I'm looking into a standalone for my 2wd and i'm leaaning toward building and mapping a megasquirt v1/2 . I'm fully aware that it's no simple task to map an engine correctly but i'm very keen to get into the mapping side of things. So my question is why ins't there many people running them on YB's?. Is it purely because chips with a pre installed map are realitivley cheap from reputable tuning company's and most people are happy to go down this route of am i missing somthing ? cheers in advance

 

i think the reason is two fold
1) as you say you can buy a eprom preloaded for very sensible money
2) reliability and quality assurance of something you solder yourself, (and im a fan of self learning)

 

I wouldn't run megasquirt on my lawnmower

 

Care to expand a little ?

 

why do you want to remove an OE quality engine management system that was state of the art in it's day and ran the works cars
the l8 and p8 are vastly superior
if you want to learn to map just buy a hacked copy of the pectel iems

 

Thats a good idea Tony i would be far happier with a plug and play option so to speak . I wan't mad keen on the idea of rebuilding a loom to suit and changing the sensor's ect . To be totally truthfull i wasn't aware you could map the weber units . Any more info on getting a hold of one ? cheers Al

 

having gone the megasquirt route on my various builds of engine over the years it's great in many respects, very versatile unit.
however and it's a biggy, it takes time, fuel, more time, more fuel and patience to get your mapping skills good enough to get it nice to drive.
pay a mapper and let their years of experience save you a fortune in time and fuel.
if you really want to learn go for it, i haven't had a failure of ecu at all, just wanted to learn and thought i'd save loads, handy as i've changed spec loads of times now.

 

Thanks for the reply , I do wanna learn and the car is only a toy so doesnt matter if it's off the road or uses a shit load of fuel it's gonna be a steap learning curve . Now heres the thing do i as Tony said find a t2 /T6 or build or buy a squirt system ? will the pectal units support coil on plug as thats one thing i do want ?

 

you can get well built megasquirt units, just do some research and talk to a bloke called "james murray" he will get you on the right path.

 

Superb , cheers

 

Tony didn't talk t2 or t6.

 

I assumed that was what he ment or did he mean p8 ?

 

He ment l6 l8 or p8 using pectel software for these.

 

Again , i didnt know you could hack into the mapping on them , what would you need to change to break into them , chip only ?

 

How did you think a tuner did it?

 

I assume you have remove the chip rewite it and replace and will need the relevant hardware to do so?

 

RP LAB have what you need

http://rp-lab.com/hp.shtml

 

You use an emulator to pretend its an EPROM, then once you finished you burn this data to EPROM

 

thanks for the help , given me a lot more to think about

 

Rp lab can make your ecu full mappable

 

Piems is a DOS based program, yes of course, as all the MAPS are just copies of the original Ford software.

You will need an EPROM reader (Connects by serial port typically) if you want to see and manipulate your current MAP, alternatively there are plenty of maps out there you can load to explore and play around with.

This is ASSUMING your chip is not encryped, MSD for example protect there chips to stop people from stealing, meddling with the maps.

So far as I know though with the Webers you will have to erase and reprogram the chip each time, which will require more hardware, i.e. UV lightbox, as it's not something that can be done dynamically, although I think RP Labs may be able to utilise a data stream IIRC.

Martin

 

PMSL!!!

 

Then make it plug and play. Just make your own patch harness.

There may be some additional wires but most should be covered with the patch harness. Ive done it before wiht other ecu's

One thing that would be good to get rid of though is the crappy 4 tooth crank trigger.

 

Been doing a lot of research over the past few days and i've decided to build my self a megasquirt . Up to now i'm thinking a MS2 v3 with mapdaddy upgrade however thats subject to change . Gonna steer clear of the ms3 at the moment as theres not a stable code avalible as yet that i can find and i'm not ready to start delving that deep as yet . As a nice extra i'm going to build a megaview so i can get rid of my AVCR and let the ecu control the boost solonid or air injectors not made my mind up yet then build it into my dash like the SECS do . Very tempted to scratch build a loom as the ageing ford unit may cause issues, Plus i can revert back to Std if the need arises . Steve i'm currently looking into a trigger wheel to get rid of the lugged artical so whether it be a case of mounting a 36-1 trigger wheel for now until i come up with a more asthetically pleasing solution still remains to be seen . So as im a big kid ive been to Maplin today and splashed out on a new soldering station with adjustable temp as my gas one's arn't suitable for the job . Thanks to everyone for there sujestions and help . Oh and as a point to Beatlejuice someone has run MS on there lawnmower ,Look it up . I'll start a build thread as soon as the preverbial wheels are in motion as i'm sure i'm going to be needing lot's of input .

 

Use a small turbo escort cosworth from pulley (36-1)

 

Cheers Gareth that sort's that problem out . that way i can use my existing crank trigger

 

Yea, just use a 36-1. Although I'd just be buying a fully built unit if I was doing it

The notion of self build is nice, I really wouldnt be arsed when someone else can do it. It would be hours of my life wasted lol

 

I may have to buy a prebuild item as i'm struggling to find a kit un the uk for sensible money .

 

Steve I finally agree with you on something. I simply couldn't be arsed to build it myself

 

Also agree that neither of us would use MS in the first place lol

Phil at Extraefi sells fully built packages.

or I think that trigger wheels place sells them too

 

Fuck, I just checked the price on them, no way would I use one. They haven't got low impedance injector drivers so you have to use ballest resistors.(yuck)
So you want high impedance injectors , the ecu itself, a wideband system, a way to listen to det, you've spent over a grand before you know it.

 

Overall they are still cheaper. But IMO not cheap enough to make them worth it.

As much as I was against the use of resistors too...many OEM's do it, so it obviously isnt as bad as it sounds.

But with MS you are tied to using the Ford EDIS ignition system. Which I guess is ok.

Just depends what you want really. I prefer just to buy a quality product that I know works and there is support for.

Everyone who has MS says the support is great too though. But it seems a lot of features require extra code and there is lots of software fucking about to make stuff work.

But even a fully build MS3 does seem to require extras to achieve basic stuff that other branded ecu's will have already

 

cheaper and easier to take it to tony to map it

 

edis is not needed, although some people still use it. Mine was built to not require the edis.

Cheers

 

You re-enforce what I said earlier though....you had to have it specifically built not to require it.

It seems MS can be versatile, but it doesnt come fully capable out of the box so to speak. If you want options, they need to be physically added, or extra software/code added.

I'd rather just buy a unit in a quality enclosure with proper quality connectors that simply works.

The only MS unit Ive seen that comes close to quality is the Microsquirt that Trigger wheels sells.
All the others just look cheap and nasty. Maybe a small issue for most though.

 

I personally would keep my eyes on eBay and buy a pectel unit! (t6 maybe)
It's a real peice of kit!

 

We have found that in comparison to a Megasquirt, pound for pound the DTA S60 is very cost effective...

Phil @ Extraefi builds a relly good unit but for ease of learning mapping from scratch I'd go DTA every time...S60 can do COP, MAP, TPS, Launch, ALS, Flatshift and Closed Loop, with an external controller...

DTA also has a fabulous Oscillation function that lets to decode whatever trigger wheel you are using....

T6 is very very good, difficult to configure in someways for a novice....never used a T2...

 

As Tony has said, what is the point in swapping to a more expensvie, inferior system?

 

Any tuner can tune a standalone. With the original ecu you're tied to specific tuners.

 

I gotta be honest, I really like it that he's keen to learn. And sometimes he only way o learn is just give it a go.