Running without a tune temporarily
 

I will be completing a turbo build in a few months. Unfortunately in my area (MA) the reputable tuning shops that ive seen recommended have all closed down in the last year or so. Even the miata turbo wiz of the area (Lester at Apex Engineering) closed up shop. Unfortunately this means I may have to drive to another state to get my car properly tuned. My questions is, can I run just wastegate pressure with a default megasquirt tune I did myself for a month or so until I can get a proper tune? Or should I just run no boost at all?

if you have the brainpower to get the tune to run safe then run it
if not, no boost at all

Can a safe enough tune to run on low wastegate psi be done without a dyno?

how do you think half the people on this site are tuned?

I thought mostly everyone ran a professional dyno tune? I thought that was like a required part of turboing.

No, its not. The most important part of turboing is knowing what you're doing and carefully doing it. A proffessional dyno tune is needed for those that don't know how to tune. It sounds to me like you need to do a whole lot more homework on this before making any more new threads. The info is here, the info is free, and there is an overabundance of it. Only thing left is to put in the effort and absorb it.

Drive to Pennsylvania and spend 30 minutes driving your car with me sitting in your passengers seat with a laptop on my lap, and you'll be good to go.
I don't charge a cash fee...but I will require you to buy me lunch and a few beers.

Interesting, I wasnt aware that it could be done without a dyno! And your correct, ive been researching and gathering parts for the physical side of the setup and havnt done much pouring over megasquirt documentation. That comes next!

Also Thirdgen, where are you located (I can PM you for that info if you prefer)? That sounds fantastic! Just as long as the beers are consumed after tuning :P

I used tunerstudio's ve analyze, then altered a bit after looking at logs proably not the best tune ever but it worked

I never tuned my car on a dyno.
I used a $7 beam torque wrench to assemble my engine.
Engine is still in one piece and my pistons looked fantastic when I pulled the head after ~8k miles

There are certain things you HAVE to pay for, but tuning is not one of them.

half? more like 95-98%

I never tuned my car on a dyno. Last time I dyno'd I didn't even hook the laptop up to even datalog.

0. Pay the $40 or whatever for the full version of tunerstuidos.

1. Load the base map here:

MegaSquirtPNP by DIYAutoTune.com

It's a very good start, fuel might even be good. Under engine constraints, click "required fuel", fill in the calculator, using 12.7 for the air/fuel ratio. No idea why I use that, but it works.

2. Don't touch the spark map until you get to a dyno.

3. Warm up the engine idling, use the warm up enrichment autotune at this point if you'd like.

4. Set timing.

5. Start fuel autotune. Target tables are available if you search on here, find one you're comfortable with and start driving around.

6. Done, enjoy.

This. The last time I put effort into a street tune I took it to a shop and the tune was pretty close to what they did.

Disconnect the wastegate and keep your foot out of it. Its not that hard.

I'm asking myself if I want to get a more in depth knowledge of megasquirt right now or not. MS (and adaptronic) are like the only non-baller money ecu(s) that I havent actually tuned a car on. But if you want to pay a pro, Alex at granite state dyno is about the only dynoshop in new england that I know of that A, I would actually trust to tune my car for me and not fuck it up, and B actually deals with megasquirt rather than smirking at you and judging you for being poor. The downside is that they only have dyno jets (yes, they have two and run both at once constantly), so they can really only do so much in tuning. I could also point you to flatout motorsports but they mainly only deal with haltech, and my car was the first AEM equipped car and possibly the first turbo car on their dyno, but they do know miatas (and s2ks and FC rx7s) like the back of their hand.

Thanks guys, this is helpful!

I'm not sure where you are in MA (sounds like north of Boston) but give Matt at Wicked Innovation a call. He's in Kingston, RI. Mainly deals with tuning Subarus but has tuned my Miata and a friends heavily built Miata. Extremely knowledgeable and very, very good. He'll street tune or dyno tune your car, whichever you'd like. I'll be headed back to him for a re-tune this spring after I upgrade my turbo, injectors, and manifold.

Yeah from the internet matt sounds like he knows his stuff. Never met him in person though.