Spark plug fouling

[eschaider]

Mike,

If the original FAST ECU is as failure-prone as Dan suggests, I would be reluctant to replace a failed unit with another identical unit that would likely fail the same way at a later date.

I am still back at believing the tune was good because the car ran at one point and the reason for non-operation right now is a failed component either inside or outside the ECU.

If you believe the ECU has failed and is additionally old technology, you would be doing yourself a favor by going to a modern aftermarket ECU. Which one to choose is your call.

When attempting to select an ECU, you should shoot for a feature set that allows you to tune for and manage good daily driving manners. In the FWIW bucket most units today will do this. Then how do you choose? It ultimately comes down to pricing and engine fail-safe features. It is worthwhile remembering that almost all the providers today will match each other nearly feature for feature.

You will find some units, typically race oriented units, offer feature sets that can help you "map" a race course for example. This is a really nice feature for a race application. It is not meaningful for a car like ours. When you finish your probably exhausting if not exhaustive evaluation you are going to discover everyone provides similar tuning tools/features usually with slightly different naming conventions.

The upshot of all this provides you with a single differentiator — price. I will add one more dimension capture ratio. What I mean by capture ratio is the need for the services of a professional tuner. Some systems are relatively easy to tune while others can be more challenging. If you purchase one of the more challenging you have painted yourself into a corner that requires the services of a fee based tuner.

If you purchase a more user-friendly system you will find you can do much if not all of the tuning yourself. Look for a system that has good 'how to' videos available and a complete tuning feature set with an easy user interface. The Holley system fits that model and provides a pretty good self learning capability that will both get you started and also get you well down the path to the tune you finally want.

Along with Holley you will find similar self learning capabilities and how to videos for the MS3Pro products along with an easy-to-navigate, relatively intuitive user interface. Start to finish the MS3Pro will typically come in $1K to $2K less expensive than the Holley system and give up nothing feature-wise.

Ultimately you need to make the call. If you fall back into the 'buy a tune from a shop that sells EFI systems' mode, you will find your initial solution will be more expensive and your follow on visits will be more frequent than you believed or were led to believe. Should you did not learn how to use the tool, you will be bound at the wallet to the tuning shop you have chosen or possibly replaced the original shop with.

EFI is not a dark science known only by high priests descended from who knows where. It is simply a digital calibration system used to balance the air and fuel your engine needs to run. This stuff is eminently learnable by everyone of us — unless you do not want to. If that is the case you will be better served by a shop that offers the service.

Don't sell yourself short.


p.s. The Megasquirt units are the only units available today that have a lifetime warranty. Wouldn't it have been nice if your current unit had that warranty?