The 15 Y/O Turbo M42 Build Thread (Now Holley EFI Terminator X Controlled)

[Northern]

Why not to another G4x since you're already familiar (although I understand the appeal of something new)?

An E36X has the 88pin connector already, but would need a repin of the harness.

Edit: brain fart re: the car already being megasquirt, maybe doesn't have the stock connector anymore.

[Dj Buttchug]

Why not to another G4x since you're already familiar (although I understand the appeal of something new)?

An E36X has the connector already, but would need a repin of the harness.

Because I dont want to build a whole harness ha. Link AtomX would work perfect youd just have to wire it all in. I may end up doing the link. I havent fully decided yet.

[baltic_wh4le]

Hello, Im Thomas and am about to embark on the journey of EFI tuning my m42. At first I'm tuning NA and then will move to turbo either end of this year or start of next. I have no experience tuning and don't have any money to pay an experienced tuner or for dyno time. I am looking for a good basemap to start with and also any starter info. The info provided before in this thread is invaluable to me and will definitely help me. But there are a lot of pictures lost to photobucket's unethical ways :,). Was wondering if anyone here by some miracle has a good basemap lying around or some other settings that greatly helped? Dj Buttchug, you are my hero! Very impressive and nice work and I definitely look up to you and your journey of getting here. Truly fascinating thread!

[Dj Buttchug]

Hello, Im Thomas and am about to embark on the journey of EFI tuning my m42. At first I'm tuning NA and then will move to turbo either end of this year or start of next. I have no experience tuning and don't have any money to pay an experienced tuner or for dyno time. I am looking for a good basemap to start with and also any starter info. The info provided before in this thread is invaluable to me and will definitely help me. But there are a lot of pictures lost to photobucket's unethical ways :,). Was wondering if anyone here by some miracle has a good basemap lying around or some other settings that greatly helped? Dj Buttchug, you are my hero! Very impressive and nice work and I definitely look up to you and your journey of getting here. Truly fascinating thread!

Happy to help with a starting tune but what I have for my engine is very different than what you will need for an NA setup. The only information that would transfer over would be some of the engine constants and trigger wheel settings.

[baltic_wh4le]

Happy to help with a starting tune but what I have for my engine is very different than what you will need for an NA setup. The only information that would transfer over would be some of the engine constants and trigger wheel settings.

Any settings that work with a stock M42 engine would be much appreciated. Do you by any chance have any old basemaps that work well lying around for an M42? I saw that early in the tuning (page 34) Wazzu70 sends some settings, and an AFR map to test out, anything like that would be awesome. Thanks!!!

[baltic_wh4le]

Hello again. So I installed the ECU but I cannot seem to get two cylinders to fire. It starts up on two and I have to hold throttle to keep the car from dying. To me it seems like perhaps the trigger wheel settings are off. I have set it at 60-2 and 114. Have tested spark too. I have tried for hours now to play with settings, setting sequential injection and different things to no avail. Pls help 🥺

[Dj Buttchug]

Here is what my cranking settings look like.

[Dj Buttchug]

What engine management are you using?

[baltic_wh4le]

I am using a KDFI 1.4 (MS2Extra). There is a massive misfire, but I have gotten it to idle. After hours of tweaking different settings we gave up for tonight (its 2am lmao). We tried the priming pulse you provided but flooded the engine haha. Below are the current tune/things were I think the problem could be. The misfire is MASSIVE, almost like those cylinders either arent getting fuel or spark, yet spark is definitely there(havent checked fuel yet) and with original ecu the car runs fine. Thanks! Gonna crack on tomorrow!

[Dj Buttchug]

I am using a KDFI 1.4 (MS2Extra). There is a massive misfire, but I have gotten it to idle. After hours of tweaking different settings we gave up for tonight (its 2am lmao). We tried the priming pulse you provided but flooded the engine haha. Below are the current tune/things were I think the problem could be. The misfire is MASSIVE, almost like those cylinders either arent getting fuel or spark, yet spark is definitely there(havent checked fuel yet) and with original ecu the car runs fine. Thanks! Gonna crack on tomorrow!

My injectors are 3x the size of yours. None of the other info will work. Have you verified your engine timing and crank angle?

[Dj Buttchug]

A while back I ordered a Holly Terminator X full standalone for an LSX series engine. It comes with a complete harness. Now that the standalone is here, the plan is to remove the existing MS1 and M42 wiring harness and install/modify the LSX harness to work. Ill remove half the injector and ignition harnesses. Ill have more info and photos soon.

Various searches online I am finding this has never been done on an M42. Should be some good fun.

[Northern]

I've always wondered how the Holley Terminator stuff stacks up to the traditional standalone offers.

My gut says it's basic/lacking in some ways, and that most people reviewing it are new/newish to standalones/EFI

BUT I'd love to see it end up competing with the usual suspects outside of the LS world.

[Dj Buttchug]

I've always wondered how the Holley Terminator stuff stacks up to the traditional standalone offers.

My gut says it's basic/lacking in some ways, and that most people reviewing it are new/newish to standalones/EFI

BUT I'd love to see it end up competing with the usual suspects outside of the LS world.

I should have some updates on the install here shortly. Ive been spending most of my recent time tearing down the m50 and m52 engines preparing for a stroker build for the E34. The 318is is now in the garage and I will begin the stock harness removal this week. The Terminator X is cool because the harness is already done, I just have to remove half of the setup. There is documentation of this system running K24 engines as well as other 4 cylinder applications. Itll be nice to be running updated sensors instead of the old mag cam and crank. Holley also has a very interesting drive and learn tune feature, its own built in wideband, and several other features that are pretty cool.

Ill throw some install photos up soon.

[Dj Buttchug]

And so it begins. Remove existing harness


Layout new harness in general location in engine bay


Locate pins needed to isolate alternator and starter harness and begin de-pinning- re-pinning c101




Begin modifying LSX harness. I will run the engine on even cylinder injector and ignition wiring so cylinder 1 will be 2, cylinder 2 will be 4 and so on. Same plan for the injector bank.

Install wideband. (Now we have two wideband o2's in the car)



ECU will mount in factory location with some mods to the holding tray. Pretty straight forward. The Ecu requires its on dedicated harness +/- to the battery so I tucked that under the carpet on the passengers side and ran the harness right back following the factory battery terminal wiring.
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Now we order sensors and begin the changes needed to the crank and cam position locations. Lots more to do.

[Dj Buttchug]

Engine wiring harness is now separated from the main and fuel pump relays along with the starter and alternator wiring harness. Several pins removed from the C101 and diagnostic connector. A mess of wires to be cleaned up. I have isolated the oil pressure, tach signal, coolant temp, and vehicle speed so the stock cluster will work as designed. The process is time consuming but not hard if you can follow a flow chart.


Here you can see we remove the o2 sensor relay. Main and fuel pump relay retained. This is the remains of the M42 harness. None of this will be used.




The engine cranks.



Waiting on cam and crank sensors from Sieger Electronics.