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Ecu - Doing Your Own Tuning?

Tony de Wonderful
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Tony de Wonderful Veteran

Tony de Wonderful

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What is your opinion is the best ECU if you are interested in tuning yourself or at least tweaking a tune?cool.gif

I was thinking the Link but otoh it's quite complex so maybe something older and more basic for a beginner?

For an ECR33.

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DVS JEZ Grand Master

DVS JEZ

Posted
Posted

Power fc is the best to learn on. Use paulrr33 power fcfaq. Read it a couple of times. Its the best resource fr power fc info. Totune though u need a wideband 02 sensor. 350$ and prefferably fc datalogit 400$. And then some like to use a pyrometer too which can be 300$ish

Tony de Wonderful Veteran

Tony de Wonderful

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Power fc is the best to learn on. Use paulrr33 power fcfaq. Read it a couple of times. Its the best resource fr power fc info. Totune though u need a wideband 02 sensor. 350$ and prefferably fc datalogit 400$. And then some like to use a pyrometer too which can be 300$ish

They are like hens teeth for the RB25DET though. What's the 2nd best alternative?

Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted

Definitely get a power fc, datalogit and a wideband if you want to start tuning. All I can tell you is it takes just hours to learn how to tune but years to master it.

Lithium Grand Master

Lithium

Posted
Posted

Definitely get a power fc, datalogit and a wideband if you want to start tuning. All I can tell you is it takes just hours to learn how to tune but years to master it.

I'm not convinced there is such a thing as a master tuner. Sure, people will get better at it but at the end of the day its just a brave sod who reads a bunch of clues required to reach an end point and takes the necessary steps to reach said end point. If they are lucky and the end point set by whoever put the car together is a good one then the tuner stands to achieve God status when in fact they just did what they had to do. If the end point was always going to be a bad one, then their name can easily become mud for just providing an inevitable result.

There will obviously be people with varying degrees of ability to read the clues and take the best possible steps to be able reach the inevitable - but so long as you are reading clues and realistically taking guesses (however educated) you're never the master of the situation :) If someone deems themselves a master, I'd personally approach with caution... as I'd say from my experience with this so far its a game where the old "The more you know, the more you know you don't know" thing runs very true.

You stand to learn a lot very quickly, so pay attention.

Just my opinion, of course.

DVS JEZ Grand Master

DVS JEZ

Posted
Posted

Self learn isnt just plug it in and it starts tuning its self. U need to know what AFR the engine needs at each load point at different rpms etc etc.

Plus u need a wideband 02 sensor connected to the laptop or auxillery input of the ecu.

Power fcs are the best to learn on because they have a knock reading. This is a tuners best friend.

SECURITY Grand Master

SECURITY

Posted
Posted

My opinion is vipec. Pretty easy to learn and the help file is actually very informative. I find myself refering to it all the time if I need furter information on a certain parameter.

IMO there is a bit of a dogma when it comes to guys being hung up on the power fc. The newer ecu's have a lot more going for them. Just because you know a product inside out doesn't mean it's the best thing out there.... Just means it's the best thing for you.

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PM-R33 Grand Master

PM-R33

Posted
Posted

+1 on the Vipec.

I used to have a Microtech and found that an absolute pain in the ass to try and learn how to tune on. I ended up selling it and buying a Vipec and now I do my own tuning.

The layout of it all and ease of finding settings makes it a pleasure.

JonnoHR31 Grand Master

JonnoHR31

Posted
Posted

i'd say the power fc is probably the easiest to learn and get running properly as you really only need to tweak the basemap a bit and setting up afm's and injectors is a piece of cake.

not sure about everyone else but at first the simplicity of the power fc is great, its easy to get a hang of, but after a while i found myself getting very frustrated at how basic some parts of it are. my main gripe with it is the way it handles ignition timing and to some extent interpolation. only being able to increase or decrease timing by whole degrees can be frustrating when trying to find the limit (yes i know most people would have 2-3 degrees safety margin but not everyone wants that) and it also seams to round up when interpolating, which in certain spots is a right pain in the ass. i've also seen it favour the last cell it was in when interpolating, for example as your approaching peak torque and each cell has a fair bit less timing than the last it doesnt seam to always interpolate evenly to give a nice steady drop in timing, which can be a problem. say your half way between 1 cell which has 20 degrees of timing and another with 16, the result for that point should be 18, a lot of the time i see 19 and 20.

i find myself wanting a vipec or similar more and more everytime i play with the power fc

STATUS Grand Master

STATUS

Posted
Posted

microtech is the easiest and quickest cause its as simple as a calculator :P BUT MY SUGGESTION is --->

Powerfc as its the safest to self tune as you have the safety net of the knock monitor system so you can learn the ins and outs of timing.

ecu's like vipec microtec haltech etc require you to know what an engine can safely take and to tune it properly you should use some kind of listening device.

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