Aftermarket ECUs - where do I learn?

The engine and gearbox are going into a Jensen Healey, and I understand the original ecu is seriously difficult to transfer, so other than that, I know nothing !

I also have a bmw compact with a b230 in it, that runs the microsquirt. Microsquirt is really good, small etc, uses tunerstudio like the speeduino. i have found that getting someone to map the microsquirt properly is a lot easier than with speeduino, but part of it is you are going to map it yourself.

Speeduino is seen i think as more home built as the older ones where kits usually. Later boards can be bought already assembled and tested.

Both will need you to buy tunerstudio at i think it was £70, both will need you to make or mod the loom for the engine. I made both of mine as its just easier in the long run and you get to know exactly what is going on there, and you can place components where you want them.

Both will need you to buy a wide band 02 sensor for the exhaust pipe, so you can see whats going on with the wasted gasses.

Both will run your fuel pumps, power to coils, rad fan, and more.


Both arnt free either;

The microsquirt when i looked last year was around £450, you either need an econoseal connector i think it was and make your own ecu plug up, or get one with tails that you solder onto.

Speeduino comes into its own here, speeduino is not expensive at all

Speeduino is imho the easier one, less settings, less messing, and i don't know the trigger pattern of the jag for the crank sensor, but i know someone who will mod the code to suit what you have...

Thanks for the above. I’ll keep investigating then. U tube links would be helpful, thanks
My reason for thinking Emerald was that it kept coming up on the Locost pages, the AJV6 seems popular there

you are right, if no one will map it then it can become hard, but most people want the engine to at least run first an a base map. On my R100, i downloaded a map of a simular type of engine, changed the bits i needed to make it talk to my engine, ran auto tune, looked at the fuel for any obvious problems, listened for pinking, and it works. If its 80% power that the proper guy would get, it still flys.

All depends on what you want to spend.

Dave Walker (founder of Emerald) did a good Haynes book on Engine Managment. I'd suggest that's a good start to get a grounding in how everything works.

Thanks, Slater and Crockpot. That’s my homework sorted !