E46 BMW M3

[Abdula]

Hey I am new to this forum and I have been scouring the net for days trying to find someone who has used megasquirt on a E46 BMW M3. I just got this car a month ago and have been looking for a good stand alone unit for it. A friend recommended ms to me but a lot of the BMW forums are suggesting Pectel. I was wondering if anyone had any input. Some of the common issues that I have seen have been in controlling the Vanos of the BMW's. the motor is the s54 motor 3.2L. thank you for any input

[gurov]

my m54 runs on ms3 with vanos control, but the cam wheels on that are very simple.

s54 has two solenoids per cam one for advance one for retard, and the cam wheels are more complicated.

[jsmcortina]

s54 has two solenoids per cam one for advance one for retard, and the cam wheels are more complicated.

Do you have any technical data on what the cams are like and how the solenoids should be controlled ?
The alpha code attempts to control the 4 cam V10 motor with its funky cam patterns.

James

[AbatelliCristian]

I have bmw e46 320 with 2 vanos. I have ms3+msx and vanos is perfect. I use on-off signal for solenoid. I configure injector G-H out for signal on-off vanos.
Is perfect.

[gurov]

I have bmw e46 320 with 2 vanos. I have ms3+msx and vanos is perfect. I use on-off signal for solenoid. I configure injector G-H out for signal on-off vanos.
Is perfect.

non M engines are way different on the cam signal plates. we have 50/50 crescent cam tooth, so that works out awesome. i'll try to find some infos about s54 cam plates.

[16V-Sauger]

Any updates?

[hassmaschine]

I've been doing a lot of research on the S54 as I'm planning on going with it in a year or two.

what I've gathered:
the vanos solenoids vary from 120-210hz depending on their mode (higher rate for faster response, lower rate to prevent drift)
the intake cam wheel is an 8-1 with a hall sensor, exhaust cam wheel is 6 teeth with a hall sensor
crank sensor is 60-2 (typical for BMW), VR sensor, tooth #1 at 84 degrees (using the rising edge)**. probably a special decoder for the cam wheel will be needed.

Two things that are not currently implimented in the current MS3 VVT code are oil temp and the variable PWM frequency. it seems like both of these things could be applied to any car with VVT though.

James, what would you need for the cam wheels? do we need to know where the missing tooth is in respect to TDC? is knowing that it's an 8-1 wheel good enough?

for driving the two solenoids per cam - I'm thinking we could do something similar to what we used to do for 3 wire PWM IAC's, using the single fidle PWM output, to a driver board that split it out into two seperate channels (one push, one pull). then you'd only need the same 2 PWM channels and MS wouldn't need to know anything more. thoughts?

edit: something like this:


except the input would be one of the MS3x's PWMs instead of fidle.


**note: I've seen people use anywhere from 80-86 degrees for tooth #1. None of these angles could be correct - the teeth are each 6 degrees apart, there can be no tooth at 80 or 86 degrees. this goes from basic DTA systems all the way up to $$$ motec!

[hassmaschine]

maybe this thread would be better off in the MS3 development forum?

[hassmaschine]

working on getting some detailed cam wheel info from a couple different people. Don't have an engine in front of me to work with, unfortunately.

surely I'm not the only one still interested in this though?

does the V-10 have a similar pattern?

[jsmcortina]

It would be really handy if the missing tooth on the cam aligned with the missing teeth on the crank on one phase and on the opposite phase there was a nice large cam tooth that covered the tooth#1,#2 region. Having different numbers of teeth on the different cams is a pain, but could be handled.

James

[hassmaschine]

alright, I'll do my best to find out exactly how it works

[gurov]

working on getting some detailed cam wheel info from a couple different people. Don't have an engine in front of me to work with, unfortunately.

surely I'm not the only one still interested in this though?

does the V-10 have a similar pattern?

i'd be interested in this on the off chance that i swap an s54 into my 325xi

[howelll]

Another item to deal with on the s54 is the drive by wire, I beleive you can convert it to throttle cable with a kit from vac. Not sure if the s54 uses that with a tps or if the signal is sent from the peddle.

[hassmaschine]

you definitely need to eliminate DBW. MS3 could probably do it but I don't think they want to go there.

it has a TPS on the throttles as well

[howelll]

you definitely need to eliminate DBW. MS3 could probably do it but I don't think they want to go there.

it has a TPS on the throttles as well

Ah but whats the fun in that? I think its part of the fun of megasquirt, analyzing schematics until your ready to pull your hair out. But when you figure it out your like hell yeah!

[howelll]

http://wds.spaghetticoder.org/en/svg/sp ... .svg?m=e46
http://wds.spaghetticoder.org/en/svg/sp ... .svg?m=e46

looks like the dme takes a signal from the pedal position sensor then actuates the electronic throttle valve, here is how it works.

http://wds.spaghetticoder.org/en/zinfo/ ... EDKS62.htm

[hassmaschine]

yeah, it's not that difficult to figure out. But AFAIK, the MS developers don't want to add DBW to MS, so it's sorta moot..

[prof315]

yeah, it's not that difficult to figure out. But AFAIK, the MS developers don't want to add DBW to MS, so it's sorta moot..

The reluctance to add DBW to MS is because of liability issues. MS is not a multi-billion dollar corporation with platoons of scumbag lawers to protect their interests.

[hassmaschine]

yeah, it's not that difficult to figure out. But AFAIK, the MS developers don't want to add DBW to MS, so it's sorta moot..

The reluctance to add DBW to MS is because of liability issues. MS is not a multi-billion dollar corporation with platoons of scumbag lawers to protect their interests.

I wasn't making an argument for/against it. Merely stating a fact.

personally, I don't care - throttle cable works just fine for me. One less thing to tune on an engine that already has a laundry list of features..

[howelll]

Looking at every thing the stock dme controls, Megasquirt in my opinion is a downgrade. The stock dme controls a lot of features including traction control, SMG, VANOS (reads two cam sensors), 3 knock sensors, emissions equipment, and drive by wire. Unless you’re making a race car that doesn't require all of those features you would loose a lot of them.