It's time for a project car, and I've dabbled with the idea of a V8 conversion, but I think a Stage 4 JMM kit and a megasquirt is better for now.

I'm going to put an order through very soon for my Megasquirt kit and start soldering it up. I need to know if anyone else apart from myself and Hyena are interested in a Megasquirt-II.

It has been pointed out that and savings in postage of a group buy tend to evaporate if we have to ship them to other people in the country, so if you're in a state other than Victoria or inebriated, then the cost would be almost the same wether you got it from this group buy or ordered it yourself.

The cost is around US$170. ATM, that's AUD$250 for a kit at an exchange rate of 0.75 and includes John Howard's take.

The other option is to get just the PCB, MAP sensor and teh processor and get all your other components for your local Jaycar, OR, we could join forces with the Aussie MS group who are thrying to organise a group buy atm.

Edit: I don't want to see posts in here from people saying MS-II is no good. Fact is, there is NO after market programable ECU that has the power of MS-II for the price of MS-II. You'll be paying at least 5 times the price for anything else. in fact, going on Spork's review of ECUs, the only thing that is comparable to a MS-II is the Haltech E-11 @ $2400. you do the sums. $250 ($550 with the wideband oxy + postage) compared with $2400

Last edited by unclewoja on Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

The other thing is, there is a new Wideband controller out from Innovative Morotsports in the US. They're $US199 including the sensor. Now that's a bargain!!

With a Megasquirt controlling your fuel and spark coupled with a wideband EGO sensor, you should be able to pull 1000km out of a 68L tank on the open road. It will also give you more power as the standard ECC-V runs as rich as a hog. The MS and wideband would pay for itself in no time. Something to consider given the price of fuel these days.

im definately ineterested in it, but dont know quite what i will need. seeing that i have an au2 vct, im not 100% what the go is with timing and ignition and the like... also, big thing is the computer readouts on the dash... any way of keeping them?

email or pm me the details and prices please!

janekc@optusnet.com.au

What do you mean by computer readouts on the dash?

I dont see why you couldnt keep EEC hanging around to take care of that kinda thing. You'd probably need it for the autos and dashboard anyways...

MSII looks very impressive. software looks great.

Ok. Just a little clarification on how an MS-II would be installed in a Falcon.

It won't be easy at first, althout Hyena has been talking about it for a while, I've built and installed one in another car, and Hyena and I have been trading a few PM over the topic. We might be the first to do the conversion and once we've got everything worked out, we'll be able to do a doco on what to do.

So, what I propose is this:

with the help of a wiring diagram we'll cut the fuel and spark only wires and rout those into the MS-II. The MS-II uses a DB-37 plug.. much like the parallel printer cables. So with the wires coming out of the EEC-V, I would solder a DB-37 plug. Then, if anything goes wrong with the MS-II, you can un-plug it and re-join the original wiring by just plugging the two DB-37s together.

Everything else, auto, airbags, doors, lights.... everything like that will still be looked after by the original ECU. The only difference is you'll have better economy, better power and something fun to play with.

Yep, what uncle said
Having the ability to bypass the MSII and revert back the the EECV will be very important for me as I only have one car so if I bugger something up I'm up the creek! If you wanted to get more automated you could get one of those parallel/serial switch boxes and switch between the EECV and MSII with one click (might be useful if you fail to get it running right over the weekend and need to get to work on monday )

Re: what janek said about readouts on the dash, everything should work maybe with the exception of the trip computer/fuel consumption. Because the MS is tricking the EECV the fuel consumption and distance to empty etc will probably still be based on what the EECV thinks it's doing.

Anyway, as stated previously I'm definitely in for a MSII kit, infact I'll get 2. However for those that don't know the next batch of MSII kits will not be available until August.

We'll have to look further into the shipping, I would have thought that 5+ lots of seperate international shipping would end up costing more than one package and then $5 local postage around Australia...

i think ill wait and let you people sort out the installation first, i only have one car and would be kind of stuffed if i manage to screw something major up, shall be saving till august then.

I wouldn't say it's as good as the Haltech E-11 (Closed loop boost control, closed loop O2 control both wide band and narrow, advanced NOS control, 3D tables for most compensation factors) -Download the software you will see what I mean.

More like an EMS 8860 without the sequential injection. But you are still limited by inputs/outputs on MS. Still a great unit and fantastic for us tinkers if you want to get into the C code. Looks like it will be easy to set-up due to the way it calculates fuel.
Good idea with the Parrallel port, pluging the standard ECU back in will also help if you ever have to pass emissions (assuming your mods haven't buggered it up yet).

MSI and MS-II both bave closed loop operation. MS-II, like I said, has 3 load bands for wideband, and these loads band are user configurable. You you can have clodes loop operation @ 16.5:1, 14.7:1 AND 12.5:1 (those are the most common but you can have 16.5:1, 16:1 and 15.5:1 if that floats ya boat) And MSI and II has 3d tables.

Ok having a closer look on the website it does have closed loop. The haltech works in a similar way but only at one setpoint. But still MS only has 2D tables for air and water temp adjustment. Have a look at the Haltech and you will see how many it has. It's just nuts! Even special 'Full throttle' and 'closed throttle' tables to help tune cars with big cams that might have poor idle or full load map readings. Then there is all the special functions.....

My point is that MS is good but not as good as the $2000+ systems but still excellent value for money. Like i said about the same as an EMS8860 but without sequential. And EMS can do wide band auto tuning in real time while MS you have to log data and use another program.

So, uncle - is it simply a matter of getting an MS ver 1 and plugging in the new daughterboard ECU to become MSII? Is there new "firmware" which is then flashed to the MS?

Also, was just wondering if you could explain what the relay unit, stimulator and programmer are for?

Cheers.

Yes 4.9 EF Futura. That's how simple it is. Just take out the old processor and plug in the new one. I think you may need to solder a few jumpers in, but it's a 10 min job.

As for the other things. The relay board is for if you are converting an engine to EFI from scratch. We don't have to worry about that cause the relays are already in teh car. The relay board is just a really convenient thing to have when you need to do a complete EFI wiring loom from scratch... just like the convenience of a fuse box!

The stimulator is a little device with variable resistor pots on. It simtulates engine conditions so you can see if your Megasquirt works before you start cutting wires to install the megasquirt.

The programmer is used if you need to re-write the embedded code for Megasquirt. I doubt anyone here will need modified megasquirt code and if we do, I'm sure someone's already done it, so all you need to do is get their code and upload it.

Uncle

I plan to use an MS-II on the Cleveland in my Coupe so count me in. I'd only want the partial kit at this stage.

You realise we will be waiting until August or so until the MS-II becomes available??? I am currently working on my own 2 layer version of the v3 PCB so I can have that ready for when the MS-II is available. If it takes too long I'll start with an MS.

So what do we know about the MS-II or MS'n'TFI in use with ford TFI (V8 and non-EF 6 cyl)... pretty much plug into the standard loom and away you go?

Also good to see they now support our idle speed controllers