I understand running out of intellect. Megasquirt is not plug and play (except for the new ones designed to be). The tuning part is pretty easy to get close, but to do it right takes a lot more time, effort and understanding. I helped a friend who tried to build his own, but soldering some of the really tiny components got the best of him so he bought a completed one from DIY Autotune. I have one on a Lotus Europa, and it works really well. However, the one I'm putting on my Nova will be tuned for economy rather than power.
If you are after power, renting time on a dyno is the way to go. I don't know if that's true if you are tuning for economy. I just received MS files from another member, so I'll probably start with them.
I have not purchased the MS components yet, (over $3,000 for the engine blueprint dint in the budget). I've built a custom trigger wheel, and have the VR sensor. I'm in the process of putting all the tin on the engine. Once that's done, I'll figure out where to mount the sensor, and then remove the trigger wheel tooth (and rebalance).
I am taking lots of photos, and plan to post them on a domain I haven't registered yet. It should be a progress report on the entire vehicle build, including the engine work. I did one on a '65 lotus replica I built a couple of years ago. It's an inline 4. If you're interested it's
http://www.nwseven.info
