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Engine management question. (am i just trying to be cheap)

B

Ben.N

New member
Joined
Nov 9, 2018
Location
CT
First post take it easy on me;)

Im in the works of planning out my 1991 b230f+t build. The engine is being completely rebuilt by a race shop with all new internals including an ipd turbo cam/gear, sodium filled valves, pistons/rods ect... (mostly flowing shops advice as they've been doing turbo builds for a while).
My question is if we should go with the chipped stock computers or just bite the bullet and go with a mega-squirt, or possibly another setup? i will be able to get the engine dino'd/tuned either way but im just trying to figure out what my options are.
We are shooting to make 300-350hp with a mostly aftermarket setup .

Im kind of new to this engine and engine management/tuning, and i very much appreciate any help i can get. This forum has been a complete god send for me. Thank you very much
 
Last edited:
Ben.N said:
First post take it easy on me;)

Im in the works of planning out my 1991 b230f+t build. The engine is being completely rebuilt by a race shop with all new internals including an ipd turbo cam/gear, sodium filled valves, pistons/rods ect... (mostly flowing shops advice as they've been doing turbo builds for a while).
My question is if we should go with the chipped stock computers or just bite the bullet and go with a mega-squirt, or possibly another setup? i will be able to get the engine dino'd/tuned either way but im just trying to figure out what my options are.
We are shooting to make 300-350hp with a mostly aftermarket setup .

Im kind of new to this engine and engine management/tuning, and i very much appreciate any help i can get. This forum has been a complete god send for me. Thank you very much
Click to expand...

first question I would ask is, who is going to be doing the tuning, and what do they recommend/prefer? If you haven't picked a tuner yet, then you can shop someone out based on the system you want to run. If you've already got a guy, make sure they're comfortable with whatever you decide (and pro-tip, if you're wanting custom tuned LH stuff, they're not going to be that comfortable with it lol.. it's a bit of a hold-your-nose process)

generic-ish chips are fine for BPU'd cars (mild turbo upgrade, bump in injector size, mild cam, exhaust, that sort of thing), but you're heading towards the power levels where you want more control. Can lh do it? absolutely. people have done it before. Those people knew what they were doing though. The learning curve for any system is going to be initially steep, for OEM systems typically it's near vertical unless you've already got kind of a commanding understanding of how it works.

all that to say, what's your tuner like?
 
Well this goes into "If you have to ask" category, but in my opinion aftermarket ECU with map sensor is the best choice. Wiring will be pain or costly, but it is same with Mega. LH with chips spares you from wiring, but tuning is way more complicated, and you don't have logging. Good points for ECU are boost and fan controls, also air inlet from filter to turbo is simpler because of absence of MAF.
WB-lambda controller is usually integrated to modern ECUs, saving little money.

Aftermarket ECU wiring and sensors can be easily several hundreds. It is annoying to buy 100 connetor when you need 5.
I've been happy with Link and Maxxecu.
 
linuxman51 said:
first question I would ask is, who is going to be doing the tuning, and what do they recommend/prefer? If you haven't picked a tuner yet, then you can shop someone out based on the system you want to run. If you've already got a guy, make sure they're comfortable with whatever you decide (and pro-tip, if you're wanting custom tuned LH stuff, they're not going to be that comfortable with it lol.. it's a bit of a hold-your-nose process)

generic-ish chips are fine for BPU'd cars (mild turbo upgrade, bump in injector size, mild cam, exhaust, that sort of thing), but you're heading towards the power levels where you want more control. Can lh do it? absolutely. people have done it before. Those people knew what they were doing though. The learning curve for any system is going to be initially steep, for OEM systems typically it's near vertical unless you've already got kind of a commanding understanding of how it works.

all that to say, what's your tuner like?
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the advice. To be honest i haven't gotten in touch with any tuners yet, im still very early in the build. I Love the idea of the PNP MS setup that was linked earlier i didnt find that as an option while i was searching around earlier. I think im just gunna go with the MS but really if whoever i find to tune the motor recommends anything else ill defenelty listen.
Thank you for sharing your knowlage and ill defenelty bookmark your page i might hit u up for one of those setups sometime in the near future lol.
 
megasquirt is common here because it's diy customisable, and very cheap for what it does. But many tuners (especially where I live) wont touch it. You do have a wide range of option like haltech etc. So balance your choice with what you want, diy, tuners that are willing to work on your system, and budget etc.
 
aussyvolvo said:
hey I looked at that too, what stuff/company were you looking at?
Click to expand...

Just reading a lot on the forums and wiki, but ive since talked a buddy into it for his crx too and i think were going to make the leap January or so. Not sure if i want to go with the 0.4 board or a 3rd party yet but ive been looking at wtmelectronics.com.
 
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