im looking at programmable ECU for my 2 litre zetec, Ive been looking at a Emerald ECU as Dave Walker is only 10miles down the road but at around £650 general plug and play. Ive always fancied the cheaper megasquirt which seems readily available now for £300. But, I feel nervous of the unknown elements of megasquirt with number of posts about programming, enrichment etc, etc and in hind sight is the £350 potential saving worth it? Would appreciate comments and your thoughts

thanks.

I think most people on here are going the megasquirt route. I was planning to use the original EFI but have been persuaded to go megasquirt

Always worth looking at the whole package so to speak.

Does the £650 Emerald ECU include package include a rolling road set-up or any other back-up/assistance? Proven maps for your exact engine type and set-up etc?

Longer term also, would it make the finished car more attractive to more buyers (I know it's not built yet, but again it's always worth keeping these things in mind).

I've got both - Emerald on my 2.0 zetec in my 7, and a megasquirt on my 1.6 zetec 'development' engine (which i've had running but not properly tuned).

Although people have had very good results with megasuirt and the DIY tune route, I cant reccommend Emerald enough, and for me at least the peace of mind of a pukka rolling road session.

If (when) I do another project then I'd probably go down the emerald route. I find megasquirt really hard to understand and it's taken me a long long time to try to get to work, I think I'd be fine if I had someone with me for a solid day explaining everything from the very beginning, I can try and read read read about it all day and it doesn't seem to make much more sense

On the other hand if you're megasquirting an engine that loads of people have already done then you'll be able to get loads of info about those builds + maps etc

mmmh....i brought a MS kit, built it, installed it and ime running on it now...but on reflection i should have gone emerald. Just the sheer amount of time involved in the MS route is considerable, then when you finally get the engine running (after trying to digest the million page mega manual) your next big problem is trying to get someone to map it properly. Most rolling roads wont touch it, your only real chance is to try and convince troy at northampton motorsport to take it on.. All in all the £650 emerald route WILL turn out to be the quickest, cheapest, least hastle way. However if you enjoy learning/brain damage and have lots of time you will learn lots about efi

Why do most rolling roads not want to touch MS?
Surely if they started to offer basic mapping services then they would give themselves a huge number of potential customers.
And I assume that people who map engines for a living should be able to adapt and use MS pretty easily.

Or am I missing something? (as usual)

I believe the issue is the DIY nature Balidey. A lot of places used to offer tuning but now explictly dont because theyve had so many in where a days work trying to get the thing operational is wasted because the MS was assembled incorrectly.

Just to add Will, I'm in the same boat as you, confronted with the costsaving but negative feedback about the MS. My solution is to get a megasquirt unit from Phil at extraefi. This means youre getting a unit that has been run and tested okay, has a base map specific to your engine setup (probably close enough to get it started at least) and Phil is supportive by phone and email when it comes to the setup. You're still saving £300+ over emerald and other aftermarket ecus with much less exposure to failure.

[Edited on 21/8/09 by cd.thomson]

[Edited on 21/8/09 by cd.thomson]

get a emerald,the thing with the ms is that they are quite slow when it comes to mapping it on the dyno,
by the time you have payed for the dyno time it will work out the same as the emerald

jpindy, I'm not sure you can advertise in your signature without being a registered trader. Doesn't bother me in the slightest but Chris will kick off.

quote:

---

Originally posted by cd.thomson

Just to add Will, I'm in the same boat as you, confronted with the costsaving but negative feedback about the MS. My solution is to get a megasquirt unit from Phil at extraefi. This means youre getting a unit that has been run and tested okay, has a base map specific to your engine setup (probably close enough to get it started at least) and Phil is supportive by phone and email when it comes to the setup. You're still saving £300+ over emerald and other aftermarket ecus with much less exposure to failure.

---

Yeah buying a complete MS unit would work, I wish I'd done that, I've had to have mine looked at twice now and it's still not working right.

When I have mine all working well then I wouldn't hesitate to use MS again (if I was using the same engine and setup or it was a commonly used engine that's been MS'd a lot)

I've written up quite a lot of stuff on why you should or shouldn't use MS, plus my own experience, on my website - open on the link below and go to the megasquirt page. You might find something useful in the throttle bodies section as well.