EJ22 ECU swap

[darthekai]

Hey, first of all, I apoligise if I come off as a little ignorant. Theres just an insane amount of info on MS setups, but I cant seem to find any at the scale i want.
I'm looking for some kind of confirmation regarding the appropriateness of an MSII setup for my car, then if such a thing is given to me, a bit of a starting off point (especially in terms of what to buy).
Ive got a stock EJ22 N/A engine with all stock sensors and I want to run an aftermarket ECU so I can do various physical changes to the engine configuration without having to "trick" any stock ECUs into running the thing properly.

MSII is appealing to me because: its cheap, its very customizable, and it seems to have all the features im looking for.

As far as plans for the engine go, I would keep stock ignition system, stock fuel and injectors, which will deliver enough flow for my target hp. I would change only by adding a turbo, changing compression ratios by modifying heads and pistons, and I would like to be able to change tunes. Of course I would be changing whole exhaust setup, adding a EGT and AFR sensor, and thats pretty much it.

SO: is the MSII what I want, roughly? Is it overkill? Is it maybe sort of not applicable if I'm not going to build my own ignition/injection systems?

if it's what I want, I have the following questions:
From what I can tell, I would buy a built v3.0 board with a MSII
Link: http://www.DIYAutoTune.com/catalog/mega ... -p-65.html
and a DIYTuner harness. this setup has a built in MAP sensor (which I would need, as my stock only goes slightly higher than atm) and I could wire the rest of my sensors directly to it by basically splicing at the old connector.
Q1: What about knock sensing?? Subaru engines run pretty aggressive timing advancement that relys on pretty advanced knock sensing. I'd like to maintain this functionality because it means if I step up fuel grade at a track, my car will respond by producing more go. Ive read things about knock sensor modules and the like to "tone down" the signal from KSs so that the MS can understand it. This seems strange because I always thought all modern cars had knock sensors and they all work the same way: provide em 12v+ and they return 12v+ and when they go under, thats knock. If they go too far under, the sensor's cracked. Would I need to purchase additional equipment?
Q2: I have read things about problems interpreting signal from the stock crank trigger wheel. I believe my engine has the subaru 6/7 trigger but im not sure. maybe this is only older engines. Should I not be able to just send signal right from my denso crankshaft position sensor to the MS and call it a day or do I have to purchase some kind of additional component?
The other thing ive read is that people put a 3-2-2-2 trigger from an STI on there and the sky opens up and jesus descends down from the heavens and high fives them. Maybe I should do that.
Q3: whats all this about simulators? From what I understand, this is for configurations so far away from the norm that stock rich maps with the correct input constants will not work or do not exist. Is this right?
or is it for people who built the kit and want to make sure they did it right before letting it run an engine?

Last Q: lets say its quite easy. I get the right hardware, car is ready to go, correct sensors are in place. Whats the pre-install step? I would imagine I use tunerstudio on my windows laptop I dont have yet, set applicable variables (most importantly with an interference engine, base timing), plug it into car, cross fingers, and crank away? (p.s. I'm only talking about the stage of getting it to run. proper tuning is after this step)
or do you have to import some kind of basemap?

any help anyone can give me would greatly appreciated. Answer the first part only, or only one question, or all of em, every bit helps! I'm sort of at the "should I do it?" stage (otherwise known as on the fence) and the amount of problems some people have with subarus is disheartening. THAT BEING SAID, people will usually only post on forums if they're having issues. maybe for every problem thread, theres 100 people for whom it worked perfectly first try.

[Matt Cramer]

SO: is the MSII what I want, roughly? Is it overkill? Is it maybe sort of not applicable if I'm not going to build my own ignition/injection systems?

MS2 can run this motor. Using the stock sensors would require MS2/Extra, discussed on the MSExtra.com forum. The B&G code discussed on this forum would require an EDIS setup.

Q1: What about knock sensing?? Subaru engines run pretty aggressive timing advancement that relys on pretty advanced knock sensing. I'd like to maintain this functionality because it means if I step up fuel grade at a track, my car will respond by producing more go. Ive read things about knock sensor modules and the like to "tone down" the signal from KSs so that the MS can understand it. This seems strange because I always thought all modern cars had knock sensors and they all work the same way: provide em 12v+ and they return 12v+ and when they go under, thats knock. If they go too far under, the sensor's cracked. Would I need to purchase additional equipment?

Knock sensors are more like microphones. That behavior sounds like a GM external knock module, which is described here:

http://www.megamanual.com/ms2/knock.htm

MS2's knock sensing is pretty rudimentary. It can be used to provide some insurance from a tank of bad gas. It is not, however, intended to be used for deliberately running an overly advanced timing map.

Q2: I have read things about problems interpreting signal from the stock crank trigger wheel. I believe my engine has the subaru 6/7 trigger but im not sure. maybe this is only older engines. Should I not be able to just send signal right from my denso crankshaft position sensor to the MS and call it a day or do I have to purchase some kind of additional component?
The other thing ive read is that people put a 3-2-2-2 trigger from an STI on there and the sky opens up and jesus descends down from the heavens and high fives them. Maybe I should do that.

Both of these approaches would require MS2/Extra.

Q3: whats all this about simulators? From what I understand, this is for configurations so far away from the norm that stock rich maps with the correct input constants will not work or do not exist. Is this right?
or is it for people who built the kit and want to make sure they did it right before letting it run an engine?

The Stimulator kit is for testing your assembly work, separating configuration errors from wiring problems, and other reasons you may want to bench test an ECU.

Last Q: lets say its quite easy. I get the right hardware, car is ready to go, correct sensors are in place. Whats the pre-install step? I would imagine I use tunerstudio on my windows laptop I dont have yet, set applicable variables (most importantly with an interference engine, base timing), plug it into car, cross fingers, and crank away? (p.s. I'm only talking about the stage of getting it to run. proper tuning is after this step)
or do you have to import some kind of basemap?

Sounds about right.