Hoping someone can let me know if my thought process is right or not about which PNP megasquirt kit to order. I have a 95 GT 5.0 manual. The PO installed a painlesswiring engine harness and after reading the installation instructions it is essentially a foxbody harness that requires yoy to run a fox distributor with the TFI mounted on it and swap the wires on the TPS. My question is, if the under hood harness is basically a 93 fox and everything else is still factory 95 stuff should i order the foxbody kit or the 94/95 kit? I come from the world of LS swaps using Holley terminator but love the idea of PNP and after watching lots of videos I don't think megasquirt will be too steep of a learning curve for me.
What megasquirt kit to order
- Thread starter 74delta
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Valid question.
My understanding is that 86-93 and 94-95 are not interchangeable unless a few pins are swapped. So my mindset would be whatever ECU you have now is likely what you need to get assuming everything was setup correctly by the previous owner.
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100% a great question and it made me dig i to the car and check the wiring. Turns out the PO installed a "hotrod" swap harness meant to specifically run an 86-93 302 with a foxbody computer. He changed the distributor to a foxbody one and repinned the TPS but was still running a 94/95 computer. Long story short the other night a ripped out the painless harness and distributor. I ordered some used harnesses off ebay and am waiting for them to come now. Once a fix all the wiring im going to order the 94/95 kit. I. Not sure how the car ran as decent as it did while running the 94/95 computer because i contacted painless and they said that harness was only meant for a fox computer.
If it never ran correctly then they weren't the best IMO.
Well there's that also. The Pimpxs is more suited for earlier models. I ran into issues that Stinger hadn't even encountered while using it on a '94. One update caused my engine to run in batch fire. Stinger had to post a notice in their forum to warn users.
Getting the A/C to work was unchartered waters. I was on my own while figuring that one out. It goes on and on.
Hot starts were a disaster and were never resolved.
Another issue that I hadn't considered was that the Pimp relies on the old, factory wiring. By the time that I re-pinned the ECU and moved it in and out of the kick panel many times, the factory wiring and connections were really put to the test. The 60 pin connector had broken clips from removing pins and relocating them. I had to install a new 60 pin plug.
I pulled everything out and sold it. My buddy builds classic hotrods for money is no object clientele. One day I watched him install a Holley Sniper 2 on a 632 GM big block in a '69 Nova. I thought there was no way that this setup would work with the nasty cam in that engine. He gets the unit all installed and enters a few parameters in the Holley Wizard. He turns the key and wallah. It fires right up and settles into a nice idle. He checks the timing and looks for leaks. Oil pressure is great. Hop in, let's go for a drive. Before I knew it he was doing a WOT pull. Holy chit! It just kept running better and better the more we cruised. I was sold.
I pulled all of the factory EFI equipment off of my engine including the engine and A/C harnesses. No more CCRM, TFI, etc...
I took my time and wired the Sniper 2 neatly and correctly. I installed a Super Vic carb intake and mounted the Sniper on top. I answered the questions in the Holley Wizard and turned the key. Bam! I couldn't believe how fast it started and settled into a nice idle. After putting some miles on the car, I started playing with the tune. I suck at tuning and am not the best with computers. The Holley software is easier to negotiate and more intuitive.
I tinkered a bit and then sought out a professional to get it all dialed in. The network of tuners and support for Holley EFI in general is huge. Even at the track! With the Megasquirt, I was on my own. There was nobody in state that messed with it.
It gets better!!! A gentleman developed an AI assisted Sniper 2 datalog analyzer that spits out detailed tuning suggestions to squeak every last bit out of the tune. It plain works and folks who are well versed in tuning their Holley's are seeing improvements after using the analyzer and making changes.
Call me a happy camper.
I agree that if you just want to hop in a car and get going, Holley is the way to go for sure.
Glad to hear Sniper 2's are running good, as the original was a nightmare, especially old Ford's.
I ended up going propane on my offroad rig (400 "M"), due to so many reported issues (back in the day).
No real good way to go port inj on M's.
Sniper 1 was heavily converted to on Classic Bronco board. Some still having issues I see.
My buddy bought the original version a while back. Never installed and not sure what to do with it.
Would be on a 67 Olds, so at least he would not have front distr interference.
I ended up going propane on my offroad rig (400 "M"), due to so many reported issues (back in the day).
No real good way to go port inj on M's.
Sniper 1 was heavily converted to on Classic Bronco board. Some still having issues I see.
My buddy bought the original version a while back. Never installed and not sure what to do with it.
Would be on a 67 Olds, so at least he would not have front distr interference.
Yes, the original Sniper had issues and Holley addressed all of them with the Sniper 2. All too often we read and hear about negative experiences when in reality there's far greater numbers of success stories. It's like buying the first year model of a vehicle. It's very unfortunate.
Something to keep in mind is that auto manufacturers spend millions on developing the computers that control our modern vehicles. The likes of Holley and others do not have those resources. They don't have a fleet of vehicles driving thousands of miles while testing in all conditions. We the consumer are that fleet.
The other issue is user error. Holley and other brands are relying on the end user to wire the system correctly. Have you seen pics of the wiring jobs that customers call "good"? Holy spaghetti!
Then there's the impossible task of getting the customer to read and follow directions.
Holley does sell an upgrade kit to convert the Sniper 1 to a Sniper 2. Unfortunately it's not cheap and doesn't make the end user very happy. I get it.
Something to keep in mind is that auto manufacturers spend millions on developing the computers that control our modern vehicles. The likes of Holley and others do not have those resources. They don't have a fleet of vehicles driving thousands of miles while testing in all conditions. We the consumer are that fleet.
The other issue is user error. Holley and other brands are relying on the end user to wire the system correctly. Have you seen pics of the wiring jobs that customers call "good"? Holy spaghetti!
Then there's the impossible task of getting the customer to read and follow directions.
Holley does sell an upgrade kit to convert the Sniper 1 to a Sniper 2. Unfortunately it's not cheap and doesn't make the end user very happy. I get it.
