Megasquirt EMS

[littleb]

First things first. I'm asking this because a friend of mine is completely too scared to try it on his own and asked if I could help. I told him I would try my best so I decided I would start here.

He wants to run a standalone EMS in his GVR-4 in the near future. He doesnt have money for AEM EMS or any of the other big name EMS's out there so he decided that he wanted to go with Megasquirt because its fairly cheap and is a true standalone system. I've been reading up on it and it seems like its a very good system to run, but I'm by no means familiar with it. So, is anyone on this forum running Megasquirt or is anyone familiar with it? If so, would it be wired into a GVR-4 the same way it would be into a 1st gen DSM? Also, I don't plan on tuning it myself aside from getting it to start up and run.

Now I dont want people to just say "Oh, if you don't know anything about it, don't even try it" or stuff like that. I understand that I don't know too much but everyone needs to start somewhere. He doesn't want it in his car right now so I have awhile to get myself educated on it before I attempt to get started on it. So if anyone has any websites that would hlep me or knows anything about this, I would be extremely grateful.

 

[conquesttsi]

It would be the same as a 1g...but why not just get link?

You can get a used copy of v2 for the same price as Megasquirt these days. It should have more than enough function for a beginner. You always have the option to upgrade to v3 later when you have the funds. It's very capable and much easier to use. IMO.

 

[Muskrat]

+1. Not to many people running Megasquirt in DSM's.

What capability does he need? ECMLink V3 Lite might be right for him, function and cost wise. And it's easy to use.

 

[belize1334]

My friend did a Megasquirt setup for his Celica. It is a good system but depending on whether you can find plug & play harnesses it may take some doing to get it wired in. It is almost certainly the cheapest complete standalone (i.e. replaces the ECU).

There are several OE ECU systems that hack the original ECU and allow for tuning. These are not piggyback systems and they give you the functionality of a stand-alone but retain the OEM ECU. These may be a better option for the cost. The main ones are DSMLink (which can be had for as low as $350 for the v3 lite) and open source systems using the Ostrich emulator. Tunerpro and DSMap are the two main ones using the emulator and both can be had and installed for just the cost of the components. Tunerpro uses the OE sensors so all you need is the Ostrich ($175). DSMap is a speed density conversion had requires the same Ostrich + ~$50 in sensors (which you would also need if you did a SD standalone or SD mode in DSMLink). You'll also need a wide-band for tuning with any of these.

 

[AWDnoobie]

Take a look at the DIYPNP mega squirt 52pin It uses the factory wiring harness, so no need to hack up a harness. Just build it and you should be good to go.

 

[littleb]

I suggested ECMlink to him when we were talking about it, but his car doesn't have an eprom ecu in it. So the cost of an eprom ecu and then ecm/dsmlink on top of that is more than he wants to spend. He's pretty deadset on getting MS. He's also the type of kid that doesn't like doing the same thing as everyone else so I think thats another reason why he wants it.

I looked up what goes into wiring MS into the car and doesn't look like it would be too difficult. But, the plug and play would be quite a bit easier. Ill have to bring that route up to him and see what he thinks.

 

[raptorWagon]

There may not be a lot of support on the 4G63 world for MSnS, but on the 2gnt dsm side ( 2gnt.com , that is what the majority of them use and if you needed general help with Megasquirt some of them may be able to help.

 

[littleb]

Yea, I've realized there isn't too much love for MS in the 4g63 community but there is quite a bit in a 420a community. Thanks for showing me that site.

 

[belize1334]

Hm...non-eprom means no ostrich either. Still, by the time you've put together a MS system you're gonna pay just as much as that PNP system that was linked. So you're into it for over $400 either way. At that price I think you could still get a good eprom ECU and an ostrich emulator and then install tunerpro and be off and running. Then you could upgrade to DSMap and speed density as soon as you were ready to throw down a little more coin for the connectors.

 

[curtis]

Well I'm putting a megasquirt in mine when it rolls out. Have a new in the box pro translator that was going to be used on mine but came up on a deal locally and his 1st gen had already logged a few 10 second passes so I bought it. Not much of the tune will have to changed. Came with the 5 bar map installed on the board as well as the timing board. The one I have you still have to run an ecu for the dash/speedo etc but a non eprom can be substituted in the mix. I've heard that theres a new non ecu version out for the 4G63 cars but not sure.


AS for tuning not there yet. If you want to look at it my pro translator is still available in the for sale section. Its a simple splice in and set and forget in speed density mode. There's so much insanity with my build I knew the only way to ring out all the bugs was with the mega squirt or the aem. So I dove in feet first.

 

[Muskrat]

FWIW I picked up a used 1g V2 DSMLink with an Eprom ECU for $400.

If what belize1334 says is true, you might want to shop around.

 

[Boostdtalon]

Quoting raptorreed:
There may not be a lot of support on the 4G63 world for MSnS, but on the 2gnt dsm side ( 2gnt.com , that is what the majority of them use and if you needed general help with Megasquirt some of them may be able to help.



Yeah MS is the way to go when you have a 420A setup. It's a great standalone for those guys but like everyone else has been saying the other types will work just as well and won't have so much of a learning curve.

 

[littleb]

As for the price being about the same I forgot to mention that theres a kid around here who is going to get rid of his MS out of his 1g so were hoping we can just get that and already have the sensors for a good price. I think I remember him saying if he sold it he would only want about $250 for the complete setup. So for about the price of a used eprom ecu, we could have MS already assembled.

The thing that I'm most worried about is getting a base map to at least ghave the car start and run. I haven't been able to find one that comes close to what he's currently running or to the build he's doing either.

 

Quoting curtis:
Well I'm putting a megasquirt in mine when it rolls out. Have a new in the box pro translator that was going to be used on mine but came up on a deal locally and his 1st gen had already logged a few 10 second passes so I bought it. Not much of the tune will have to changed. Came with the 5 bar map installed on the board as well as the timing board. The one I have you still have to run an ecu for the dash/speedo etc but a non eprom can be substituted in the mix. I've heard that theres a new non ecu version out for the 4G63 cars but not sure.


AS for tuning not there yet. If you want to look at it my pro translator is still available in the for sale section. Its a simple splice in and set and forget in speed density mode. There's so much insanity with my build I knew the only way to ring out all the bugs was with the mega squirt or the aem. So I dove in feet first.



Same here. A friend of mine has built and tuned at least a dozen MS's that I can remember. He runs one on his Galant also. Im to the point where im ready to start building the board. Once you get the the tune to run the engine there's a new VE analyzer program that will basically tune for you. He tuned the last turbo Samurai he did by driving to get some food. Some small changes in the VE table had to be made, but not much.

 

Hi Guys,

Ben from DIYAutoTune.com tech support posting up. I ran across your thread here, and as fate would have it, we just finished up installing a DIYPNP ECU in a 92 VR4. Russ just finished the application guide for it. It might not have a link from the main site yet, but it can be seen here:
click

We also finished a DIYPNP install on a pretty well built 2nd gen Eclipse a couple weeks back. 4G63 electronics are pretty common and well supported with MS1 and MS2. We just installed a MS3 system on a "4G63" car yesterday, and so far so good (this particular 4G63 happens to be a first gen miata, which uses extremely similar electronics to a DSM, but a better description of it may be a mazda b6 motor wearing 4g63 electronics). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

If you guys haven't heard much about our DIYPNP ECUs yet, it's a feature-packed standalone. They're offered in kit form, but once completed are plug and play. So you build it to your vehicle's specification, plug it in to your stock wiring harness, and go. You can find lots more info at www.DIYPNP.com.

 

[raptorWagon]

Now I am contemplating switching to Megasquirt, the only thing that had stopped me before, was you had to re-pin all the wires /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif and that was why I went ds-map for the most part, but the DIY plug n play kits eliminate that hassle now. So I am going to have to rethink what my needs will be once I have the car rebuilt.

 

just picked up the N52 DiYPnP kit tonight... if anyone here is running one on there DSM, please share your MSQ files! I've made tremendous progress swapping cal files on the aem forums...now its time for a new car and new ems.

this is a 2.3 stroker, fp3582r, pretty much bad ass all the way around. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

lets see what the squirt can do!

 

Love it when someone's local!
I'll eventually switch to a standalone, and you guys being in Atlanta is a +1 for me...