Board selection and cam position sensor

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Jkbxhero
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2025 10:14 pm
Github Username: Jkbxhero

Board selection and cam position sensor

Post by Jkbxhero »

Hi all,
I'm finally doing this. I need some community help though. First, I'll be starting this efi swap in January and I will 100% become completely familiar with the documentation. But I need help now to prep. What I mean by this and the reason I can't start now is I am replacing the motor and while it's out it's the best time to prepare for the cam position sensor.
I am hoping for feedback on best board. I plan on running it through kicad to add any pull up, pull down or level shifting while keeping the factory pin out.
I am today asking about feedback on the best cam position sensor to work with. I can use anything, let me explain.
I have a 1995 mostly Oldsmobile Achieva with the quad 4. The engine, a Caviler 2.4L, the cylinder head, 1993 grand am. This Frankenstein mix gives me the front cam lobe, keyed, for the calviliers and Achievas cam driven power steering pump but also threaded, for the grand ams press on pulley. Meaning, I can attach directly to the cam just like I could for the crank. It's quite beautiful really and I've been considering grabbing one off of a K serious because they are cheap and plentiful and 3d printing a mount.
It's unrelated to this, but I don't need hydrolics for my power steering, I yanked the column from a 14 Hyundai Sonata and have electric power steering, which even aside from the cool factor is pretty great.
I also have a 5g development board. Tied into my home server. The end goal is to get the car running, then map the AFR as I drive creating slightly adjusted fuel and timing maps based on temp, humidity, barometric pressure, etc. That interface will give me over the air access to tuner studio and direct download of logs to my home server for some machine learning....
All of this to start in the new year. But, I need my car on the road. My 10mpg truck is sputtering, the goldwing is having a fueling problem and the Harley is in pieces.
By then I will be up to date on th docs and the forums, but please, any advice on this cam sensor would be AMAZING.
PS, the car has the factory ECU with a tune now. It does run, just about 4mpg lower than it should on the highway, 2 in town. As I work from home this will be fine till then.
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DrahtFahrzeugHammer
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2025 9:07 am
Location: Bavaria, Germany
Github Username: DrahtFahrzeugHammer

Re: Board selection and cam position sensor

Post by DrahtFahrzeugHammer »

Hi there and welcome,

i might not be able to help you directly as i am in the process of figuring everything out myself, but i might be able to give some pointers:

Could you share the factory pinout or wiring diagram? First one needs to know which type of sensor you need. The most common ones are VR(Variable Reluctance) and Hall sensors. VR sensors usually only have 2 pins and need dedicated hardware for conditioning the signal. Hall sensors usually have 3 wires and don't need special hardware. Both are supported with rusEFI though and can usually be plugged right in from what i understand (If that is not the case i will have a big suprise next week when i try to get my Volvo running). In my case (Volvo 850) the crank sensor is VR and the cam sensor is HALL.

Is there a trigger wheel on the cam already? Or anything you can pick up with that sensor?
Jkbxhero
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2025 10:14 pm
Github Username: Jkbxhero

Re: Board selection and cam position sensor

Post by Jkbxhero »

Unfortunately no wiring diagram for the cam as right now it runs on a crank only, wasted spark, batched injection setup.
Lower left corner of the pic is the module. It's a crank pic that runs spark independent of the ECU but sends the signal back to run the injectors.
Really I can run any kind of cam sensor I want, which is why I was looking for opinions of the easiest. Because I am extra I will want to take the Kicad files and extend them just a bit so that I can map the factory pins and factory mount holes.
This whole project has the factory look. Like, yeah you know it definitely didn't come that way but it looks like it could kind of feel. I will probably upload a picture or two of the engine bay when it's back together.
Let me ask this, is a wheel more accurate than the end cap spinning kind? Also, to date I don't know, but I'm curious, is hall better than optical?Image[/img]
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