Mnkyboys 89 Comanche project

[Pete M]

holy crap!!! 

[Comanche SS]

Following along, Curious how the microsquirt works out...I will be running Megasquirt on my M122 blower 5.3LS.

Hopefully you can do a lot of the figuring out before I am ready 

 

[mnkyboy]

6 minutes ago, Comanche SS said:

Following along, Curious how the microsquirt works out...I will be running Megasquirt on my M122 blower 5.3LS.

Hopefully you can do a lot of the figuring out before I am ready 

 

 

We will see, I need to get the engine built and back in the truck before I can start playing with the Microsquirt, you should have a headstart on me.

There's a lot of people running them in the boosted 4.0l group, even a few with them on boosted 2.5ls so hopefully getting it figured out isn't too bad.

[Comanche SS]

2 minutes ago, mnkyboy said:

 

We will see, I need to get the engine built and back in the truck before I can start playing with the Microsquirt, you should have a headstart on me.

There's a lot of people running them in the boosted 4.0l group, even a few with them on boosted 2.5ls so hopefully getting it figured out isn't too bad.

Yeah you are right, there are also a ton of people using them on LS engines. Shouldnt be too hard, just never have done wiring to that extent before

[saveevryjp1998]

"It ran before being parked" typically what finds its way on trailers to my place in the past.

On 5/11/2022 at 8:58 PM, mnkyboy said:

The truck was having some pretty serious blowby issues so I tore the engine down to investigate, it wasn't pretty.

Surprisingly besides the blowby and a slight tick at idle,it still ran pretty good.

I had a 4.0 in my second MJ drop the crank through the pan and kept chugging me home nice and easy the the last two miles  bone dry after a 170 mile trip with me adding a quart of oil every twenty miles. I'm guessing I threw a rod since I found a 2" hole in the side of the block gushing oil on my way home.  It's amazing the abuse the inlines will endure.

[Pete M]

yeah, every time I hear a guy say he killed his engine, I gotta ask for more details. 

[mnkyboy]

Did a little upgrade on the engine, these jets will spray oil on the underside of the pistons to help keep them cool.

[mnkyboy]

Some stainless O-rings should help keep the four angry squirrels from escaping.

 

[mnkyboy]

[mnkyboy]

Did a valve spring upgrade to Comp Cams 983 springs, the engine is getting pretty close to being ready to drop into the truck. 

[mnkyboy]

The more I put together, the more it looks like any old 2.5l.

Still waiting on the new headgasket to show up so I can finish bolting everything together and finally set it back in the truck, it was supposed to ship last week so hopefully I will have it any day now.

[mnkyboy]

Head gasket finally arrived, now I can finish putting the engine together and drop it back into the MJ.

 

[Pete M]

last piece of the puzzle

[mnkyboy]

For now.

Next I get to tackle the stand alone, I've been waiting a few months for a Hall effect sensor for that.

 

[mnkyboy]

I've been slacking on updates. Here's installing the flywheel and inertia ring,again I had to clearance the new block for the inertia ring just like the last on.

 

I stayed with a Centerforce conversion disc for my AX15 swap but went to a "stage 5" pressure plate that should provide a lot more clamping force than the stock replacement LUK I was running, it's supposed to go with an unsprung race type disc but I'm hoping by retaining the sprung Centerforce disc the clutch is still trail friendly.

[mnkyboy]

Here's after the engine got sat back into the truck and I started laying everything out, I made a tube to hook the output of the M90 to the Laminova W2A intercooler, and put on the LS coil packs. While it was apart installed an aftermarket aluminum radiator and triple fan set up.

[mnkyboy]

I continued working on mocking things up and wiring up the standalone, I did get busy with other stuff and took a break from the truck for a bit so it's not as far along as I hoped to be but it's getting there. 

 

The crankshaft sensor was a big hold up, it  was on backorder way longer than it was supposed to be and actually just recently showed up,so this weekend I finally got back to tinkering on the project and finished up a lot of the wiring, I also threw together a crank sensor mount.

[A-man930]

This project is so freaking cool. I had ambitions like this for my 4.0, only with a turbo.

 

Keep the updates coming!

[mnkyboy]

A little more work over the holidays, I made an adapter to put the 62mm TB onto the M90, it also turns it 30° so I can make an intake fit, the throttle is now working as it should and is running a stock 4.0l cable instead of the over complicated set up I was playing with.

I also got the new injectors installed, and went through a bunch of stuff in the tuning software, I can fire the injectors and coil packs from my laptop which means so far the wiring is good.

[mnkyboy]

Spent the day tinkering on the 2.5l, got a vacuum manifold installed, made an auto tensioner for the supercharger, set up the hand throttle for the new TB location, and assembled a bunch of stuff.
I was hoping to get it running today, i cranked it over but noticed it had no rpm signal on the laptop, after some troubleshooting I found that I didn't get a couple wires hooked up. I fixed the wiring and cranked it over again, surprisingly it fired right up but then died. 

While I was messing with it, the starter wasn't sounding great, after it started and died, the starter quit working. I pulled the starter and found the sprag had come apart jamming the starter.
I just sent an email off to Mean Green about it, it should be under warranty.

It was cool to hear it run even briefly, and it looks to have great oil pressure.

[neohic]

Always a giant sigh of relief when a fresh engine burbles for the first time. Congrats!

[mnkyboy]

It was nice to hear it, if only for a moment.