E78, E39 ecm's
 

wanting to do a ls turbo build, was originally going to go Microsquirt. But im starting to see these ecms available for around $100 and the would also be able to controll the trans.

what are the plus's or minus's to using this style ecm....

My opinion is that the megasquirt ecms are superior to the e38. E38 will require a stand alone harness. Local guy does those for 350 bucks around my area. Cost of the ecm. 100 bucks. Hp tuners to tune it 650. So 1100 bucks. Not a bargain in my opinion plus still need boost controller, two step, etc. Microsquirt can do all that for less plus has autotune. Ms3 can do all that and far more for less then that. Plus e38 requires drive by wire. It sucks no matter what. It will never feel like a cable operated throttle body. E78 I don't know. I have cars with an e38 and one with ms3. Ms3 car is a breeze to play with and tune. E38 car is a bitch to tune and make stuff work. Only reason I don't switch the e38 out for a ms3 is because it's a 2012 camaro and the bcm, abs, tcm, traction control and all that crap have to talk to each other or half the car quits working. I would ms3 it in a second if I could keep the bcm and abs happy with the e38 gone.

thanks for getting my head screwed back on straight...

that said what is the advantage or disadvantage then of using e38 for the tranny only....

or is this a bad idea

E38 doesn't control Trans it requires a tcm to go with it. All the 6l80 stuff are built in to the valve body but the 4l stuff used a t42 tcm I think but if you go that route you have to put a e38 and t42 plus all the sensors to make it work. Better to use microsquirt for Trans control. Works like a breeze now with the software changes they have and the ms3, ms2 and microsquirt can all communicate over a private can network now so you don't have to double up on sensors.

great, i love open source anyway. i might as well get all of that other stuff out of my head and stick with the mega/micro squirt options. You know the drill, originally i hoped i could get by with just a $400 microsquirt. Then I started seeing all of the great options the MS3 offers. Then i start thinking about adding a overdrive instead of turbo-400.

Suddenly im at $1400 worth of controllers..... :-)