ecu's

[poeticjustice88]

In case some of you dont know about these products I thought I would give the link to them.

http://www.14point7.com

Wideband lambda sensors and controllers. The original idash program. Real time monitoring on any smart phone straight from your car. $125 fully mappable fuel controllers ( which is what I am looking to get in the very near future for my new car )

Data loggers, wideband gauges, wideband sensors, egt probes. Ait, fuel, oil, fluid sensors and sender units.

I have never used this brand nor do I know if it is all at a competitive price. But $125 for a fuel controller doesnt sound too bad to me.

Just thought I would show some love n spread the word

[tassuperkart]

I had a look thru this. Your going to get what you pay for.

Nothing wrong with any of it but its cheap.... and limited.
256 load points for fuel mapping........ with no ignition control...? That kind of scheme went out with Microtech Digis,,,, what 15 years ago!
You can do much the same with a pair of $2 potentiometers from Jaycar and the stock afm/ecm.

Not bad toys to play with until your ready to play with the bigger boys!

Oracle.

[poeticjustice88]

speaking of price vs functionality, Tass, I wanted to ask you something. Damo aswell if you manage to see this.

What are your opinions on NIStune boards over standalone ecu's?

http://www.nistune.com/index.php

they are only $420 and have all the functions of a standalone

they are 16x16 resolution.

for the price i think they are fantastic are completely remappable. what are your opinions?

Michael

[tassuperkart]

An aftermarket ECU should only be considered IF there are no tuning options for a stock system.
There are no wiring dramas with splicing in or indeed replacing the entire looms which is a lot of work. Everything is stock appearing to put the law off the scent.

Having said that, Id not bother playing with a Nistuned oem ECU, UNLESS you can do away with the stock AFM in favour of a decent hotwire afm such as a Z32 afm or similar.

E

[baz]

Nistunes aren't that great, quite a few people down here running them in their skyline / silvias etc..I'd much prefer a powerfc or haltech etc..Saying that, the nistune doesnt suit all nissan boards & from memory it doesnt support vane style afm's

[poeticjustice88]

i know of several NIStune cars running around using the Z32 afm.

The reason I ask, is because they are soo much easier to setup. as you said, no need for wiring looms, looks stock and everything is plug n play.

the second reason, is because i can get one deliverd for $400 brand new, with a basic map on it. Laptop tuneable aswell.

IMO they are worth the money. especially considering the ease of the installation and tuning.

I was just curious as to your opinion tass

[tassuperkart]

Add another 120 bucks for an afm along with adapting it, a filter and adapter. And then tuning on top of that.

Your looking at a grand minimum.
E

[poeticjustice88]

well the tuning is a cost regardless of what ecu is chosen.

I already have the Z32 AFM so that is of no consequence.

I, imo, think the nistune is the way to go. I know it doesnt have the fantastic tunability of say an adaptronic, autronic, motec and what not. But I think, with the sleek design of it not needing its own loom and the fact that it can be completely hidden is a rather large bonus for it. The police are picking up alot of people now in my area on their cars.

There was a sting, only a couple of nights ago, 150 cop cars, plus Department of transport and main roads, a rolling road and tow trucks, set up just off of the main highway pin pointing the "hoon" cars.

They are not tolerating even the smallest of modifications. So I think with that in mind, anything that can not be detected has its head above the rest.

But, regardless of all of that. I am simply trying to find the best option for a cheap, reliable ecu. The brand doesnt really matter. As there are about 10 different tuning and performance shops within 10kms of me that tune a wide variety of ECU's.

With that in mind, and the fact that I already have a Z32 afm, malpassi and 044 pump, gtr injectors and many other needed, supporting mods, what do you think, in your own opinion, would be the best ecu choice for say, under $1000 ???

I want your own opinion. You, Tass, have a great amount of knowledge and I respect your opinion. So if you could give me a sight on the ecu that YOU would choose for an RB series engine, I would be greatly appreciative.

Michael.

[tassuperkart]

Mike
Nothing wrong with Nistuning a stock ECU its just so limited with zero extra features.

In the aftermarket range, there are no choices that are much good in the sub grand bracket. "Cheap" and "Reliable" with any useful features are close to mutually exclusive.

If pressed to choose, I would use an Adaptronic 440 select.
Unbeatable value at around 1300 for the ECU. Internall MAP sensor but supports hotwire AFM (IIRC)
Every possible feature and then some you could think of in terms of driver aids.
Im using an Adaptronic 420C in the Pullstart now and a new 440 Select in the Ute Of Death.

IMHO Autronic are extremely good and probably the pick of the bunch but overpriced. Motec is vastly overrated and overpriced as well even for a basic ecu. bragging rights only.
NZ brand Link is very capable and there is a more or less rebadged version sold as Vipec.
You have EMS, Haltech and Wolf as you move down the line. Nothing wrong with these middle range ECU's.
Last time I looked, Microtech had been left far behind with almost zero features, not even a simple injector latency table..... and no config ability on the CAS inputs rendering the ECU peculiar to the car it was ordered for. Expensive exercise to have them re-configged for other applications.
Unless Microtech have done a major redevelopment of their product in recent times id be staying right away from them. Just too unsophisticated compared with similar priced Wolf and Haltech.

If I was concerned about mods and cops, id just gut out the stock ECU and run all the wires thru the existing gutted out ecu plugs and mount the new ecu inside the old case.
Just run the loom along the stock run and it will take a very smart engineer/electrician to figure it out, let alone some bone-headed revenue raiser in a uniform working out of some manual.

Easy when you look at things differently!!!

Oracle

[baz]

Ecu's with inbuilt map sensors are handy, Haltech sprint 500 are a very small ecu at around a grand ish from memory brand new

[Damo]

Hey Michael, I'm assuming that you are dealing with the VL? Is this with the RB20 or RB30?
One thing that I think you should keep in mind before worrying too much about how much more flexibility you 'may' have with the brand name replacement ECU's is, how often do you get a car with a aftermarket ECU which drives better (everywhere) than even the 30year old E15ET was from the factory? Next to zero! The whole thing comes back to the ability of the tuner, and the amount of time (money) you are willing to pay him (if he actually has the ability) to do the whole job right. Some aftermarket ECU's have a huge amount imputs, outputs, drivers, PWM,s, wideband reference, autotune ect ect ect, and they still drive like shit cause the whole package is just setup wrong.
The best bang for bux (and what I would have done if the testicle had a hotwire ECU) would have been the Nistune. There already exists enough load points and flexibility to get it to run close to factory with decent injectors. Yes you will be trading off some ability, but for the shear fact that the stock map is already there, you can't go too wrong. All the sensors are there, the ECU knows what to expect from the CAS (even when it isn't 100%) and its a factory Nissan ECU which the plod have no reason to even question!
The only thing would be having someone local which can tune them, and sourcing a RB30ET ECU to be Nistune chipped.

Damo

[poeticjustice88]

thanks for the replies guys

Damo, it is the VL with the rb20. the setup atm is a bit of a dogs breakfast. simple shit just not done right. so im spending most of my time fixing this shit up. simple stuff like the injector harness wires were only twisted together so i had to go through and solder it all and make it neat. the afm harness is missing two wires. the coolant temp sensors dont work. so all of this adds up to a car not running right at all.

as i said, there are about 10 different shops withing 15 minutes drive capale of tuning any of the brand name ecu's, and a capable lesser know ones. so getting someone that knows how to tune them is irrelevant.

I am strongly leaning towards the nistune for the simple fact of cost. the points you made however of the nistune being, ultimately, a standalone ecu with the existing factory ecu is a decent plus. but they are soo cheap and seem to be somewhat decent.

the ecu is not the next thing i am looking at getting, it is only for down the line once i am happy with the rest of the engine setup. once everything runs right, then i will look into it.

michael

[vb11]

What are your future plans for the RB? If you plan on keeping it fairly stock then Nistune will do but as Oracle said it's very limited. If you want more boost, low comp, bigger injectors, e85 etc then you're wasting time and money with Nistune. Aftermarket ECUs are a good future investment and really aren't that hard to install if your smart with electronics.

[poeticjustice88]

I have no problem installing an aftermarket ecu. none at all. My only problem is the price tag that comes along with them

I would love to have a top of the range ecu. As I have absolutely no intention on getting rid of the car anytime soon. and even if i did, I could pull the ecu to use again anyway.

But $1300, regardless of how you look at it, is a lot of money, and its a whole lot more if you get defected for the ecu. Which is being checked now in QLD if you get pulled up. Which is why I liked the idea of NIStune.

But with the defect side of it put to the side. I wanted to know what everyones opinion is on this,

http://www.nengun.com/greddy/e-manage-blue

It is only $307 and is new gen product

I know it is only fuel, but at the end of the day, it is a start

Michael

[tassuperkart]

You can do a simplt fuel-er-upperer for about 10 bucks.

Nistune is fine and with the appropriate software you can allow for a million psi of boost and enough rpm to send the pistons into orbit.

You just have no decent features is all. However, if tuneable but stock appearing is your thing then forget all those 2 bob piggyback gizmos and do it right.

Oracle