ME NODIZ Pro GEN-X install in a Plus 2

[stugilmour]

Sorry for the longish break in this project.

I got the ME supplied Ford coil pack mounted. The coil pack is often referred to as a Zetec second generation model. The second generation uses a “pin and tower” connection for the spark plug leads. Note the NoDiz does not require a second EDIS module to drive the coil pack, just a standard three conductor connection to the ECU.

I used a coil pack mount from Trigger Wheels in the UK.

http://trigger-wheels.com/store/contents/en-uk/p27.html

Generic coil pack bracket from the Trigger Wheels web site. Billed as suitable for both Generation 1 and Generation 2 Ford coil packs. Very heavy steel with pre-drilled coil pack mounting holes.

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Single Coil Pack Bracket

Mounting bracket for a single 4-cylinder coilpack. Fits both 1st and 2nd gen coilpacks

The mounting took a couple of attempts to get right. I left the carbs in place, but still had the radiator removed. I wanted to make sure I could remove and re-install the coil pack with the radiator in place.

To plug the distributor hole I used this bung from eBay:

Classic mini A+ series engine distributor dizzy hole blanking bung plug rover

Blanking Plug for dizzy. For me this plug did not fit the standard dizzy bracket, but worked out OK. I liked this model as it has the O ring seal and stands ~ 1/2” proud of the engine block, which assists in fitting the coil pack bracket.

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Distributor blanking plug for the A+ series engine.
Seal included for an air tight fitment.
Designed to utilize the existing distributor clamp
Will send 1st class next working day

I used a ~1/2” tall epoxied stack of fender washers over top of the 1/4” UNC threaded bracket hole to match the bung height.

I cut down a 1/4” UNC threaded bolt to form a stud. The stud solidly attaches some 1/2” x 1-1/2” steel channel to cover the washer stack and bung.

Edited to add an important caution. The dizzy bracket hole goes straight thru the block. The stud was capable of bottoming out on (I expect) the jack shaft; at any rate it fouls something in there. I had to be very careful I was not rotating the stud inward while installing the jam nut in the 1/2” channel.

The Coil pack bracket (with coil pack attached) is bolted to the stud. This is a bit awkward but doable. Unfortunately there is insufficient clearance to the carb bodies to just use four studs to mount the coil pack to the bracket and be able to remove only the pack.

The steel channel I used was from Home Depot

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/bailey ... 1000165775

Steel channel from Home Depot. Sold as part of metal stud systems. Comes in 12’ lengths; I used this as I had it to hand from another project.

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Bailey Metal Products Steel Channel
1 1/2 inch X1/2 inch X12 ft. 16G
Model # 150U50-54X144PC|Store SKU # 1000165775

Here is a picture of the mounted coil pack. It stands slightly higher than the stock dizzy. I anticipate new custom length spark plug leads can be easily be routed up between the two carbs.

Mounted second generation Ford coil pack. Hopefully can be removed and replaced without removing carbs or radiator.

Next up will be the NoDiz loom and spark plug leads.

[stugilmour]

Thanks to everyone that replied to my spark plug lead questions on this thread

viewtopic.php?f=38&t=54364

I followed up with Magnecor using an available online form to specify requirements. For reference here is their very complete reply, actually received over the Memorial Day weekend.

Hi Stuart
The price for us to make that set with our KV85, 8.5mm wire with 90* coil end with a pin type terminal and straight spark plug boots in the lengths you gave is $129.56 plus shipping. We ship USPS to Canada.
The straight, red spark plug boot we have is 3.5” long so just a little shorter than what you have but by the looks of it, it should be ok. We don’t have a high temp coil boot. The coil boot I will use is for the pin type terminal bent at 90* and it is black.
https://magnecorusa.com/custom/ Here is a link to some of our boots. I will be using the DB66 which can be found under COIL AND DISTRIBUTOR BOOTS 2 and SP11-S-HT which can be found under SPARK PLUG BOOTS 6.
You can call the number below and order or you can email. I will need credit card information along with billing and shipping address if it is different than what you provided. We are here Monday-Thursday 8-3 Eastern time.

We look forward to working with you!

Thanks

Heather
Magnecor USA

I am going to complete the order tomorrow after the holiday weekend. I am probably going to shorten all the lead lengths by a few inches now that I have the coil pack mounted. At any rate, if you prefer one could assemble your own leads from the information Magnecor provided. My thought is I will have enough going on to restart the car without worrying about the details of assembling leads.

All in all really pleased with Magnecor. Thanks again for the recommendation.

Stu

[stugilmour]

I have tentatively figured out the loom requirements. Note I am working with an ME supplied terminated loom specified for a Zetec. If I had it to do over again, I would probably start with their fly lead loom, and specify the addition of the TPS leg. Either way I am finding I am having to de-pin the loom legs to easily fit thru the existing hole in my firewall.

The NoDiz loom is very well made. Seems a bit of a shame to fiddle with it.

Edited to add a loom leg

There are five separate legs to the loom, all coming from the main ECU plug. Loom leg lengths and details….

• Coil Pack three conductor leg 62”. Leg encased in flexible tube. Terminated with the correct oval Generation 2 coil pack plug. Should be easy to de-pin and shorten the two coil trigger wires at the ECU plug. The red 12v ignition supply wire is included in the unterminated leg (discussed below) so this conductor can be easily adjusted to correct length; note this conductor is not connected to the main ECU plug, rather it is folded over at the plug. Would be easier to adjust the length of a fly lead style loom at the coil pack end and then install the ME supplied coil plug with the correct pin sockets.
• Crank Position Sensor (CPS) two conductor shielded leg 83”. Leg encased in flexible tube. ECU plug end includes a ground connection for the shielding, which is going to make shortening this leg difficult. More on that deal when I get it done. After researching the topic, I now realize the sensor end of this leg is actually not grounded (to prevent forming a ground loop), so again a fly lead version and the correct connector and pins would probably have been easier to deal with.
• I will be adding an additional non-stock leg to the five to bring AFR data to the ECU for logging. My AEM AFR gauge provides Analog 0-5v output with a Brown wire for sensor ground and a White wire for 0 to 5v variable output. The idea is to connect this directly to theNoDiz ECU using pins A6 and A2 respectively. Pin A2 is dedicated/labelled to Inlet Temperature, which will not be required in my installation. Note pin A6 is also used for the TPS sensor ground, so re-pinning A6 would probably be required even if the fly lead style loom had been ordered with the TPS leg included. Thanks to @DamianB for this top tip.
• The AEM AFR also requires chassis ground (Black) and 12v ignition supply (Red). I will pick up these two wires at my main connector under the bonnet where all the other wires are assembled.
• Throttle Position Sensor leg was not included in my loom. ME offers this as a loom option, but I wasn’t sure what connector and TPS they use, so opted to make this leg up myself. In hindsight it would probably be better to order this leg included in the loom. Note the Webcon supplied TPS mounting kit came with the required connectors, so very easy if this leg was included as a fly lead leg.
• The separate conductor (unterminated) leg in my loom consists of four conductors for chassis ground (Thick Black), Tach signal (Brown), Coil 12v ignition supply (Thick Red), and ECU power supply (Thin Red). The supplied wires are sufficiently long so no worries there; I didn’t measure them. They are not wrapped in flexible tubing, just loose leads. Easy to deal with and encase in some heat shrink tubing after trimmed to length. All of the conductors will go straight to my existing main under bonnet loom connector.
• Edited to add the fifth loom leg, if I didn’t loose count. Anyway, I opted for an included serial cable which is a short stub leg off the main ECU connector. They also optionally supply an extension lead and USB adapter for this leg. This will work perfectly with the ECU installed in the passenger tunnel, less so for under bonnet.
  

Current plan is to connect the coil pack and AFR 12v supplies and chassis grounds together at my under bonnet connector. This leg can be separately fused at about 10 amps. I think I will be OK with coil supply coming directly from the ignition switch. Any comments on this strategy welcome; I have a second fused relay to hand and could use a similar strategy to the ECU supply below.

The recommended practice for ECU supply is to install a make and break relay using the ignition switch supply as a trigger and getting the ECU power from the cleanest source, which in my case is readily available at my under bonnet main connector. This will be separately fused for 3 amps with an integrated relay and fuse.

So that’s the plan.

The toughest part is going to be shortening the shielded CPS. There are inline videos that show this procedure using a heat shrink style solder connector to pick up the shield ground and the two conductors emerging out the end of the solder blob. I am kind of nervous about pulling this off successfully, and a miss would require a whole bunch of hassle. I may just simply purchase a new standard Ford CPS connector plug and shorten this leg at the crank sensor end. Not a big deal now as I will be waiting on the spark plug leads anyway.

Stu

[stugilmour]

A quick note on new socket connectors for the ME NoDiz ECU connector. The ME web store unfortunately does not list these as an easily purchased item. They were able to supply me some, but they were extremely expensive (with international shipping and handling) and difficult to pay for because it was a custom order.

Here are the correct pin sockets from eBay UK. Note the following two sizes are used in this connector.

10 x Female Socket Terminals to fit Genuine Delphi 2.8mm Sicma Sealed Series
Terminals Part Number: 211CC3S2120

10 x Female Socket Terminals to fit Delphi 1.5mm Sicma Sealed Series
Delphi Part No.: 211CC2S1160P

The supplier I used is called 3 Way Components on eBay. Unfortunately I can’t simply copy an item link from eBay because they have changed how it works. I have included a picture of one size for reference.

Note the pin sockets use a standard double fold style crimp. That said, the connector block is a bit awkward to work with as it includes a moisture proof seal. 20 20 hindsight indicates working on the other ends of the various loom runs is probably the way to go.

At any rate, the NoDiz kit includes a few socket terminals in both sizes. Unfortunately with all the re-pinning in my installation I needed a few more.

[stugilmour]

When I was reviewing available ignition systems I couldn’t find dimensional data for the NoDiz Gen X Pro ECU. They are working on posting a proper drawing with mounting hole centres.

Here are a few pictures of the unit. Allow about 4 1/2” wide by 5” long and 1 3/4” tall, without including extra length for the attached plug. The unit is very light, under half a pound at a guess. Don’t confuse the NoDiz with their larger Fuel Injection ECU, which has two connectors and is considerably larger.

According to ME the unit is weather proof and can be mounted under the bonnet. I could not see an easy under bonnet area in my LHD Plus 2, but I have a bunch of extra stuff in the way. Under bonnet mounting would simplify things considerably.

I am mounting the ECU on the right (passenger) side interior in the pocket formed by the right side tunnel bulkhead and the inner fender fibreglass. I used this spot to mount my previous MSD ignition box, which is considerably larger.

Hopefully I will be able to pull each loom leg, terminated with pre-installed connectors, up to the firewall so I can work at a table to complete the re-pinning at the ECU plug without having ridiculously long runs in the finished product.

My plan is to use a small plastic panel to hold the ECU power supply relay and the ECU. I have a small metal basket mounted already that will hold the whole affair in some cushioning foam.

Note the ECU case does not require grounding.

Stu

[stugilmour]

Quick follow up on the CPS connector.

It appears the correct connector for the standard Ford style crank position sensor is called up on eBay as:

eBay Item Number: 155351420391

RW 2 Pin Bosch Jetronic/Minitimer Quick Release Connector Plug CPS-035

Raceworks 2 Pin Bosch Jetronic/Minitimer Quick Release Connector Plug (Plug and Pins) CPS-035

Product Description:

Raceworks 2 Pin Bosch Jetronic/Minitimer Quick Release Connector Plug and Pins.

Raceworks have developed a comprehensive range of connector plug adapters and extensions, enabling a quick and simple upgrade to almost any application.

All Raceworks products come with a 2 year warranty.


Manufacturer: Premier Auto Trade

Taking a shot and ordered. Surprised an eBay search only found suppliers in Australia and the UK. Anyway, this should be the simplest way to get Stella on the road again.