Anyone running Megasquirt EMS?

[quickangel93]

just was wondering, their pretty damm cheap and i would like to purchase one when i buy the big 16g. just wanted to know your opinions.

[MRX]

us hondas have too many cheaper, easier ems options so megasquirt never really caught onto our neck of the woods. A friend is about to put the unit on his miata so i'll have a chance to tune it. I've been waiting for a chance to do so since it came out.

[quickangel93]

yea i never knew about megasquirt until yesterday. one of my boys from ny came down and we talked a bit, and he was like if you want a cheap good ems, go with megasquirt. so i went home and searched it online, and was like damm. but only thing is, if you want the cheaper ems, than you have to assemble the unit together and make your own wiring harness. its pretty cool thing.

[MRX]

For most vehicles they have it as a plug and play setup now. You have to use GM sensors but its a small price to pay for a full standalone unit.

[quickangel93]

For most vehicles they have it as a plug and play setup now. You have to use GM sensors but its a small price to pay for a full standalone unit.

would the gm sensors fit the metric threads?

[92accordexpower]

no, you usually need to retap threads for GM sensors. it's all in all, a pain in the butt, and the support for hondas isn't there like it is for some other applications.

best bet for tuning is to get a chipped p28, like from phearable.net for ~$150. then get a moates ostrich chip emulator($175)(moates.net). that's everything you need to get going standalone, it's plug and play, and comes with a working basemap to start with. This setup works with USB natively, whereas the megasquirt is meant to work with serial. If you don't have serial, you need an adapter, which rarely work well.

So cost of a megasquirt ~$200 + an 6-8 hour assembly (I've done it) + $30+ of GM sensors + drilling and tapping your manifold for the new sensors + custom making a wiring harness.
Total cost ~$260 assuming you do all the work.
Total Time ~15 hours (remember you have to make your own basemap!)

Cost of a chipped p28 $175 + Moates Ostrich $175
Total Cost ~$350
Total time ~5 minutes


So think about it. I've built a megasquirt for use on a gokart, and after building it, wiring it, tuning it, i would always pay the extra money to use a chipped p28 on the honda. I built in all in one day, and it took me about 8 hours in 1 shot. Then wiring it in was a multiday project.