megasquirt?, link?

tim_blair · Post by **tim_blair** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:00 pm

has anyone got alot of experiance with a megasquirt ecu?

im am looking at buying a new ecu for my blacktop turbo

and im not realy sure whats gona give me the best for the cheapest

also where is the best place to buy ecus as trade me has a very limited choice and very little info

im not realy interested in a flashy g4 or anything just something thats affordable and gona run my car well

Quirky · Post by **Quirky** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:46 pm

Buy what ever your tuner is the most competent with.

tsoob · Post by **tsoob** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 4:53 pm

g4 atom?? pretty cheap and has fantastic capability for that engine

iOnic · Post by **iOnic** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:22 pm

In terms of bang for buck, Megasquirt is lightyears ahead of Link. Features are much the same between the two.

For the price of an entry level G4 Atom you can have a full featured MS.

I built one last year for my partner and not sure if I'm allowed to say how much it came up to :lol:

but it was under $1k including shipping from the states + a lot of addons and it's a full standalone ECU that plugs into the factory loom, full sequential fuel and ignition, launch control, boost control onboard, bluetooth connectivity, onboard ignitors, onboard map sensor, closed loop afr, flexible fuel maps, closed loop knock control + waaay more.

A lot of those features are only available on the top of the line Link G4's and you don't have the flexibility of being able to just plug the stock ECU back in if the car is sold or to diagnose problems...

Anyway not trying to be a salesman :lol:

but if you're good with electronics and like to tinker with things then you'll enjoy the MS. If you just want something that works with no mucking about and everyone is familiar with - Link all the way

tim_blair · Post by **tim_blair** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 6:44 pm

well thats good news considering the price of the 2

this is the mega squirt im looking at getting

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =356980185

the guy says for extra he will do a base fuel and ignition map plus the latest software and it come with the soft ware for a pc and all the cables etc

what do you think?

iOnic · Post by **iOnic** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 6:58 pm

Who's going to install/tune the ECU for you? That'll ultimately decide what ECU you go for.

Buying a Megasquirt may seem like a good idea but most tuners don't know anything about them and many will outright refuse to even touch it so unless you can do a lot of it yourself - get a Link. Megasquirt isn't just a case of buying the unit, installing it and taking it to a tuner.

Boosted_162 · Post by **Boosted_162** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:06 pm

Yep, i totally agree with Chris on this.

Im going G4 on my R33, basically due to 2 reasons. Firstly luckily they make a plugin for me (GTRLink) and secondly, the guy ill get to tune mine does links, and recently got 326rwkw at 12psi from a mates RB26 on a GTRLink.

Im also not confident in myself enough to make an ecu :lol:

QikStarlie · Post by **QikStarlie** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 7:22 pm

link = easy

megasquirt = some dicking around. but hell of alot cheaper.

also on the plus side for link is the support and tuners in nz. but in saying that i found it pretty easy to tune my ms3 after tuning links

your probably better off buying a prebuilt kit off diy autotune rather than buying off that guy on trademe. what hes selling is a ms1 on the old version 2.2 board. basicly the cheapest oldest megasquirt you can buy. with current code i'd rate them a bit better than a v5 link, but not as good as a g3 or greater link. a mate brought one off him, to run on a na smallport. was alot of messing around as we wanted to run waste spark and stock cas. in the end it was straight foward to tune and runs fairly nice. but would have been better off to buy a 2nd hand v5 link tbh.

ms3 or ms2 are worth looking at.

Lith · Post by **Lith** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 8:28 pm

iOnic wrote:Buying a Megasquirt may seem like a good idea but most tuners don't know anything about them and many will outright refuse to even touch it so unless you can do a lot of it yourself - get a Link. Megasquirt isn't just a case of buying the unit, installing it and taking it to a tuner.

I've never played with one, but remember seeing a post from one of the guys from Shred Motorsport in Wellington saying that from Aaron's efforts tuning a car with a MS saying it seemed like there was no interpolation whatsoever between zones. Possible its just operator error?

QikStarlie · Post by **QikStarlie** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:03 pm

nar they all interpolate. unless some old code/firmware didn't do it. the ms1's even have movable bins/ rows columns, unlike the old g1 links.

if your tuner can't figure out how to tune a megasquirt. find a new tuner. sure you would expect them to take longer to tune it, over what they are familiar with, finding there way around the software etc.. but its not that hard

iOnic · Post by **iOnic** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:30 pm

Yeah I'd put it down to operator error/inexperience. Even the earliest Fuel only code/firmware did it. The ECU is only as good as the person tuning it. Even a G4 Extreme can appear to be total rubbish in the wrong hands.

tsoob · Post by **tsoob** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:35 pm

whats your budget for ecu, install and tune all up?

Lith · Post by **Lith** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:46 pm

iOnic wrote:Yeah I'd put it down to operator error/inexperience. Even the earliest Fuel only code/firmware did it. The ECU is only as good as the person tuning it. Even a G4 Extreme can appear to be total rubbish in the wrong hands.

Guess I am overdue to take a good look at these things, I've known about them for long enough but never really done anything about it.

328FTW · Post by **328FTW** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 11:14 pm

I have link and megasquirt and I like my megasquirt's features better

sergei · Post by **sergei** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 7:10 am

I would put it this way:
If average turbo I would go with Link, since I will shift responsibility of tuning to someone else. It is much easier to blow up a turbo engine with bad tune.
If el-cheapo N/A 20v I would go with megasquirt.
If high end 2ZZGE or 2GRFE, I would go with Motec.

Don't forget with megasquirt you will have to get wideband Oxygen sensor and supporting electronics for DIY tune.

Lith · Post by **Lith** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:19 am

I do know Links, and unless you are doing high level motorsport I'd say a G4 Link is more than up to the task for the cases mentioned above.

gasman · Post by **gasman** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:24 am

motec, momoney, moproblems.

altough a link g4 aint that cheap either these days.

d1 mule · Post by **d1 mule** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:24 pm

i heard a quote from a top if not the top auckland based tuner at the recent SI champs it was

"tuning cars with microtechs is like doing brain surgery with a hammer"

cant argue with that.

cant beat a link man, super easy to tune and very driveable.
my 16v 4agte spent less than 2 hours on the dyno with a link G1 V5.
sure its getting pretty old now but do you really need all that fancy bullshit on a mostly road car......no you dont.

if i had to buy a new comp it would be a atom without a doubt

tim_blair · Post by **tim_blair** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:27 pm

i was really hoping not to spend more then 1000-1500 on purchase and tuning
but im geussing im gona have to spend a bit more than that

i dont know any tuners in wellington or where the best place is to buy ecus

the only ones ive seen are the ones on trade me and im sceptical of thoes

looks like the megasquirt on trade me is shit.
where can i go for a good reliable affordable tuner in wellington?
what i buy is possibly gona come down to what the tuner has more experiance with

would it be fair to say that if i buy a megasquirt it would be cheaper but the tuning would be more expencive because it would be harder?
meaning that all up it would be relatively the same price to buy a link and have it tuned except minus all the hassels????

xsspeed · Post by **xsspeed** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:40 pm

Depends on nature of your project I guess

Me - I plan to go down the MS3 route purely because I want to build it myself, tuning to be decided.
If spencer jumps in this thread he knows much more than me,