Hemitronix vs Megasquirt $

4speeds4me,

One thing that Nutter may not have mentioned is the cost of the tuning software.

With Megasquirt the software is free (as in beer), you can however pay a little extra and to gain a few additional features. I believe the expanded software will set you back $60.00.

With Hemitronix, if you wish to tune the car yourself you will need to buy a software package. These packages from companies like HP Tuners are between $500.00 and $650.00.

If you take the car to get tuned, they may have a site license that decreases their cost, but they are still going to charge you a fair amount of money to tune the car. If you don't wish to ever tune the car yourself, or to look at some of the diagnostics than a one-time fee might be the way to go.

With ANY fuel injection system you will have many of the same expenses. You will need to upgrade the fuel system with an EFI fuel pump, fuel filter, and regulator. For example, fuel pumps range in price from $109.00 for an external inline pump to about a $1000.00 for a custom tank with an in-tank submerged pump. Also depending upon your HP requirements you may need to spend quite a bit more than $109.00. The same holds true for regulators. There exists adjustable regulators costing over $300.00 while many swaps utilize an LS combination regulator and fuel filter for $59.00.

Also keep in mind that if you scrounge you can find some stuff cheap. I made my own throttle body adapter and used a Power Products 85mm throttle body I bought off of ebay for $100.00.

With megasquirt the amount you spend is largely dependent upon how much DIY you do.

I built my own box and saved a lot. The price of a pre-built ECU $659.00 lt vs. $490.00 for a kit. I built a kit, took me the better part of a day, well worth the effort. The instructions are quite clear. This compares to 1295.00 for the EFI Source kit. The EFI Source kit include a harness and a fuse box to ease installation. Add a couple of hundred dollars to the above kit prices.

You can save even more if you go with MS2 instead of MS3. With MS3 you gain a lot, sequential ignition control, and sequential fuel injection. With MS you would have to use wasted spark ignition and batch firing but your price is $334.00, so you'd save another $160.00.

I bought my MS3 kit and saved some money, I enjoyed putting the box together, though I do question the durability. (You must mount your home built ECU in the passenger compartment) I will probably saved 300.00 over the cost of the EFI Source kit, was it worth it? I'll let you know when I actually finish my project. My project is currently stalled due to a lack of funds. :(

Sharpen your pencil and Do the math.

Regards,

Joe Dokes