The V8 Owners Forum -

Gents,

Best solution for a chip upgrade, I've got hold of a Tornado chip for my engine after sales support is rubbish, happy to take the cash thou.

Any other solutions for a Lucas ECU.

Cheers

Have you spoken to Mark Adams, always found him to be very helpful

jimbob wrote:Gents,

Best solution for a chip upgrade, I've got hold of a Tornado chip for my engine after sales support is rubbish, happy to take the cash thou.

Any other solutions for a Lucas ECU.

Cheers

MegaSquirt? Since the MS3 came out, used prices for the 1&2 have fallen. An MS2 is fine to replace a hotwire ECU.
Plenty of support via the MS forum.

Dave, if we cut you open would your backbone have megasquirt running through it like a stick of rock.

r2d2hp wrote:Dave, if we cut you open would your backbone have megasquirt running through it like a stick of rock.

Could be. But it comes from trying to 'improve' the Lucas system. Because basically you're wasting your money even trying.

Guess you have never had a Tornado Chipped ECU mapped by Mark then

r2d2hp wrote:Guess you have never had a Tornado Chipped ECU mapped by Mark then

And you've compared it to an MS?

So the answer is no then but your happy to slate it all the time. My little experience of MS and the forums is everyone seems to be an expert, the information is conflicting and the interface setting all over the place.

Most people want to get in their car and drive them, not sit on the side of the road tweaking them all the time but then the system is meant to be for education purpose only hence the disclaimer on Phils site

Jimbob, have you spoken to Mark. Not sure how up to date this page is but it has his number

http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/e ... index.html

Hi Reg

"My little experience of MS and the forums is everyone seems to be an expert"
Come on Reg you know I am utterly incompetent and it took a lot of your time and effort to get me going (with some input from Martin!) many thanks again by the way.


"The information is conflicting and the interface setting all over the place."
Boy you can say that again! and you can add that the potentially really usefull stuff (output test mode) is not even in any part of the manuals that I can find . . . just referred to in passing!

Still seems to work making sparks for me, well allowing some interesting habbits whilst trying to start it that is
Once running properly I will start to investigate using more of the features I bought it for.
Best regards
Mike

r2d2hp wrote:So the answer is no then but your happy to slate it all the time.

Eh? Where have I slated it?

My little experience of MS and the forums is everyone seems to be an expert, the information is conflicting and the interface setting all over the place.

The MS forums are full of people asking questions and getting answers. Dunno how that makes them all experts.

Most people want to get in their car and drive them, not sit on the side of the road tweaking them all the time but then the system is meant to be for education purpose only hence the disclaimer on Phils site

The snag is most seem to go for all the bells and whistles MS in one go.
The Tornado chip simply alters the map. Us an MS purely for this - at least to start with - and it's nothing like so complicated. And of course it can be mapped for your particular engine - unlike the Lucas system, Tornado chip or not.

Jimbob, have you spoken to Mark. Not sure how up to date this page is but it has his number

http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/e ... index.html

I have an ms1extra powered car and love it! You do have to do some background reading first though. I also took lots of small steps like this:

1. Ditch dizzy in favour of mega jolt (similar but ignition only and simpler)

2. Swap mega jolt for mega squirt running ignition only.

3. Ditch SUs for injection!

And this approach helps a lot. Less to troubleshoot if something doesn't work and less overwhelming whilst you learn it all.

Ms2 or maybe 3 next for me!

If you want to just be able to get in your car and drive then chip the existing ecu.

If you want to be able to tweak yourself, also with the added ability of complete trouble shooting (full data loggng etc) then go for MS.

Yep MS for the win most people who have problems with MS are because they don't read the help files and being DIY I have seen some atrocious wiring so what do you expect? my Lucas system worked fine but you cant tweak the fuelling without the likes of MA and I think that's just throwing good money after bad, the Lucas CUX ECU does not do mapped ignition either quite frankly if I had a choice of another brand of ECU I would not trade my MS2e its been totally reliable in over 3 years and does exactly what it says on the tin IMO. The install along with the mapping and the learning curve especially fun, TunerStudio mapping software which deserves credit on its own and no I don't have any connection with either

Yes - MS does take some learning. But so do all other skills round the car.
However, if you don't want to learn about it, there are people around who will do it for you for payment. Same as any other engine tuning.

However, the amount of free support for MS is second to none.

r2d2hp wrote:So the answer is no then but your happy to slate it all the time. My little experience of MS and the forums is everyone seems to be an expert, the information is conflicting and the interface setting all over the place.

Most people want to get in their car and drive them, not sit on the side of the road tweaking them all the time but then the system is meant to be for education purpose only hence the disclaimer on Phils site

Jimbob, have you spoken to Mark. Not sure how up to date this page is but it has his number

http://www.rangerovers.net/rrupgrades/e ... index.html

I agree with this. I do not get much time with my car as it is so I want to spend my spare time driving it and not tinkering. I don't know much about MS but owners that I know that have this system fitted seem to be forever reconfiguring it. I am sure for some this is great and part of the ownership experience but not for me.

I highly recommend Mark Adams. Here is a post from my blog for some work he recently completed for me on my Griff

http://matthewpoxon.wordpress.com/2013/ ... ark-adams/

At the end of the day it all depends on what you want to acheive and how much your willing to spend.

You can buy a second hand MS off EBay, find its been built by a 10 year old who had no idea what a soldering iron is. The unit will probably be advertised as something it isn't and it certainly wont have enough components in it to run a V8. So the MS world gets slated and the guy who bought it is left with a bitter taste in his mouth.

You can build your own MS. This approach means you will need to do a lot of reading and a lot of work. But youd be the sort of person who would know that if you bought a bag of bits, so this works well for some people, others don't want the hassle.

Another option is to buy a pre-built MS from one of the recommended sellers. This would be built for your engine, it would have config files all loaded, a base map and would have been tested and come with bits you need, etc, inc a manual, etc.
Even complete looms can be supplied, so you simply plug it all in after ripping out all the old stuff.

A further option is to buy a Plug-n-Play MS ECU that replaces the Lucas, plugs straight in to the Lucas Loom.

For me I wouldnt use any plug in chip style option without it being tuned for your engine, I have worked closely with a lot of engine tuners and they all say the same thing, these are "best guess" chips. If you want to retain the Lucas then get it properly setup,

Phil