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best bang for the buck aftermarket engine management

sc0terdad

sc0terdad

Active member
Joined
May 1, 2020
Location
Victoria, Bc
I am soon going to embark on the journey of swapping in either a b230ft or a b230f+t in doing so I realize that my carbureted 81 242 will need to have a brain swap.
for those who have gone through with it, what is the best option in the mega/microsquirt realm for engine management without breaking the bank?
 
Best for your wallet is probably Speeduino.

Best supported low-cost option is megasquirt.

After that it's whatever features you like in a 2000 dollar ECU.
 
HiSPL said:
Best for your wallet is probably Speeduino.

Best supported low-cost option is megasquirt.

After that it's whatever features you like in a 2000 dollar ECU.
Click to expand...

it looks like the availability for speedunio is pretty limited,

in terms of ms, which one would be suggestable ms 1, 2, 3, micro?
 
sc0terdad said:
no not really, ive just heard people mention it a bunch so I figured that'd be the way to go
Click to expand...

If you're looking for basic ECU control, a microsquirt is hard to beat.

After dealing with them for a while, I'm going to be using a MaxxECU mini the next time I need to install an ECU.

I reeeaaaaalllllly don't like the TunerStudio software, specifically how it's laid out. It's not intuitive if you've used most any other ECU tuning software.
 
culberro said:
If you're looking for basic ECU control, a microsquirt is hard to beat.

After dealing with them for a while, I'm going to be using a MaxxECU mini the next time I need to install an ECU.
Click to expand...

This...

If it's a 4 banger you don't need anything more than a microsquirt.
 
HiSPL said:
This...

If it's a 4 banger you don't need anything more than a microsquirt.
Click to expand...

I mean, kind of?
I find micro to be very limiting at certain things. If I had more of a budget for sensors and control, I'd ditch MS entirely and step up to a more feature rich product line.

For a NA setup, it's hard to beat. But once again it's limited, just not as much as a boosted application.
 
culberro said:
I mean, kind of?
I find micro to be very limiting at certain things. If I had more of a budget for sensors and control, I'd ditch MS entirely and step up to a more feature rich product line.

For a NA setup, it's hard to beat. But once again it's limited, just not as much as a boosted application.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on what you want to do. The way I read the OP is that he just needed to get a turbo motor running in his older car.

If he wants boost by gear and progressive N2O then yeah, We're gonna need a bigger boat....
 
HiSPL said:
The way I read the OP is that he just needed to get a turbo motor running in his older car.

If he wants boost by gear and progressive N2O then yeah, We're gonna need a bigger boat....
Click to expand...

yeah you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I have never hear of "boost by gear" though.
sounds interesting, care to enlighten me?
 
It looks like there is a new version of Microsquirt by AMP'd. Built in switchable pull up resistors and support for high impedance injectors. I don't have any experience with other ECUs, but Microsquirt was pretty easy to get going for me. I wish it had more outputs for idiot lights.
 
sc0terdad said:
yeah you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I have never hear of "boost by gear" though.
sounds interesting, care to enlighten me?
Click to expand...

You limit boost according to what gear you are in. For first gear you don't want 350hp hitting the drivetrain during a launch, and that much power is sure to spin the wheels anyway, so you limit how much boost ergo, how much power you make to be the maximum amount of power your car can use in first.

Then a lot of guys making big power will shred second gear too, so you can limit power in second. Then you usually have full power for 3rd and up.

It's mostly used on drag race cars, but it can be used on fast street cars too just to protect drivelines or transmissions.....
 
HiSPL said:
You limit boost according to what gear you are in. For first gear you don't want 350hp hitting the drivetrain during a launch, and that much power is sure to spin the wheels anyway, so you limit how much boost ergo, how much power you make to be the maximum amount of power your car can use in first.

Then a lot of guys making big power will shred second gear too, so you can limit power in second. Then you usually have full power for 3rd and up.

It's mostly used on drag race cars, but it can be used on fast street cars too just to protect drivelines or transmissions.....
Click to expand...

How does the ECU know what gear you are in?
 
rb92673 said:
How does the ECU know what gear you are in?
Click to expand...

Sensors in the gear box or the shifter mechanism. It isn't that easy to set up, but you have to have some kind of sensor or microswitch to determine which gear you're in.

They do the same thing with launch control. You have a clutch pedal switch and a brake switch, and a first gear switch. When all three of those are triggered you can engage launch control that holds your RPM at a set limit even though your foot is fully on the accelerator. Then you let off the brakes and side step the clutch pedal and the car launches at the exact right RPM for maximum traction.

There are other recipes to add to either of these things, but as you see you can get stupid complicated with inputs and outputs on an engine ECU for a hot rod car.


But if you just want it to run and be tunable? Speeduino or Microsquirt.
 
I just re-read the launch control paragraph. The "brake" is usually a handbrake or a line lock that prevents the car from rolling at the staging line. It's not the brake pedal.
 
HiSPL said:
It's mostly used on drag race cars, but it can be used on fast street cars too just to protect drivelines or transmissions.....
Click to expand...

or by SAAB over 20 years ago when they knew they needed to save 1st and 2nd gears...

microsquirt and a long lead harness is a great way to get going and to learn. My car goes plenty fast with a microsquirt, and while I've now outgrown it and plan to replace it a lot of that is because of things I want not because of things I need.
 
i recently picked up a maxxecu mini and harness for 784 shipped online. my tuner for a previous car was up for it, dont think its much different tuning wise then MS.
 
Personally I?m starting with microsquirt on my car, if and when I outgrow microsquirt and need something else my plan is maxxecu sport or street. One thing to keep in mind and it may be different for you but the dyno tuners here will not touch anything with MS so I?m outta luck if I want it on a dyno. I prefer buying the small cheaper MS unit cause I?m cheap in the future I can always put it on any other 240. I still have to learn how to set everything up and tune it and buying a $300 MS unit is personally easier to stomach than a $1200+ Maxxecu unit I have no clue how to tune. Also with all the documentation around 240s and MS it just helps make the conversion so much easier for me, if I really wanted to I could just buy a Dave Barton MS harness to make it that much easier
 
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