Blackbox Ecu (M3)

[Marko R1]

Update guys!

I had my blackbox fitted to my GTR (to clarify, these ecu's are known as N61 and not M3) and I am extremely impressed!!!

After discussing further with piggaz, he tried to explain the differences in terms of driveability and now I get it...the throttle is very blippy and revs faster (I know it sounds silly), cold starts are phenomenal and general cruising honestly feels like a factory car - this ecu was built for this application.

I had it tuned by Yavus and I am very happy with the end result, in fact, my car was the first where they mapped the boost level versus ethanol content which basically means that I cannot over boost on low ethanol fuel (another safety parameter) + I have the manual override boost switch for valet parking

All in all, this ecu is nicer than my vipec and more feature rich (win win).

Paul, am I missing any other detail which I have left out?

[Piggaz]

All sounds good man.

I really like how you have your boost setup. You can turn it down if you want to but it cant be forgotten about when on lower ethanol % blends.

Have you filled up yet?

[Marko R1]

not yet mate - i'll run it low as its currently running e30, then i'll bump it up to e60 with caltex eflex.

yavus prefers that i dont run e85 (united) until i beef up the fuel system, he will then touch it up on the dyno.

[wolverine]

Can you throw up a ballpark cost of ecu and tuning?

[Piggaz]

Can you throw up a ballpark cost of ecu and tuning?

$1,850 for the ECU and their flex tune is worth $1,250 IIRC.

[Piggaz]

not yet mate - i'll run it low as its currently running e30, then i'll bump it up to e60 with caltex eflex.

yavus prefers that i dont run e85 (united) until i beef up the fuel system, he will then touch it up on the dyno.

That makes sense.

Bring it on

[Marko R1]

$1,850 for the ECU and their flex tune is worth $1,250 IIRC.

Spot on

[wolverine]

Last time I asked about ecu + flex tunes (and it was a while ago) Tyson (not Trav oops) said they were looking at the $3k mark.

Edited February 16, 2014 by wolverine

[Marko R1]

Where is Trav from?

[wolverine]

Used to work at Unigroup but has moved on.

[Piggaz]

Tyson?

[wolverine]

Brain fart, I mean Tyson.

[Marko R1]

Iron Mike?

[32rrr]

Not trying to bad mouth anyone or any products.. but alot of the issues you guys seem to mention sound tuner related to me? it doesnt make sense, also you can buy an expansion harness for the Vipec/link plug ins which gives you another few imputs/outputs and you dont even need it to run an external map sensor. the external mapsensor can be wired in through the old AFM wiring. simple stuff really

[32rrr]

As well if they were trying to push this ECU seriously they could update there bloody website, i downloaded what software was there and it wont even open up.

[GTR_JOEY]

What issues are being mentioned exactly?

They probably dont have time to update their* site as the work speaks for itself. Unlike other company's and products who advertise the hell out of them selves so people think they know what their doing

[Marko R1]

True, I did mention in another thread that I could run additional inputs BUT the onboard 2.5bar sensor will not support >22psi which are the key reasons why I upgraded to the Blackbox. The other reason is that it records any data in case of an accident whilst in flight mode

Unigroup obviously pick up enough work without the need for further marketing which is an enviable position to be in.

Not trying to bad mouth anyone or any products.. but alot of the issues you guys seem to mention sound tuner related to me? it doesnt make sense, also you can buy an expansion harness for the Vipec/link plug ins which gives you another few imputs/outputs and you dont even need it to run an external map sensor. the external mapsensor can be wired in through the old AFM wiring. simple stuff really

[32rrr]

What issues are being mentioned exactly?

They probably dont have time to update their* site as the work speaks for itself. Unlike other company's and products who advertise the hell out of them selves so people think they know what their doing

The drivability issues, lack of input/outputs, the only issue thats mentioned which is an actual known issue with the computer itself is the powerfc's little glitch.

There work obviously doesnt speak well enough to promote it to the point were people are still going blackbox? wtf is that.

If they dont have "time" to update there website they obviously dont value sales highly. for every person that isnt in sydney itself that could be a potential buyer as they come across this thread and read the great reviews it seems to get.. the website provides f**k all information that would encourage myself or anyone interested to buy such a computer.

For the software download that is available on there website to not work is even more of a deterant.

True, I did mention in another thread that I could run additional inputs BUT the onboard 2.5bar sensor will not support >22psi which are the key reasons why I upgraded to the Blackbox. The other reason is that it records any data in case of an accident whilst in flight mode

Unigroup obviously pick up enough work without the need for further marketing which is an enviable position to be in.

No... no its not considering this black box ecu has apparently been around since 2008 according to the copyright on its website, 5-6 years and if you mentioned "black box ecu" to A LOT of people in the car scene across the country i'd happily put money on it that 75% of them have never heard of it and no idea about it. Mention Vipec, Link, Haltech, Motec, microtech to all of those people and 100% of them would have heard of them all some good some bad.

So the AVI on the plugin board which go to the factory AFM wiring were in use? The majority of those listed above also has onboard data logging in plugin versions. blaming it solely on the onboard map sensor only rated to 2.5 bar is a piss poor excuse. roughly 100-150 to put an external 3 bar map sensor in with out needing any additional wiring from the ecu by tapping into the factory harness.

Alot of the drivability issues mentioned in this thread i'd actually blame on people using the internal map sensors as the vacume/boost line running from the intake manifold is that long there is a delay. It is always best to run your map sensor as close to the pressure source possible.

Do that for me.. tell me how long is the vacume line to your map sensor with the black box ecu compared to when you were running the previous ecu?

I run a Haltech PS2000 in my car and have played with a couple others including the vipec, the drivability gains from the putting in an external map sensor as close as possible to the intake manifold is amazing. my vacume line went from being almost 2 meters running inside onto the internal map and down to 15cm's onto the external map sensor with no changes to the mapping made it drove 1000 times better.

[Piggaz]

My map sensor position hasn't moved more than 20 cms between the Link g4 and Black Box yet the BB drives a lot better. Care to explain that?

Considering Marko's Vipec had an on board map sensor and so does his BB it might have moved 200 mm max (board width)

[Marko R1]

It was my decision to move to the BB and that is it. For u to call it a piss poor effort really is piss poor on your part and who are u to criticize my decision making? Whether u choose to drive a GTR or Evo, I really don't care...as long as u are happy and I'd actually be supportive. Not everyone is the same I guess and to tarnish my decision or another brand is not cool.