Ecu Upgrade, Which Way To Go ?

[COFFEE]

Guys,
Could do with some advice, particularly from those who have been here.
I am looking to go aftermarket ECU (stand alone). Not sure what unit to use so i guess this is where the questions start.
What have people tried and problems have they incurred ?
I am up for changing the complete ignition system and buying the extra igniters.
I have seen a few threads about Harry Lemons reprogrammed ECU, is this an option ? Has anyone used one of his ECU's or didn't it get finished ?

Has there been any problems with the auto boxes shifting after using the after market ECU's ? If so can these be resolved by using a crown ecu for the box ?

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.


Regards

Stephen

 

[svpmx83]

Peter Scott supposedly had one of Harry's modified ecu's, and I would love to buy one but am getting no response from anyone I have contacted about his whereabouts.

I'll leve it open to others on full aftremarket replacement ecu's

 

[COFFEE]

Steve,
I would be most interested in one if it was as claimed, sounds perfect.
Not sure how to get hold of Harry either, can anyone assist ?

 

[COFFEE]

Steve,
It seems Harry had some falling out and decided he wished nothing else to do with the forum. Very disappointing as he was a great bundel of information and a very clever man.
I can't seem to find his details anywhere. I have emailed what i think is Peter Scotts email, i'll have to wait and see if he is contactable. Maybe he can get hold of Harry ?

Stephen

 

[krayn]

I and a few others are running a Wolf 3d. Once up and running they seem to be ok. The install manualls are a little vage though. I converted my tranny to a manuall shift using four 50 cent diodes and the origional gear position selector switch.

 

[Peewee]

It all depends on how much you want to spend Coffee.

In the pure piggyback form there are the Apexi SAFCII's and SITC's for fuel and timing.
There is the GReddy I think? Can't remember all the names as I don't really like them.
You can pick these up 2nd hand relatively cheap.
The JayCar DFA does more than the SAFCII and it half the price.

Next step up from that are the UniChip and Xede (I think its Xede).
These are around the $1200-$1600 fitted and tuned. Still piggybacks but uber piggybacks.
I'm yet to be impressed by any of the UniChip retunes thus far. But I'd say thats more the tuner than the ecu. At least I'd hope its more the tuner than the ecu.

Then you go into full stand alone.
In the cheaper range you have Microtech, Wolf, Haltech. I think Link is about the same price.
In the upper range there is Autronic and MoTeC.

Microtech is wire up, turn the key, go for a drive. I don't think its possible to have an easier system (besides plug and play obvisouly).
Wolf is a bit of a headf**k to set up and get running, but once you've worked out all the niggling issues its a fine ecu.
I'm yet to hear of anyone using a Haltech on the 1UZ, so I can't comment there.
Pleny of people (especially Kiwi's) have used Link with good success.

All of these ecu's are pretty much identical. Some will give you more outputs/inputs than others, some have closed loop cruise tuning, some can run the factory idle speed motor. But at the end of the day the 1UZ is very basic in terms of EFI motors and any of them will do the job perfectly.


Into the Autronic and MoTeC range and you step up a couple of grand. Haven't had much to do with these as they are out of what I required from an ecu as well as being out of my price range. From what I hear the MoTeC M800 has enough outputs to control the automatic as well, but don't expect much change from $4000AUD to get this ecu.



EDIT: Yes, there are more ECU's out there than what I have mentioned, these are just the ones I had either read in to, or friends have used.

 

[svpmx83]

According to Neil at Rush Imports, Harry Lemmens fell ill some time ago and cannot be contacted.

 

[nathan]

i have an autronic SM4, havent started it yet, but the guys at bullet cars use this alot, and they pre wired it for the motor, and gave me a program for it

 

[200sx-v8]

I will be using Microtech. Have used it alot before, and is satesfied with it's easy tuning and functions.

Have tuned a car with Autronic sm4. I't did not take long time to see that it is better, but for many people it's "over the top." Autronic was alot harder to set up and tune, but it can do everything.

 

[Damien]

I have one of Harry Lemmen's ECU's but yes, he isn't well and he hasn't completed the tuning software yet so as it stands mine has a selectable rev limit (stock, 7500RPM, 8000RPM) and no speed cut. He's a perfectionist so even though he's nearly completed the tuning software he said "it's still got flies on it" so isn't sure about releasing it but I haven't heard from him in months.

 

[svpmx83]

Damien,
If you do happen to hear from him again - please let me know.

 

[Damien]

I've just sent him an email now so I'll let you know.

 

[COFFEE]

Guys,
Thanks for the feed back.
Peewee,
Well that clears things up a lot i suppose.
When it comes to aftermarket ECU's i have no idea.
Are you able to explain the close & open loop further ?
Am i best to wire up using the standard ignitionsystem or change the lot, will it really make much diffference ? people have said to me the standard ignition is very good and to leave it, to me it looks very basic just with two dizzies ?

As for Harry, i couldn't get hold of him though people had said he had a falling out with ALSC and didn't wish to continue. I got hold of Peter Scott and he said he was using the Unichip and highly recommended it. He said Harry didn't wish to be contacted.

Stephen

 

[Peewee]

Open/Closed loop is just the ability to for the ecu to 'intelligently' lean the mixture out at cruising loads.
AFAIK Microtech is the only one there that does not do this (not sure if Wolf3d V4 does, but Wolf3d V4+ does do it).

That said my Microtech'd 1UZ uses no more fuel than my factory ecu'd 1UZ, and it has 40% more power, and worse cruising gear/diff ratios.



As for the ignition system, thats a tough call.
As it is with dual coils it can handle a fair whack of power on the stock setup.
I've just increased the size of the cables powering my ignitors/coils to make sure they are getting decent power.
Next step for me would be to replace the 5mm leads with 8mm Magnecor jobbies, but I've just spent the $180 on new Bosch leads, so that will have to wait a while.

It comes down to how much power you are chasing, how much you like the wank factor of coil on plug, and how much you want to spend.

Personally I'd only CoP if I had 8 ignition drivers. Kinda seems pointless to me to spend all that money to run wasted spark.

Just my random thoughts anyway.