Aftermarket ECUs: What are people using?

4GTuner

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The problem with cold start- how long does it take your tuner to get it running right? but more importantly- how much!?
 
EVOCPE said:
How do you find the Adaptronic?? and tuning wise??

I was lookin at 1 a few months ago, i got a mate who can get them for cheap... only problem is they dont make a plug n play loom for the EVO :(

Love the Vidigauge option :)

Its great.
Plug it into the laptop and away we go. Chuck on the tail sniffer with wideband and tune AFR's as we see fit. When I finally re-do the exhaust ill weld in a bung before the cat and run a Zeitronix wideband O2 sensor.

As for the direct plug in, it is a shame but yeah Jason and Josh wired it up with the 5M Loom. Its not that hard if you have at least some experiance.
 
shadow said:
Running the microtech here aswell. No problems, cold starts fine.

i installed FRONTN's microtech and about to install mine... havent had problems, and the hand controller is like a gameboy easy to understand...
 
Doesnt take long with the Haltech Dre as its quite easily setup. With the Haltech plug and play patch loom it'll still be utilising the stock ISC motor if you want.

OR, if you piss the stock throttle body and ISC setup off for a billet throttle body, Haltech have their own 4-wire idle stepper control motor and housing that you can buy as an add-on as its worth every cent IMO. The ISC housing has 2 x vacuum outlets. One vacuum hose gets plumbed in before the throttle body, the other vacuum hose is plumbed into the intake manifold. Haltech documention provides you with wiring instructions and generic numbers and temperature settings you can input into the software specific for your engine (see pic) :) It doesnt take a tuner long to set it up from there and the more experience the tuner has the quicker and easier it is for them.

Haltech Idle Speed Control Motor & Housing
The Haltech Idle Speed Motor is a 4 wire stepper motor controlled idle valve, this valve allows the ECU to control the volume of air entering the intake manifold at idle.
Once the ECU has control of the volume of air entering the intake manifold it can control idle speed regardless of engine temperature, engine load (from an automatic gearbox or AC compressor) or additional electrical load (from AC controls or headlights).
The Haltech Idle Speed Motor has been designed specifically for use with the Haltech idle speed control housing (although it can also be used directly with some GM throttle bodies). The Haltech idle speed control housing is machined from block aluminum to exacting tolerances required for a perfect seal every time. The housing is then anodized black for that stealth look inside your engine bay.

Here's a pic of mine installed on the firewall and Haltech's instructions for the Mitsubishi 4G63 ISC to Haltech ISC conversion. All their add-ons and plugs come with easy to understand drawings, and an average Joe with half a brain can wire it all up and program themselves to get going. Its good that the 4G63 is a popular engine. Once the initial data is entered you can fine tune from there. (see pics) :thumbsup:
 

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bazeng said:
Were you after anti lag / launch control / logging or anything like that in particular?

Probably not so much anti-lag, but launch control and definitely logging are features I'd want.
 
+1 for the Vipec V44. I have am autronic SMC but if i was to upgrade i would go with this. Ray Hall is a very smart cookie and has incorporated all the best points from the autronic as well as adding some other excellent upgrades like idle control.
 
My only concern with the Vipec was how easy/hard is it to tune?? or is there many tuners out there that would know?? or is it as simple as the rest?
 
No not directly, but like most other aftermarket ECU's there's alternative ways to read knock. It'll be hard to find any aftermarket ECU that would actually tick all the boxes using all the factory sensors, but the Haltech does all except for the OEM knock sensor. Actually no other aftermarket ECU that I know of, not even Motec has dedicated knock sensor input/correction and all require an aftermarket alternative like a 'Knock Box' to read engine knock.

You have to remember that once you start modifying an engine with forged internals and big cams etc it starts to make all sorts of internal noises and the stock knock sensor could start sending off false readings which is what you DONT want. On the other hand, if you're experiencing knocks because of a bad batch of fuel you'd want to have some form of safety feature to retard timing as a precautionary measure (or good ears to identify when to lift off the throttle lol).

In a perfect world a knock sensor isnt even required. What's more important is a good tuner who knows what he is doing! e.g. Say if the tuner tunes your car to optimum levels on 98 pump, he should then back off a little or setup a 2nd map to account for the possibility of you getting some bad fuel from a dodgey servo for instance.

I have heard of some people using an aux input for a knock sensor on Haltechs to trigger a secondary map and a quick sanity check on the Haltech forum confirmed a couple of methods - the second method is from MitsiMan, owner of RPW and tuner of many a Mitsubishi in Western Australia. He's a wealth of information on tuning Haltech ECU's on 4G63's:

* The PS2000 cannot natively read knock, but you can get creative and assign the knock sensor to an aux input and use that aux input to switch to the secondary map of the dual map setup, which is what I plan on doing. I will probably have that map setup to retard the timing by ~5 degrees across the board if knock occurs.

* Mitsiman - You can also set the auxiliary input to the equivelent of a ignition fine trim module, and as the voltage level increases, it retards progressivly more knock out. We did this successfully years ago but since we started tuning with a knock box on the dyno, we haven't had any issues with knock on the road. I still setup a duel map for the custoer with switch on dash with a low octane tune if they hear any pinging if they got a bad batch of fuel.

Some 4G63 EVO specific threads about knock control you may want to read:
* http://forums.haltech.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2377&hilit=evo+knock#p10420
* http://forums.haltech.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2782&hilit=evo+knock#p12384
 
Friend has just got a Haltech and is in the process of installing all the wiring from it.

I've opted for a slightly simpler route. I'm using the Ostrich chip emulator on my stock ECU, along with the Tunerpro software. Code disassembly is ongoing but it has a fair few features already. Basic features I have so far are:
Fuel injector size
Fuel injector deadtime
Fully adjustable timing maps
Fully adjustable fuel maps
Switchable timing retard on knock
CEL on knock (amount of knock changeable)
Launch control, and speed limit for launch control to stabilize wheelspin
ALS on launch control
NLTS
Idle map
Plenty of other stuff I can't remember as I don't have my tuning laptop with me

May not be as may features as the Haltech but sure is a lot cheaper!
 
IF anyone wants any specific questions about the use of the haltech range, ask away and I will endeavour to answer them. I have been using Haltech for over 10 years nw, and even the basic E6X ecu which we still fit and tune a lot of, even though that is over 10 years old now,is still way better than many of the current new ECU's offered by many firms.

Also for those enquiring the old E6K was a good unit but on the 4 cylinder engines it only has a total of 5 drivers, so it could not run sequential injection / waste spark ignition on a 4 cylinder engine.

The E6X which only retails for $1395.00, will do on a 4 cylinder, sequential injection and waste spark ignition using 6 drivers as well as the tuning software is still a great one to use, and it has full idle speed control support ofr Mitsubishi stepper motors and air conditioning.

Definitly if you want a cheaper ecu that does everything, this is the way to go compared to many of the cheaper microtechs, ems stingers etc.

Although word is Haltech is replacing the E6X with a new platinum 500 series soon which will be excellent news although a little sad, the E6X has been a favourite of mine for many years with its supurb reliability.
 
Mitsiman said:
Also for those enquiring the old E6K was a good unit but on the 4 cylinder engines it only has a total of 5 drivers, so it could not run sequential injection / waste spark ignition on a 4 cylinder engine.

Haltech E6K Engine Management System
Instruction Manual Version 9.0

Section B.3.2 Sequential Injection

"The E6K can run full sequential on an engine with up to 4 cylinders"

Please explain
 
Seq injection is when an individual injector is pulsed at a single time.
It allows more accurate afr which improves fuel efficiency and power.

Most ECU's can do this (stock ecu's do this).

It is sequential ignition that you need to look for, but this will require modifications to your ignition system as the stock system utilises waste spark (2 fire each time).
 
Baz, I realise what sequential injection is :rolleyes:

My question was to our new Haltech expert Mitsiman - E6K does have sequential injection capability (so what about the waste spark)

I hate the spread of misinformation.
 
The E6K can run sequential injection if you are only utilising one ignition output to run a distributor. If you are using 2 X ignition outputs for a waste spark ignition, then you can't run seqneutal injection.

As sais, the E6K model only has a combined total of 5 injection/ignition drivers.

The E6X has the same limitaiton, but there is a software upgrade which allows the ECU to flick between the two ignition outputs, even though it only uses 5, it sort of shares the 5th driver between two outputs to provide the waste spark / sequential injection setup.

There is no misinformation here as you can see. But just multiple ways of running things. My replies were specific to the evo 4G63 engines which cannot run waste spark / sequential injection with an E6K / M / S model ECU
 

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