Hey guys I'm new to this forum since I just got my first 86 last week, it's a sweet ride with a nice 20v but it's needs a tune badly, right now it has stick silver top with silkroad headers and open throttle bodies equipped with a megasquirst ms2, if anybody knows a tuner around the LA or IE area who can help me out with my setup, please let me know, I just want the car to run good, at the moment the car idles at around 1600-1700(fluctuates a lot) fuel economy is unreliable, below 1500 rpm the car struggle a lot and I've had a misfire in 2nd gear. Everything else seems good so thanks in advance

my advice scrap the mega crap and setup with a reliable ecu......that header might be overkill for a stock 20v also...

Is the megasquirt setup, really that bad, what a good alternative that won't burn holes in my pocket, it seems overkill but it's all I have so just gonna stick with it.

i would find a stock blacktop ecu and harness or silvertop ecu and harness.....for stock engines thats the best setup

gaijin_rokurunner wrote:my advice scrap the mega crap and setup with a reliable ecu......that header might be overkill for a stock 20v also...

Gaijin why the hard feelings against MS? What un-reliability have you experienced that was hardware related and not installation quality related? I'm actually in the process of installing MS on my 99 4Runner 4x4 because I trust it more than the stock ECU.

My novel of a reply I just typed in a different thread, maybe some good info that relates to this conversation:
http://forums.club4ag.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3285#p17889

Edwin, there is nothing wrong with MS these days. If you hear otherwise please consider it a rumor or hard feelings left over from an un-sorted install. It is very rare for a hardware issue to be the root cause, but it's not impossible, nor is it impossible for a hardware issue to occur in any other ECU factory or aftermarket. I've never seen the capacitors boil out of a (correctly installed) MS like the 20V factory ECUs. If you reverse polarity though, there are tantalum capacitors that will pop but hey, 12V goes to 12V and not ground right? Installing a programamble ECU can sometimes be an overwhelming task, especially if it's your first time tackling such a job. Because the ECU needs a tune should not be considered the fault of any ECU hardware or brand name. Please see my statement on shops turning away tune jobs in the link above.

Are you running into an issue finding a shop to tune your ECU? Look up Sean Church at Church Automotive, he should be in the LA (Wilmington) area and is knowledgable about MS. Plus he runs a dynapack hub dyno so you'll get a very accurate tune compared to an inertia roller dyno.

If you need any help with the MS, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me websales@diyautotune.com my name is Russ.

I believe Megasquirt unreliability and its bad rumors roots from the units that arent running correctly which were assembled/repaired/modified/installed by the inexperienced. The new systems that are out right now as well as preassembled units from the past are so far the best bang for the buck that ive seen.