8th Generation Honda Civic Forum - View Single Post

daytonaturbo · 10-10-2008, 09:14 PM

I run a MS-2 on my 87 Daytona and am putting another one together to run on my 440/7.2L powered Plymouth Satellite so I can ditch the carb from that one and go to port efi. On those applications the MS-2 works great. For both of them I use them to control fuel and spark. But keep in mind, the Satellite has no computer controls to replace, so installation of it is just as a stand alone unit, and on my Daytona, the computer only controlled the engine and my cruise control. Cruise was cheap/easy enough to by pass from the computer, so no troubles there. But on a new civic, with the engine and body computers running the entire show, the car would probably crap itself if you tried to cut the stock computer out of the show all together.

Plus MS-2 does not work with a drive by wire system, nor can it control variable valve timing, it just does fuel and spark. If you want to run a megasquirt on a civic, the only way you could do it would be to install an extra set of 4 fuel injectors and program the MS unit to only activate those injectors once you start getting into boost. With a wideband 02 sensor, and MS's auto-tuning and datalogging capabilities, the hardest part of the whole deal would be physically adding in 4 additional fuel injectors. So you would have 8 fuel injectors, the 4 stock ones would do all their normal work, but when you hit boost, the other 4 kick in to suppliment the 4 stock injectors, and together all 8 would provide the appropriate amount of fuel during boost.

However, if you wanted to control fuel AND spark, there's no way you could keep the stock computer in the picture and happy. You'd be firing off all kinds of messages to the CEL like crazy. On something like your 80's corolla, the efi controller should still be simple enough that it can be bypassed easily enough. But I think you can tell how much more complicated a modern ECU is and how much more integrated into the functions of the entire car it is. The last thing I would want to do is modify things in such a way as to unintentionally disable safety features of the car, ie air bags, abs, etc etc.

10-10-2008, 09:14 PM	#4 (permalink)
daytonaturbo Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Manitoba, Canada Posts: 167	I run a MS-2 on my 87 Daytona and am putting another one together to run on my 440/7.2L powered Plymouth Satellite so I can ditch the carb from that one and go to port efi. On those applications the MS-2 works great. For both of them I use them to control fuel and spark. But keep in mind, the Satellite has no computer controls to replace, so installation of it is just as a stand alone unit, and on my Daytona, the computer only controlled the engine and my cruise control. Cruise was cheap/easy enough to by pass from the computer, so no troubles there. But on a new civic, with the engine and body computers running the entire show, the car would probably crap itself if you tried to cut the stock computer out of the show all together. Plus MS-2 does not work with a drive by wire system, nor can it control variable valve timing, it just does fuel and spark. If you want to run a megasquirt on a civic, the only way you could do it would be to install an extra set of 4 fuel injectors and program the MS unit to only activate those injectors once you start getting into boost. With a wideband 02 sensor, and MS's auto-tuning and datalogging capabilities, the hardest part of the whole deal would be physically adding in 4 additional fuel injectors. So you would have 8 fuel injectors, the 4 stock ones would do all their normal work, but when you hit boost, the other 4 kick in to suppliment the 4 stock injectors, and together all 8 would provide the appropriate amount of fuel during boost. However, if you wanted to control fuel AND spark, there's no way you could keep the stock computer in the picture and happy. You'd be firing off all kinds of messages to the CEL like crazy. On something like your 80's corolla, the efi controller should still be simple enough that it can be bypassed easily enough. But I think you can tell how much more complicated a modern ECU is and how much more integrated into the functions of the entire car it is. The last thing I would want to do is modify things in such a way as to unintentionally disable safety features of the car, ie air bags, abs, etc etc.