Guess I should actually write all my stuff down.....

2004 Cobra, gen 4 whipple 2.9 w/standard inlet, Fore fuel system, twin 450 pumps, ID1050X injectors, BA3000 MAF. I snagged the MAF curve from Steve's workbook. No scaling needed.

Mine was one of the first batches. It had the speedo bounce that everyone knows about. I'm pretty sure I'm the one that brought it to DIY's attention as it was a fight to get it fixed. To be honest I think I had a bad unit as everything that seemed to work on everyone else's car didn't work on mine. In the end they ended up sending me a new ECU and it's been good since. If you don't use cruise control then I don't think the speedo bounce will bother you. You can also watch the speed other ways if you need to. In fact that's what I did when I drove to Vegas last November. I watch the speed on the Perfect Tuning Gauge.

I don't have before and after numbers as I swapped ECU's in the middle of everything. I had it dynoed once and it made 617rwhp/583rwtq on 91 octane at 12 degrees and 18psi. I was still working on the tune so it was very conservative. I haven't checked it since getting the tune better and also running E85.

I currently have flex fuel, knock sensing, and traction control active. I'm only running one knock sensor as adding the wires for the second sensor was a PITA. So far it seems to be working fine with the single sensor.

I'm still playing with traction control and have it set pretty loose. So it'll still spin a decent amount, but I've hit some spots that would normally send the car sideways and it stayed straight with the traction control on. I'm going to start lowering the slip percentage and see how it acts.

I think I went the hard way on flex fuel. I ended up using two tables for trimming the MAF curve. VE1 is for 91 and VE3 is for E85. The ECU blends between them. I went this route so I could have the separate tables for the start up and accel enrichment. When I used the global fuel multiplier the start up was rough on E85. I'm not saying it's perfect now, but it's much better. And I can still fill up wherever I want and drive off without worry.

I use a basic HP Pavillion laptop for tuning. I bought it a few years ago for school and it works fine. I would recommend getting the Bluetooth set up as well. And maybe Shadow Dash if you're a total nerd. I have it on my phone in case I decide to randomly log when I'm driving. I move the file to my computer and use MegaLog Viewer from there.

For advice I'd say make sure your injector dead time is right. I've seen a lot of guys chase their tails because the dead time was wrong. There's a lot of calculations based off that. When you first set up the idle make sure the engine is fully warmed up. It might be worth zeroing the warm up enrichment. Same when you first dial in the VE table. Make sure the car is out of WUE. Once it's dialed in then play with the start up tables and accel enrichment.

I think that's the main points. Please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes as I typed this on my phone.

 

For anyone that has traction control working can you either post a screen shot of the settings and the spark retard or attach your tune so I can review it in Tuner Studio? I use MSPro (non pnp version) and Matt reviewed my log files and said that the TC is kicking in but may not be aggressive enough. I would like to see what other people are using for values to get me into the ballpark b/c right now it's not doing squat.
Here's a screen shot of mine but most of these are the default values:

ks

 

I haven't really put it to the test yet or played with special features, but it's intuitive and works well. The car made 964rwhp at 14.2* timing on an aborted run due to a bad idler pulley and losing the belt, engine is 10.5:1 teksid, stock heads with valve job, custom cams, ported Gen 5 3.0 whipple with 4# lower and 3” upper (32#'s), running on pump e85 through a TH400 and 9”. It should pick up a decent amount more as I add some timing to it.

Fuel system is twin hellcat/525 pumps, 10 feed, 8 return with 1650 injectors. I'm running speed density, driveability is awesome, and the power is plenty. I'm using a single zietronix wideband through the canbus.

For Tuner Studio and Megalog viewer, they are both easy to use and I haven't really had any hurdles since the initial setup where I missed a couple settings (the overboost one was kind of hidden and I completely missed it as an armature) . I'm using a Fusion 5 laptop that I've had for years. The software doesn't require some hardcore computer, that's for sure.

As a side note, last year I went 9.2 on the stock engine with the 3.4 whipple and used auto tune quite generously. The auto tune function was incredible at saving my engine and making it run smoothly, but it also works quite well at dialing itself in as you close the limits/lower the thresholds. Set the correction wide to begin, and narrow it down. The new engine/blower is making a couple hundred more horsepower, so I'm excited to see how it does.

 

Thank you guys, this is exactly the info I’m looking for! Great to see things going good for you guys since it helps give me the confidence to tackle this once my motor is finished. Hopefully we can get a few more people to post up as well like @GodStang and @eschaider The more information the better!

 

I started with speed density, but ran into issues when I would drive far. IE when I drove from San Diego to Vegas the altitude and temperature differences caused the idle to surge and some start up issues. They can be fixed but when I'm out of town like that I don't want to be dealing with the computer. If I only drove it around socal I probably would have stuck with speed density.

FWIW, I used autotune when I first got the car running. It was weird to feel the car running better as I drove it. Once it was driveable I started taking logs and using VE Analyzer in Megalog Viewer. I'd take anywhere from a 30 minute up to 2 hour log and then run it through the analyzer.

@KEVINS I tried to attach my tune, but the forum doesn't like the format. If you want I can email it to you. You might need to get more aggressive with the timing retard in the begining.

 

I think you may be able to attach it as a zip file if not email will work:
Tech@BaselineSuspensions.com

If your TC is working good that will give me an idea how aggressive I can start with and how much I can ultimately pull. How much is too much b4 parts get hurt, that is the ultimate question.

THANK YOU!
KS

 

Great thread. Although I don't have an MS3 Pro PnP, i'm going to be picking up a MS Gen. 2 PnP for my Fox, so the info in this thread is very informative.

 

My builds not done yet but in the final stages. Hope to have some #s within the month. 3.4 Whipple Crusher, Fore Fuel system w/ twin 450s, ID1300x, and 5000 sct Maf. Also have the Pro-M flex sensor for flex fuel. Curious to see peoples experience running flex fuel. Also if anyone has used the nitrous options in the ECU.

 

What size tube are you running the MAF in? I'll be curious to see how much range it uses.

The flex fuel is awesome. Its already benefited me a couple times.

 

I keep saying I was going to do a complete writeup with screenshots and all my info but been so busy. I love the MS3 and it has been a fun ride with many many thanks to @01yellerCobra for all his help. No Dynos here so no before and after numbers.
Mods I have added:
Bosch 210s for $500 and the idle and run amazing and can run E85 for days.
Ran SD for awhile and then swapped over to a custom 5" CAI I made with a GT500 slot style MAF and used the numbers from SVTP and the idle is WAY better now.
Flexfuel Sensor and fuel temperature sensor
Dual 14point7 Adv 3 widebands hooked through Canbus to auto tune each side of the engine
Also hooked up to android device to use Shadow Dash Custom Dashboards.

Cant remember what else.

 

I keep saying I was going to do a complete writeup with screenshots and all my info but been so busy. I love the MS3 and it has been a fun ride with many many thanks to @01yellerCobra for all his help. No Dynos here so no before and after numbers.
Mods I have added:
Bosch 210s for $500 and the idle and run amazing and can run E85 for days.
Ran SD for awhile and then swapped over to a custom 5" CAI I made with a GT500 slot style MAF and used the numbers from SVTP and the idle is WAY better now.
Flexfuel Sensor and fuel temperature sensor
Dual 14point7 Adv 3 widebands hooked through Canbus to auto tune each side of the engine
Also hooked up to android device to use Shadow Dash Custom Dashboards.

Cant remember what else.

Have you ran the 210's on pump gas yet? I just ordered some yesterday for my setup and curious about tuneablility on 93. I run E85 98% of the time but wanted the versatility if I wasn't able to get E for some reason.

 

I am glad to hear about your successes, Josh. You are certainly one of the pioneers who is first to the line with testing and evaluating new stuff. Thanks for being there for everyone and thanks for your participation.

Ed

 

Injectors and spacers were delivered yesterday. Everything fit together great and the spacers look to be good quality. They do allow for some misalignment however I'm not sure it is enough to cause any issues with the oring sealing. As soon as my Denso to ev6 adapters get in I'll throw them in

 

They look good. Let me know how the Denso to ev6 adapters work out. I went with the stock plug injectors which I thought would be easier but with the plug moved down almost an inch from stock location the stock plugs were not long enough with out loosing the harness. I got them hooked up and looks stock but they may of been easier if I got the Ev1 and used plug adapters for that extra reach. I was just unsure if it would fit under the 3.6L inlet.

 

Adapters all worked great. I ohmed them out before installing and they all tested fine. Injector spacers installed fine but I did have to slightly slot the mounting holes in my rails. Not sure if it was the injector or spacer but the rail was sitting about 3/16" to high to bolt up. I had trouble dialing in the idle until I realized I had inverted the small pulse width table. Got that straightened out and everything started falling into place

 

No final numbers yet but my 3.4 crusher car made 701/629 on conservative timing and 93. Apparently getting some interference in the TPS wire. Tuner is putting in a shielded wire and then on to E85 and some more timing. 750 seems like a good # for 19lbs of boost.

 

The E85 will help primarily in the detonation resistance camp but also you will pick up a fair amount of additional charge cooling attributable to the ethanol. All in all, I would not be surprised to see you land, fairly easily, in the 750HP space, power wise.

Remember the additional octane available in the Ethanol will allow more timing. Don't get too enthusiastic though, because you can still detonate ethanol. If you stay at 25˚ and below you should be OK. As you sneak up on max timing don't forget to keep an eye on torque. When you start to see diminishing returns for additional timing you are at a good place to stop.

Nice job, Kyle.

Ed

 

After 2 years its nice to be in the car again for sure. Its like stepping on a bomb with the instant torque. I appear to have some teething issues for sure though. A small amount of speedo bounce that others have seen as well as some difficulty connecting to the bluetooth dongle. Both are easy fixes at least. Some more boost will be in its future soon enough. The MS3 is so full of features it will no doubt take a while to get acclimated to them all.

 

Hi Use to be on here as doubleblack since I owned the car new and would chat w/ all the old school guys like Eschlader (Ed) and Broke7 (now Nojokex Allen on IG). On order too, excited to be in the club!! Plan is to run it first w the current old school original setup 2.3 whip, 60’s and stock pumps, BAP so I can just drop in and start playing and learning. Then drop in the new fuel system and retoon and play around then 3.0 whipple and tune w MS3pro ultimately. I really hope I like the speed density cuz I’m most excited about it use to tune my old turbo civic that way as a youth lol . Follow me on IG as doubleblack2.0 and I’ll get a YouTube going to if my smart kids help me lol, I’m 50 next year and already consider my self behind in tech my kids talk a different language and will also teach them some wrenching skills so they are well rounded. My build is dedicated to my wife who’s in the hospital w CV and got it real bad been in the hospital ICU since begining of December and finally got out to the next level down care on 1/1/22 to start the new year yeah. Anyhow check out my IG as I am dedicating my cobra build to her naming it #ProjectLife2.0 and in doing so making memories w my 2 boys 18 & 15 and finally giving back to the terminator community since I learned so much in this very place from stand up guys I mentioned above. The plan is to show you my experience w MS3pro thru the build. Oh and plz drop a prayer for my wife to get 1000% recovered

God Bless!
Ed

 

Welcome back, Ed. Truly sorry to hear about the wife but at the same time good to also hear she is out of IC and sounds like she has turned the corner and begun the journey back to normalcy. In addition to instagram don't forget to share some of your build and track story on MF.

 

Welcome back!
Prayers for your wife for sure!
I’m with Eschaider as well. I don’t have an IG or FB account so if you could also share your build and MS3 journey on here too it would be greatly appreciated. I plan to do the same as soon as I can find the time to get back to doing more for my Cobra than just buy parts and stack them up along a wall. Although I do get a smile every time I walk into that room and see the 3.0 Whipple sitting there like a trophy on a desk with the MS3 Pro box right beside it

Thanks
Ken

 

Hi Guys, sorry about that, I basically dropped my post above almost a year ago and never really got back. I just saw your responses today as a matter of fact 😀 Thank you for the kind words about my wife and she is basically fully recovered back to work and now thankfully have been able to focus on the cobra! So I finally got around to wiring the MS3P up along w/ Innovation twin analog widebands and the Perfect Tuning gauge. MalcolmV8’s YouTube channel is great for cobra specific info when installing this ECU. One word of advice is that it’s more ideal to buy wide bands that are Canbus compatible, mine aren’t, it’s an easier set up w Tuner studio and wiring to Canbus is a no brainer. I am currently trying to figure out how to get my second wideband to register on MS3P. Im sure it’s easy, just need to research a bit. But I believe in the end Canbus also communicates to the ECU faster. So for now I’m tuning w just the drivers side bank and will fix it soon. As I mentioned above I stuck w my game plan of running my old school returnless fuel set-up to get my feet wet w MS3P. I am currently speed density and I’m really liking it so far. I know a few go back to MAF due to drivability issues but I’m hoping I can stick w MAP. The canned tune didn’t work the greatest out of the box (hesitations, rough idle, etc) but after just one Autotune session (literally a 20min of driving) the car woke up and ran really nicely. I’m hesitant to really push the car because I killed the stock pumps (at 95k mi) and have a band aid set up I bought from Jegs that was a stock replacement pump assembly drop in. They seem to be Ok for now w the BAP but I’m not trusting them 100%. Although, My logs show these pumps are keeping up w/ my 60’s and 2.3 whipple 17psi of boost. I mean it’s pretty amazing that basically my car is running great because of artificial intelligence tuning lol. The only thing that wasn’t that straight forward was tuning for the idle. Autotune got it idling just a notch under 1k which I didn’t mind but I have to give a big thanks to 01yellercobra for helping me get the idle better and overall getting me started. You can do it all on your own if you had to but if you have a resource that has gone through it already the better. I’m fortunate he’s San Diego local to me so he actually punched in some safety tweaks to the spark and AFR tables especially being on crap 91. So for now I’m pretty pleased about this computer and will now take a pause to install my new return fuel system and await the gen 5 to get here. Once it’s all installed I’ll focus on getting the new fuel and blower running properly , then move to the flex fuel capabilities since I’ll be driving mostly on the streets still. My fuel will be 1440’s fic, twin 485’s and not quite sure on the boost yet. If I shoot for around 25lbs+ on E85, guess I’d still have to take it easy and be mindful in the event 91 is in the tank since 20+ is too high for 91. So 91 will be for emergencies purposes only and will most likely have a bit of a corn blend at all times. All- in-all pretty good experience so far. I’m glad Ed introduced it here a couple years ago and MF is where I first heard of MS3P. It’s nice to have capabilities to make changes on the fly, functional stock gauge cluster, MAP or MAF capable, adding all kinds of sensors etc etc

 

Good to see you back, Ed.

Here are two items that I think you might find helpful. The first is a CAN Buss Wideband that is flat out the fastest wideband commercially available. The firm is 14Point7 <= clickable, and the product is what they call their Spartan 3 wideband and controller. They have an excellent MS3Pro setup. The magic is all in their controller.

The second item is an excellent YouTube video by Turbine Research, which you may have seen on idle tuning. Here is a link to it, Turbine Research Megasquirt Idle Tuning. They use a very straightforward approach, which you may have already used but just in case ...

 

Thanks Ed I’ll def have a look at the vid…can never have enough intel for idle tuning…from what I’m hearing some folks are having issues w the 150mm roval TB, some say it’s a mechanical issue, some say it’s a tuning issue. Some have swapped to the 132mm and problem solved…I’m hoping I can get the 150mm going w out issue… ya have looked at the spartan system and may upgrade to it eventually. I do enjoy having the Innovative dual readout gauge in addition to the Perfect Tuning gauge for everything else. I do think spartan does offer something similar if I wanted to keep the same set up.

 

A little Off Topic since this thread is in the 03-04 Cobra forum but I just saw that DIY now has a PnP version for the 1999-2004 GT's:

MegaSquirtPNP by DIYAutoTune.com

MegaSquirtPNP Plug-N-Play Standalone Engine Management Systems by DIYAutoTune.com

www.megasquirtpnp.com

ks

 

If I’m not mistaken I think the 2v version was released first. The DIYauto how to vids are centered around the 2v…for those that need more specific 03 04 cobra MS3p install / info vids go to MalcolmV8’s YouTube channel. I’ve communicated w/ him on IG and has said he’s working on more terminator /MS3P content soon.

 

I thought I just read that it was released a few weeks ago...but I could have read something that was posted a few years old... or I was drunk...take your pick..

ks

 

I believe I got either the first or second Terminator version of the MS3Pro PnP. If I was first, then Josh (Godstang) was second, or vice versa. DIY had the Mach I version completed and available at the time but not the Terminator or 2V version yet. After the Mach I version, the next one up was the Terminator version which means the 2V must have been the third release. I am not certain I could describe the difference between a two-valve unit and a four-valve n/a unit. It seems they should be the same — although, I almost forgot, Ford screws around with the pinouts on the ECU connector, which I would not be surprised to discover is the difference.

 

Hey Guys, when you first get your MS3 installed you may be like me and find yourself trying to to obtain that good start-up / idling you once had when you still had your stock computer. I wanted to share a couple really helpful vids I found...The stock base tune they provide you w/ works just ok to get you going, but you're gonna want to get these dialed in for peace of mind. IMO i think idling is a bit easier to dial in because the cold start you basically have to wait until the car is dead cold so the ECU reads the initial temps. I'm hoping my cold start settings for this time of year carry over until it gets a little warmer. I admit I wasn't expecting to need to know this much about these topics, but you're kind of forced to research / learn if you're trying to self tune. Although MS3 is plug n play, it still is technically a stand-a-lone. IMO these are good vids because they actually relate more to the V8 guys. A lot of content out there is for miata's and bimmer guys which is OK but thought this channel is a bit more relatable to us.

Cold Start Tuning:

Idle Tuning:

 

Excellent Find, Ed!

Pay Back Garage does an excellent job of covering the methodology and presents it clearly and concisely. I visited several of his videos, and they are all consistently very good in both his messaging and the tech he is speaking about.

 

Great Ed, we need to keep it up and keep posting resources here as a place to start our initial hunt for info. I agree Brooks does a great job w/ his vids and quite a knowledgeable garage tuner. So far his first vid is still working and I have a pretty good cold start at the moment that "explodes" at start up like it use to.

 

I'd like to see a video on how to fine tune the settings so the car doesn't die when putting it in gear (automatic trans). I've had some help which works pretty good but when the car is is really cold or even when warmed up and put into gear it will still occasionally die. I've played with timing which has solved 80% of it but it will die.

ks

 

Kevin I don't claim to know anything about tuning especially auto trans tuning, but take a look at his first vid in I posted above in regards to cold starts, he goes into WUE (warm up enrichment) it basically keeps the car idling high while cold until it gets up to operating temp then close loop idle takes over. You also may want to hit up MalcolmV8 as he's been building an auto gen 5 using MS3 and is quite knowledgeable about tuning.