Is Megasquirting an NA worth it?
 

So as the titles says it, is it worth going Megasquirt for an NA FC ?

I'm looking for some project to learn myself some more about my car and rotary's in general. So I was thinking on building MS2 for my car.
But I'm wondering, will it actually be worth it? Will i get some profits or gains? And which ones? More power, better fuel economy, ... ?

Anyone have some advice :)

If you have lots of money and lots of time and want to learn, then go for it, you will learn a lot. But as you experiment, thru trial and error, you may detonate and blow up the engine. Requiring more time and money and learning. You might gain 2-5 hp.

For performance gains, on an NA, get a header, resonate/hi-flo cat, and nice cat-back mufflers. This will look, sound and perform better. Gaining an easy 10-15 hp. It bolts on, engine friendly (won't blow up) and you will need this anyways, before you start tuning.

And you already have a full tune-up, right? Filters, fluids, plugs, wires, battery. Again, you'll need this done before you start tuning.

Yes i have done a full maintenance run on the car.

Hmm gaining 2-5 hp, that's not really worth it, is it.. And as a student I don't have lots of money or time :P. The time i can get, the money however :P

You will learn a lot about how an ECU works and tuning.

It is really hard to hurt an NA rotary with tuning (opposite of turbo rotary).

The ECU alone will not provide much power, but it will allow you to switch to a Holley style short runner intake manifold, 4150 style throttle body and a couple 1,000cc injectors in the primary position.

That plus a header/exhaust is worth ~ 40rwhp (up to about 180rwhp) on a stock 6 port 13B and provides that ITB throttle response.

^ This

Even though there will be no significant peak power gain due to just the ECU, if you tune it well then it is possible to achieve a better power curve that you can actually feel when driving. Also, a good tuner can increase gas mileage to about 30mpg at freeway cruise.

That's interesting!

I don't know off any rotarty tuners in Belgium, I will look into that. But I was thinking on following Aaron Cake's guide and it seems pretty doable?

Ive been looking into this myself. It would definately be a learning experience and gateway to more power gains and squeezing every last hp out of your setup

I agree with that's already been said. You don't experience a significant peak power gain, but you will make noticeable and worthwhile gains in the low end and midrange. You'll also realise a fairly significant fuel savings.

It will be quite a learning experience if it is your first standalone.

Thankfully, there does exist a writeup by a very helpful and experienced person which may point you in the right direction:

How To Megasquirt Your 2nd Gen RX-7

I have read your writup a couple of times now to see if I could do it.
Allthough I still have one question. You do mention base tuning etc. But would you consider it possible for doing a full tune yourself? because i don't know if there is any rotary tuner in Belgium here?

Tuning it yourself is most definitely possible. It's just a learning process. It does help if you've had some tuning experience or know someone who has before. On an NA rotary there's not much fundamentally different between tuning it and a piston engine. Really the only extra characteristic is timing split, which can be ignored on a basic level.

When talking about an NA rotary, it's an ideal learning platform because it's nearly impossible to damage unless something very stupid is done (ie. 40 degrees of timing and 17:1 AFRs at cruise).

You will be impressed by how quickly autotune will get you a drivable map.

The nice thing is that you can save your maps. So if you've gone backwards, just restore your working map and start again.

Thanks! Now I'm really going to try and get into this.

Would you consider the MS3 pro 'necessary' for an NA? I was thinking on grabbing the MS2 as it's only an NA and the cost difference is pretty significant (for me).