I bought a complete wrecked 2001 Chevy 2500 with a lq4 6.0.

I have been thinking of a ms3 kit, but I know jack squat about them.

Also read where I can use the stock ecm to power the motor and trans. Motor is getting injectors, cam and springs along with a s480.

So, if you had the complete vehicle with wiring and ecm, would you use the stock ecm or go ahead and get aftermarket.

 

I'm abit partial to aftermarket ECU's for the realtime tuning and added controls they offer (boost, 2 step, integrated wbo2 etc). I use EFILive to tune the factory stuff and although it works, it's not nearly as user friendly as an MS3 or Holley system. I suggest you visit the forums as there are many folks out there running combos exactly like your that you can learn from to better acquaint yourself and you'll pickup quite abit of info.

 

Just make sure that if buy a Holley get it new or make sure of the build date of the ecu. The older ones won't work with a turbo ls, they will fry the ecu, and you can bet your ass Holley won't do anything about it. Even though it was a problem on their end.

 

In my opinion if you intend on using the electronic transmission control for the 4L80E....use the factory ECU.....otherwise I would run towards MS3.

 

At this point, we've got a good solution using the MicroSquirt to run a 4L80E as well. And we're working on a drop on harness to make that even easier; I've got the prototype right here on my desk.

 

If I decide to go with a th400, will a micro squirt still be a good option?

Matt, I see you are in Covington, I'm in Milledgeville. Do you do cams, or recommend anyone?

 

Hurry up with that )). The plug-n-play factor with a base tune is the selling point IMO.

 

The MicroSquirt in this case would be controlling the transmission with an MS3-Pro running the engine. With a TH400, you won't need a transmission controller.

You can use a MicroSquirt to run an LSx, but the feature set is a lot more limited. For a turbo LS build, you're going to want the MS3's power management and traction control, unless you're putting it in a surplus M4 tank chassis.

Need to update my location; I'm in Lawrenceville now. But we just do electronics where I work. Summit's Georgia warehouse isn't that far from where you live.

 

You can run an MS2 on an LS motor - we don't have a good way to plug it into the factory harness directly, but cutting and splicing it in shouldn't be too hard.

Ken, send me a PM if you're in the area.

 

Hi Matt,

Im just buying a 72 nova now and plan to run a 6.0 LQ4 with a 480LE. I have not been intensely studying on this site and the latest from Mega squirt since 2012. So just starting to read up on and study this again and get caught up on the latest mega squirt technology out. I feel Ive been in a time warp! lol So the best way for fuel injection management, timing, electric boost controllers, fan etc and 480LE trans control is the microsquirt, and it will do it all? Is the new harness out yet? If so it just plugs into the LQ4 for timing and the wire harness is there for injectors & 480LE trans control plug in too? Thanks so much. Please point me in the right direction for the latest best mega squirt for this application. Also did I read right the new micro squirt will begin to self fine tune once pointed in the right ball park direction of close fuel maps and timing curves input for cubic inchs, estimated horsepower, loads at different rpm's etc?? How close do you think manually fuel tables tuning this lastest mega squirt/micro squirt will get without a chassis dyno, and with a friend driving while Im on the laptop on the street and at the strip with tuning in passenger seat? This will be a street strip twin turbos car pushing about 1000 hp when I get the short block built with forged internals. Thanks Matt! Bob

 

Yes, our new drop on harness for the MS3-Pro is out now. (We've got an introductory special on it, see the vendor forum for details.) The MicroSquirt is added on to provide transmission control. We're getting the transmission drop on harnesses into production and they will be out soon.

The fuel tables can be tuned without a dyno, the spark tables, though, you'll want to dyno tune them for best results. You may get good results tuning on a dragstrip and examining data logs, though.

 

HP tunners for Gen3 motors . Turns your ecm into a stand alone thats emissions complaint. And its cheaper.