MegaJolt JR, EDIS8, Rover V8 - Help / Advice needed

Metro6R4 · Post by **Metro6R4** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:06 pm

Hi,

I have a recently completed Metro 6R4 replica rebuild. It is RWD with a new 4.6 Stage III Rover V8 using a Edelbrock / Weber 500 carb & Megajolt Lite JR. The engine and Megajolt Lite JR were dynoed out of the car at 312bhp a few months ago before fitment. The engine was built by one company (V8Developments) and installed by another. It uses an EDIS8 and Ford coil packs.

The car weighs just over one tonne (1088kg) and with an alleged 312bhp it should move rather rapidly ... However, it accelerates about as quickly as my diesel Land Rover. Something seems to be amis somewhere - The car seems to run smoothly enough (by ear & feel), it pops and bangs a bit on overrun, but there is certainly not 300+ bhp / tonne there.

Although I have spent many hundreds of hours restoring this car myself (bodywork, interior etc.) i'm not great with engines (hence I had another company build me a new one & another company install it) - I understand the basics of engines, but my knowledge stops shortly after that

I have created a picture below of my setup and have labeled leads / wires alphabetically as to where they come from / where they go to. If anyone has a Rover V8 with a similar setup I would be eternally greatful if you could compare your installation with mine to confirm yours is the same.

Any other tips would be more than welcome !

Regards,
Dave

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:14 pm

Hi and welcome to the forum Dave.

Awesome car, would love to see this running when its finished. Did they engine tuner set the engine up with megajolt installed??

Not had any experience with a V8 myself but i can help checking you have everything in the correct order.

1) Do you know your firing order??

2) Can you tell me what number cylinders go to which plugs on the coil pack labelled A-H

3) What pin off the EDIS goes to which pin on each coil pack labelled I-K

4) How was the trigger wheel setup??

5) Do you get 10 degrees advance without the megajolt connected??

Ryan

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:37 pm

1) is 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2

so therefore 1 and 6 should be on the same coil, as should 8 and 5, 4 and 7, finally 3 and 2

From what i can workout from the picture this seems to be fine with yours.

If C is cylinder 1 then D should be 6, this looks correct.

If A is then cylinder 5, then B should be 8, again correct.

If G is cylinder 3, then H should be 2, correct

If E is cylinder 7, then F should be 4, correct.

So that part of the circuit seems to workout. Now we just need to make sure that the EDIS is wired up the correct way round to the coils.

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:09 pm

According to http://www.autosportlabs.net/MJLJ_V4_ve ... stallation

you have marked EDIS Coil output A as K
B as L
C as J
D as I

The EDIS fires ABCD, so in your case KLJI

K would fire cylinders E and F - 4 and 7
L would fire cylinders G and H - 3 and 2
J would fire cylinders C and D - 1 and 6
I would fire cylinders A and B - 8 and 5

Firing order again is 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2

So the only thing i can see is that the firing order is correct but possibly not at the right time due to EDIS to coil packs wiring.

I made one assumption and that was that the coil pack fires (high tension) from the same physical side of the coil as the input (low tension) which you have crossed over possibly.

Can anyone else confirm if they fire the coils from the same side as the low tension input???????

Metro6R4 · Post by **Metro6R4** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:59 pm

Hi Guys,

Thank you ever so much for the replies - It's reassured me that the leads are connected properly.

Just the query of the connectors from the EDIS to the coils now, ie. as to whether i've got those connected to the correct coils - I will investigate !

I will try and link my laptop upto the MegaJolt in the next couple of days & see what that tells me.

Thanks again
Dave

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:02 pm

Dave

One more thing do you know which is cylinder number 1 is it left hand side flywheel end or pulley end?? as this does make a difference i believe.

Ryan

Metro6R4 · Post by **Metro6R4** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:08 pm

A little bit of an update ...

I got a USB to Serial adaptor today, just set the port on my laptop & connected to the MJLJ. With all views showing I get just a fluctuating reading of 255kpa on one of them. No revs or anything else showing on the s/ware.

I then went to this page :

http://www.autosportlabs.net/MJLJ_V4_ve ... tion_guide

* I measured - between EDIS pin 1 and ground - * Approx. 12V when engine not running - Mine was appx. 4.9v - ie. not right
* I measured - at PIP input on MJLJ and ground - * Approx. 5.5V with engine cranking/running - Mine was appx. 5.0v - so OK i think.

I then decided to unplug the MJLJ completely and fire the car up to see if it was actually doing anything at all. Stangely all seemed the same - took her for a run & no real difference. From this i'm guessing either the MJLJ is not connected correctly or it has a fault - I seem to be in the 'Limp Home' mode !

Any further tips more than welcome !

Dave

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:43 pm

1) double check your earths, is the EDIS earth the same as mj, if not make it so.

2) Can you double check the voltage between pin 1 and ground without mj connected

3) What megajlt do you have? ie V3, V4

4) What version software are you running? ie V3.0.1, V4.0.2 (if you have a V3 you have to run V3.x.x software, and so on)

5) There could also be a problem with your serial adaptor as these can cause problems. With this have a look through the forum and someone else will have encountered a similar problem. Can you get at a desktop pc or laptop with built in serial adaptor as these are easier to work with and compare against until you have your laptop configured correctly.

Post by **brentp** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:54 pm

When running the software and connected to the Megajolt check the bottom of the screen for any status messages. if you see something like "Timed out reading..." or "Can not open port" then it's not communicating with the Megajolt unit.

However, if it is showing a change in MAP pressure (blowing / sucking on sensor hose) or, if you can read / write ignition map values, then you are indeed communicating. If it's otherwise communicating but not showing RPM you may very well have a problem with the PIP connection between the EDIS module and the MJLJ- as this signal is how the MJLJ calculates RPM.

These verification steps are especially helpful for troubleshooting initial installations:
http://www.autosportlabs.net/MJLJ_V4_ve ... tion_Steps

Let us know what you find out!

britlude · Post by **britlude** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 8:49 pm

disconnect the mjlj, and start the car up with a timing light on the crank, it should be rock solid 10 degrees, blip the throttle, and it should stick bang on 10 degrees.

connect the mjlj back up again, do the same thing, and the timing light should move, matching the mjlj map.

is the mjlj talking to the computer via the serial port? does the mjlj show the engine revs? does sound like it's the mjlj playing up somewhere, probably wiring, as the rest is pretty much fool proof!

stick with it, it will be worth it!

Quagmire · Post by **Quagmire** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:14 am

Cylinder 1 is the pot nearest where the dizzy is/was, with the odd cylinders on the one side and the even on the other. so you have:

*******

Rear of car

8 7
6 5
4 3
2 1

Front of car

*******

I'd do as the others suggest and fire it up without MJ, EDIS only and see where the timing is sitting and go from there. Popping and banging with lack of power sounds like its too retarded maybe?

Don't worry- once you get it sorted it'll run like a dream and you'll wonder how people ever lived with distributors...

The MJ is one of the best things I have done to my v8, and my Dad's is due to be done next

cng1 · Post by **cng1** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 1:12 pm

If you are not seeing RPM on the PC screen with the engine running then chances are that your PIP connection is not correctly wired. I have seen a number of installations where PIP and SAW have been connected the wrong way round so it is well worth double checking that the connection is right.

NITROPIXIE · Post by **NITROPIXIE** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 2:29 pm

Just to reliterate what i said earlier about your ht lead setup and your low tension lead set up. It seems everything is in order. I was assuming cylinder 1 was the first on the right from the clutch end, but it isn't as in your picture. Cylinder 1 is actually on the right handside from the pulley end, so all looks good.

Metro6R4 · Post by **Metro6R4** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:50 pm

Guys,

Again many thanks for taking the time to read my post and for all the answers - it's much appreciated !

I've made a bit of a breakthrough today

- I uninstalled everything from my Laptop and re-installed + re-configured the USB > Serial port lead. After a little further tinkering the s/ware now reads my MJLJ revs, kpa etc. ... YIPPEE !

Once i'd recovered from all this excitement, I realised that my MJLJ had absoultely nothing written to it - just a load of zero's everywhere on the s/ware. This engine was built for me and dynoed at 312bhp, I'm not sure if the engine builder I used did anything with the MJLJ during the dyno testing or not. Dyno testing was done out of the car at the time, so perhaps they never connected it up & just supplied a fresh kit to the other place that installed the engine and MJLJ for me ... i don't know.

Anyway, considering myself as an expert now

(i wish) - I decided to open up the default Rover V8 map I have on the CD supplied with MJLJ - I then wrote this to the MJLJ with the engine running. All seems OK at present, gave her a quick rev and the popping and banging is now minimal on overrun + where she used to run-on after the ingition was turned off, she just turns straight off now.

I'll take her on a test drive tomorrow & report back.

Quick question - My engine is a Stage III, Rover V8, 4.6 Litres - Does anyone have a more suitable map that I could write to my MJLJ instead of the default one i've already written to it ?

Regards,
Dave

Metro6R4 · Post by **Metro6R4** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:37 pm

Hi again,

A little stuck / confused ....

As I said earlier I wrote (I think) the Rover V8 map to the MJLJ (running charactaristics changed so I must have done something !) but, just turned off the laptop re-powered it on and re-connected it to the car and MJLJ does not have the map on it now - just a load of zeros like before.

Is there a special technique to getting a map firmly implanted onto the MJLJ ?

Dave