I'm interested in getting a Power FC or AEM PEMS for my Z, but neither company has applications for the Z as of yet. I'm wondering what people think about the possibilities for the aftermarket ECUs. In our car, the ECU controls the drive-by-wire functionality, which means we either need to keep the stock ECU around, or add that functionality to the replacement ECU. Further, I'm guessing the ECU controls the "smart gauge" on the leftmost part of the center gauge pod. If we don't want to lose that, we have to keep the ECU as well. Seems like a pain in the ***.. but I don't trust FI to a piggyback controller. I've seen far too many cars blow due to poor tuning.

thoughts on this subject?

 

Technosquare has a full ECU replacement.

 

I'm sure azrael is talking about a programmable ECU, not a remapped one which would be just as useless as stock except for the specific application it was mapped for. You really need full user control if your going to set things up properly.

FWIW I've heard that a Power FC will be out first quarter next year. Haven't heard of any others coming but I'm sure they will eventually.

 

doh!

I think Pectel has something for the Z

 

At the end of the day, what you'll find with most ecu's is the hardware you choose is largely just for bragging rights - the tuner is where the whole purchase/project is won or lost.

We have been tuning standalones for about 6 years now, and I have owned a handful on my own personal cars (most notably my other Z and my old Subaru RS). At the end of the day, they all did basically the same thing - what made the difference is the time we took to learn the ins and outs of the software, as well as learn how a change in fuel and or timing tables on that ecu affected the particular car we were running it on.

Best bet is to check out what your local shops are running, and see what they are comfortable tuning. You will inevitably reach a point with any standalone where you need tech support, and trust me when I tell you many manufacturers can be little to no help (I would put AEM, LINK and Apex'i squarely in this category) -you'll be left to figure it out yourself. On the flipside, we have had fantastic tech help from Electromotive and Motec, and the knowledge base out there for haltech is so huge that it warrants consideration as well.

Like I said though, see what your local "hard core" tuners use, and go from there. Any tuner worth his salt IMHO will repeat basically what I said above - that all the ecu's basically function in the same way, and it comes down to how well they can tune it, or how willing they are to tune one of your choice.

Good luck!

 

Thanks for the input. I am definitely talking about a standalone ECU, not a pre-tuned unit like the Technosquare. I've heard great things about both the Power FC and the AEM PEMS, so I'm slightly biased towards them. Motec is also an option, of course. I'm fully willing to put the car on a dyno to tune it properly, and I intend to learn the ins and outs of the software myself before ever taking it to a tuner.

I'm just curious to see how they all will handle the drive-by-wire functionality. Seems like a real pain.

 

How about converting the drive-by-wire to conventional cable controlled throttle.