Ecu Perfomance

[markdem]

my desktop computer at home overheats sometimes and lags a lot, so i was thinking of improving the cooling system to improve perfomance. while i was researching what kinds of cooling i should get, i remembered that cars have small computers in them too. theoretically cooling the ECU should improve vehicle performance. i dont think it would improve engine power much - if at all, but perhaps it could aid in accuracy and responsiveness of other ECU controlled devices such as ABS, traction control, electronic 4-wheel-steer etc...

but then again, do ECU's heat up at all???

i guess im looking for feedback from somebody who knows a bit about ECU's - aftermarket or not, skyline or otherwise. but everybody's opinion is welcome

im not taking this seriously, im just bored and have money to blow

[skylinebooster]

LOL you must be bored! . I would say no, The processor in your ecu does not even have a heat sink. There not working that hard.

Just be happy Micro$oft did not write the firmware it

[Spurdo]

next time you check fault codes on a Z32.. Code 95 = ECU Overheat.. Engine Out!

[ARTZ]

If ecus were pcs they would be worth 20$ tops

But because they are ecus and not pcs they are worth a mint....Sad isnt it.....

But i swear ,my graphics card works harder than my ecu ever will...

[R31Nismoid]

Extra cooling on a CPU does not neccesarily increase performance.

It might allow you to overclock/tweak more performance out of it. The two are not the same.

It would offer no benefit to a car ECU.

[Kinks]

Electronics whether they be car or home computer will happily operate within a certain thermal envelope. The more processing you do the more heat is generated, but modern manufacturing processes means this heat output is reduced compared with older technologies (for the same amount of processing power).

Car ECUs are not a particularly stressful thing these days. Therefore they will happily be passively heatsinked by their own metal enclosure and no additional cooling is required (and there will be no benefit either). Earlier ECUs were pushing the envelope, I believe the R32 GTR that won bathurst had an ECU cooled by the car's fuel (!!!) because they were obviously trying to make it do a lot of clever work with the technology available in the day. These days heat output is a non-issue.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

i overclocked my pfc and got 1000kw's

[Mayuri Krab]

Car ECUs belongs to embedded computer system while the CPU in your desktop falls under platform system, one of the main considerations when designing an embedded system is the heat output & power consumption as most embedded systems are designed to work in restricted areas (with little air flow) & sometimes on battery power. Hence most embedded processor have very low clock frequency (most are under 500Mhz compared to your Gigahertz+ desktop CPUs) & therefore would not get very hot during normal operating conditions since the heat generated is directly related to the operating frequency.