Who and how?

I'm wanting to change two components of my UK MY00

1) ECU
2) Turbo

The reason for this is that after much discussion, many phone calls etc, this seems to be the way forward as far as liberating extra BHP and Torque from the standard lump and the only two "engine" components that are different from uk and jap cars (STi excluded) However the Jap car has far more power.
Would an ECU tuner/programmer get hold of a wrx ecu and somehow "read" the map and would he then be able to copy the parameters straight onto my UK ECU? Apparently they are not interchangeable physically so this data transfer would need to take place (Apparently)
If so, because it is just copying, would it be cheaper?
I am looking down this path because, much as I have plenty of respect for the guys who do custom maps, i'd like to see if gains can be had via the ecu without the "specially mapped to your car" type of approach. i.e "Here ya go Mikey 1x UK ECU reprogrammed to a WRX ECU as if it's just left the factory"
Can it be done or would i HAVE to go down the ECUtek etc route?

Mikey

 

Mikey,

You'd be better just upgrading the turbo and get your MY00 mapped accordingly. There's much more too the Jap cars than a simple ECU mapping. Yes, it can be done but if it was the best method I'm sure John Banks would have done it since he knows how to do it and has a MY00 too.

The engine internals are different, as well as the gearing so you need to compliment your cars spec with a good map - and not just a copy from a Jap car.

Stefan

 

Hiya Ozzy,

I hear what you are saying but as far as internals are concerned, i have been assured that it is only the STi engine that has different internals, not the WRX.
As far as John is concerned, he was after greater gains so had to go and optimise and experiment with ECU's, Turbo's etc. I believe that he would have bypassed this option because he was after "bigger fish" and knew that by simply changing the map on it's own he would not achieve 300bhp +

Any comments John?

Mikey

 

Mikey part chop the old scoob for an sti5 you can pick them up quite cheap and very quick out of the box.

 

Morning John,

All those "requirements" that you listed have you a ball park figure for them?

R.B Hiya, That's cheating

Mikey

 

Price or power?

Further torque is limited by the TMIC, further power by the injectors and TMIC.

Should do a comfortable safe 300 BHP at least, but depends on rollers.

 

Sorry, i meant a ball park figure regarding price?

Ta

 

thx John thats a nice little list to work towards, could that setup be run safely on 95ron in your opinion? obviously its down to the map to make sure everything runs eficently and safely on the available fuel, but is it worth doing (power wise) on 95ron

Cheers

ps: only reason i ask is that here in ireland SUL is a rare as rocking horse ****e

 

You could do a lot worse than having a chat with BR Developments

They can sell, fit and map either a Link, Motec or Ecutek ECU for you, as well supply a larger turbo.

 

Cheers John, less than £1,500 realistically then

I presume that the Turbo and the Map would have to be done at the same time then or what?

Thanks for the input Andy

Mikey

 

You can pootle around gently on a new turbo before getting it mapped, but the boost control will be all over the place, and even on a MAF based ECU if the fuelling is OK the timing probably won't be anything like, and the injectors could really struggle if you went for it, so pootle about it is.

It could be done for 95 RON, but rather than run the same boost it is usually better to find a sweet spot at lower boost, slightly richer and slightly retarded rather than keeping the boost up and struggling with the timing. Even better to always use octane booster. 150+ BHP/litre turbocharged engines don't like crap octane. Still worth doing, but a serious limitation hence suggest the booster rather than dumb it down.

 

thanks for the info John

 

Mikey,

What are you trying to achieve though? 300+bhp, or just something similar to the WRX - 280bhp?

The only way to read an ECU map (Jecs series anyway) is by using the Flash software (aka EcuTek), so you'd need to use them anyway. Why not just investigate what you need for the type of driveability you want and then map accordingly?

Can the Flash software read all of the ECU map though? They built-in stuff is left alone with the Tek series of maps i.e. closed-loop. Either it's left because it works fine or because it can't be read/overwritten.

Stefan

[Edited by ozzy - 4/9/2003 9:54:04 AM]

 

Different cams, timing offsets, octane as well as UK ECUs not accepting JDM ECU code means it is not a viable or sensible option.

Best bet to get a JDM beater as cheaply as possible with good quality and reliability/driveability is IMHO:

TD05 front entry
Fuel pump
Exhaust if not already
ECU map (custom)
Knocklink, boost gauge mandatory (but that is it you don't need a starship enterprise dashboard)

Sacrifice any of these and it will not be as good overall as a package.

[Edited by john banks - 4/9/2003 10:01:27 AM]

 

TD05 front entry £150 + VAT for donor turbo, plus from £70-450 depending on who does the work on it and how, how much overhaul you want on it etc. Or you may be able to buy one in front entry spec in good nick, they are quite tough. Andy F or Lateral Performance or For Sale section.
Fuel pump about £130 IIRC. Lateral Performance
Exhaust if not already - I just sold a full Magnex in parts for about £275 IIRC.
ECU map (custom) £650 +-VAT
Knocklink with sensor £140 approx BR Developments
Boost gauge mandatory from £30

I would have thought that the labour for doing all this would be about a day?

[Edited by john banks - 4/9/2003 2:22:54 PM]