remember reading Rob's old thread on msefi a few weeks ago (through a search) and I don't think it was because the physical board got too hot, but more that just the injector drivers overheated for some reason. Possibly beacuse he was running the wrong resistors, or wrong settings in PWM, it was something like that I believe.

All in all, you'll be fine on your trip.
 
The problem with my MS was caused by my crappy battery terminals...the positive one had contact issues, and there was a voltage spike in the car. For some reason it decided to ground through the injector driver. Cracked the chip, car would start and sort of run, but it was full rich (with CFIs) and couldn't be driven. Towed it down to Kenny and he fixed it in 30 minutes or so!

Definetely not a problem with the MS. Made the return trip from Alabama to DC in 12 hours, no problems with the MS at all.
 
ovlov760 said:
what about cutting a small hole in the top and mounting a tiny PC fan?
Click to expand...
Or a pair of them, if heat is an issue. One set to intake, one to exhaust. that'd keep a constant 'breath of fresh air' over the MS unit. Although you'd need to clean the dust & dirt out every couple months, just like on PC's. :lol:

But, I'm a MS newbie/nobody, so I'll just shut my mouth now. :oops:


-Justin
 
Back in the day, I had had MS in the car for a week with very little tuning when me and my dad left for where he was living (12 hours away of open highway). We got there in 12 hours without any problem (1244km or somthing like that) Then 4 days later we drove back again with no problems. The long trip was actually nice because it allowed us to tune without having to stop at a light or turn around. Got 33mpg on that trip I think.

Jordan
 
The MS components don't get hot, or if they do you're supposed to change out certain resistors for higher ones, it's described really well in the MegaManual. But keeping it out of the sun is probably a good idea. I've got mine stuffed in a black aluminum case in the glovebox, in the summer time the case gets really hot but I've never had a problem.

Ohh and I thought I should mention, sometimes people (like Rob) have something break on the board and need to replace it, not a big deal, it happens. But I haven't touched my board since the day I soldered it together. Over a year with 15,000+ miles and still going strong!

John
 
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