Megasquirt?

tucker

tucker

Well-known member
I'm considering switching my ECU to a Megasquirt system and am looking for some assistance. I've done a lot of reading online and have an idea of what I need to do, but could still use some help. Does anybody know a successful tuner or somebody who has put together a few of these systems successfully?

Although my car shares a lot with its Pro3 cousins, the ECU is an oddball and isn't usually the focus of tuning eforts.

Thanks for everybody's help.
 
Devil's advocate:

Stand alone systems are attractive because of the potential for gains, plus they're shiny (ooh look at the shiny thing) so naturally we like them. On the other hand, how many thousands of man hours do the OE ECUs have built in, to accomodate countless conditions? Most people invest less than several hours in stand alone system base maps, and never tune the systems in real time on a load capable chassis dyno.

You might be better off improving your performance by taking some weight out of the car, or improving some other mechanical system like a better LSD in the diff or a better gear, or the ultimate upgrade, true two way adjustable shocks.
 
SCCA IT rules do allow ECU replacement.

9.1.3.D.1

6. The engine management computer may be altered or replaced. A throttle position sensor and its wiring may be added or replaced. A MAP or MAF sensor and its wiring
may be added. Other existing sensors, excluding the stock air metering device, may be substituted for equivalent units.

7. Wires and connectors in the engine wiring harness may be modified or replaced.


Conference rules are:

E/C 1307. Improved Touring A (ITA), Improved Touring B (ITB), Improved Touring C (ITC), Improved Touring S (ITS). These classes shall run under current year SCCA rules.

So by my read, legal in a true IT car.
 
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Tucker,

I currently run Megasquirt in my SPU Rabbit. It is a very easy system to use, and has a lot of capability. Brendan Porter who helps me at the track helped with the setup and has performed numerous installs of the megasquirt systems, something he does on the side. Swing by and chat with him about it in Portland.
 
@Brad - Thanks, I'll stop!

@Randy - I really do appreciate the advice. Coming from accomplished and successful racers means a lot. I've done my best to address the areas you recommended. Car is right near minimum weight, adjustable suspension was new last year, and I've got several diffs although I'm still looking or a few of the rarer ones. There is always driver development (I'm working on), but our last few times at the dyno showed that the car really needs some tuning. With the current tuner chip, among other things the rev-limiter is slightly lower than I would like, it's inconsistent, and runs lean below 5k after which it dumps fuel. Unfortunately there's not really any other tuning options that are accessible short of Motec and the like.

@Schwenter - Thanks for quoting the relevant section of the IT rules.
 
First of all Tucker, you need to double enter at Portland.

Second, I'm in the same boat. I did some dyno tuning with just the adj FPR and I found a few but after 6k my AFR goes from 12.5 to 11.2... way too rich and out on track the engine falls on its face in the last 500 rpm of the power band (when it should be pulling the hardest). I made this trade off though because originally I was running way too lean and I'm tired of replacing head gaskets and heads.

I've been afraid to open the computer again because I'm OBD0 (not sure what your car is) which is essentially narrow band and tuning works really well on OBD1 where a wide band O2 is available. The last time I tuned with ECU tuning (2 different dyno tuners) I lost the engine both times shortly after.

I'm looking forward to chatting some more at Portland and I'll be real interested to see what you settle on and how it works.
 
Tucker.. other rules you might want to consider before investing:

Improved Touring said:
9.1.3 e. Any ignition system which utilizes the original distributor for
spark timing and distribution is permitted. Internal distributor
components and distributor cap may be substituted.
Click to expand...

Would this megasquirt system replace your distributor? If so it won't be legal in IT. Trust me, if I could replace my Dizzy, I would have upgraded to OBD1 from the get go but I can't figure out how to get the OBD1 guts inside my OBD0 dizzy and make it all work.

Once again, good luck.
 
Tucker, for the sake of Pete! Swap that eta motor for an 'i' motor and come race PRO3 already!

Okay, fine...

You might try installing an adjustable fuel pressure regulator first. Are you using a performance chip? Carb Conn in Kirkland has found pretty good success with installing an AFPR to adjust the air/fuel mixture. I was running lean after installing the Turner chip and the AFPR brought it down to where it should be. Ireland Engineering sells one for the e30.
 
@Colin - This won't replace the distributor. The car from the factory had an early-form of a crankfire ignition system which we'll continue to utilize. We'll see about a double-entry; I might have a renter who could run in ITX and a novice as well. Once Eric's car is running again, then he will be able to accommodate them instead of me.

@Mike - I've ordered an adjustable FPR from bimmerworld to see what I can do with it. The 'i' motor is certainly tempting though. :)
 
Don't do it! If you are going aftermarket fuel management there are far better systems for about the same money that are far superior and easier to tune than Megasquirt. We tried it, hated it, now use a couple much better systems that actually work, are easy to tune, and don't burn up expensive engines.
 
Randy - I'm open to suggestions. Do you have any recommendations? I couldn't find anything that would be legal and affordable. Thanks.
 
One of my friends / crew guys is a real megasquirt geek. He suggested that I don't look at it for my race car as he was not confident it would hold up, my GT car is extremely rough on electrical components. His advice was that until MS gets a re-design with a single motherboard with surface mounted components it will be too fragile.

There are a number of commercial systems out there that are inexpensive. The simplest one I have seen is SDS, very basic but I have seen it used in some pretty killer race cars. It wont do sequential and flat shift but you do not need a computer to re-program.

AEM, Autronic, Vipec appear to all be inexpensive options as well and much more sophisticated.
 
tucker said:
Randy - I'm open to suggestions. Do you have any recommendations? I couldn't find anything that would be legal and affordable. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Talk to Hank at AAF, he has been putting aftermarket fuel management systems in and racing them for a few years now with good success. advancedautofab@hotmail.com
509-924-7006

My initial foray into fuel management systems was a disaster. Burned up a number of engines but Hank got it figured out for me now.
 
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Megasquirt is an awesome setup for race cars. However, it is only as good as the person who does the install work and tuning :p I actually find it is best for race cars because they don't require the added programming options that street cars do, and with MS you are able to specifically tailor your ECU to what you need, rather than paying extra for a bunch of (very cool) stuff you don't use.

Brad has been running squirt in his rabbit for almost 5 seasons now and we have never had an issue that was due to the ms. I also installed MS on a gr2 rally rabbit which rant many events with zero failure or issues. It is now installed on our gr5 16vt golf rally car again, several events now with no MS issues. Also some of you may know Jake Tabor, He installed his own MS system and after I was able to sort out some of his tuning issues, the car ran great all season. This is on top of nearly 30 other cars I have installed the system on, including my current car which has over 50K on the MS setup. My rabbit which i run auto-x and track days with has had ms for nearly 8 years...

You simply cannot spend similar money to get an easier to use and setup package. There is nothing on the market that will fit in the stock ecu and use the existing wiring harness for anything near what you can do an MS ecu for. The e30 is no exception, the options are endless and as expandable as any system out there. I have used many high dollar very nice units (VEMS, EMS, 034, Vipec, DTA, SDS) and I still go back to MS because of how simple the tuning interface is and how easy it is to troubleshoot and install. And for the price it is unbeatable. For a low budget race car, it is the best option out there! We will have to chat in portland, I have done a bit of research on the e30 and you have many options and cost levels that can get you setup for anything you want :)
 
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Also if you are interested in fixing the issues you have with your chip tune, I have the datalogging stuff to work with the chip manufacturer to dial in those areas that are not right. Just adding another option to your debate haha
 
RalleyTuned said:
Megasquirt is an awesome setup for race cars. However, it is only as good as the person who does the install work and tuning :p I actually find it is best for race cars because they don't require the added programming options that street cars do, and with MS you are able to specifically tailor your ECU to what you need, rather than paying extra for a bunch of (very cool) stuff you don't use.

Brad has been running squirt in his rabbit for almost 5 seasons now and we have never had an issue that was due to the ms. I also installed MS on a gr2 rally rabbit which rant many events with zero failure or issues. It is now installed on our gr5 16vt golf rally car again, several events now with no MS issues. Also some of you may know Jake Tabor, He installed his own MS system and after I was able to sort out some of his tuning issues, the car ran great all season. This is on top of nearly 30 other cars I have installed the system on, including my current car which has over 50K on the MS setup. My rabbit which i run auto-x and track days with has had ms for nearly 8 years...
Click to expand...

Any issues with reliability of the hardware? A friend who is a huge MS fan recommended against it in the race car for this reason.
a
 
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