After my earlier poll, it seems Megasquirt is the way to go but as i havnt a clue about it, i need a few questions answering.
1 - How much is it going to cost? I have the standard inlet manifold with the original injectors (if its any use).
2 - What other parts do i need?
3 - How long does it take to fit and get up and running?
4 - Which type is best? (v1.v1, microsquirt)
5 - What is the difference in power/fuel economy likely to be? (this is more for later projects rather than the locost)
6 - Im sure il think of more soon

Thanks in advance

If you look on extraefi.co.uk you will see how much the ECUs are. You can save some money and buy a kit and build it yourself if you want though, I think Bill Shurvington is the man to speak to.

For your application MS1 is plenty good enough. I assume you will want to control fuel and spark?

If you want to control spark as well as fuel you will need an Edis6 unit, trigger wheel, VR sensor and coil pack - this will give you a limp home mode too. If you dont want to control spark then you can trigger the ECU from the negative terminal on the coil and use it to control fuel only.

Are the original injectors electronic? If so you should be ok, as long as they will flow enough fuel for the sort of power you want.

You will need some throttle bodies. If you have a bit of time you can make some adaptor plates up to use the std inlet manifold then bolt the throttle bodies straight on. Will save a fortune on buying a bespoke manifold.

I fitted mine and got it running over a couple of weekends (maybe 18 hours work) and its since taken 15 runs or so to get it roughly set up right. Now its just being fine tuned.

David

Speedy,

Have you had a read through the MS forum:

http://www.msefi.com/index.php

Couple of hours reading there!

Cheers,
James

Thanks David.
Just been browsing that site and the diagrams dont look as confusing as i thought (i didnt realise you could get so much control over the engine )
Could it be used with just a single throttle butterfly (the one i currently have) or do they need to be individual?

You can run the stock injection system with it if you want to.

David

You can use your original injectors, etc, just discard the MAFF sensor and run a vacumn line.

I am assuming you have an earlier XJ engine with distributor without any gubbins inside, this is also fine for Squirt and Spark, no EDIS required as you trigger the original coil.

Build yourself from a kit and should be up and running on all stock stuff for ~£200 notes or thereabouts. Ready built and £325 from here, MS1-Extra
Distributor Based Setup : £315

Regards Mark

Its an early XJS engine, around 82 i think. It has a normal distributor but i could swap it with the 2.9 XJ one i also have which has nothing inside.

Early engines have bobbin weights etc, you discard these and bolt the spinning assembly solid on the shaft. Use megasquirt to adjust the advance keeping the points as this is the trigger so no need for a multi-toothed timing wheel on the crank.

More savings and less complexity, result. the 2.9 will not have points so no good.

Regards Mark

[Edited on 13/3/09 by mark chandler]

[Edited on 13/3/09 by mark chandler]

MS will do so many variations, and you only want on set that fits your scenario.

Megasquirt, fits so many different systems, and so many variants, the wiring diagrams look horrendus.

However, ONCE you have worked out which way you are going to use it. It becomes much simpler, and you can discard about 80% of the diagrams in the manual.
ie there are a dozen ways of using the ignition side of MS. You will only use One of them!

It all looks overwhelming, but you need to read, read, read, read and then READ AGAIN!!.
Ask loads of Q's on here, and the MS forums. Its not as bad as it looks.

The results will be worth it.

Also get it properly mapped on a rolling road, by someone who understands MS.