MegaSquirting the Exocet
We decided early on we would eventually go forced induction and one of the first steps before doing so is to upgrade to an aftermarket standalone ECU. The MegaSquirt ECU is among the most popular ECUs on the market for the Miata community.
The only problem was that a MegaSquirt for the 1996 Miata was not available, that is, until just a few months ago. When it finally came out, we were ecstatic because we had essentially waited two years for this. We finally got our hands on the MegaSquirt MS3Pro PnP specifically made for the 96-97 model year of the Miata.
Replacing the stock ECU was a breeze as the PnP model of the MegaSquirt allows us to simply remove the old ECU and plug in the MegaSquirt. It just uses the factory wire harness and interfaces with the engine as if it was the OEM ECU.
One big advantage of using the MegaSquirt ECU is that it allows us to remove the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor. The MAF sensor restricts the airflow through the intake system and removing it should in theory allow us to increase fuel rates, thereby increasing power output. The only change we need to make is to add a GM Intake Air Temperature Sensor right in front of the throttle body, tap the original temperature sensor electrical wires from the MAF sensor connections, and connect a vacuum tube between the ECU and the intake manifold.
After installing the Tunerstudio software on our Raspberry Pi and we are able to interface with the MegaSquirt ECU and adjust all our tunes. In fact, with the Raspberry Pi running VNC, we can remote desktop into our car and tune from anywhere in the house from a laptop! This is a fantastic feature since the garage can get super cold or hot depending on the season.
The next steps will be to try to start the car and see if we can get the car running as well as it does on the stock ECU.