As for a little introduction, my name is Andrew and I have been getting interested in standalones ever since I wanted to switch to bigger injectors. At the time it seemed like the best way to take control over instead of fooling (AFC) the stock ECU. I have built one for my car (1990 Eclipse GSX) and it has been a great program to tune with. My goal is to share this tuning tool to the rest of the community and show what possibilities it has to offer.
The hardware that I have used is MS components, which is a DIY build ECU. It is meant to keep cost down instead of paying $1000 for a standalone from an aftermarket. This has been a great resource for people who are on a budget or for cars that don’t have strong aftermarket support. The reason why it is cheap is because you order just the board and components and solder the components to the board. In essence you are building your own ECU!
This soldering and lack of “plug and play” I believe has damaged the reputation of MS systems. There are horror stories of how people have jumbled the install and burned components on the board or destroyed components on the car. However I am offering to set everything up for people for the reassurance of having the system built properly.
Brief overview of MS boards and features can be found on the link below.
http://www.msextra.com/feature-xref.html
There is a wealth of information out there on this system that would be overwhelming to put into this thread. However I would like to try to simplify it as much as possible for the application. I have done my homework and can answer questions that people have.
For people who have Non mitsu engines, this is not limited to 4g63. I could construct MS standalones for other cars like 420a engine found in 2nd gen.
Here is a list of some of the cars that MS has proven to worked on.
Chrysler/Dodge/Mitsu
SOHC 3.0
K-car derived cars (Daytona, LeBaron, Shadow, Sundance, minivans, and other applications) as well as in the Mitsubishi Diamante and various Mitsubishi trucks.
DSM/Mitsubishi
420a
4g63 1st and 2nd gen
4g37
4g15
6g72
Ford
Probe GT from 1993-1997
5.0L Mustangs from 1986-1995
4.6L Mustangs from 1996-2004
2.3L Turbo and non turbo
Honda/Acura
1992-2002- anything
Mazda
RX-7 1986-1991
Miata 1990-1997
MX6 or 626 1993-1997 (v6 engines)
Nissan/Datsun
240sx – KA powerd
280ZX turbo- 1982-1983
Subaru
RX Turbo 1987
Toyota
4AGE/4AGTE
22RE/22RTE
VW
8 valve and 16 valve inline four
V6
Volvo
240/740/940
BMW
3 series inline 4 or 6
There are also custom boards (not nessesarly MS specific) that I could construct.
P&H driver board
This is for people who don’t have or want to replace their resistor pack. Use with low-z injectors
V1.1 To be used inside of the MS case
V2.0 Could be used with its own case
“This board allows the use of low-z injectors without any resistors and without setting up any PWM parameter since the chip (LM1949) the board is based on takes care of setting the current correctly no matter what the battery voltage is or what injector is there.
However, these drivers can only handle a single injector so the board can be used for engines with up to 4 injectors. For more injectors, more boards can be used.” -jbperf
Untested by myself you could put in hi-z injectors and still be fine.
I have one installed on my car for full sequential injection.
MS3- is in testing phase right now. There is a lot of talk about what its features are going to be but it should be a high quality chip able to control lots of features. It will also offer data logging capabilities without having a computer plugged into it.
*I don’t have any experience with MS3 because the chip is only out to a select few people to alpha and beta test.
Another feature of MS that is over look (and some MS people still working with megatune) is that Tuner Studio is out for MS that is a real user-friendly program developed for MS. This has greatly simplified the Megatune Program and has
Screen Shots
The same tuning techniques/principles that get applied to MAP based ECUs is the same technique that gets used with these MS systems. Since the program is user friendly and simple MAP based, tuners that have access to dynos should be able to tune them with ease.
To make home tuning easier. The Creators of Tuner studio also produced a VE table analyzer program Mega Log Viewer
VE Table Tuning
MSQ File Table Editing
Auto Update - check here for more info on Auto update
Scale change, up to 8x zoom
Playback from 1/8 speed to 8x speed
Overlayed Graphs
Compare mode - Overlay second file values
Wideband O2 - AFR calculations
Calculated Fields - RPM/Sec, Vacuum, Boost, PW-1. See Math Parser
Frame to table Cell display
Mass Air Flow mapping
Custom Formulas with free hand math
Save Graph to Jpeg for easy posting to web
Customizable colors, gauges and UI features.
User friendly interface that saves all settings and enables navigation by keyboard, buttoms and mouse.
Text Math Parser for custom extensions and fields
So in short I am offering to assemble the MS systems for you and even make them Plug and Play ready (or as close as possible depending on application). All that would be needed is to run a vacuum line like you would for a boost gauge. I use a patch harness to tap into the existing harness and on my eclipse, I have never cut a stock wire (well once to repair a connection plug).