Tuning the Megasquirt (Pt. 1) - Intro

The Megasquirt series of ECU allow you to have full stand-alone fuel and ignition management (and more) for any car. In this episode we cover what you can control and startup and idle process. Knowing the process helps you tune without going in circles! We use Tuner Studio to configure and tune the MS3X.
We'll cover:
Priming
Cranking
After Start Enrichment (ASE)
Warm up Enrichment (WUE)
Idle air control (IAC valves)
Closed loop idle vs Open loop.
OGPedxing is all about DIY, gadgets, and tools.

[@OGPedXing]

Hey all, I'm breaking the videos in this series into several shorter ones so you can find what you need to reference later. Additional episodes will be coming out shortly so stay tuned!

[@weyner01]

Por favor coloque legendas português nos seus vídeos eles sao muito bons

[@yasindiyebiri7237]

Hey man plase give me program link?

[@OGPedXing]

Here's the full playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLhdvjX1ljQGtvfTEbS2ViKBzz8iCJDRF_

[@yasindiyebiri7237]

I need tunerstudio man

[@OGPedXing]

Oh the app link...www.tunerstudio.com/index.php/products/tuner-studio. there's a free version but the paid version is worth it.

[@kevinsaeed9817]

This video was awesome, lm looking forward to going through the series.

[@pattyboi]

great video, thank you very much!

[@monstersquashracing]

This is an amazing video. Ive searched for so long trying to learn figure this stuff out. And had little luck until i saw this Very well put together. Thankyou🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@DJimeku]

This is great!

[@rzemos]

Really helpful. Thank you!

[@MaggersGarage]

This is so helpful! All I need now, is just to wire in my ms2.

[@ButBigger42]

You did one of the things I hate. "You should already have this stuff done." on part 1 of an intro to. I came here to make sure I'm doing those things right!!!

[@OGPedXing]

Lol, I feel you man, I hate that too actually. The problem was the megasquirt build series needed an ending point and then I could do the bulk of tuning in it's own series because a lot of people want tuning info without the build project. Anyway not ideal, I know, but that's what I decided to go with. Hope the series helps you!

[@elhousseinzoubeir]

keeeeeeeeeeep goiiing bro don't stooooooop

[@noahslonaker]

thank you!!

[@maxp8892]

Awesome. I have watched thru prt 4 and have learned a lot. Thank you. I would like to ask where to look on the MS when you have a car in deceleration and the car dies is your over 2K rpm, but if it is under 2K the car will idle down and run fine. Thanks for your "teaching" MS and what everything does. AWESOME!

[@OGPedXing]

If this never happened on the stock ECU one place to look is your fuel table. Decel hits the cells at the very bottom of the table, it's possible to be either too rich here or too lean. There's an option even to cut fuel when in decel, if this percent is too low it can cause issues. I recommend turning that off or staying about at 95% only. Too rich can also do it. Get some logs and check your afr's but also look for sync issues or even evidence of it trying to enter closed loop idle too soon.

[@maxp8892]

OGPedXing thanks

[@maxp8892]

OGPedXing ok getting much closer. Got it when I blip the throttle and it doesn’t die... but it does hunt and the settle down but really likes to idle at 900 rpm. It does have modified cams. I would like to know how to can bus test the PID I know mine are off and not sure how to go about it since I’m trying to get the car to idle and just had to replace the PID. Suggestions? Long story... car had a Hydra in it and the hydra died and I’m trying to bring the car up on a MS system MS3PNP. Thanks.

[@OGPedXing]

@@maxp8892 cams can do that so it may be mostly ok. But you can also either give it a bit more fuel which can stop the hunting (like try 14 are rather than 14.7, earlier cars are sometimes happier there) or give it a bit more idle air duty cycle...you can check the screen for idle initial settings table and raise it a little. It can help the hunting although the idle might stay higher. Also it doesn't hurt to check that the timing is right with a timing light...I've seen it drift a bit so the MS thought it was 10 degrees btdc but on the light it was 12 causing idle to be thrown off.

[@maxp8892]

OGPedXing I mis stated I changed the IAC and now need to find my settings for the IAC. Do I do this when the engine is up to speed? Open loop or closed. Your 5 videos and I have mad huge tuning gains! I have other suggestions on what I would like to see... how to setup the MegaLogViewer like you did with the MS idle... and show what your watching on the tune and then same for a good screen to on the road tuning. Your a great teacher... keep up the good work... there are lots of videos for tuning out there but your teaching how to tune. Awesome!

[@docfischer7291]

Great information. Currently looking into different ECUs and the tuners. Does the Tuner Studio have the Idle adaptive spark correction for over speed and under speed of timing settings for idle rpm ?

[@OGPedXing]

Yes. There are a couple of options available for adaptive spark for idle rpm...one is pretty simple and easy and the other gives you full PID control.

[@docfischer7291]

@@OGPedXing sweet. Thank you for clarifying.

[@BuildingTheEXOCET]

These videos are awesome! So glad I looked at your channel! Thanks for your help on my build. I need to get your email or Instagram to talk to you about some stuff. You know your tunerstudio! I've had my ms3 builder work with me on tuning but he want speaking my language. When you explain it it clicks in my head

[@OGPedXing]

Sure thing, I'm ogpedxing on Instagram as well, feel free to dm me and we'll sync up.

[@thebestempty]

At around 5:27, where is your tune from? Can't make that out. Went from NA to Turbo and looking on how to best adjust my tune before I take it out.

[@OGPedXing]

It is from trubokitty.com (they misspelled turbo on purpose 😊). This is a good set of maps for any year 1990-2005.

[@joelhernandez393]

Hello thanks for uploading these videos. When you are idle tuning do you use the "use ve trim tables" or not? I don't see it mentioned. I believe it's under the basic settings. Also do you ever turn incorporate afr off?

[@OGPedXing]

The trim tables cover all rpms, but I typically don't use them. The idle ve table covers idle and gives you a bit more resolution in that rpm range. I used to use that but then decided it isn't necessary most of the time and it's just one more table to pull up. So now I stick with the regular ve table 1 for everything. Plus ve table 3 for e85.

[@joelhernandez393]

@@OGPedXing hey thanks for the quick reply. Yeah I'm using a mspnp2 for a 2000 so I don't even have the idle ve table capabilities. Right now I'm just starting off trying to get a consistent idle and afr. It's been frustrating and I can't find much info on nb specific tuning but your guide has been very helpful.

[@OGPedXing]

Yeah it can be frustrating. To summarize even further, after making sure the timing and basic sensors are all good, just get it started however you need (give it throttle etc) and keep it running until it gets fully warmed up. Ignore warm up enrichment, after start enrichment. Then get the fuel ve table dialed in for idle. Don't worry too much about perfect afr, for an NB whatever sounds smooth, pulls good vacuum, and is some where from 14 to 14.7 afr. Once that's done, do some street auto tuning. Drive in low rpms to start and then you can hit more areas of the table by staying in a low gear and revving it out higher than normal. Then you can get into some pulls. The next day, start it cold and tweak ASE and WUE as it comes up to temp. Once fueling is pretty stable, it will make your EGO closed loop tuning a lot easier.

[@jaywhitaker260]

Quick questions for ya. is the MAP dependent on altitude? I'm up near 5000' and mine reads ~25 at idle. Is this the result of the absolute at a lower density altitude, or do I need to adjust my idle screw?

[@OGPedXing]

Yes, the MAP will give you absolute pressure depending on altitude and other weather conditions. Generally once you get it tuned for your normal altitude, it will mostly adjust fine as you go up or down. Although I don't have direct experience -- my altitude is 72 feet here in south Texas, lol.

[@jaywhitaker260]

@@OGPedXing Thanks for the follow up. That's about what I figured. With atm here being 12.2 and atm there being 14.7. Getting this thing tuned in is the gift that keeps on giving.

[@OGPedXing]

@@jaywhitaker260 yep, it can be like that sometimes, you'll get it dialed in soon!

[@masscomnet]

Hello, I am building a megasquirt for a 91 BMW 535i. I am converting from AFM to MAF, 19# injectors to 24#, and 3 coil wasted spark. Do you foresee any major issues I should be aware of?

[@OGPedXing]

With the ms3x most options are available without additional mods. The key to any build will then be determining your cam and crank signals, ignition control and fuel. Three coil should work fine, I think the stock sensors of that engine won't do sequential injection however. I was looking at www.diyautotune.com/support/tech/install/bmw/megasquirt-your-bmw-e30/ which I think will apply to your engine as well. The second challenge is of course the harness to the car. I'm not familiar with this one so I'm not sure how much work/research that requires.

[@roberttaylor3890]

Can you please post a link to where you got your tune from? I can't hear the beginning of the name. Thanks!

[@OGPedXing]

Sure, it's from trubokitty.com which was done by one of the mods at the miataturbo.net forums.

[@seandickson71]

@@OGPedXing the site just comes up blank today... Do you know what happened ?

[@OGPedXing]

@@seandickson71 still worked just now for me. Make sure it doesn't autocorrect the name. It's "trubo" not "turbo". Http://trubokitty.com

[@mlfishing842]

Hey Ped I have finally got to a point where I am happy with my tune but there is something I have noticed that I don't know if I should change. My afrs on warm up and 80°C+ at full operating temp I would say are good and perfect for where I want to be. I have just noticed tho at operating temp 80°C my Warm up enrichment is at 118% instead of 100%, what I've been reading is that because I am over 100% at operating temp WUE won't be turning off and it's not a true fuel reading from the VE Table, WUE is adding the extra 18% fuel to give me my desired AFR and fueling. Should I fix this so that I am at 100% at 80°C? Or is this not a bad thing and I can continue driving with 118% at 80°C aslong as AFRs are good? Should I put my WUE to 100% when at operating temp and increase my VE Table by 18% and wait until the engine is cold again and auto tune my WUE? Would this give me the same outcome?

[@OGPedXing]

Yeah you want the last line in wue to be 100% so it turns off. If the afrs are ok what this is saying is your ve table is a little lean. You can richen it up a bit and then reduce your wue percentages.

[@mlfishing842]

@@OGPedXing Yeah it does sound like a good idea to get it running perfect on the VE Table. My plan was to bring the engine to operating temp then change WUE to 100% at 80°C and increase my VE Table by 18% then autotune the VE Table. Then the following morning I would autotune or tune it manually the lower part of the WUE (0°C - 70 °C) does this sound like a decent approach to you? Thanks alot for the reply man

[@OGPedXing]

@@mlfishing842 no problem, yes that's a good approach. This happens all the time because often the original tuning happens before the car is fully warmed because we're all excited to get going 😂. Once the warmed up ve table is good then a couple of cold start warm ups will get the wue dialed in and you'll be all set.

[@mlfishing842]

@@OGPedXing So I have got WUE turned off at operating temp and got my VE Table in the ball park I would say, idling and cruising is great, WOT is great apart from when coming in to boost (90-135kpa) areas. I used autotune and ironing it out manually but for some reason autotune kept missing the 90-135kpa area or is making it leaner than I would like I think. I am getting 13.4 afr at 105kpa when I should be around 12.5 and I'm not hitting high 11s until 145kpa when I should be in high 11s at 105kpa which is a bit annoying, I don't know if I'm just being paranoid and chasing afr ratios down to the decimal aha, but I just thought it was strange. Sometimes when I ease in to that area in a high gear it will hit the perfect afrs but when in a low gear 2nd for example it would almost take the afrs a while to catch up looking at megalogviewer. I've added a little fuel in these areas so hopefully tomorrow when I take it for a drive the added fuel will have dialed it in

[@OGPedXing]

Sounds like good progress! Sometimes auto tune will catch an area on the way down (decell) as opposed to on the way up and think that it needs to be leaner to hit the afr. In these areas I like to use cell smoothing to fill them in correctly. Usually around the peak will be good as will lower areas but in between you can smooth it out. The 3d map option makes it plain where these areas are.

[@randy2.0kitt]

Question I bought a fully built Miata with a dyno tune in mega squirt can I hook up my laptop and see the tune? Or at least watch these gauges I wanna see what the red line is set too and watch coolant temps

[@OGPedXing]

Absolutely. You can download tuner studio for free (tunerstudio.com), load that onto a laptop and connect to your megasquirt by usb typically or a serial cable for older ones. Here's my first start guide which show s the connection process.kzbin.info/www/bejne/epOzYZRvhMSrm9E

[@sjefs5513]

from wich site did you get the ignition table? trubukitty.com? im desperatly in need of a NA 1.8 turbo ignition table

[@OGPedXing]

Yes I started with the trubokitty one for 1.8. it's a safe one...these values are pretty typical, nothing crazy advanced.

[@iulii4678]

Hello, I have the same problem. I dont know what tune i have ! On a cold engine, the engine speed (Idle) is very high at 1800 rpm. I bought the car without a katalysator, DPF and without EGR. I put the Katalysator back in because it was smoking and smells from the exhaust pipe. No errors ! Everything suits me and I don't want to change anything yet. I just want to change the engine idle setting at startup. How can this be done? Maybe HP Tuner or other tuners ? What do you think about this Thanks 2015 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel .107000 Miles

[@classys-chassis6433]

Adjust ur throttle body screw or ur idle air control valve is bad but if thats the case u can block it and just use the screw on throttle body or replace it. But u probably have a vacuum issue.

[@iulii4678]

@@classys-chassis6433 Maybe, but I have already sold the car. Thanks

[@datrellS]

How do you flash? Or reset the tune, bought mustang with mspn2 guy said it needed to be reflashed , info?????

[@OGPedXing]

If you need a whole basemap, I'd go to diyautotune.com and search for a map and firmware for your specific engine and ms2. The firmware is like the OS for the megasquirt and the base map is like the app that runs on top. If the car was running then the firmware is already there and you don't need a reflash. It may just need a new map or just tuning. You can see what's on there by getting the free version of tuner studio and connecting to it via USB and a serial cable. I have a vid on connecting and reflashing if you need it here:kzbin.info/www/bejne/epOzYZRvhMSrm9E

[@kelvinpasswaters8180]

Hey there I’m wondering if you have any advice for me I can get the car to start and run only if my foot is 5/10% on the gas but will die once I remove my foot.

[@OGPedXing]

Check out your idle air valve settings. Bump it up until you can keep it running without touching the pedal and then fix the fuel table to get you at 24 to 14.7 afr at idle after warmup.

[@user-cq2bi7rq1m]

hello this problem does not work lambda shlz can you tell me the settings for enabling lambda?

[@OGPedXing]

You can go to Project Settings and for Oxygen Sensor display choose Wideband - Lambda. Then you'll need to update the afr table to use the lambda values instead of the afr numbers.

[@dangerousfandango5943]

Can I catalog and autotune at the same time?

[@OGPedXing]

You mean log and autotune? Yes, no problem.

[@maxp8892]

Is there a way to PM you?

[@OGPedXing]

I'm ogpedxing on Instagram and Reddit as well

[@zigandarov]

How does the ECU fit on a BMW m62b35 with automatic transmission? thanks for the advice

[@OGPedXing]

What you'll want to do is search for your engine and megasquirt and see if someone makes a harness adapter. I don't think there's one for that engine on diyautotune which is where most plug and play solutions are found. You can definitely get it to work otherwise, it it will take some significant research. If you diy a harness, you'll need to know where on your engine harness to connect leads to the megasquirt, like injectors, spark signal, sensors, etc.

[@zigandarov]

@@OGPedXing I don’t need a fuel card, I move on propane. In the first generation, LPG are used as vacuum without nozzles, I don't have gas in my car at all. help I will ask a question in a different way how to make the 5hp24 automatic transmission work on a different ECU?

[@OGPedXing]

@@zigandarov the megasquirt is a full engine management ecu and it supports any fuel you like but it doesn't work for transmission control. You'd have to keep that from the original car and feed it the inputs it may need like rpm, speed, or throttle percentage.

[@zigandarov]

@@OGPedXing thank you very much for the advice I will study in more detail, but what do you think about the ECU corvette?

[@urieljurado1079]

SIR, I HAVE A MAZDA MX-6 WITH JDM ENGINE AND I HAVE A MEGASQUIRT ECU AND NOW I HAVE A TUNERSTUDIO MS SOFTWARE AND I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO USE THIS MS SOFTWARE BY MYSELF AND I KNOW NOTHING.... MY MECHANIC THE SAME AND HE SAYS HE DOES NOT HAVE TIME TO LEARN THE MS SOFTWARE AND MY EXPERT ON TUNERSTUDIO MS SOFTWARE SAYS HE IS VERY BUSY ALSO SO.... I AM ALONE WITH MY TRIANGLE: MX-6, ECU AND TUNERSTUDIO MS SOFTWARE ... I WOULD LIKE TO FIND A TUTORIAL FOR MY MX-6 OF 1995 BUT NOW WITH JDM NEW ENGINE AND MANUAL TRANSMISSION TIED BOTH JDM ... HERE IN PANAMA CANAL ..

[@zachariahhamilton2221]

I bought ts ultra but my screen doesnt look like yours

[@OGPedXing]

It may be that you're seeing differences due to the firmware level of the megasquirt. I'm on 1.4... if you have a later version like 1.5 or especially on an ms2 or 1 it will look different since those devices don't support all the same features.

[@zachariahhamilton2221]

@@OGPedXing how do I access all my idle control

[@OGPedXing]

@@zachariahhamilton2221 You've connected to the Ms and created a new project? A new project should have all the default menus. Take a look at the first start video in the build series kzbin.info/www/bejne/epOzYZRvhMSrm9E. Also ts ultra comes with megalog viewer, you may be running that on accident.

[@coltglass1270]

man you skipped like 2 good steps...calibrating the sensors and setting up the base timing... i was watching because thats exactly what I need to know how to do and you just went right over it...

[@OGPedXing]

I covered that in the install video...take a look here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/epOzYZRvhMSrm9E

[@OGPedXing]

If you've already loaded firmware and created a tuner studio project you can skip to about the 15 minute mark.