LocostUSA.com

so what did you do with regard to the engine management?

i am using the factory EEC-V that came with the donor vehicle, however the PATS was a problem which would decide to not recognize my chipped key randomly.

after a lot of searching i found that i could change the strategy in the PCM to a different one, not all ford rangers have PATS even if it appears to have it.

i installed a Tweecer from Slower Traffic Keep Right, this comes with downloadable software and will plug into the port on a EEC-V PCM from an 03 to 06 ranger.

the problem was that no one had ever fitted this to a duratec so there was no information out there to get it to work, however with a lot of help and research by Mike Glover at Tweecer i now have a running car with all the benefits of the original PCM and it is tunable with a laptop, i have a blower on my duratec.

there was considerable time spent on getting past the PATS as when i tried to tune the car the PATS would assume someone was tampering with the security so would lock me out but once Tweecer found a way round that which was reliable, everything else fell into place.

my system uses a stock 03 engine harness, not the coil on plug system as on your motor and an 03 Ford ranger PCM but apart from that, you can even run A/C or an electronic transmission with selectable shift points just like a factory install, think paddle shifter, two speed fan etc. if the factory did it you can have it all plug and play, even the PATS is there just when you turn on your key the Tweecer disables it so no key programming, you can also revert to the stock ford tune at the turn of a switch, this will turn the PATS back on.

there was nothing to build or figure out as it is all based on the stock tune, change your speedo reading, easy as changing a scalar in the PCM with your laptop, if you are running a MAF sensor you can adjust the transfer rate to account for things like cam changes or forced induction, even a bigger MAF sensor and injectors.

the engine will run in closed loop, think economy, until you specify it to go open loop on hard acceleration adding enrichment when needed and spark changes as required.

you can effectively remove the tumble flaps or rear 02 sensor, EGR system delete without a code or check light being set by unforfilled rediness checks, the OBD II socket remains active and usable and the self learning feature of the PCM will remain active if you so desire.

now the hard work has been done on this for a duratec, i would think that Tweecer could supply a unit and tune it over the internet and get close to a good tune with a little patients and a few remote tuning sessions with Tweecer, and you have the ability to make adjustments of your own without buying another tune for as long as you have the Tweecer connected.

the PCM itself remains unmodified, so should you have a failure of the PCM, you just replace it and re install the Tweecer with no other changes to be made.

i am not a salesman for tweecer or get any commissions for sales, but i believe that using a stock PCM will always be as good if not better than a home built unit as far as reliability is concerned, ford spent a lot of time developing their engine management systems, by all means get a megasquirt and tune it yourself, adding additional modules as required if you think that you can do what ford spent millions on, at least it will start up and run with a factory PCM then you can make adjustments to suit your own engine and vehicle requirement all based on the genuine ford strategies.

just remember, get it to start, then idle cold and hot, be in a 14.8 A/F ratio or thereabouts at cruise with a good vacuum reading above 10Hg all in closed loop before you try to make more HP in open loop

so if you are looking for an engine management system for a duratec with a lot of built in options and expert advice, the combination of a factory 03 to 06 ranger EEC-V PCM and a Tweecer model RT could fit the bill.

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

Allow me to present a different viewpoint: Back in '02 I was planning to buy a Megasquirt, those having been out a bit, open sourced, and very reasonably priced compared to other aftermarket systems.

A friend was seriously into hacking the GM C3 and P4 systems and made the case that a junkyard GM ECM was way cheaper than the MS, was proven to handle vibration, humidity, and temperature extremes, had proper sealed connectors, etc. And if it went to electronic Valhalla on a road trip, even a parts store in Hooterville could have a replacement by the next day at the latest. Plus his extensive knowledge of tuning them was available. I bought some ECMs, harnesses, bits and bobs, a simulator board, etc. and went that route.

Now those 10+ year old cheap junkyard ECMs are thirty years or more old; too old to be junkyardable, and prices have gone up a lot. But I can still buy a brand-new Megasquirt and take advantage of all the newer/better goodies for it, plus the vast online knowledge base for working with them.

Kind of funny coming from the guy that's modifying the crank that Mazda/Ford spent millions on...

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Ford 5.0 into an M3
mikaelvroom.com | @MikaelVroom

the Megasquirt mafia are out in force today.

TRX,

it is your choice to use what ever you need to float your particular boat, my choice was to use a factory PCM if you prefer Megasquirt then go ahead, i'm not knocking Megasquirt just offering an alternative to people who do not want to learn new skills if they are not competent with electronics

replacement PCM's for ford EEC-V are available from several companies in the aftermarket just like everything for Megasquirt.

how many people on this site would farm out the painting of their car or purchase fiberglass parts because they are not comfortable with doing a particular task themselves

Laminar,

have you ever purchased a part that was meant to improve your car but needed original parts to be altered to make that new part function correctly, well if you try and drive an Eaton M90 off the crank of a 2.3 duratec, you will soon find out that it is impossible, yes i also replaced the rods and pistons that Mazda probably spent millions developing but those millions were not spent developing an engine designed to run a supercharger or any levels of sustained high RPM.

Mazda did not think any of these engines were ever going to be rebuilt and neither Mazda or Ford offer such mundane things as replacement bearings or pistons, so i would be contradicting myself if i were to fit forged pistons and H beam rods?

if you consider adding a blower to a GM LS motor you will find the same problem

i suppose you would not grind a crank journal for fear of messing with the size of the journal that which ever manufacturer spent millions on for fear of weakening it, take big block Fords for example, no one in their right mind would race with the stock sized journal because the surface speed is too fast but in a big old truck that never sees the north side of 4000 RPM its just fine.

read your post and mine again, i did not say that you could not do it or should not do it and it is obvious that you can do it, just offered an alternative.

likewise if the hours spent by individuals and all the development work that has gone into Megasquirt by various companies has not amounted to millions, i would be suprised, time is money.

if you start with an engine and wish to use Megasquirt, you need a lot more than just a Megasquirt kit, even the plugs to connect the harness to the various sensors will set you back $100 or so, but this is not about money, its about condeming anyone who can show in my opinion a simpler way to achieve a goal by not using Megasquirt.

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this story shall the good man teach his son,
and chrispin chrispian shall ne'er go by,
from this day to the end of the world.
but we in it shall be remembered.

even the plugs to connect the harness to the various sensors will set you back $100 or so,

I used the OEM connectors that were on the junkyard engine, using good ol' Kester #44 to incorporate them into the made up harness. Maybe not Kosher, but sure is locost.

Bill

Anyone building a Locost can surely crimp or solder a few wires together.

This entire forum exists because the billions that every automaker on the planet spends isn't enough to build the car that we want. So forgive me if it strikes me a bit funny when I see, "if you think that you can do what ford spent millions on." Literally everyone here thinks they can do better than the automakers who are spending billions. I bet there are a few cars here that could whoop on a Ford GT or Corvette Z06 around an autocross course. Why does that mentality suddenly grind to a halt at the ECU?

You see, when Ford, Mazda, or Ferrari are spending millions or billions in development, they have certain goals - ease of assembly, reliability through the warranty period, low cost of production. The millions they spend developing all of their components are driven by those goals. As you say - Mazda didn't intend for anyone to take a truck engine and supercharge it or run it at sustained high RPMs. So we modify it with our own goals in mind.

I have no issue with anyone using a stock ECU, a chip, a carb, or an EFI setup from Holley, Edelbrock, FiTech, MSD, FAST, K&N, Megasquirt, or any other system out there, as long as we're being honest about the advantages and disadvantages of each system. You can get plug and play systems that require no wiring whatsoever and are ready to run the car. If you're price-conscious you can get a total DIY kit and put the labor in yourself. The options are all out there.

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Ford 5.0 into an M3
mikaelvroom.com | @MikaelVroom

Nice mock up.. My plan is to build a integrated roll cage into the frame using 1.75 tube. If im reading the requirements correctly I'm grossly oversized for the tubing pr. weight of the car ..However Id rather have it over built to contend with any sort of "incidences" of the larger suv type on the street.
Ill probably be doing about the same setup but using 1.25 ID pvc pipe "has a 1.75 ish OD " I'm going to use the original F27 frame layout as a guide for this one. I figure Id build the car to fit me and any lesser human beings that would dare to take a ride in it , Im 6'1" 210 and broad in the shoulders..or greater human beings if they think they can fit ..

I did a seat mockup to see what it would be like in different width seats I found a 16" saet to be the most comfortable.
as for seat bottom to seat back angle and (layback?) I went with 55* I measured a vehicle that I enjoy driving very much and that is the most comfortable in for long duration trips and used this as my pattern for measurements.. It happens to be an 06 f350 ...The seat has a bit of a tilt to it but I find that its very comfortable and naturally fitting for my leg length and foot movement on the pedals. My hope is it will continue the same feel even with the different dynamics of driving happening. I notice that I tend to sit my head up farther and get closer to the steering wheel and pedals for better control of them when I actually driving vs. adjusting them in a stationary vehicle..

The seats I'm planning on a custom seat.. one more artistically modeled than the one for fitting me. I don't want just an aluminum seat or to spend the money on a carbon fiber seat that did not reflect the vehicle design and character.. I'm thinking of making some good looking baltic birch laminated wood seats with seat covers or full covers. Imagine a good looking curved wood backing resembling a high end plywood that would be the seat structure and then a snap in (leather? ) insert with padding build in to it. I want them to be a low back design to stay right around the top edge of the body work and then have separate headrests mounted on the roll bar...

by using a very thin wood veneer I believe I can bend and form the seat back in multiple layer and possibly put carbon fiber or glass cloth in between or outside the layers for a skin and use the wood as a type of honeycomb core in a composite. I remember a composite book I had read stated that in ww2 ? they used this type of technique on an airplane fuselage using just the wood with the wood grain oriented in different directions for strength. and laid it all up in a mould as you would fiberglass.. I found some inspiration in a set of porsche seats..

Next I was deliberating on different pedal arrangements, hanging vs. floor mount vs. stange combos of both for a beater toe heel.. in the end I believe the floor pedals make the most sense for the way the car is set up and gives me a decent amount of travel and foot room .. pedal travel will probably be a subject for a latter date as will brake system design and trying to stay with in the ford parts bin, it may be an interesting experience, but I already have a few plans..

As for the ECU I had originally thought of going with a fairly plug n play approach while being semi budget friendly..
https://www.aemelectronics.com/products/programmable-engine-management-systems/universal-programmable-ems-4/universal-programmable-ems-4
It seemed to do everything I wanted without all the soldering, I don't mind soldering and tracing wires but electronic components is where I tend to call it..
I had wanted to keep the OEM setup but didn't care for messing with PATS or having another gauge cluster from a fusion buried inside may dash somewhere..
But with this newer OEM hackable ECM set up I may take a second look at it..I still have all my factory connectors on the engine and factory harness plug in tacked ..



YA no doubt .. Im sure if we're ever down your way he'd take you up on your offer..lol... personally as a parent I don't necessary push my kids into any one thing but instead use there curiosity and what they find interesting to draw them in to that and let them be a part of what I already enjoy .. I do expose them to a very wide variety of motor sports just to peak their interest as to what's out there and what's possible everything from australian stadium trucks doing jumps with uber soft suspension, f1 offroad, dirt drags, formula D, salt flat racers, super cars, hill climbs dirt and road, WRC
swamp buggies, dinghy racing, exc.exc..and a variety of car shows during the year..



Thx I did see the holly product, I was a bit confused as it said for ecoboost .. but I couldn't justify the price tag for what i'm doing.. I did see your end result.. I must applaud you on your perseverance.. I'm still thinking there's an easier way with mostly OEM goodies and just one or two custom parts to make it work.. My thinking is if the bell housing is custom the flywheel could be readily sourced from the focus, miata ,exc. they have a lot of availability and options with huge aftermarket support and will more than likely be available for a very long time. then do the same for the clutch. I would think the T5 platform will out live the M5OD-R1 for the years to come but for now I believe your right in the fact the M5OD-R1 should work great in my current set up..I plan to keep poking at this T5 business but nothing to serious yet or at least as long as my M5OD-R1 stays alive..

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DESIGN ICONICALLY - DO EPICALLY