Yeah it may be easier but my time is free...lol I've been trying to piece together the odds and ends, still looking for an adapter to hook my throttle cable up to the ls throttle body. If I had the extra cash I would love a plug and play system but I had to give my wallet a break...lol its taking a nasty beating as I start collecting parts...lol

you can buy a base megasquirt ECM and do all your own wiring...what we do...by the time you finish trying to tune the stock ecm you could have bought the megasquirt...

really... hmmm I looked at the megasquirt but i guess I'll take a deeper look at it. Justin at black bear charges 240 for a custom tune. but I can't argue with simplicity. thanks for the heads up.

and you will be able to do way more than with the stock ECM...

I've done a half dozen or so Megasquirts and I used factory ecms in my boat. I currently have a Megasquirt on my 69 Camaro SBC turbo'd
I think if you need to buy a tune for a factory computer you might want to skip a Megasquirt.
All the base configuration is done on a factory setup and you can get mail order tunes, you can get tunes for Megasquirt too but it is a lot more hands on IMO.

I have been thinking about swapping over to MS-II or MS-III on my boat though...

yeah I will need a tune for my ecu...lol with the marine kinetics cam I got and the 42 lbs injectors I don't think the stock ecu maps will work very well. I will say that prices for LS based performance parts arn't very cheap...lol Now having said that, I will say they are cheaper than my old 390 ford FE engine I built a few years back. the old saying on the 390 is that FE stood for freaking expensive... but anyone who has tried to move one of these pigs would say FE stands for the periodic table with FE standing for iron... those motors weigh a ton... stock intakes were 80 lbs. but yes ls parts arn't as cheap as the old chevy motors. still I think this engine is the best bang for your buck in the long run. seeing how this thing is designed and built its like compairing a computer from 15 years ago to our modern hand held devices. efficiancy and raw strength of these motors is unhead of in a production block. I knew going in that an ls swap wont be super cheap. the exhaust is going to be the single biggest price hit. but any set of marine headers are not cheap.

also, your stock ECM will need a 02 in most cases to run, good luck with that...crap shoot getting those to live in a boat, the MS II is all thats needed in a boat...

I agree with the prices and benefits of the LS platform... what I actually meant by having to buy the tune was if you were not going to tune the factory ECM yourself then the setup and tuning of a Megasquirt might be more than you want to do. IMO it would be easier for you to tune the factory stuff than setup and tune the Megasquirt. The factory setup you can basically plug it in and go if you buy a tune.

btw, ezstriper, been running my stock ECMs with now 02s open loop for a couple years now.
Really need a wideband O2 to tune a Megasquirt though.

So you aren't seeing any real negatives with running open loop? I can have my ecu programed to run with or without my o2's if I want. I just dont want to loose any benifits of these engines running open loop.

I've been reading up on running open loop, I think that may be a good option. so speed density, open loop operation on the ecu. From what I've read on the ls forums and what not, lots of people are running like that. Its all in the tune as to how well the engine will run with that set up. Justin at black bear has a very solid reputation behind him, so I have some faith that he can set up a good tune for me.