Standalone ECU Best Standalone for Lextreme's New Project

[Lextreme II]

Pectel SQ6 is beyond my budget. Autronic or AEM. I think AEM might void the warrentte due to mods.

 

[XR8tt]

What about FAST, Haltech, XFT, Bigstuff, Accel DFI, Microtech ??
As said talk to your tuner....No point in buying an ecu
and finding the guy you trust is NOT familiar with it...
Red tmk are U.S brands.. Blue Aussie...
Other than ecu's already mentioned...

 

[cribbj]

Good points; unfortunately there are more ECU's on the market than we have choices in the polls.

We're limited to 10 selections in a poll.

 

[Lextreme II]

John finally twisted my arm and I tapped out. JK. I got an AEM EMS from DaveH and now its all up to MitchP and Cribbj to help me with it. My TH400 is being rebuild and the adaptor plate is on its way.

 

[cribbj]

Uh, oh....the pressure's on now :Flush:

 

[Lextreme II]

You have created a monster...LOL.....

 

[XR8tt]

Is the T400 the ideal auto ?? I was going to use one. But was told to use the T350 due to better ratio's 1 st gear being lower... Wouldn't a 700 four speed be better ?? Given that its should be strong enough in lighter car ??
Its going to make bucket loads of torque once its up on converter !!!

 

[MitchP]

I'm going to say AEM but many of you probably would have guessed I'd say that seeing as I have one on my SC already and I'm a former AEM employee.

Once I have the remaining setup worked out, a mod'd 30-1100 EMS will be plug and play in the stock harness with the only additional components needed being a MAP sensor and a pair of widebands to be wired in. (Ditching the MAF would be a good thing too)

No other wiring or fabrication required. That means no endless nights with the wire strippers making harnesses or pulling crank trigger wheels off to switch 'em out or cut teeth off 'em.

Personally, I hate doing wiring and taking stuff apart if it's not necessary. In a word, easy. I'd say a few hours hours getting everything installed (EMS, MAP, UEGO's) and then dyno time to tune it. Something that could be accomplished easily in one day if everything else on the car is in order.

 

[MitchP]

Also, the AEM will be able to control the stock auto tranny. Or you can swap in a 4L60E or 4L80E if you desire. Not many ECU's can also control the trans.

 

[Lextreme II]

Mitch,

Any problem using TH400 with AEM?

 

[cyberdiamond]

TH400 doesn't use electronics so there is nothing to control.

 

[sideshow]

no matter what ecu u use buy one that has good customer feedback and help desk

megasquirt is cheap but if there is any and i mean any tiny probs with your sodlering who you gonna call gostbusters wont help

i will not use any product unless i can give good warranty

if u can afford days or weeks of testing and perfecting then go megasquirt

if u want something that has been tested day in and day out then spend the money

end of day its been said millions of times

find a good local tuner and buy whatever he is an expert at

a motec or autronic is worth nothing if the tuner doesnt have experience with it

but if i had to choose autronic has best and easiest user friendly software to use compared to others

but ive only played with motec, ems, microtech haltech autronic software

not many USA based ECUs so i cant judge that side of things

 

[XR8tt]

TH400 doesn't use electronics so there is nothing to control.

Due to this it will have to be manual shifted if run on forced induction engines..There is no manifold vacuum to control load / shift points...
Newer electronic shifted auto would need to be fitted to be completly auto....

 

[pres6]

so then the th400 is completely controlled by gear speed?

 

[MitchP]

The TH400 uses a vacuum modulator, a centrifugal governor and a kickdown switch to determine what gear to be in. The vacuum modulator is the primary upshift contol when at part throttle. The centrifugal governor is the primary upshift control at full throttle - i.e. no vacuum. The TH350 is the same way except that it has a kickdown cable instead of a kickdown switch.

On an NA vehicles, the manifold vacuum will increase as RPM increases at constant part throttle so when the manifold vacuum is high enough it will upshift. What happens on a boosted application is that the manifold pressure is higher at part throttle so you never reach a high enough vacuum for the vacuum modulator to upshift. Therefore, it will upshift based off the centrifugal governor only which is based off of RPM. So, basically on a boosted application if there is no mods to the modulator, the part throttle upshifting will happen way later in the RPM band than one might like.

The most popular way to fix this is to convert to a mechanical cable modulator that is based off throttle position - like a 700-R4 or 200-4R tranny's TV cable. A mechanical modulator is usually the best way to go and conversion kits can be had for around $100-$150 bucks.

 

[Zuffen]

If you take a vacuum line off between the throttle body and supercharger/turbo charger inlet you will get similar vacuum reading to an N/A engine.

That is where your vacuum feed comes from for the brakes

 

[XR8tt]

If you take a vacuum line off between the throttle body and supercharger/turbo charger inlet you will get similar vacuum reading to an N/A engine.

That is where your vacuum feed comes from for the brakes

Depends where throttle body is located...
We have just bought a tuff as nails C4 Dominello built auto to ge into an XR6 turbo .. It has been converted to manual shift. At idle there is no vacuum when throttle body is at inlet manifold as with most efi ...

 

[The Redline 03]

Great idea! Done.

I think this is going to be a real popular thread......

BTW, I cast my vote for the AEM for the following reasons:

1. Support - there are hundreds (maybe thousands?) of these things in use in the USA now, particularly in Toyota products. There are support forums on AEM's website dedicated to every configuration, and there are many other support forums online for AEM owners and tuners.

2. Cost - Initial cost is only around $1400 USD and sometimes you can find them used for less

3. PnP - With an SC300 or 400, this ECU will replace the OEM ECU and plug directly into the car's harness. Once our resident tuner (see below) gets his setup sorted, a Lexus SC owner should be able to unplug his OEM ECU, plug in the AEM with a preloaded configuration, and get the car started in less than 30 minutes. There will still be fine tuning to do, but the misery of hacking a harness, installing special sensors, then finding out there aren't enough I/O to run the "whole" car, the way the OEM ECU did, won't exist.

4. Resident Tuner - Mitch Pederson, one of our members, was formerly an AEM factory engineer, and is running the AEM in his own SC400. He's currently working the bugs out, but according to him, the installation in the SC was very straightforward, and I don't think he's had to refit any sensors.

5. Familiarity - OK, I have one in my Supra, and Mitch will be reconfiguring it to run my 1UZ when we dyno next time.


Note, I don't believe for a minute that this is the absolute "best" ECU out there, but IMO it's one of the best for David.

I think with ECU's if we get hung up on buying one based on the technical specs only, we're going to miss the bigger issues of support, user friendliness, etc. To me, these things are like buying a high end home theatre system. Do I want to buy a collection of components based on their specifications alone, or should I buy a system recommended by my local home theatre expert installer, and get him to help configure it for me?

If I go it alone, and wade through the 500 pages of documentation that comes with all these components, and finally figure out how to get everything configured and working the first time, am I going to remember how to reprogram a channel on that do-it-all remote, six months down the road? Of course not.

So do you buy an EMS based only on its technical specs, or do you buy the one your local tuner recommends, knowing that he knows that EMS inside and out and can be there for you when the thing quits and you have to have the car towed (which does happen occasionally with standalones and DIY installations!)

I think any of the ECU's listed would probably work fine technically, but for David's case, I believe the AEM is tops.

So how would this AEM setup work on a LS400 engine, would it also be plug and play like the SC400? Seeing how both are similar 1uz engines, I would think so but you never know. I just want to make sure. I'm really thinking about getting it because of the plug and play reason and as said above your bound to find a place that tunes AEM ecus in the states.

 

[Lextreme II]

LS400 has different plug then SC400. So I dont think it will be plug and play.

 

[The Redline 03]

LS400 has different plug then SC400. So I dont think it will be plug and play.

Thanks, anyone know what makes it different? I mean the engines are pretty much the same, correct me if I'm wrong. I would also imagine the AEM ecu for the SC400 must be somewhat compatible with the LS400. Meaning it should be easier to wire that up, than pretty much starting from scratch with other standlone ecus. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.