MegaSquirt PNP for Miatas

[FoundSoul]

I think it would be worth paying someone who knows how to tune it to teach you the basics at the dyno with your car, etc.

Those last words say it all. For the hardcore DIY crew I encourage exploring and using the MS to learn to tune too. For the race crew though... you need it right, right now. You need it dialed in to perfection on a LOAD BEARING, STEADY STATE dyno. Not a DynoJet or any other inertia dyno that's going to put unrealistic levels of load on the car causing you to tune wacky WOT advance levels, and not allow you to tune the partial throttle areas of the table at all. I'm not sure what kind of dyno avu3's car was tuned on, but I'm going to guess it was inertia only and ended up with way too much advance and very likely too little fuel, the combination of which will cause both a loss of power and detonation. A pro tuner can fudge his way through tuning WOT advance on a inertia dyno reasonably well though some guesswork is still involved, it's nothing compared to a proper steady state dyno with a good tuner. Not to mention they can tune your WHOLE table.

From a engine control standpoint, the MSPNP gives you all the capability you'll ever need. It just needs to be tuned for your engine. The base map was tuned for a stock motor, you'll have to retweak based on your setup. But the base map shouldn't be that far out. I'd be glad to help one of you guys set one up right for your car. It's easy to do and we've got the equipment. Mac-- when are you in town next?

[tnord]

thanks again jerry, that's more great information regarding how the tuning needs to be done on specific types of dynos. i'll have to talk to my guy and see if he has that capability.

[C. Ludwig]

Those last words say it all. For the hardcore DIY crew I encourage exploring and using the MS to learn to tune too. For the race crew though... you need it right, right now. You need it dialed in to perfection on a LOAD BEARING, STEADY STATE dyno. Not a DynoJet or any other inertia dyno that's going to put unrealistic levels of load on the car causing you to tune wacky WOT advance levels, and not allow you to tune the partial throttle areas of the table at all. I'm not sure what kind of dyno avu3's car was tuned on, but I'm going to guess it was inertia only and ended up with way too much advance and very likely too little fuel, the combination of which will cause both a loss of power and detonation. A pro tuner can fudge his way through tuning WOT advance on a inertia dyno reasonably well though some guesswork is still involved, it's nothing compared to a proper steady state dyno with a good tuner. Not to mention they can tune your WHOLE table.

+1 Good advice.

[avu3]

I somewhat misspoke in my post, we spent most of our time tuning Fuel, and never really futzed with Spark.

I think the tune was off because our car is a pretty fully built ITA car. Intake track, Header, Exhaust, motor, all not stock. It started and ran, it just was lean out of the box.

Our car WAS tuned on a steady state dyno, I accept most of the blame for it not being right on track. I think another contributing factor was that the motor was already going sour, I just didn't realize it.

Thanks much for the feedback, Jerry.

Scott