That is the intake air temp sensor. There wasn't any room to mount it in an intake runner so I'll be mounting it to the air cleaner or carb bonnet when I get that. Just have to get an NPT weld fitting and weld it wherever it needs to go.

The ECU has open and closed loop control settings with all sorts of options. As of now, I have "Afterstart Enrichment" and "Warm Up Enrichment" adding fuel based on coolant temp, until the engine is warm and using the base VE table values. Cranking and prime pulses are also dependent on coolant temp. I have an IAC valve installed but not being used just yet. I'd like to get the VE table pretty clean before adding all of the aids like Idle control, EGO control, and Acceleration Enrichment. This is the method I've taken on my turbo car with great success.

I do datalog most of my startups when making changes to the calibration and also log during driving but with the Auto-Tune feature activated during driving, It's changing fueling so the datalog doesn't tell me much that I can rely on just yet. I'm more dependent on data logs when the fuel table is more sorted and I'm making real hard pulls.

The blower belt tensioner is sort of an odd design with these but it's holding up. I think It's giving me a little screech if I blip the throttle in neutral but idk if that's kind of normal or if I should tighten her up a bit. it won't rev in gear as quickly as it does in neutral so it may not slip in gear.

 

The compressor is a major point of friction and heat and it is completely and utterly variable and boosted temps have little to no direct coorelation to air temps before the compressor. That sensor NEEDS to be measuring boosted air temps. This is absolutely mission critical. MS as with most ecu's don't have the logic to determine how heat soaked those screws are at any given point and this alone makes a huge impact on boosted air temps. It is impossible to create or have a good tune without even being able to see boosted air temps. If you can drill and stick it in just 1 intake runner it is fine and will be accurate. It does not need to be in a plenum but it must be between the screws and the intake valve(s) to give you accurate data to setup a good tune with.

 

Eek, wasn't thinking these little rotors would generate too much heat with e85 running through it. I know after driving around a bit and tuning on saturday the blower case was barely warm while the coolant sensor was reading 185°. lol

The whole issue was the lack of room between the case and valve covers. These things weren't designed with EFI in mind. no bosses casted in or anything. I'll place the sensor on each runner and see where it has the most room. It should be easy to pop the blower off (4 bolts) and do a drill/tap. I love how easy this thing is to work on. that'll be a project for this week

 

In the end you will be happy when you log data and are able to know that the iat you are logging is the exact temp going in to be burned. And you can setup your table to pull however much time at whatever temp you like, and when you see or hear detonation and have to make changes, you will get a positive reaction. As opposed to fetching bad and untrue data and when things aren't right you make a change and things get worse.

Also the blower case is not the boosted air temp. It is very possible to be 10-30 or more degrees different in air temp from the aluminum housing of the blower. Moving air can change temp much faster than aluminum or steel.

What about cylinder #5 runner? front drivers side. right under the distributor? Is that all water jacket? or is the intake runner in front of the blower case?

 

I was looking through the old pictures and I think #1 and #5 may be pretty roomy. so those are a viable option. Gonna yank the blower this week and drill and tap it. intended to sort this a while back but just haven't yet. Do you think ethanol will hurt the sensor? I think they're typically used in port injected manifold.

 

It shouldn't. And if it does then find a different sensor. It is not uncommon to see someone spraying nitrous or meth directly across the iat sensor to use it's timing table so changes can be made to timing when it is spraying.

 

good call, it's a quality GM IAT sensor but i haven't researched their compatibility with ethanol yet. My quick search didn't yield any negative effects so I'm just gonna roll with it.

 

UPDATE: Didn't have enough time to do the IAT sensor yet but went ahead and plumbed, affixed, and tuned the IAC valve for cold starts and warm up. No pics yet but I can grab some today. Works great! I'm glad I was able to use an old one I had for free and I'm glad it's working as I planned.

 

UPDATE:

Installed the IAC yesterday and reconnected my factory tach to megasquirt instead of MSD box (since the MSD connection was giving me all the trouble). Works like a charm! It's amazing how much these little ECU's can do.

 

I was doing some idle/warmup tuning in the driveway yesterday and noticed that with the hood on, sitting there idling, this thing makes some high IAT's. My turbo car barely gets over 100°F ever (iat in manifold like this one) but this one came up to around 170 just in the driveway. I know it's sucking in hot air coming off the cooling fan though so I bet I can get those temps down if I can get air from above the hood. With e85 i'm not real concerned but it was surprising for sure.

 

I'm thinking about those lexan scoops all the racecars like to run.

 

Outside would be sweet. Like this but smaller maybe

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I'd have issues with rain though because i leave the car outside. I think maybe the best route will be that bonnet with cone filter in a remote area of the engine bay. I had wanted to do this a while back but ended up running this air cleaner I already owned.

 

Ram air is forced inductions best friend.

 

There were a few generations of mustangs that had them but I don't know of an easy kit. I guess this project hasn't exactly been about the "easy" route though.

 

'83 hood scoop.

 

That, or the 1982 GT scoop.. the 82 allows for some ram action

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