Jump to content
SAU Community

R33 Gts-T Ecu Upgrade

Rocco R33

By Rocco R33,
in Engines & Forced Induction

 Share

Recommended Posts

Rocco R33 Rookie

Rocco R33

Posted
Posted

Hi Guys,

i have been searching around for info on which way to go when it comes to upgrading the ECU on a R33 GTS-t manual.

can anyone shed their knowlege when it comes to upgrades as i am sure there are plenty of people asking the same question.

it seems to be the big question between

-NISTUNE

-Apexi Power FC

-Haltech Platinum Pro

-Vipec v44

i know price is a major factor, but is there substacial benifits of each ECU?

thanks in advance

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/416039-r33-gts-t-ecu-upgrade/
Share on other sites
gtsttrk Mentor

gtsttrk

Posted
Posted

Exactly the same boat that I've been in. Going to ring my tuner and see what their most comfortable with as we all know an ECU is as only good as the tune/tuner. But I'm leaning towards vipec, allows duel fuel maps (E85/98) and also MAF/map tunes.

Manuel Kasko Grand Master

Manuel Kasko

Posted
Posted

Exactly the same boat that I've been in. Going to ring my tuner and see what their most comfortable with as we all know an ECU is as only good as the tune/tuner. But I'm leaning towards vipec, allows duel fuel maps (E85/98) and also MAF/map tunes.

Do exactly this

Ask your tuner and see what he recommends because an ecu is only as good as the tuner

GTSBoy Grand Master

GTSBoy

Posted
Posted

The other factor is how much you want to remain undercover. Nistune keeps standard ECU and EFM. Looks and works like it's supposed to and could save your bacon when the bacon are perusing through your car. Aftermarket plugins that hide inside a factory ECU case are the next best, but take a lot of extra effort (and a faked up AFM) to camouflage to an equivalent level.

My comment on "ask your tuner" is that a good tuner should be able to handle pretty much any ECU that uses laptop software or a hand controller. It only takes my tuner an extra couple of hours to tune a car for the first time when it's something that he's never seen before (and that happens rarely enough these days) and he wouldn't think of charging the customer for that time. It's his self education investment.

Same guy is so sick of bullshit Haltech failures that he will still tune them, but will not help anyone to install one.

AngryRB Grand Master

AngryRB

Posted
Posted

The other factor is how much you want to remain undercover. Nistune keeps standard ECU and EFM. Looks and works like it's supposed to and could save your bacon when the bacon are perusing through your car. Aftermarket plugins that hide inside a factory ECU case are the next best, but take a lot of extra effort (and a faked up AFM) to camouflage to an equivalent level.

My comment on "ask your tuner" is that a good tuner should be able to handle pretty much any ECU that uses laptop software or a hand controller. It only takes my tuner an extra couple of hours to tune a car for the first time when it's something that he's never seen before (and that happens rarely enough these days) and he wouldn't think of charging the customer for that time. It's his self education investment.

Same guy is so sick of bullshit Haltech failures that he will still tune them, but will not help anyone to install one.

My tuner is so used to tuning power fc's that a complete new tune with different injectors,afm,turbo etc etc.. he got the car running reasonable within 5minutes, and on the dyno took no more than an hour then some small adjustments for half an hour..

in comparison the first tuner i used had it on the dyno for upto 4hours, another tuner asked me for the instruction manual WTF?? so i never used them, lol

simpletool Mentor

simpletool

Posted
Posted

Exactly the same boat that I've been in. Going to ring my tuner and see what their most comfortable with as we all know an ECU is as only good as the tune/tuner. But I'm leaning towards vipec, allows duel fuel maps (E85/98) and also MAF/map tunes.

Also LINK.

I'd go Nistune on a 8-bit Z32 ECU. I've got one myself. If your tuner doesn't know Nistune I'd be suspicious. However the Z32 into R33 requires more than basic knowledge to work correctly (remove knock sensor, fuel temp resistor, etc).

Hanaldo Grand Master

Hanaldo

Posted
Posted

This has been done to death. In the end you're going to get LOADS of mixed responses because everyone is going to recommend what they have experience with (flying the Link flag myself) and you're not going to be any closer to an answer.

Best way is to just call up your tuner, see if he has a problem tuning any of the ones you are thinking of getting (mine couldn't care less), then do your reading on each one and see which one appeals to you the most. I ended up going with the Link because it ticked all the boxes I wanted and I could get it cheaper than a Vipec even though they are essentially the same thing (some will claim they are exactly the same thing, just different labels).

gtsttrk Mentor

gtsttrk

Posted
Posted

Also LINK.

I'd go Nistune on a 8-bit Z32 ECU. I've got one myself. If your tuner doesn't know Nistune I'd be suspicious. However the Z32 into R33 requires more than basic knowledge to work correctly (remove knock sensor, fuel temp resistor, etc).

Yeah I thought of nistune it'd certainly be the most economical on purchase price. But from my understanding (haven't done a tonne of reading yet so don't flame me) you are fairly limited on a Nistune compared to stand alone ECU's?

GTSBoy Grand Master

GTSBoy

Posted
Posted

Limited yes. Limited to what the factory ECU can do - which is run the engine fairly bloody well. But if you want a bunch of aux outputs or tricky rev limits or boost control or dual maps etc etc, then you will need something else.

For a normal street car with a few mods (even up to quite serious mods) it will still be a good choice. Just depends on what your plans are.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • sunsetR33
      Unpeeling the Orange

      By sunsetR33 · Posted

      Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • Kapr
      What brakes on R34 GTT(Europe)

      By Kapr · Posted

      No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • wizlb
      Who has a Infiniti Q60, Q50 (V37)?

      By wizlb · Posted

      I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Kinkstaah
      Starting again

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
    • GTSBoy
      What brakes on R34 GTT(Europe)

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      I'm not going to recommend an EBC pad. I don't like them. Just about anything else would suit me better. I've been using Intima pads for a while now.
×
×
  • Create New...