I said when I first wired up the Microsquirt , that I would clean up it later. Not only because the wiring looked terrible, but because I was having a sparatic tps issue and a sparatic map sensor issue. With key off or on , both would wander in live data or datalog, as well as running. Remember when I dynoed I was having map sensor issues? Well that was self inflicted. I added a new 5 bar Holley map sensor. Still would run at idle at 14.7. Turn key off , restart, 10.0 idle, and barely idling. Under load it would lean out sparatically . Off and on. So I turned the barometer setting to off, because I saw in the logs that the readings were changing at keycycles, one after another, and Microsquirt was compensating for supposed change. I could not even make a full pull at 23 psi on the dyno(same boost for all three pulls-ecu kept pulling fuel) , after we gave it more fuel, at my low boost setting, , a shame -that was my highest power one! You can look at the graph and tell its running like ****. Torque is all jagged and curvy because we had to keep adding fuel under load , for way lean condition.
So I reviewed the last two years of datalogs and saw changes that kept getting worse. Ok so its time to go back to the drawing board. It appears something electrical is phucky. I pulled back all of the electrical tape (which I vowed never to use again ) , yanked all the loom off and then came up with a strategy. I would cut out a big square plate of sheet metal to lay where battery tray belonged, and mount relays, fuse block and power junctions on it all . MY young lady was sick at the hospital really bad for a week , so I had to make do, transfering my electrical station to the kitchen as my two and half year old daughter requires a bit of supervision. So I drilled and cut, and made fire, and made noises of satifaction, and many noises of confusion. In between all of this I managed to 1/2 dad, Because Puppy dog pals, or Paw patrol was running a marathon.
Here's the results of putting used relays and pigtails in some sort of arrangement. I can replace the relays and pigtails later and make it a bit more tidy. But for now..
Fancy fuse cover.
I ran out of loom so i ended up just zip tieing all the wires in a bundle on the fender. I will clean that up with loom later on. But for now it is much better than it was. I was worried about moisture and things like tools landing on terminals.. But thats is where the battery and stock ignitor live, as well as cooling fan relay. As far as tools dropping on it, nothing can happen if key is off. But if key is on and a tool drops on the screws on the power blocks, its gonna pop a fuse. So I think I will make a clear plastic cover , as suggested by Kyle Christianson. I checked my datalogs, map sensor still bounces around about 2 tenths to 1 tenth kpa. Everything else is dead on flat, and steady.
The three major problems I found.. . All my fault. I wired the Microsquirt main power to the fuel pump relay out, on the microsquirt as well, Not sure what the hell happened there! Clearly the relay is an output, not an input . Uggh. The battery ground... After I moved battery to back, I grounded it to the back . BIG NO NO. I ran a ground wire all the way back up to the block and grounded it there. Then I moved all my other grounds to the ground on the block. The third thing I did wrong. I ran the microsquirt sensor ground to the innovate wideband ground. The instructions say to do this, but I didnt have good results with it. I also ran the microsquirt ground back to chassis instead of grounding at engine block. The only reason for me to share this is for others to learn my lesson. I also had a voltage amp issue right at wideband gauge, as the circuit was underpowered, causing wideband to go dead often, then pop back on . This caused car to run a bit rough until it came back on.
I put it all back together replaced fuses with higher amperage, and started it. It started so quick it made me jump. Never started so fast before , but really hasnt had trouble starting either. It was like it knew to fire up before i hit the key. Amazingly smooth idle. Sensors are soo smooth now on datalog. Yay me. I fixed a thing I managed to break. I cant believe, A. it ran so well for two years, B. It ran at all, wired like that. Kick self in ass.
This is my best most dependable Volvo to date. . . Never refuses to be pushed.