The V8 Owners Forum -

But if he advertised it as " No extra benefits except "£1250 in my pocket" no-one would buy it. Big fan of megasquirt here too, just in the middle of a MS2 to MS3EX swap,

If you are good at electronics, all the more reason to go the Megasquirt route. Even the oldest type has far more processing power than the hotwire, and is easily mapped using your computer.
In the main, they are designed round industry standard components, so a used one is often good buy, as they can be repaired if needed. All schematics etc are freely available. M

If you were simply transplanting an entire engine fitted with hotwire which was known to be good, it could well be a good idea to keep things standard.

But as soon as re-mapping or altering one comes into it - which would you prefer? Altering the map at any point relative to engine revs and load with the stroke of a key while on the move - or having to burn a new EPROM ?

Cobratone wrote:But if he advertised it as " No extra benefits except "£1250 in my pocket" no-one would buy it. Big fan of megasquirt here too, just in the middle of a MS2 to MS3EX swap,

I've got an MS3 waiting to be fitted here too. Going to try sequential. Only because I can. MS is addictive that way.

Be interesting to know their profit margin on an Emerald versus MS.

And of course some of the trade doesn't like MegaSquirt. Everything about it is freely available to anyone. Including schematics and free software upgrades as and when they come out. Much better to have a black box that only the makers and a select few know about.

I know the hotwire to be excellent. 30k mile vehicle rear-ended.

I removed everything including the complete, uncut wiring loom from the running salvage. I really am kicking myself I didn't take the motor too at the ridiculously low price it was offered.

What appeals is that there are no sensors to add and that I might do a cam upgrade and not need to go through the mapping process all over again.

I absolutely understand the appeal of Megasquirt as a hobby but I have more than enough of those and only 24 hours in a day

Going back to my original question. It's more about "is the execution of this workable and will the results be useable" more than "are there are better ways to do this for a mere £1xxx". That might come next, especially as most of the hardware is perfectly re-usable in such a solution. This very much "Fischer-Price my first EFi" stuff.

I'd say the chances of finding anyone who's fitted a 3.9 hotwire system to an early 3.5 high compression engine in a P6 are small. So really it would be a guess as to how well it would work - especially with narrow band lambda sensors.
So please keep us informed of your progress, and may luck be with you.

How are you doing the high pressure fuel pump side? That strikes me as the most difficult part of the whole job.

The best my engine ever run was after Mark Adams tuned the 14CUX using the his Tornado chip

The pump I'm using is the Jaguar Bosch one as used by the guys on the BritishV8 site.

I have later cylinder heads with the big valves and improved valve guide seals, so other than CR it isn't very different to a later engine.

I've heard great things about the Tornado chip but the price is absurd.

That's a lot of money for nothing more than 128 hexadecimal numbers.

peterzrh wrote:I've heard great things about the Tornado chip but the price is absurd.

That's a lot of money for nothing more than 128 hexadecimal numbers.

That really was my point. When the early systems were current, you had no option but a 're-chip' if you wanted a different map.

Now there is, in the form of a programmable system. And there's nothing a hotwire ECU does that an MS (or other aftermarket ECUs) can't. But the reverse is different - they can do lots that is impossible with the hotwire ECU.

DaveEFI wrote: I've got an MS3 waiting to be fitted here too. Going to try sequential. Only because I can. MS is addictive that way.
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Thats my reason for doing it too, because I can! Spent this afternoon converting an old Chevy distributor into a cam sensor, fully sequential and coil-near-plug here I come!

In regard to the OP, www.extraefi.co.uk does a plug and play ecu that fits directly to the Rover loom (I believe). Just a thought!

'Plug and play' ECUs do seem to be the holy grail. I've made a couple to order for the flapper injection - just fitted an MS in the old ECU case. But it's a lot of work and rather pointless. As in my case I've never wanted to swap back to the old system - even in the early days if me tuning it on the road. (And Tuner Studio VEAL has arrived since then which makes it so much easier)

If you have reasonable wiring skills it's better to get a spare loom and fit the MS connector to that. So if you did want to swap back (perhaps to sell the vehicle) you could do so just about as easily, using the original loom. And for far less cost than one of these plug and play units.

Quagmire wrote:Somehow I think the people on

http://www.kitsandclassics.co.uk/engine-ecu/

are not fans of Megasquirt... Read the bit at the bottom:

"Megasquirt to Emerald K6 ECU Upgrade

We are being asked by a few people now about upgrading their Megasquirt ECU installs to something better. We can now offer a Megasquirt to Emerald K6 upgrade from £1250.00 fitted and mapped. You keep your Megasquirt ECU and original loom to sell on aswell so reducing the overall cost. The conversion retains your existing crank sensor/trigger wheel, coil packs, HT leads, wideband lambda sensor etc and replaces the Megasquirt control unit and engine loom with a new bespoke loom for the Emerald K6 ECU.

Key benefits of going from a typical MS2 install to an Emerald K6 is real time map switching, adaptive fuelling based on targetted AFR, accurate lambda feedback, user friendly mapping software package, excellent reliability and local mapping experts easy to find (many mapping shops do NOT map Megasquirt ECUs because they can be troublesome)."


The bit I have highlighted bold is nonsense! All of the supposed "Benefits" of switching to the Emerald even my MS1 unit does! Accuracy of lambda feedback is a product of a) the unit you are using and b) making sure that your grounds are all correct, and you haven't introduced any offsets.

And as for reliability - 2 of my 3 vehicles are MS'd and have never let me down as a result of the ECU. In fact, the P6 (running MS2) has only stopped once and that was a duff EFI pump.

The Landrover (MS1) has also only stopped once and that was a problem I had made myself when the hose on the in-tank fuel pump blew off so it was merrily pumping fuel round and round the tank but not actually out of it...

Agreed that is nonsense really but he can re-map the Lucas quite a few people have cracked the tuning code/software apparently of late which as allowed him to do the remapping, its been said before the Lucas is a fine ECU but not easy to map by the layman but its real downside is old aging looms and no mapped ignition I am also a MS fanboy and am currently going from MS2 to MS3 running full seq inj just collecting the materials together because ditching the EDIS8 thats capping my rev limit to 6.4k and going logic VAG coils rather than onboard ECU direct fire switching

Be interesting to see how you do it and which coils you use. My standard SD1 engine is happy with EDIS and its rev limit, but individual coils (one per cylinder) would look better. I'm jealous of our US cousins being able to buy used LS ones so cheaply.

DaveEFI wrote:Be interesting to see how you do it and which coils you use. My standard SD1 engine is happy with EDIS and its rev limit, but individual coils (one per cylinder) would look better. I'm jealous of our US cousins being able to buy used LS ones so cheaply.

Hi Dave going to be using the later 4 post VAG coils with built in ignitor/module previously on my old motor the hard coded EDIS8 rev limit wasn't a problem but the new one like to rev and I feel I am being at least 500rpm snubbed my dizzy looks like this just hoping a VR style sensor (Honda) will be enough if not ill just re-mod for a Hall style, it does switch even at slow speed just using my fingers so hopefully MS can use/recognise the output.. Sorry for the thread hi-jack... ........... http://vid153.photobucket.com/albums/s2 ... hh4twj.mp4

This is mine, made from an old Rover V8 dizzy. Gear tooth hall effect sensor by Allegro.