Megasquirt fuel and spark tuning: amateur undertaking?
 

Once I get the MS running in the car with a base map, etc... do I just run up and down the street looking at the WB readout? Or should I gingerly drive to the nearest dyno facility (Atlanta - roughly 2 hours) and let the pros handle it? I definitely do not want to destroy my engine by poking around in software I may not understand.

If I did tune myself I was thinking I'd leave the boost set at the 5 psi I'm running now and work out any problems before turning it up.

that what datalogs are for....drive it normally for about 15 minutes.

open the log in mega log viewer.

open yourr MSQ file.

watch your WB reading in correlation to what fuel cell it's reading.

if you notcie to go lean where it shouldn't add a point to that cell...and same if too rich in a spot it shouldnt be.

save the msq, burn it into the MS, and go make another 10min one.


even the "auto" anaylsizer shoudl get you close if you have to AFR targets set up correctly. Autotune has acutally been working good for me in boost.


give yourself 2hours on the street and you should be golden....

run it NA first, then hook the charge pipes back up, and roll back ignintion timing a bit. Then hook up the pipes and turn up the boost more and more to the desired level, then advance timing as far as possible.


right?

most of the work is already done by people here for cold start, and base fuel and ignition maps. It won't take long to get max power at a safe level on the dyno.

We've got an article on street tuning the Megasquirt on our site. It can't dial in the spark tables, but you can use some conservative spark tables and get the VE pretty well tuned. I'd recommend getting the final ignition tune done on a dyno though.

Is that because optimal spark values are represented with power and torque values?

Thanks a bunch! I'm sure this won't be the last of my questions..

Matt, that's an awesome guide. Thanks!

Mostly it's because you can easily find your optimal air/fuel ratio with a wideband oxygen sensor, but there's no equivalent tool for the spark timing.