Best ECU for me?
 

I don't know much about tuning, nor do I want to at this point in time. I'm 18, in my senior year of high school and just don't have enough time and patience to learn to tune currently.

I'm also very confused on the differences between the megasuirt ecus. I know there is 1, 2, and 3, but then there's diypnp, pnppro, basic and all these other ones that I have no clue what they do. All I want to do with the ecu is plug it into my car, load a base tune, and drive it to get it tuned with my turbo setup. I'm looking ~220 whp. Nothing fancy. No plans for more power, engine build, e85, or anything else.

Budget ~$600 give or take
year: 2000

thanks!

Pepper your Angus, this forum doesn't like spoon-feeding. However, I woke up today with an extra helping of Christmas Spirit so here you go:

If you are going to have someone else do your tuning, make sure that someone will tune Megasquirts. Less of a problem these days, but there are still shops out there that won't touch a Megasquirt ECU.

Read this thread:
https://www.miataturbo.net/megasquir...wcomers-81522/

That will go over the different variants. Generally the MS3X or PNP equivalent is what is recommended, as that is the version that is still receiving firmware support.

The MS3Basic has similar functionality to the MS3X, but is PNP into your harness and is built by MSLabs. I have one in my car.

Even with the PNP ecus with really good base maps (like the MS3Basic) it is doubtful that you will be able to just plug it in a drive. I still needed to fiddle with the cold start, hot start, idle, and warmup settings before I felt comfortable going out on the road.

If you really refuse to learn to tune, you may want to consider the Hydra from Flyin' Miata. It's more expensive, but is generally accepted at shops and will come with hand-holding from FM which can get you going.

What does your tuner recommend? Probably should have them do all the work.

What is your tuner used to working with, what year is your car, and what's your budget?

If your looking at megasquirt's get at least a 2, they don't make parts for the ms1 anymore and support is basically non-existent. I'd get a wide band first of all and read all the stickies on this website before you buy anything else. It sounds a lot like you don't know what you're getting yourself into

Real simple answer: find the person that will tune your car. Get/do everything they say. Done.

I haven't bought a single thing yet. I'm trying to compile a list of parts so I can figure out my budget. And you're right. I don't know what I'm getting into. That's why I'm bringing it to get tuned

Find the person who will be tuning it. Ask them what to get. Pay the pipper.

Paying the piper would probably be more effective...

I see all this "consult your tuner". That can be a very dangerous thing being a young kid. Lots of "tuners" out there that watched a video on yourtube one time and thingks it qualifies them. I have seen way too many gulible kids get screwed by one of those "tuners" that makes me very weary of the advice.

What you need to do is find a reputable tuner. They should be able to provide you with pictures, dynos, etc of cars they have tuned.

One question that needs to be answered is where do you live? That can change things. If you are in a emissions strict area, your car may not pass with the megasquirt.

for your budget a diypnp would be solid and there are guys on here that build them for around that price.

Id bet many people suddenly find the time and patience to learn how to tune when they realise the cost of having someone do it for them.

Nobody likes the tuner here.

Watch yo watch yo watch yo back.

It is implied in each of these comments that the "tuner" should be someone that knows what they're doing. But I guess it never hurts to repeat this very important part.

I find the opposite to be true.

If you actually add up the time and money it takes to learn all that it takes to get a car to run spot on 100% of the time on a standalone ecu, I'm not talking about grasping the concept from reading online, which is good, but really apply it, make it work effectively, not just autotune VE table and "call it good", but really dial in the car, cold starts, hot starts, warmup, various idle conditions, throttle tip in, Accel enrichments, Enhanced accel enrichments, tuning spark table for MBT, tuning OL and CL boost, and the list goes on...

....all of a sudden the few hundred bucks that someone that knows what they're doing would charge you, is chump change.

The problem is, in the Miata world, most are so cheap that they'd rather drive a terribly tuned car than shell out a few bucks. OR, and this last part isn't a problem, just an observation: they wanna learn this stuff because they are fascinated with it.

That last part, IMHO, is the real reason someone would learn this stuff and not pay a tuner. Money, really should never be the reason.

Just my .02

So I think the real answer to the OP's question is he needs an AEM Infinity ECU. If it is good enough for Soviet it is good enough for the OP.

Mspnp2 or mspnp pro depending on budget. DIY support is awesome, and you won't have to mess with any factory wiring. Also a wideband is a must have.