Tuning suggestions?

ok guys figured id post this here since it is such a dumb question. however. ive tuned cars in teh past. my rb20 240sx. with a apexi standalone. ive tuned my turbo civics with a chipped ecu and hondata. but now im at the point where im ready to tune my vr4... and honestly. i dont like piggyback systems (safc's) so which would you reccomend would be ideal for tuning ... dsmlink? aem EMS? and are there any others out there? i ask because frankly... id like to get rid of my acid eatting ecu from teh get go. but dsmlink seems to keep the old ecu? i dont know so thats why im asking. thanks in advance.


and just for shits and gigs. how accurate could i get my tune if i used an safc? i ask becuase the car already has one. and i have a eugo wideband and egtgauge on order as i type. so i know i could get it close. but which features would i be lacking? assuming i tune for WOT .. how would my afr's loow under normal driving conditions?

 

If you liked hondata you might want to look into dsmap, it uses an ostrich and requires a eprom ecu.

 

[TylerAdamson]

Since you're wanting to ditch to stock ECU ecmlink is out. You've got plenty of choices as far as a stand alone ecu. The most popular being the AEM. There is also the Haltech and Motec systems. There is also ProEFI, but it is hardly plug and play.

 

ohok. now i havent dug into my ecu, so would keeping it be a good idea if the capacitors are not bad enough to replace? the car runs prefect right now so idk how bad they aree. is the factory gvr4 ecu already have an eprom chip?

 

[marvinmadman]

yep

 

ok, so the most cost effective route. since my ecu is chipped already, would be dsmlink?

 

[raptorWagon]

If the ecu still has the original capacitors, it would be still a good idea to have them replaced to prevent any unwanted leakage in the future that you will probably regret for not getting it taken care of before hand. Another standalone is Megasquirt though "some" assembly of the board, but can be a cheap alternative to AEM if you can or know anyone that can build circuit boards.

 

[Scientist]

Most cost effective would be Megasquirt for standalone and Jackal (DS-Map) for stock ecu.

Jackal will have you on map sensor though

 

ok, so how would i convert my car to be equipped with a map sensor?i know what and how they are. i jsut dont know how to put one in a vehicle that came factory with a mafs.

 

[cheekychimp]

It will vary slightly depending on which ECU you decide to go with but let's assume you are using ECMLink, you would first locate a vacuum source to supply the manifold pressure to the sensor. Some people like to get a t-fitting and use the brake booster source for this but most any source from the intake manifold will do. Again, some people like to use a restrictor inline prior to the MAP sensor saying it smoothes out the airflow but plenty of people seem to have the MAP sensor working just fine without them.

As for wiring, you will have a power and ground wire and an input wire to send the MAP signal to the ECU. With ECMLink most users make use of obsolete inputs like the EGR input and send the signal there. You then go into the ECM tuning software and instruct the ECU to log the MAP data off that input which is selectable. You then log the MAP sensor input and can produce it graphically on any logs made when that input is selected.