Can someone explain to be the benefit of getting one of these expensive aftermarket ECUs. I am in the habit of just taking it to and place to dyno tune the stock ECU. I am trying to weigh the benefits of these ECU vs the price of taking it to get dyno tuned.

 

Not sure what you mean by a aftermarket ECU? Do you mean the COBB accessport? If so that's an ECU but rather a handheld device that reflashes the ECU through a port in the car. If so the difference is that the COBB accessport is kind of like using a knife to do a scalpel's job. It generalizes the vehicle when we all know each car is slightly different. Personally i prefer it anyway because of the convenience. But to each his own.

 

The reason people get the aftermarket ECU is because the stock ECU can only support fuel upgrades up to around 30% more than stock. Please correct me if im wrong, but there are certian paramaters that flashing the ECU cannot obtain. So unless you have a full out race motor with a lot of custom fuel/turbo/spark mods you really dont need it. Older cars didn't have the option to "flash" the ECU making the aftermarket ones more of a necessity.

 

Stock ecu is good and it can handle your basic mods. The crazy thing is even the stock ecu can run more advanced settings speed density now. That's with the EVO 8/9 ecu....

And I know EVO X and RA ecu is a lot more refine now too. You will not need to swap to a standalone ecu unless your not a street car anymore.

I know the weak point with stock ecu was always with hi boost 30psi+ tuning.