Unless they changed something for the MSM that wasn't evident in my short google search, it's the same as the 01+. Which is that the ECU waits for a signal from the immobilizer to start. As long as whatever standalone you have isn't set up to work with the immobilizer (I know some do) it will just ignore that signal.

I assume you talked to Shane at Aim tuning? I would be surprised if he can't tune it or can't find someone who could, since lots of people also got them from FM. Especially since (I assume) the vast majority of the crowd who get hydra from FM aren't going to tune it themselves.

When you walk into Shane's shop, there's a big whiteboard on the backwall of the main shop area. (Not the dyno room.)

Item #1 on the "To Do List" is "Work Less."

I have to go to Aim this week and pick up my $275 Hydra wideband sensor that i had overnighted to the shop in Fall of 2011 for a scheduled tuning session that was pushed back and rescheduled.

Then pushed back and rescheduled again.

Then pushed back and not rescheduled.

Contact was made again in early 2012 with the intention of trying once again to schedule some tuning time. Was told that March/April would be great, and i'd be notified when the time came. No notification came.

I like Shane. He's a REALLY nice guy, and VERY smart. I'd trust him to tune the car in a heartbeat. From a business perspective, he could probably use some improvement. Or i need to build a Spec Miata car, since it seems like he has those coming in and out constantly. I don't see many street cars in his shop.


So really... a big portion of the issue i have with Hydra is that there's no readily available local support. There's two guys down in Louisville area that will attempt it. One has little to no experience with it, and hasn't done many Miatas, so pass. The other, i'm going to give a shot, and he even happens to have my Escort right now.

I even called 3-4 shops in CHICAGO, and they pretty much refused to talk to me further once i informed them what EMS was on the car.


There's really no value whatsoever in this product. None.

If i were to install an EMS with the idea that i'd tune it myself, i'd go Megasquirt, hands down. If i were to go with something i'd have a pro do, i'd contact the pro and find out what they're comfortable with, and go with that. You might find ONE guy in the country that would choose Hydra. Within 2 hours of my location, i'm looking at Haltech or AEM.

I'll be going Haltech if my dislike of Hydra reaches boiling point.

My car made 245whp on FM's dyno. As far as i can tell in the real world, that translates to about 160whp.

Maybe you're constantly driving it like you stole it and it knows??

That sucks, my car is in 230-250whp range based on the old ass dyno, but seriously my car makes ok power it would be great if I get the AFR's across the whole RPM and boost band where I want them the only way to that would be to spend hours on a load bearing dyne.

I drive it like a grandma because it's infuriating for me to drive it any other way. Lumpy-ass-shit powerband, no power, and pulls timing above 5500rpms like a 50 cent "adult entertainer" in Singapore pulls well.... you know.

Plus it's hard to concentrate on driving hard when you have to worry about the car stalling every time it comes to a stop and rev hang that can make upshifts take 3-4 seconds if you want to wait for the revs to drop enough for a semblance of matching.

Concealer where are you located, I could help your HYDRA tune some?

I have to be honest, I have no idea why it runs like that.
My stock MSM motor ran amazing with MS2 at 15psi on that shit turbo.

I'm in Indy. No worries... i should probably stop bitching because i'm unwilling at the moment to "help myself" and even figure out how to hook this bitch up to the laptop. (Ok i exaggerate, i can do that, but haven't done any logs at all, and i don't really plan to.)

I appreciate the offer. :)

But i need to replace the motor and diff mounts, and the exhaust manifold gasket. I've got someone who is going to tune it. If this solution doesn't work, then i need to sell the car, and quickly, as we're planning on taking this car on a 6000 mile trip in June/July. If the car doesn't run well, then it's getting replaced with an RX8, and quickly.

Probably because it's Megasquirt. I don't even have the stock turbo on this. It's not like it's running out of turbo up top.

Well I'll be in Cincinnati in apr-may if you want some help let me know it kinda sounds like some basic settings may wrong or not setup right. I would look at your tune but my PC laptop is being stored with my car at my Dad's house while I move.

PM me your number or something. A second set of eyes is never a bad thing, and even if the car is magically perfect by then, i could still put you up for a weekend or something if you feel like giving me a hand with some of the other pieces of shit i work on all the time.

I should actually be tuning a GRM $2013 Challenge car around that time.

Update on the car's stalling issue. Maybe someone with similar problem will find it useful.

After the stalling problem was improved with a new bypass valve, I did not have the stock injectors reinstalled, but asked the mechanic to do a few more things unrelated to the original issue.
The car wouldn't start when he tried to take it for a test drive. It turned out to be a dead fuel pump. The fuel pump was replaced and now the car runs fine. No stalling, no RPM dips :)

You put a Walboro 255 in there yes yes?

Unfortunately, it didn't dawn on me to upgrade the fuel pump :loser: The mechanic replaced to bad one with an OEM unit.