Ms2 or MS3 for LS install?

[flak monkey]

I am fitting an LQ9 (basically an LS2) into my 2nd Gen Camaro, and I'm considering which ECU to control it.

I have always used MS2 in the past for previous installations of a SBC, and a couple of different ford 4 cyl engines without any major problems.

It's not a daily driven vehicle, so I'm not particularly concerned about fuel economy.

Would the sequential control from MS3 give that much benefit? Or would an MS2 with JB Perf 4 channel board be more than adequate?

This is going in a street/strip car, thats likely to have nitrous installed in 12 months or so, but I can't see that making much difference either?

Must have features
Fuel and spark control
Fan control
Tach out put
Nitrous control
CAN (for use with Megashift)

Basically I'm looking for the most cost effective option at this stage.

Thanks

[elutionsdesign]

MS3PRo, having built many, many systems with lots of different options I think the most cost effective unit is one you can drop in and connect without having to build little add on circuits and worry about reliability. It's all on the board already, just connect a wire. If you don't need all those options a cased Microsquirt, but in the motors I've done I find sequential injection to be well worth it.

[flak monkey]

The Pro range is well out of my price range and seeing as I've built a number of megasquirts in the past, I don't really see any benefit to having a 'pro' module.

[billr]

MS3. Is it still only about $100 more than the MS2? That is trivial in the over-all cost of a project like this.

[Paul_VR6]

On the cheap, make sure you don't exceed the i/o but Micro may be the way to go for engine and trans.

[flak monkey]

Microsquirt doesn't have enough outputs for what I need to do.

I build my own ECU's and there's more than $100 difference in the cost of the parts.

MS3 total cost:
Kit - 385
MS3X - 105
10' loom for MS3 - 79
10' loom for MS3X - 79

$648 - fully sequential spark and fuel and all the outputs I could ever want and more

MS2 total cost:
Kit - 279
A few odd components for extra circuits - 40
10' loom - 79

$398 - semi sequential and a bit of customisation.

Quite a lot of difference in the cost - the only benefit that I can see on my installation is getting fully sequential spark and fuel? Or am I missing something?

[nathaninwa]

250 is minimul when your getting the function and feature set of a 2000 and more Ecu. Download each firmware and look at the setup tunes in each file. There's lots of pros to running ms3

[billr]

I suggest you make a fair comparison:

MS3 total cost:
Kit - 385
10' loom for MS3 - 79
A few odd components for extra circuits - 40

$504 - as much or more than any MS2, plus capability to progress in the future

MS2 total cost:
Kit - 279
A few odd components for extra circuits - 40
10' loom - 79

$398 - semi sequential and a bit of customisation.

So... $504-398 = $106 more for the MS3. It's your choice, of course.

[flak monkey]

But running an MS3 without the MS3X card doesn't really give me much benefit over running an MS2 as I can still only run semi-sequential fuel/spark. The only benefit is a higher number of inputs/outputs, which I'll never need.

Really my question is this...

Is running fully sequential spark and fuel really worth the extra expenditure on a relatively simple installation like mine, that doesn't need huge numbers of inputs and outputs?

[nathaninwa]

My vote is always ms3. The refinements are 10 fold over ms2, even if you go the simple ms3 route. Idle tuning, and drivability are just a few. Look over both firmwares stock tune files and you'll see. Once you get into the project will get bigger and you'll want to add vss and boost, so plan ahead. Plus I've read in other posts, ms2 is almost full and won't get anymore huge updates or features, where ms3 can go much farther