Looking into either megasquirt or haltech E6K. Anyone have any advice towards either?

Calling Urine!:stickoutt

Calling Urine!:stickoutt

Pretty sure that last I saw he was sitting in time out... could be a little while

Budget, reasons?

I've got a DTAfast Pro8 standalone. I picked it up last summer and it took me 3 months to install. Now it works great.
Haltechs are great but they're not cheap. Megasquirt is on the opposite end of the cost spectrum and can do nearly the same thing.
THere are very few people in here with standalones. If you want some good feedback, I suggest posting in the FI forum.

Pretty sure that last I saw he was sitting in time out... could be a little while

havent been here nearly long enough....but would this guy's name rhyme with "ron kay"

Im planning on running alot of boost through a 3600 or 3700(depending on what courtney at metric mechanic tells me is avalible) and dont think the stock DME tuning is up to it.

Im not wanting to spend over 1k on a full standalone including tuning. I think I can install with the help of the locals, but i just really am lost on where to get any info on it so I dont go into it blind.

Have you read over the Megasquirt site? http://www.megasquirt.info/ and http://diyautotune.com

Im planning on running alot of boost through a 3600 or 3700(depending on what courtney at metric mechanic tells me is avalible) and dont think the stock DME tuning is up to it.

Im not wanting to spend over 1k on a full standalone including tuning. I think I can install with the help of the locals, but i just really am lost on where to get any info on it so I dont go into it blind.

Jon K over at BimmerInfo( you've talked to him here as UrineMachine (http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/member.php?u=6369) )has completed his on a M50 and it runs great. He even has vids of it.He also has an extensive write -up on his endeavors while doing it.
I see we live in the same town !:buttrock What color is your E34 ? I can't imagine not seeing you running around with only 300k people here.lol.
I'd definatly go the MS route. I've got one in one of my cars and my boss is on his 4rth.
Were you a member of the past SOMOEURO forum ?
Vinny

my car is sitting in flat black right now in my garage, the 2700 M20 has something wrong with it and it isnt my engine (borrowed the chassis to drive while the engine is getting done)

My number is 569-4889, springfield area code. Drop me a line! Name is jon

Im planning on running alot of boost through a 3600 or 3700(depending on what courtney at metric mechanic tells me is avalible) and dont think the stock DME tuning is up to it.

Im not wanting to spend over 1k on a full standalone including tuning. I think I can install with the help of the locals, but i just really am lost on where to get any info on it so I dont go into it blind.

Speaking from experience you really should spend the proper amount of money and time to have your car tuned, if you're going to run FI. If you can spend the money to buy an built engine and a turbo, you should spend the money to do it right. MS, is the cheapest way to go. But plan on spending atleast $500 for dyno and tuning time. There is no worse feeling than having an engine blow after spending tons of time and money on it.
Contact Todd at Turbocharging Dynamics, they have a plug and play MS system for the M30, its just not listed on their website.

my car is sitting in flat black right now in my garage, the 2700 M20 has something wrong with it and it isnt my engine (borrowed the chassis to drive while the engine is getting done)

My number is 569-4889, springfield area code. Drop me a line! Name is jon

Cool, What side of town are you at ? I'm in between Nixa and Springfield near Campbell.
Vinny

I used to live over there with my Ex fiance in plainview apartments, now i got a house just off w. bypass and mt. vernon. Love the garage! lol!

I really want to take a look at your megasquirt setup. Just drop me a line when you have time!

I used to live over there with my Ex fiance in plainview apartments, now i got a house just off w. bypass and mt. vernon. Love the garage! lol!

I really want to take a look at your megasquirt setup. Just drop me a line when you have time!

Sure.I keep the MS Z car at a warehouse I jointly rent on the east side.Although the E34 is up on jackstands at my house.There are tons of pix of the MS installs on their forum links ( if your just wanting to view their size and harness) Top shelf stuff. ..And I'm even comparing that to my expensive Wolf 3D standalone.:eek:
What color was the original on your E34 ?Was it green ?
Vinny

No, it was black. Before this car i had a lowered white 98 formula with cutout and nitrous, 11.98s at rogersville. I imagine you saw it.

The 5 hasnt been on the roads much.

No, it was black. Before this car i had a lowered white 98 formula with cutout and nitrous, 11.98s at rogersville. I imagine you saw it.

The 5 hasnt been on the roads much.

Well I might have. Are you friends with Blake @ 417motorsport? My boss and I are up there from time to time.
Don't feel bad about your car not being on the road much......lol, mines been on stands for many months getting its ACS body kit dialed in and a stainless ACS exhaust along with other bits. I've just not had much spare time to finish her up.:( But she's coming along.
I won't be MS'ing and turbo'ing my E34 til later on in 08'.It'll be a low 10-12lb boost cruiser.The stock M50's are abit constipated for my tastes,:help,lol.
Vinny

I wouldn't go with an E6K just because it only has 5 outputs. I used on a distributed 4 cyl so that was fine to still use sequential injection, but on a 6 cyl there is no way to maintain true sequential.

Megasquirts are budget junk, and unless you are building a budget junk car, stay away from them.

That being said, a haltech with more outputs like an E8 or E10 would work well, or just go with the best and buy a motec.

Not wanting to spend over a thousand for a properly set up standalone when you have no experience with standalones or tuning is really not a realistic goal if you expect any type of quality.

I wouldn't go with an E6K just because it only has 5 outputs. I used on a distributed 4 cyl so that was fine to still use sequential injection, but on a 6 cyl there is no way to maintain true sequential.

Megasquirts are budget junk, and unless you are building a budget junk car, stay away from them.

That being said, a haltech with more outputs like an E8 or E10 would work well, or just go with the best and buy a motec.

Not wanting to spend over a thousand for a properly set up standalone when you have no experience with standalones or tuning is really not a realistic goal if you expect any type of quality.

Brand name buying for the sake of "brand name" buying is for fools. I hope you've built MS systems and installed them yourself with such statements as "junk" etc. ??:confused
We have over 20+ cars here in my circle that are handing the cars with "name brand" ECU's their ass's on a regular basis regarding trouble free,robust,great tuning,user friendly etc.
Your statement is simply NOT TRUE ! One could assume this some years back perhaps....but then, there wasn't programmers breaking into "code" then either !,lol.:buttrock
Buying into that crap of "Brand X" is for designer babies" and their Polo only wardrobes.:stickoutt
Fortune favors the brave.
Vinny

No, I have never built one. I'm not in the habit of moonlighting as a micro electronics technician qualified to assemble that board. (This is a whole discussion in and of itself if you ever have some of the boards these independent assemblers put together inspected by someone who actually know what they're doing.)

I, to this day, have never seen a properly running FI car on a megasquirt. Making an NA car run, even a 700hp NA V8, is about as difficult as boiling eggs. Running a naturally aspirated car is little testament to anything.

I wear polos because they look nice, and god knows if I sat down at a sewing machine with a patch of fabric I probably wouldn't turn out with a very nice shirt.

No, I have never built one. I'm not in the habit of moonlighting as a micro electronics technician qualified to assemble that board. (This is a whole discussion in and of itself if you ever have some of the boards these independent assemblers put together inspected by someone who actually know what they're doing.)

I, to this day, have never seen a properly running FI car on a megasquirt. Making an NA car run, even a 700hp NA V8, is about as difficult as boiling eggs. Running a naturally aspirated car is little testament to anything.

I wear polos because they look nice, and god knows if I sat down at a sewing machine with a patch of fabric I probably wouldn't turn out with a very nice shirt.

I'm impressed you came back with a pleasant comment !:) I appreciate this ...most of the time when on this board....its a smart-assed remark to follow any challenged comments.Kudos,my hats off to you sincerely.:cool
I don't own any NA cars (save the E34,temporarily,anyway)lol. All 4 of my other cars are Turbo'd FI.
My boss has 3 MS systems up and running on his fun FI cars and traditionally ran the high buck systems with huge down time and tuning drama .....which has all stopped now that he's on board with MS and his wideband .
I'm sure its whatever one gets accustomed with and masters.He never did get his other top shelf systems to come alive like the MS, so he's hooked for now.
Since your schooled in the arts of board works, whats the obvious flaws with what you see with MS ? Aside from DIY'ers soldering many of them badly,lol.
Vinny

I'm always open to new information, but like I said I still just haven't seen much success with it. If progress is being made I'm all for it, but when I looked in to it it seemed like most of the success was coming from the fact evveerryyoonee just converted their ignition system to the Ford EDIS, which while being a good system kind of showed me a limited range of support on the system too.

I personally am not schooled in the board works as you put it, that comment was coming from my friend who has been an circuit board and electronics repair tech in the air force for about 15 years who had to put our buddies MS+S v3 under a microscope to figure out the board was junk because it was assembled poorly. This is probably the single most common problem I hear about with MS actually. Not saying there aren't guys out there doing it right...but there are a lot of hack job assemblies going on too.

MS to me is like any other open source project. It may work well at some places and it may not in others. It's experimental and will continue to be for the most part, but it is not in my mind a good option for someone who absolutely needs consistency and reliability.

Also you run across defectors from the community like guys from club 4ag who were all about it, ran it for 6 months and had serious issues with the system itself like inconsistent injector control and phantom timing issues.

My initial words were too harsh, MS has come a long way since the beginning and really is no longer junk, but I still think it's far from perfect.

I'm always open to new information, but like I said I still just haven't seen much success with it. If progress is being made I'm all for it, but when I looked in to it it seemed like most of the success was coming from the fact evveerryyoonee just converted their ignition system to the Ford EDIS, which while being a good system kind of showed me a limited range of support on the system too.

>Many have gone that route,due mostly that it is affordable and easily upgraded later.

I personally am not schooled in the board works as you put it, that comment was coming from my friend who has been an circuit board and electronics repair tech in the air force for about 15 years who had to put our buddies MS+S v3 under a microscope to figure out the board was junk because it was assembled poorly. This is probably the single most common problem I hear about with MS actually. Not saying there aren't guys out there doing it right...but there are a lot of hack job assemblies going on too.

>Yes,the board quality is up to the builder.I bought mine pre-assembled at DIYautotune.com.They have agreat rep for solid builds and the most support. They even offer harness' and laptop cables and anything else you need for things such as wideband etc.

MS to me is like any other open source project. It may work well at some places and it may not in others. It's experimental and will continue to be for the most part, but it is not in my mind a good option for someone who absolutely needs consistency and reliability.

>Perhaps for those who have zero DIY abilities or good friends that do.But I think it might just be your personal exposures of the MS stuff in your neck of the woods? We're doing great with our local daily drivers and track cars.If we decide to upgrade a turbo or injectors or intake plenum, you can easily retune and map.Very reliable for us thus far.
I would imagine like ANY system....failures can be due to a number of componets that the end user has installed,ie: faulty/intermittent coils,plugs,wires,grounds,solder joints,shielding ,etc.NOT just the MS itself.

Also you run across defectors from the community like guys from club 4ag who were all about it, ran it for 6 months and had serious issues with the system itself like inconsistent injector control and phantom timing issues.

>Who knows? See above statement about parts etc.Did he build his own ? Or buy it assembled and from whom ?

My initial words were too harsh, MS has come a long way since the beginning and really is no longer junk, but I still think it's far from perfect.

>As is Microtec,Electromotive,Motec,etc. And they have been in the field use for decades. It all has to evolve at a safe pace to be accepted by all who would have it.Nothing happens overnite,but MS came up quickly and has held ground well. I think the bigger companies with ECU's are VERY threatened by MS and will throw alot of Yellow Journalism out there to build skepticism to save their ass.The last thing they need is a 500$ bolt-in system handing them their butts.:stickoutt
I'm VERY happy with my V3,VERY !
Vinny

Time will tell.