Speeduino, Megasquirt and Emerald.

[Ultra Sound Guy]

I’m looking at alternatives to the ageing ECU in my TVR Wedge,
The engine is a Rover 4.5l V8 from JD Engineering and has been ported and flowed with larger inlet/exhaust valves, larger throttle body and flapper (Jaguar), currently pushing out 250-260 BHP.
I’m trying to get closer to 300BHP and, together with exhaust mods, I want to look at a better ecu.
Does anyone have experience of more than one of the above types of ecu? I’m trying to get some idea of the relative quality, user friendliness and efficiency of the 3 systems before making a decision.
Any input on other (affordable) options will be gratefully welcomed!

[GreenV8S]

I'm using MegaSquirt (MS1/Extra) on the V8S, but it's such a different setup to yours that I wouldn't make any inferences about performance/drivability. I think the main deciding factor should be the recommendation of the person who will be calibrating it for you since experience and familiarity makes such a big difference to the time needed and quality of the end result.

[stevieturbo]

Use whatever your chosen tuner can give you the best result within your budget.

And I would always prefer a tried and tested unit from a manufacturer with a warranty etc...than some DIY stuff.
Although some have become pretty decent.

But first and foremost is the tuner.

[anonymous-user]

On an basic port injected NA engine, all that matters is getting the spark in the right plac, pretty much any mapable ECU that controls spark and fuel is going to produce the same results when correctly mapped / optimised.

Far more important is:

1) Finding someone to do a decent job of the mapping
2) Spending enough time and money, ideally on an engine dyno, but certainly on a chassis dyno, to fully optimise the calibration.


Time, effort and money spent on those is, imo, far more important than the actual brand or model of ECU!

[Boosted LS1]

Most people should be able to map an emerald ecu.

[Belle427]

I fitted Megasquirt to a Chim as I wanted to diy it and learn more about the system.
It gets a bad rep I think probably down to the number of installs that just get thrown in without any care.
Mine came loaded with a base map to get you started and running.
I’m not sure what the other systems have but the paid for version of Tunerstudio has a nice auto tune feature for the fuel table which works quite well and helps you get it somewhere close before final mapping.
It’s a steep learning curve getting to know the software but once you know it is very user friendly.
As already said I’d try to choose a system that has a mapper relatively close as even though you can get the tune pretty close I would want it tested on a rolling road.

[mtrehy]

I've used megasquirt and speeduino recently. No practical difference in the result. Speeduino obviously very much DIY and needs enclosure, ECU connector etc. My current project will be microsquirt rather than speedy as once you add the cost of enclosure, connectors, cable etc the price difference isn't worth the assembly time (for me).

[Ultra Sound Guy]

Thanks for the feedback.
Cost will be a factor here.
I’m an electronics engineer (although mainly involved in the ultrasonics side of my company) and work in the development department of my company, so components, connectors, enclosures are not too big a problem;)
I guess I’ll have a word down at the rolling road to see what they can work with (probably SRR).
There’s no huge urgency as I have a fair bit more work to get the other jobs finished on the car first and will run on existing system initially.

[stevieturbo]

Ultra Sound Guy said:

Thanks for the feedback.
Cost will be a factor here.
I’m an electronics engineer (although mainly involved in the ultrasonics side of my company) and work in the development department of my company, so components, connectors, enclosures are not too big a problem;)
I guess I’ll have a word down at the rolling road to see what they can work with (probably SRR).
There’s no huge urgency as I have a fair bit more work to get the other jobs finished on the car first and will run on existing system initially.

AFAIK Charlie rents the dyno to tuners for the most part....he doesnt actually do the tuning.
But he may know tuners who may be able to assist.

If budget is key, and DIY is your thing, then some of the MS stuff may be for you.

Less common here but very cheap is a South African Spitronics which looks fairly ok. I did download their software a few years ago and it looked fairly user friendly.

A lot of systems software can be terrible, I can only assume developed by gamers rather than tuners, as they're obsessed with lots of graphics and mouse controls. Totally useless and impractical when sitting in a car.

So if you're doing anything yourself, download any software and have a play.

[Ultra Sound Guy]

stevieturbo said:

AFAIK Charlie rents the dyno to tuners for the most part....he doesnt actually do the tuning.
But he may know tuners who may be able to assist.

I was going to ask Charlie for recommendation, he knows those who know!

stevieturbo said:

So if you're doing anything yourself, download any software and have a play.

Good call, that’ll give me something to do in the evenings!

[mtrehy]

Speeduino and megasquirt both use tunerstudio so no difference as far as mapping.

[CedricN]

I really like the speeduino and its very friendly and helpful community, improvements are coming all the time. The upcoming 8 cyl (teensy based)sequential system might be fancier, but i think the current one would do great. The UA4C version costs a little bit more but is ready to run and well thought through. Join in to the facebook group and have a look. I just need a car to put one in to

[psi310398]

stevieturbo said:

Ultra Sound Guy said:

Thanks for the feedback.
Cost will be a factor here.
I’m an electronics engineer (although mainly involved in the ultrasonics side of my company) and work in the development department of my company, so components, connectors, enclosures are not too big a problem;)
I guess I’ll have a word down at the rolling road to see what they can work with (probably SRR).
There’s no huge urgency as I have a fair bit more work to get the other jobs finished on the car first and will run on existing system initially.

AFAIK Charlie rents the dyno to tuners for the most part....he doesnt actually do the tuning.
But he may know tuners who may be able to assist.

If budget is key, and DIY is your thing, then some of the MS stuff may be for you.

Less common here but very cheap is a South African Spitronics which looks fairly ok. I did download their software a few years ago and it looked fairly user friendly.

A lot of systems software can be terrible, I can only assume developed by gamers rather than tuners, as they're obsessed with lots of graphics and mouse controls. Totally useless and impractical when sitting in a car.

So if you're doing anything yourself, download any software and have a play.

In that spirit, the (Polish) ECUMaster EMU Black doesn’t look an unreasonable proposition for a competent DIYer. There is a UK distributor https://www.ecumaster.com/products/

No affiliation here. I’m doing research for an old EFI’d Jaguar 4.2 engine, but leaning towards Emerald, simply because I have no tuning experience and will be paying for the calibration and there are a lot of existing applications.

[stevieturbo]

psi310398 said:

In that spirit, the (Polish) ECUMaster EMU Black doesn’t look an unreasonable proposition for a competent DIYer. There is a UK distributor https://www.ecumaster.com/products/

No affiliation here. I’m doing research for an old EFI’d Jaguar 4.2 engine, but leaning towards Emerald, simply because I have no tuning experience and will be paying for the calibration and there are a lot of existing applications.

There are literally dozens of options.

But the same rule always applies....find a competent tuner first who you will use, and let them help you choose what they can give the best result with.

Doesn't matter how good or bad a system is, if you have nobody able to tune it.

[sociopath]

No idea if it's compatible, but omex ECUs are heavily used in the kit car world.i have one in my Westfield, and my new cobra will also have (a different model) one

[CrutyRammers]

I used emerald, and would describe the service and after sales help as excellent, fwiw. Really good guys. Not expensive either.
As above though, get something which your tuner can tune.

[Lesliehedley]

I used Emerald and got Joolz to tune it. Excellent result. He really knows his stuff. My 400SE showed 273 bhp on his dyno. That's with no mods other than the Emerald and removal of the air flow meter.

[steveo3002]

best ask around the local tuners that you would use , they all seem to favour one brand and dislike the others , or if going all diy see if theres someone with a similar set up that will share info , i microsquirted my own car and its a steep learning curve

[DVandrews]

I’ve installed around 150 Emerald ECUs, and have never experienced an issue with any of them, straightforward to install and configure, very good support. There is a wealth of maps floating around the internet and a host of satisfied users.

Dave