Bus on Fire!

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:37 am

I was driving home from work yesterday and I stopped to pick up my son. I was there a few minutes early waiting for my wife. She showed up and we where talking for about five minutes, she looks at the bus and says,"Why is there smoke coming from the engine?"

Holy Carp!(':pale:')

I run over, open the engine bay, and see that the charcoal canister is in flames. I grab my fire extinguisher and put it out. j(':blob6:')

Needless to say my motor is now a mess. The only thing that burned was the charcoal canister, but the extinguisher powder is everywhere.

Has anyone else had this happen? I just last weekend chased down a bunch of vacuum leaks that colin found on his visit, added a mallory distributor, and reset the timing and AFM. It was running great.

Also, now what do I do? I figure I have to pull the engine to clean up the mess, any other suggestions?

Thanks
John

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:55 am

Wow...sorry to hear. It coulda been MUCH worse!!!!

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:03 am

I did a little CSI on Lenore last night and what I found made me
':pukeleft:'

It was all my fault!

In my excitement of getting the bus running well on my own, I failed to strap the battery down well enough. The battery slid and the pos terminal grounded on the metal strap holding the charcoal canister to the wall.

Lesson learned, with not too much damage.

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 3:16 pm

Update:

Well, the damage was a bit more than I though. The FI wire harness got melted by molten plastic.

I just ordered a Megasquirt system for it to replace the FI system with a EFI. I will keep a running log of how it goes.

You can see more info on http://www.megasquirt.info/

MConverse · Post by **MConverse** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:51 am

Not sure if you saw this guy's page - he has a 77 camper that he installed a megasquirt into:

http://tbone2091.tripod.com/megasquirt/

Please keep this post updated and let us know how it's going.

Best of luck to ya!

Mike

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:53 pm

Here is a link for more info.

http://www.msefi.com/viewtopic.php?p=179983#179983

We are going to document the whole thing.

Westy78 · Post by **Westy78** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:33 pm

left handed kennedy wrote: We are going to document the whole thing.

Excellent. I've always been curious about the Mega Squirt system on a bus.

BlissfullyCrusin · Post by **BlissfullyCrusin** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:38 am

Ditto.

I'm not really a fan of how the wiring is done on that first photo though.

I'll be watching your progress though. I am Intrigued!

RSorak 71Westy · Post by **RSorak 71Westy** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 8:10 am

I'm running the Megasquirt on a 528Hemi in a '68 Charger I have.... Great system.

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:31 am

BlissfullyCrusin wrote:Ditto.

I'm not really a fan of how the wiring is done on that first photo though.

I'll be watching your progress though. I am Intrigued!

Neither am I. My intention is to mount the system under the rear seat and run the wiring in bundles. I do not want a mess under the decklid.

I got confirmation that my order shipped today. Should have it this week.

More to come....

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:11 am

I went this weekend and talked to a guy that has been running a MS system on a 78 bus for three years. He was very knowledgeable with regards to how the whole thing works and was able to point me in the right direction for the install.

My mind runs wild with the thought of no AFM, no ECU, and having complete control over the fuel injection process. (tear in one eye)

The grand experiment begins tonight. I will post pics of the setup.

spiffy · Post by **spiffy** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:53 pm

How is it coming along?

LiveonJG · Post by **LiveonJG** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:55 pm

spiffy wrote:How is it coming along?

Seeing as the post was over a month ago, it's either:

(A) It worked great you losers!

or:

(B) I drank too much beer and put the project into the "There's another thing I'll never do" category.

-John

Post by **Amskeptic** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:27 pm

left handed kennedy wrote: I will post pics of the setup.

WE'RE WAITING. . . . .

left handed kennedy · Post by **left handed kennedy** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:22 am

Sorry it's taking me so long. I'm trying to put together a simple step by step on how it was done.

Here is an update. Lenore is running fantastic! After the engine got worked over and the Megasquirt got installed, the trans went out. Now that is fixed and I really can't believe how well she is running. The best part of the entire setup is not having to guess what is going on with the engine. I installed a wide band O2 sensor in the exhaust and a O2 temp sensor in the intake and that was the only things added to her. I got to remove the AFM, stock airbox, stock ecu and double relay.

With a laptop in the passenger seat I did 20 mile run down the freeway in 85 degree weather yesterday. Maintaining a 70 mph speed, the head temps never broke the 310 degree mark and the air fuel mixture stayed at 13.9:1 ( I'm running just slightly rich on purpose.) During the run I was able to run the autotune feature and let the computer adjust the fuel map on the fly. Everyday that I run this it runs better. This weekend I'm adding a second baro pressure sensor to the motherboard and then the ecu will be able to do altitude adjustment on the fly.

The install could not have been done without the help of a guy I meet on the Megasquirt forum. He lives not to far from me and was able to spend two day helping me (read:doing most of the work) install the system. He has been running Megasquirt in a 78 bus for 4 years and has some really great tweaks specific for the aircooled engine.

I hope to get some pics on the forum soon. As for my impression of the whole thing, if you need to replace/redo your FI harness, ECU, or anything of the kind, I would highly recommend looking seriously into this system. It can be done on the cheap (build it yourself) or for a little bit more money purchased as a kit.

More to come....

John

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Bus on Fire!

Bus on Fire!

Update