midiwall

True. But, I think that's the same on a lot of engines.

Cooper Mini? Supercharger; Classic GTO? Overbore and cams; Escalade? SC; Dodge RAM diesel? Banks tuner and propane injection...

rimpainter.com

"High performance" is somewhat subjective anyway. I mean, what constitutes a high-performance vehicle anyway?

Some might consider a 270 HP Acura TL high performance. If that's the case I feel pretty good, because I tied one from a roll to 75 MPH on a freeway on-ramp.

I was laughing out loud the entire time. Man that was fun.

Now, if I was to define high performance, I would probably think of something with the entire package; handling and power. Which rules my 4R out anyway.

midiwall

My guess is that in the context of this thread, he's talking about engine performance, HP & torque, basically speed.

X-AWDriver

Yeah,the deckplate mod is questionable for realistic gains but it's so cheap to do as opposed to chips and TBSs it's just hard not to take advantage of the proven gain. I've seen a couple 4runners and a Tacoma dynoed with the deckplate mod open and closed and all of them saw a minimum of 6whp gained so at least it is something for a $12 price vs 6x that for a TBS. I didn't notice any power gain from mine but it does make a cool sound when you stomp on it.

marko3xl3

HMMMMMM. Nice find...but do you think that thing would be able to completely take over the stock ECU and get the same stock performance/mpg before changing it? Is it good enough to be trusted?

I like the idea of it...you'd have full control.

midiwall

Oh, I've known about the MegaSquirt for a long time. fwiw, there are a few complete engine management systems on the market. Basically, look inside of a race vehicle and you'll find one - that's the typical market they're sold into.

In the case of the MegaSquirt, there are a ton of issues - the first being that you have to basically be a coder to get it running for your vehice, or at least be comfortable changing header files in software, recompiling the code and loading it into the box. It's not for the faint of heart.

The other top issues that come to mind are:

• No support for auto trannys, so the oem ECU stays in place to be a feeder for the transmission ECU.
• The MS is a _FUEL_ controller, you'll need to upgrade to the MS II to get ignition support. (more cans of more worms).
• No OBD II support - this could be an issue for 1996+ vehicles and passing emissions. (though I think that OBD II stuff is being worked on)
• As far as I've seen, no one has gotten one running on a 3rd gen. This isn't to say that it can't be done ("it's just fuel, air and spark...") though I would like to know that it's been done at least once before I do it.
• Plan on the truck being down for _a while_. This is NOT a 2 hour install like an SMT or FTC module. This is MAJOR. Yes, "in theory" you just splice into the injector harness along with air and O2. In reality, you'll be spending a weekend just to get things running. My plan was to find a broken ECU and use the connectors on it to build up an interface board for the MS. That way, I could plug the factory harness in, play with it, and put the stock ECU back when I started threatening to get a gas can.
• Total control is nice, but with control comes complexity. Tuning is a BEYACH. You _do_ have full control, which means that you have to tweak and adjust EVERYTHING. This isn't just about a fuel & timing map (though, they're there too) this is about algorithms to handle different sized injectors and types of air flow sensors.
• Lastly... (and this one scares me) I have a buddy who installed one on his Scout. He's a VERY competent mechanic and a HELL of an _embedded_ coder (which is exactly what this project really requires). It took him a MONTH to get the engine to even TRY to start.... and it didn't run for long. It ran like crap until he got everything setup right. Total time, about 30 real work days, or about 3 months of calendar time.

Now, you can go on the MS forums and find people with easier stories, but all of the ones I've seen came from people who have done it before, or had an exact engine setup as someone else who had done it.

So... yeah, it's cool and it beats the bajeezus out of all this piggyback crap. But it's a lot of work.