Practical Standalone Tuning: Introduction
Introduction
02.18
00:00 | - In this worked example we're going to be looking at how to use the MegaSquirt MS3 Pro plug and play aftermarket ECU for the 1989 Mazda MX5 or Mazda Miata depending which market you're in. |
00:13 | The MX5 has probably become one of the more popular platforms for those interested in modifying their vehicles. |
00:20 | This particular example is relatively stock standard, it's still running the stock Mazda B6, 1.6 litre, four cylinder engine. |
00:28 | The only modifications performed here are to fit a slightly larger exhaust system and the restrictive factory trap door style air flow meter has also been removed. |
00:39 | This is actually one of the areas we can see quite a large improvement in performance with these B6 engines in that the trap door style air flow meter that the factory ECU relies on is incredibly restrictive. |
00:52 | So just simply removing that and providing a freer flowing intake through to the engine is going to net us a nice improvement in performance, even before we look at optimising the fuel delivery and the ignition timing. |
01:05 | Getting rid of the trap door air flow meter has required us to fit an air filter adapter. |
01:10 | And because the stock inlet air temperature sensor is housed in the trap door air flow meter, we've got an external air temperature sensor that's also fitted into that intake adapter or air filter adapter. |
01:24 | Now at this point, this is still located, probably not in the most ideal location in the engine bay over above the hot exhaust manifold. |
01:31 | In the perfect world, we'd obviously want this located where it could get nice cool fresh air from outside of the engine bay. |
01:38 | For consistency while we are running this car and tuning it here during our worked example, we will be running it with the engine bay open so we can get as much cooling air flow to that air filter as we can. |
01:51 | While we are concentrating here on the MX5 with a plug and play version of the MS3 Pro for this worked example, we will be treating this worked example as if we were installing the ECU from scratch with no base map and setting things up as we go. |
02:06 | For this reason, this worked example is also going to be helpful for those of you running the MS3 Pro not in the MX5 chassis. |
02:14 | So let's get started with step one. |