Computer issue is cold-start related. It takes about 5 seconds with the hand-set controller to navigate to the appropriate screen and toggle a setting to get her to start. Great anti-theft device, but somewhat annoying to live with. Once cycled so, she starts up fine.

Autocables is the place.

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VE, What kinds of perplexing problems are you having? I have had a similar experience with the Accel DFI unit I currently have; Things not right, and the manufacturer says everything is fine.

This is an edit of the post:
Man, that was fast. By the time I had posted my question, you had ALREADY answered it!
Sam

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Oh, what fun. Definitely sounds like a hardware or firmware issue, then.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Here's the rub - I can jump in the car after she has sat for about 4 hours and crank until the battery is flat - she just won't fire, not even a cough. You can smell she has fuel, and she definately has spark (MSDs really kick when you hold the lead!!!!!), but no ignition occurs. To start the car I need to put the ECU into test mode, which effectively simulates the injectors running @ 1800 rpm, and hey presto we have lift-off.

A noid light on the injectors shows that they are getting power, the fuel pumps run for about 15seconds prior to me cranking over so I should have fuel pressure (althugh to be honest I have never checked with a guage, but I can smell fuel when cranking). Microtech indicated that they believe that my install has an ignition issue, having inspected the ECU and not been able to identify a problem.

In my install the ECU controls the MSD, and to be fair my MSD is a bit suspect, having come out of a car that hit a wall @ about 60mph (the case is cracked). Having said that, the ECU has been controlling the MSD since September with no problem. I had ECU running ignition only for a few months, before installing the EFI manifold in January this year.

We tried a few different things, including completely bypassing the MSD and running a Bosch ignitor, however the outcome was always the same. The car needs to be toggled into/out of test mode in order to fire.

Once she has fired, she will start first click without any intervention for until about 3-4 hours or so after shut-down. Weird... MicroTech have agreed to supply me with a new computer to see if we can work out what is going on.

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I ran into an interesting computer situation that reminds me of this, some years back: On a cold start, you could crank and crank and crank and the engine would never fire...unless you kicked the accelerator once while cranking. The computer, for some strange reason, refused to allow the engine to start until it saw a change from the TPS.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

With the Accel ECU there is indeed an enrichment in the program that takes place if you kick the throttle, just like with a carb. You can set its strength with a trim file, but as of this writing, I don;t know how to change the setting. I just know it is there. I discovered the presence of this little feature while reading the manual this winter. It was not written up in the operating instructions, but buried in the tuning tables. And, no one at the Accel support line ever mentioned it. I mention this to you, because maybe there is something like that going on here with your set up. The support people do not know everything, and it is a safe to assume that your problem just might have a solution that they simply don;t know about, or have not thought about yet.

For instance, when my TPS was throwing error codes, the only advice they could give me was to replace the RPS. In fact, there is a minimum voltage that must be met for the TPS to work, and if it goes below that it throws a code, and goes into limp home mode. True enough, this is documented, and I finaly did find it after deeper reading, but why didn;t the support people think of, or mention this fact to me? It would have saved alot of time and money. Is there more documentaion you can read here?

Sam

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...but with the computer I was describing, there was no such provision. It just simply refused to allow the engine to start unless/until it saw a change in value from the TPS.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

So there are two possbilities: Perhaps, as with Dan's case, there is an unintended quirk with your particular ECU, in which case the replacement might work correctly. Or, as in my case, there might be some tuning feature, or setting that the support people have not figured out yet. In either event, these things can drive you crazy. I hope you can get it worked out. It can be very discouraging to spend a pile of money, and have things FUBAR for some reason.
Sam

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Is it possible with a Microtech to do a data log on startup? See if the injector pulse width or timing advance changes when you put it into the test mode?

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

What about a "flood clear" mode? I have seen ecu's do this, to where a certain pattern or position on the tps would get the computer to not fire the injectors (or do so but at a very lean 20:1 or something afr) but still fire ignition

thanks! so they just milled the rail for two sizes and the ring is what holds it right?(beside the obvious mounts on the rail)

To be honest I have been really lazy with my EFI install. The bloody thing is 90% spot-on straight out of the box, and my good mate who installs and sells these things for a living lives next door. Unfortunately because she does almost everything I expect of her, I haven't even read the manual or played a lot with the software...

If the car was an absolute pig to drive, or simply did not work I guess I would be both more interested and proactive about tidying up all the loose ends of the conversion. She is my daily driver, racks up about 200~250miles/week in Sydney traffic without fuss or bother, so I've been pretty lucky. Having said that, once the new computer arrives I will hopefully get this problem beat and optimise the tuning a bit more.

Thanks for the suggestions. In response:
1. TPS does not come into play with my problem. She will not fire regardless of throttle position.
2. There is a cold-start enrichment feature which is linked to coolant temp. You can enrich the mixture at multiple coolant temp points to assist with cold start running. I'm assuming all this is working fine, but have no real way of telling.
3. MicroTech actually has some pretty good logging capabilities right out of the box, but it is an area that I have neither explored nor have been asked to supply logs from. I guess it comes back down to reading the manual...
4. Not sure about flood-clear mode, although I must admit I was wondering if I was not getting enough fuel @ start up. My cranking RPM registers at about 100rpm, and I thought that perhaps there simply is not enough fuel floating around to get the motor to kick over. Having the injectors pulse for a couple of seconds @ effectively 1800rpm would certainly dump a lot more fuel into the motor, and perhaps that's why it fires. People that know more about these things than I do have suggested that there should be ample fuel, even at cranking RPMs. Also the fact that she will start normally once initially fired tends to disprove my concern.

I'm trying hard not to paint a negative picture of my setup here. Like I said she is almost spot-on, however the excitement of the EFI install has worn off sufficiently, and I'm now keen to get the bugs ironed out. What was a 5 second work-around has now become an inconvenience that will get resolved soon.

If you are interested in having a read of the manual, it can be found here: http://microtechefi.com/ There is some good reading to be had in it (so I am told! )

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The fuel rail was milled for the injectors, however there is only one size. Yes, the o-ring is what keeps the rail and injector in place. Dash-6 fittings were welded to each end of the rail to accept the fuel inlet and return lines.

This is basically what I started with: eBay Dash-6 fuel rail

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Everything you have written suggests looking at the warm up enrichments. I would start there. Open the enrichment table, and type in a value for each ECT range in the table that is some percentage higher than 100%, reducing toward 100 as the ECT goes up. I would start with 110-120 or somewhere around there when the ECT is at 40 degreesor below. I suspect you are not far off. If it fires, watch your O2 figure. It should be running around .4 volts when cold, which would indicate somewhat richer the stociometric. If it does not fire, look for a cranking enrichment, and see if that will help. Go slow, and add a little at a time. There is also an afterstart enrichment which lasts for a few seconds until the engine gets itself going. You can change the duration of this in most cases.

I am struggling with this as well, and have my head into this process right now. Good luck, and please keep us informed of your progress, and any ah-ha's you get while figuring this out.

Sam

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I agree with Sam. I have had the cold start settings off, and it won't even fire.

Lou

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