How hard is to to go Megasquirt?
 

I bought my car on a piggyback system with a RRFPR and 305cc injectors, but it's running like ---- now, idling rough and seeing high AFR's in boost. I wanna make the switch to a Megasquirt because it seems to be a nice standalone, and throw some 550cc's in there at the same time.

I don't really know anything about MS or tuning, so I'm looking for help from you guys. How hard is it to make the switch and tune it? I'm talking about anything I'd have to change under the hood too. Can I do it myself? What am I looking at spending? How hard is it to get a base tune to run around reliably?

If someone in WI has experience with this stuff, that'd be amazing, but from what I've heard, no one wants to touch a Megasquirt at the dyno shops around here.

I can tell you it is a kind of a steep learning curve. It seemed to me like to instructions could be better orgnaized. but the basic are cover in many post on here and other places. I had a post a couple months ago asking about a diypnp which is easier to build than you think. The pnp makes it easier to hook up and then you prob want to switch to iat from Maf and If you dont have a variable tps get one.

If you need to be spoon-fed it won't end well. MSPNP2 would probably be your best bet -- AFRs are super easy to tune with Tunerstudio and VEAL, but obviously spark you'll have to hit a load dyno to get figured out.

The rest of your answers are easily found here, on diyautotune's site, etc. If you were in MN I'd be happy to show you the ropes for a bit. I'm still working on getting mine just right and I've had it running since last season (not over winter).

Make the switch. I went from band aids to MS, and I would do it all over again.

The "learning curve" is not nearly as steep as you may think.

Same here. Made the switch after ignoring nearly all the megasquirt threads on mt.net from whenever they started becoming popular to about 2 years ago. So I knew almost nothing.


Read everything you can, especially the "helpful MS links" in the MS section, and try to buy a PNP unit, not necessarily a MSPNP though. AKA, don't solder or crimp your first MS into your harness. Either a MSPNP or something like a Braineack built unit with a PNP harness.

Don't assume you need a dyno. Many may disagree with me, but I think you can get it real close without. Granted for that little bit of extra power and safety, it's never a bad idea to find one.

Honestly, I think we're getting better about that with megasquirts. Seems like we've realized all units are different, especially with used units floating around, and all cars are a little different. Each one seems to have some random quirk, be it an old wiring change, or broken sensors, or whatever.

I agree. That said, for example: I switched from MSPNP to DIYPNP and my wideband wasn't reading in Tunerstudio. No wiring had changed. After a ton of troubleshooting and checking points with a multimeter, I ended up tracing it back to a loose solder on the board. Same thing when I installed my VTPS, had to redo some wiring on the board (simple stuff). If you don't have the aptitude or the will to learn/deal with this, it'll be pretty painful.

Thank you guys. I'll read up as much as I can, and probably take the plunge when/if I save up enough money. My biggest worries are getting everything set up correctly and then tuning it to be driveable (safely). I'll probably go with a MSPNP.

magnamx-5 can do it.

nuff said.



FTFY

I'm a real moron, and I've done it. This forum will spoon feed you and answer stupid questions if you can stand the abuse.

Learn the basics of fuel and spark tuning, learn how to set-up each component, learn how the factory harness and basic electrical systems work in that order, then implement. You will make a lot of stupid mistakes along the way but you will learn a ton. When you learn the way, you can then return the favor for the next guy like I do. As long as you are comitted it will happen.

Learning the basics and growing to tuning a formidable car with a great tune has been very fulfilling for me and I owe it all to the people on this forum.

Buy book by Matt Cramer and Jerry Hoffman. It will get you sped up quickly on what it takes to install a stand alone in a car. After that I would highly suggest reading through the tuning section of the megamanual several times.

buy it through diy's website and have them sign it...

Awesome, I'm sure I'll have a bunch of stupid questions :hustler:

Seems like there's an abundance of information to be had on here.

I'll definitely check this out.

Sooo... wanna make me a MS? ;)

I actually second that above buying from Amazon. I was just to lazy originally to find the link to the book on diyautotune.com