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Maybe I'm an idiot, but..


Chris MacWhirter

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Hi all, I have a LinkPlus (first one) all wired up to a 304ci Holden V8. It's been modded to use individual coilpacks and all the like just to be a bit unique. Now just to make dead sure, I want to check a couple of things that are probably in the book somewhere, but I've missed :) The dizzy body has been modified with a reluctor sensor and wheel which has heaaaps of teeth, and a cutout which is the sync pulse. The front crank wheel reluctor sensor setup is similar, but larger and fewer teeth, still heaps nonetheless. Just so you know, I've come into this project about half way which always makes life interesting. The guy who has fitted the front reluctor wheel appears to have the cutout lined up with 180 degrees out from #1 TDC - at this point I dont even think the cutout is lined up with the TDC of any cylinder on the motor. So first question - Would it pay to remove the wheel, and fix it back on realigned exactly to #1 TDC? I thought it would be but thought I better check unless it isn't neccessary. 2nd question, does the sync signal from the crank and cam angle sensors need to coincide exactly or is the link not fussy about the signals being staggered? 3rd question, is the link smart enough to figure out the signal from the two sensors? Its going to produce a really interesting waveform, a long series of rapid short pulses followed by a flatline, then another series of rapid pulses. The cutout on the main crank wheel isnt as deep as the troughs of the other teeth, I assume the extra metal is in there to keep the wheel balanced. The cam wheel is very fine toothed too, but the sensor is rated as being of sufficient quality to clearly pick up and send said signal. 4th question (sorry about all the trouble) - I am 95% positive that the injection and ignition isn't wired up correctly. This one will sound like a dumb question but I really want to be certain. The link has been wired up as a 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3 etc for ignition & injectors, I couldn't see an option to (radically) alter the order of injection and firing, so I'm guessing its time to swap all those lines so that the sequential 1,2,3,4 etc pattern of the link follows the timing order of the engine, rather than the cylinder order. Am I on the right track? I'm a great believer in fuel injection, just has taken me a while to part from carburettors! Thanks for any help folks, its very much appreciated :)

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OK, your triggering will not work as it is currently set up.  The ECU uses the crank sesnor to measure engine position.  But your crank sensor has a cutout which is used to generate a synchronisation signal.  On the crank, a sync signal is only useful to run wasted spark ignition and group fire injection.  Your cam wheel also has lots of teeth and a cutout to act as a sync signal.  Together these sensors provide enough information to measure engine position, but unless the combination is the same as a factory engine it is unlikely that trigger decoding software has been created for it.  For best results, what you should have is a crank wheel with teeth all the way round, and a single tooth on the cam position pickup (distributor).


The position of the sync pulse is not important as the ECU can be setup to for that. 

You are right that ignition and injection isn't wired up correctly, it should be wired in the firing order as discussed in the manual.


If you were to post some pictures of your crank and  cam position sensors and their wheels and also tell us all the information on the stickers and circuit boards inside the ECU I can tell you if your trigger arrangemt will work with your ECU and a little more info on wiring...

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Theres a pic of the internals, with the more than likely inappropriate LS1 configured PROMS http://www.linkecu.com/Members/VRV8/LinkGuts/view Heres a pic of the crank sensor wheel, the way it triggers is much easier to see in this image. I'll post a photo of the cam sensor assembly when I pull it out. http://www.linkecu.com/Members/VRV8/ReluctorWheel/view Ignore the front toothed pulley attached to it, its just the crank pulley for a Gilmour belt. Hope this is some help. I guess I will have to send the Link back to you guys for a bit of a tinker, if it can be reset just to happily manage a generic V8 with sequential injection, multi coil packs etc that would be great. Cheers!

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OK... Your ECU is a special built LS1 model.  It will need a software upgrade to LPV14 to turn it back into a LinkPlus.  It also requires a sub-board change to suit your 60-2 crank wheel.  Here are you options:

  1. Run the engine with four coils as wasted spark or eight coils in four pairs and run group fire injection.  That will mean you do not need a cam position sensor at all (I recommend doing it this way).
  2. Fit a single tooth pulse to the cam sensor and run sequential fuel and ignition.  Note that the ECU will not be able to run full sequential injection up to about 10% injector duty cycle due to its age.  A LinkPLus G2 is required if you want full sequential injection accross the RPM/Load range.

Note the following points:

  • Both sesnros should be of the same type (eg both reluctor) and must be specified when the ECU is upgraded.

  • Trigger wheels must be made of steel for reluctor and hall effect sensors.
  • When getting your ECU upgrade, also specifiy what type of idle control you are using.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Hi again Ashley, a few changes since last time I posted. I have binned the sensors shown previously and are now using a dual hall effect sensor in a distributor body with a single wheel sensor. The outer ring on the sensor wheel has 8 teeth, the inner ring has 1 tooth, and the dual hall slots in such a way as to read each ring separately. I go to crank the engine, and cant see a skerrick of fuel or spark, once again I have to plead ignorance and hope you can help! Cheers, thanks, sorry for the trouble. - Chris

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Have you had the ECU's sub-board swapped?  Didn't we determine that it was a special LS1 ECU.  To use your new triggering arrangment you will need a standard opto/hall sub-board.  Until then the ECU will probably not register an RPM signal...

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Hi again Ashley, if its any help the LS1 sub board appears to have been replaced with P/N:E9RELX2 Rev:3 with the EPROM label on the chip in the socket reading SUB58D8 090307, and there are 4 dip switches currently set as 0 0 1 0 - I havent touched anything but would altering these affect the nature of the way the link detects the signal? On another note I was checking the trigger wires with a multimeter for some reason or another, and the white trigger line appears to be outputting a voltage (around 12v from memory, I can check it again) while the blue one had no voltage on it. The wire is untouched all the way from the ECU harness you have provided right up to the hall effect sensor that has been recently fitted. I checked and found this voltage with both triggers disconnected, is this odd or is there supposed to be voltage on one trigger input only? Thanks - Chris

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Hi again, was just on the phone to Simon who did all he could let alone post me a tailored dunces hat :) I mentioned to him that my hall effect sensor had an output that kept the input low until a tooth swept through where it would instantly bring the output high (output voltage dependant on sensor power input voltage input by the looks of things) and he did mention words to the effect of disabling some pullup resistors on the sub board. Once again I popped the Link case and inspected the subboard, I can see a pile of caps, resistors, an IC and a few transistors, if I send a photo could someone please indicate which resistors to unsolder? I have spotted a couple of suspects but I'm not 100% sure they are pullups so am reluctant to start hacking away at the sub board. A little more about my hall effect sensor too - it has 4 terminals, one is +5/12v in, (seems happy on either), the 2nd is GND, the 3rd is PICKUP1 and the 4th is PICKUP2. The physical design being a permanent magnet in the centre, a cutout for the teeth to pass through either side (8 on one, 1 on the other) and a sensor at each end. |\ || /| <-- Looks like that side-on. I also noticed an LED on the sub board - would that indicate if the Link is getting any sort of happiness out of the sensor? Cheers! Pictures Below (sensor config, sub board to be added later) http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~cefiro_turbo/car/car.html

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You still have the wrong sub-board fitted.  When you had the eCU changed you were still going to use the high tooth count pulley and reluctor sensor.  You now need a standard hall effect sub-board fitted.  Notet that this is exactly why our G3 ECU's no longer have sub-boards!!!

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The link still wouldnt work at all with the high tooth wheel setup, despite the sensors behaiving correctly, every other link function working perfectly (as best I could tell with a non running motor), it simply refused to acknowledge even one trigger event, hence I changed :( I was under the impression that it had been switched to a stock standard G1 with some sort of generic sub board, but not to worry. How much for a correct sub board? If possible it would be good if you could freight it up to me and I'll just pop it in myself if thats OK. Cheers - I sure hope it will do the trick :)

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