Aftermarket computers

Remember a nice ecu can move to the next car if you turn this one into a tin beach ball. If you spend a little more on a nice one, it's not thrown away money.

All just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt.

I concur with JVL on one point, if you are on a tight budget then the best thing you can buy is OEM engineered stuff - good used stock loom and ECU for your car. Nothing in the aftermarket that is "cheap" will be as good as unmolested, good condition stock wiring. You can even re-pin or use an adapter loom to use an aftermarket ECU with a stock loom.

If your car is too heavily modified to run well on stock stuff, a stock loom doesn't really fit (or good condition ones are hard to find) then a well done aftermarket loom would be the next step. Like anything else in life you get what you pay for.

As far as ECU, a lot of brand names get thrown out (I have my own preferences) but lots of things to make sure of in terms of support, functionality, growth, etc to consider before plopping your money down and taking home a nice shiny ECU.

And JVL, $2k for a decent standalone and a quality custom loom is a really good price I think.

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John Reed
John Reed Racing
www.johnreedracing.com
johnreedracing@gmail.com

I would look to getting a harness from a Spectra or Mazda or whatever car belongs to the engine and management system you have now. Then all you have to monkey with is the ancillary shit, heater, lighting, wipers etc. All that works off the exact same 12 volts in a Festiva as any thing, so very easy to make work. It is the ECU and all the sensors and injectors that a guy has to be perfect about. Then you can use the factory diagrams and trouble trees for XXXX with little or no issues.

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John Reed
All just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt.

I concur with JVL on one point, if you are on a tight budget then the best thing you can buy is OEM engineered stuff - good used stock loom and ECU for your car. Nothing in the aftermarket that is "cheap" will be as good as unmolested, good condition stock wiring. You can even re-pin or use an adapter loom to use an aftermarket ECU with a stock loom.

If your car is too heavily modified to run well on stock stuff, a stock loom doesn't really fit (or good condition ones are hard to find) then a well done aftermarket loom would be the next step. Like anything else in life you get what you pay for.

As far as ECU, a lot of brand names get thrown out (I have my own preferences) but lots of things to make sure of in terms of support, functionality, growth, etc to consider before plopping your money down and taking home a nice shiny ECU.

And JVL, $2k for a decent standalone and a quality custom loom is a really good price I think.

Good price for a realistic car with a hot motor, not this with a stock 1.8 BP econo thing... Stock.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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john vanlandingham
]

Good price for a realistic car with a hot motor, not this with a stock 1.8 BP econo thing... Stock.

Agreed John.

Unless you are a nerd like me. LOL

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John Reed
John Reed Racing
www.johnreedracing.com
johnreedracing@gmail.com

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John Reed

Quote
john vanlandingham
]

Good price for a realistic car with a hot motor, not this with a stock 1.8 BP econo thing... Stock.

Agreed John.

Unless you are a nerd like me. LOL

Been calling nerd. Whadda I haz to do, Tweet you of like you on Fazefook to getcha to call?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

slightly off topic, but your airflow meter ias a vane type that should be mounted horizonatly, not at an angle.

Make it good before you make it more complicated, maybe even take it to a skilled pro. It'd be a way more efficient use of $, stock stuff should be dead nuts reliable if put together properly.

I've rallied a Festiva with a BP engine swap, might have even been the first, don't know, don't really care I suppose. I used the MegaSquirt ECU with great success, but that was back in '05, things have changed, and I've gotten wiser. My next car was the Escort GT. I kept the stock ECU, even built a hotter engine for it, still used the stock ECU, just changed the air flow meter to a larger size and upped the fuel pressure by about 5psi.
Listen to these guys, the stock wiring harness and ECU will be the best way to go. You just need to get one that isn't hacked up at all. Separate the engine/ECU harness from everything else, keeping things simpler. If you feel you need to go with aftermarket, then I do recommend the MegaSquirt, good support from the Mazda family for it. I did it on my first car mostly because I was converting a carb'd Festy to FI, originally using the 1.6L engine. When I swapped in the BP, I figured, why not just keep the wiring I had already gotten working the year before. Back then MS didn't have a decent spark control to work with the Mazda engine, so I ended up with a mechanical distributor, but it still made plenty of power for a 1900lbs rally car.

-Jon

I had a BP turbo engine on my GTX that I used a LINK ecu on. Was sold and supported by the guys at Flyin Miata, but I believe they're now using something with more capabilities. It was easy to tinker with it, but I'm in no way a tuner.

My thoughts are - if you can leave it stock, do that. Maybe try to find another unmolested wiring harness and re-tackle the wiring harness merging? If there's a real reason for going standalone, there's nothing wrong with that, but it can take quite a while to get a standalone working well in all conditions. Hard to tune cold start at 20 below in the middle of the summer...

Dave

Flying Miatas now come with Hydra Nemesis 2.5.