Programmable ECU piggyback unit for Rover K16 with Distributor

[peterdalkey]

Having got lots of great advice on tuning my K16 engined Midget, I am still stuck on a suitable ECU solution. The engine, in a MG Midget, has the old distributor set up and to change to wasted spark is too involved. loom, injection parts etc etc.
A programmable piggy back seems to be the simplest way to go, the Emerald is a fabulous piece of kit but I feel way ott for this project/budget. The car will be set up on a local rolling road.

All advice most welcome.

Cheers

Peter

[stevieturbo]

A piggyback will be more hassle to wire up and configure.

Emerald do plug n play as far as I am aware. That pretty much makes it a no brainer.

[MGSteve]

An Emerald is plug & plug on the earlier versions of MEMS but they are quite costly.
You used to be able to get a Superchips ‘Icon’ for the K-series which is a piggy back ECU, but its programmability was limited and its not as capable as an Emerald.
DTA also do a programmable K-series ECU, but I would anticipate costs to be comparable to an Emerald.

The cheapest solution may be to not only reconsider upgrading to wasted spark, but to change to MEMS3 too. The standard MEMS3 ECU has the advantage of being programmable, typically costing around £200 for a remap from the likes of Z&F Tuning, and it doesn’t need to be done on a rolling road.
I would try and find a TF135 being broken to source the parts, and if you can get the cylinder head too it would give get the bonus of another 15bhp due to the improved cams.

I have no connection to Z&F other then I am happy customer, but I happen to know Mark who runs the company has a K engined Midget himself, and is a very helpful and knowledgeable chap (FYI who used to work for MGR and did the programming for the later versions of MEMS).

www.zandf-tuning.co.uk

PS. Dont know if you have come accross it before but there is a K-series Midget forum over on the aging MG BBS. www2.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgbbs&...

[DVandrews]

I would consider exactly where you want to end up ultimately with the engine. If you are sticking with relatively mild tuning then a simple increase in fuel pressure would probably suffice for your fuelling requirements.. If you have further plans to modify the engine , especially if this involves throttle bodies then an after market ECU would be the way to go since it will run Alpha-N which you would need in preference to MAP based systems like the MEMs in either guise.

The Emerald has a huge following in the K series arena and their are hundreds of maps out there available , equally there is a lot of knowledge too. I have installed over 250 on K series engines at all sorts of levels and have experience of DTA, MBE , GEMS etc. and the Emerald is the ECU of choice for me.

Dave