I have been looking to replace my Rtek 2.1 with a standalone, mainly because some of the OEM sensors are costly and it would be nice to ditch the AFM. I Have a S4 Turbo with a BNR turbo, slight exhaust porting, and S4 N/A rotors. I would like Boost contorl and maybe water/ meth injection contorl.

I have been looking at the Haltech Elites and the Sport 1000 with 13B wiring harness, AEM Infitiy, and the Megasquirt MS3X, MS3 Pro, and MS3 Pro Ultimate.

To be honest I am not really sure what features I need and what I don't need. I know the Haltechs have good rotary support since Mad Mike using them in his cars and tuning fork (if you watch Mighty Car Mods) have a video talking about how to tune a rotary car. The AEM just lists one ECU that will work with rotaries, 30-7106 and that is all it states on its website about it.

The Megasquirts seem to offer the most bang for the buck. The pro claims to be able to run a 4 rotor engine which sounds good seeing how I only have two.

I am in the Navy so I may move around quite a bit so me finding a tuning and what he prefers to tune may not be the best thing long term. I would like something that would be simple to learn how to tune, or has a lot of support.



I know this would be best in the ECU Section, but I wanted to see what the FC guys had to say.

 

You should find a tuner and use whatever he is comfortable with tuning or recommends.

 

i would probably suggest the MS3 then, if you plan on learning on your own and can afford the time to put a little extra into the ECU.

 

Do you mean any of them? Or the MS3X?

 

I'm surprised the Adaptronic PnP is not on your list. A very popular choice.

I won't say it's the end-all-be-all best ECU available, but for the price and most people's needs, it's a great choice. Plus, support has exploded for these ECUs; almost everyone tunes them. Andy, Mark, Eliott, Shawn, and the whole tech support is very quick to help, and it's always been a pleasure.

 

I forgot about Adaptronic, I will have to look into it.

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Adaptronic doesn't list a PnP Ecu for the S4 on their website, but recommend the 440 Universal Select ECU.

 

i still have no clue why they haven't, there is 10 times more S4's out there than S5.

except i know why, it's because they could adapt the S5 from the FD rather easily. the S4 takes actual work.

 

running a plug and play on an FC is a bad idea... the wiring harness is 30 years old and lives in an engine compartment that's hotter than it should be.

I would get an MS3-pro (ultimate is only good if you need more inputs, or want to run low impedance injectors) and use a new wiring harness that won't give you headaches in the future.

there is also the MS3-gold which is like the pro, but a bit cheaper.

 

who offers the MS3 Gold? I normally go to DIYautotune

 

MS3 Universal Gold Box with pigtail - EFI Source

 

The MS3 Gold and Pro seem very similar, other then the water proofcase.

 

They did/do. I had the very first S4 PnP Select which was installed and tuned on a street car, years ago. There's tons of these units out there. Now that they've moved on to the Modular, I believe the S4 hasn't been released yet.

And in regards to others talking about PnP being a bad idea, you need to take that with a grain of salt. Use your brain. If your harness is toasted, replace it. On the flip side, a lot of people have AWFUL electric skills. You'll be better off with a 25 year old crusty harness than 85% of people's wire-in ECU job. Take you skill level into account. You can always commission a professional like Chris Ludwig from LMS to build a new harness.

 

I feel I have a good understanding of electronic wiring, I think the hardest part is keeping up with what you did and what still needs to be done, and preventing your eyes from crossing from all the tedium of wiring. Also having the right tools for making connectors.

 

I would go with the Haltech plug and play. There is more support for it.

Do you want to wire up the harness? Like, is that your idea of a fun project, or is it a way to by some reasoning save a bit of money? If you don't genuinely want to take on that challenge, DON'T. Why? If there's a wiring problem on a plug and play, it's mostly somebody else's problem, unless you made a mistake installing it. Even if your stock harness has a problem (sometimes they do, but often the problems come from owner's cutting and modification), just get another one.

Remember, wiring it up and making sure the sensors are all working (crank trigger) is just the beginning. It has to actually be tuned right.

 

Are you referring to the sport 1000? It does come with a ​​​​new harness that is for the S4/S5 13B

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just pick an ECU where all you have to do is plug something in, whether it's a jumper to the stock harness or it's a plug and play harness included, with clear instructions and very very few places you have to cut and split things or de-pin connectors or whatever.

 

This.

 

I've been runnung Microtechs for years, so easy to work with and tune, the only issue, they are outdated. Because of that, i just picked up a Haltech Elite 1000, looksmvery straight forward to wire in, and the support is unmatched.

If you do end up moving out this way i can give you a hand with your car, plus we have Nelson Siverio from texas come up and do our tunes, he can tune pretty much any system and is good at it

 

I should be moving to Rock Island IL, by the Navy is taking their time giving me written orders. My folks do live in Elkhorn, WI so I will be up there quite a bit. And hopefully I will have Hobbiest plate soon. It's a involved process, but I will never have to renew a registration for my FC again.

 

The S5 can share the FD ecu tyco connector...the S4 uses a different tyco connector..means a whole new circuit board to make the pnp offering...someone here with circuit board skills should make a pnp version to fit in the factory ecu case or separate case....ms3pro modules are available for that purpose...the adaptor board could include desired other circuits..boost control,fan control, low imp. peak/hold inj. control, etc. which is what that "efi systems gold box"ms3 pro is.

 

Adaptronic S4 Modular PNP ecu is in the works guys!