Megasquirt FI....any thoughts or suggestions?
 

i have been thinking of this for a long time now, and now that I have a project car, I may very well do it. And I am pretty sure I am going to be the first one on here to do it. It's by far the lowest costing stand-alone fuel management system (and a full-fledged igintion computer too), and highly programmable. It would probably wake up a Series 1 L67 pretty well once tuned right. Anyways, how much affect would this have on the stock computer, as I know it will have to be kept to retain stuff like trans control and other little nit-picky crap. And would there be ANYTHING in the dash that would be affected by this? (i.e. do the instruments get their readings directly from the stock computer or directly from the sensors?) Should I just use the megasquirt as a stand-alone FMS?

I've looked into it as has SSEi95. It's not worth it. And there's not alot to be gained either.

You prevent your PCM from pulling timing in a KR situation for one. And there are alot of other issues. Too many sensors are used for too many purposes.

What are your plans for power? Anything special? There really isn't any hp to be gained this way on a stock motor. I'd say leave your fueling to a Jet Stage 2 chip, and maybe go to an MSD DIS4 ignition, triggered by your stock ICM signal so the PCM still has the ability to manage it. But again, that's alot of money for not much gain.

I was looking to do it mainly as something different, also to try to bring some sort of modernization (electronics-wise) to the whole thing. I know power probably wouldn't be affected too much (would be bigger if say this motor was carbed instead of FI'ed), but it would be nice to program in different fuel maps and monitor whats going on in realtime instead of relying on datalogging. If using the stock PCM and chipping it would be just as cost effective, and a whole lot less work to boot, could I add something to monitor all the vitals in realtime?

There are a couple laptop based applications that will allow this, but again, it's cost-prohibitive. The cheapest is over $400.

Trust me on the research. I wanted something I could monitor and tweak realtime. Alot of research, digging, and trial and error showed me that it's not really worth it, and the stock PCM (chipped) is fully capable to this day.

I guess my first question would be do you have any expereince running aftermarket electonics like this on cars?

I have done a bit of research into some aftermarket units for various engine and tranny control systems and I have had a bit of experience playing with the series 1 L67 as I do have a full laptop based scan tool with realtime monitoring and all the goodies.

I have ridden in a chipped series 1 once and I can tell you this, it wasn't all that impressive (questions on how good the chip really was though). These motors are tuned fairly well tuned from the factory and there isn't much to be gained from that system alone. That is a large step into modding and to make the most efficient use of it, you would need to have other supporting mods to gain the true power potential. Very little could be gained as far as useful testing with a stock, or fairly stock motor.

None. Thats what attracted me to MS in the first place. Tons of support for it, building it yourself saves money and teaches you the fundamentals of computer control and logic. I realize that the performance gain would be nil if any on an unmodded motor, but I would think it would give me the flexibility I would need once mod time comes around. Right now all I am interested in is getting my motor going again (either by swap or by rebuild, depending on which is cheapest at this point in time), but if its going to be a rebuild it is going to be done right...slow and methodical, and upgraded components wherever money allows at the time. But while the teardown and rebuild is taking place, I thought I would get as much info as I can about this kind of computer setup as information costs nothing (I hope :lol: ) Besides, I don't want to waste my money and efforts on something that won't work.

So a JET stage II isn't worth the cost??

Well, Here is the deal. Willwrens first post is in perfect line with 95% of drivers on this board. Most members would get little no no benifit from a system like this. The engine has more than just fuel and spark to make it run, and if the other pieces are brought up to meet the new system, you get no gains.

Now for the other 5% of drivers. There are people on this board who actually could gain from a controlable system such as that. These are the people that really like to mod their rides, from scratch.

From your last post, it sounds like you are willing to do your research on this, that is great! I am building up a S1 L67 (see sig pic below) and I have only begune to look into all the various controls available, and probably wont decide on one for at least a year.

Here are my suggestions if you wish to go forward with this.

1) Do some basic mods first (CAI, good plugs/wires, 180 thermo, high flow cat/muffler, etc...) This way you can atleast utilize the system to an extent without dropping too much money.

2) Research for bad installs. Find those who have used it and hate it. They may have a biased opinion on the product now, but in their rambings you should be able to see where they had difficulties with it and you can see if the same difficulties may apply to you.

3) Look up competators products and research them too. Find out what the difference is in perameters, ease of control, diag hookups, etc... The MS may be cheaper, but what is different than the other ones?

4) Plan out as much as possible before touching your engine. The more you kno wbefore you start the better off you'll be. Follow up on all the other components of your car to see how they would be effected. Most of the cars I found running this system were old school big blocks, and a couple older import tuners. Find out how your tranny will act, how you not effected sensors will act not have the direct feeds, and find out how it will attatch to your gauge cluster, where you'll mount it, how long to insatall, and how will you monitor and adjust once installed.

5) Last and most important, have fun. If this is what you want to do, go for it, and have fun doing it.

Hence why I am asking how these 2 computer systems will interact with each other...I also posted this same question at the MS site, I was told that I can share most of the sensors, MAPs will be separate, and run resistors in the ECM harness where the fuel injectors once were to keep the ECM happy. Also, more research turned up that (since Feb 06), KR was in the works for the next firmware upgrade, and the KR circuit has already been designed. And since MS can also run the DIS, this could almost replace the factory ECM on the engine side...but it would still need to be around for transmission duties I think.

If anything, MS can run an extra injector or 2 during high-boost, or might could even be used for water injection (though it may be a bit too much for such a task, this realm I am sure Willwren reigns supreme 8) )

The chip he's referring to was of rather uncommon manufacture. The Jet is a fantastic piece, and the best option for a 93 SSEi. I'm not the only one running one. In fact, mine is fully supporting a Gen3 top-end swap, which has never been successfully achieved without the use of an AFC controller before.