Not at all.

There is a huge difference between piggybacking a computer and running a standalone. It may be a difference you don't see because you come from a world of factory-boosted cars...but when you deal with a lot of NA to Boosted applications, there is a very sharp distinction.

Piggyback ECU's are things like the e-manage, e-manage ultimate, SAFC.

These intercept stock signals, condition them based on a user defined map and throw them back at the car. They basically trick the factory ecu by sending false signals and relying on the factory ECU to use it's own map to adjust for them.

Standalone ECU's generate their own signals with their own sensors.
I don't understand why people feel the need to remove their ECU's. There's no reason you can't have a factory ECU running and thinking everything is fine...when in reality, you have an aftermarket ECU generating its own fuel and ignition.

When I wire in standalone ecu's I use them solely for Fuel and Ignition. The factory ecu still generates signals but they don't go anywhere...thus your OBDII system is still intact. At the same time you get standalone control over your tune.

Boosted IS300's run Haltech E11's, E6X, E6K, AEM, HKS FCON, Tec3...all of these are standalone ECU's providing their own signals from either factory or aftermarket sensors. There are only a handful of people who actually got rid of their factory ecu to put one of these in place...but I have no idea why. You lose all the stock functionality and there is no added benefit.

 

Well count yourself lucky that you got an Evo very recently. Back in March of 06 when I got my car tuned there was no Ecuflash to speak of. The only way to flash, IIRC, was the Ecutech and they charged $650 license fee. That is why I decided to go with an interceptor Xede. It was $750 and I got TWO maps that I can select by flipping a switch. That is very much needed here in CA, the land of crappy 91 octane gas. I have a 91 octane map on stand by in case I cannot find 100 octane to mix with 91 octane to get the needed 93-94 octane. The Xede also controls boost, so no need for an MBC. It does an ok job and holds my boost @ 18-19 psi by redline.

Of course, If I had to tune my car today, then my decision would have been different. Ecuflash changed everything.

 

I do count my lucky stars. I consider it absolutely amazing that I can retune my car for $90 bucks. An amazing daily driver with stupidly cheap effective modifications.

If I didn't have that option, there'd be no way I'd spend $700 bucks for a piggyback. I told myself I'd never use one again after running an E-mangle on my boosted IS300 for about a year.

I'd be using a haltech F10X at the least to do fuel. It's only about $850.

Personally I hate piggyback units and I think they work like butt on OBDII cars.

I run a haltech E6X with a haltech ignitor and a J&S knock safeguard on my IS300.
That setup alone is almost 2 grand.

 

This is what I have stated in a couple posts so far in this thread. I guess people are ignoring something that works for some reason. Even after I posted a screenshot of a log showing the AFRs in synch in 3rd and 4th, everyone ignores it and talks about standalones and piggybacks.

"I'll just put 100 octane in" in is such a ****-poor answer to these types of things and I'm getting sick of seeing it, but whatever, it's not my car.

 

I haven't tried that but I'm getting good results with non-block tuning in my fuel map.

I have been logging a bunch today and I am much closer to more stable AFR's.

I dunno if I can bring myself to just block tune.
I'm finding some loads require significantly different duty cycles to maintain the same AFR.

 

I agree as well, I don't like block tuning. Usually tuning those other load cells to match AFRS in each gear is the better thing to do. It's what I do on my personal car and it doesn't end up as block tuning.

 

Why not post your AFR rom image so we can see what you are talking about. That will be better than posting an image of a log.

 

Here ya go:

 

 

You guys are getting ****ed up by two things.

The lean spool code messes up your target AFR's going into boost. This is time dependent and can mess up all of first gear for instance.

sophiesleeps,

Your target AFR's are changing by nearly half a point from 200-240 load ranges at 6500rpm's for instance. 4th gear will artifically cause the motor to run higher on the load maps than say 3rd gear. What do you expect the ecu to do when the target AFR is half a point richer at the rpm vs load cell? Its going to run about half an AFR point different.

 

Stupid question. What is this lean spool code that you're talking about?
I see what you're saying about my fuel maps. I'll try some changes and see whether they help.

 

Its been documented in a few other threads, can't find it at the moment, but basically its the start and stop RPM of the lean spool feature, it leans the AFR's slightly and makes tuning around it a bit "troublesome" if your not expecting it.

I personally havent had to alter mine, I think stock it starts at 2000rpm and runs through 4531rpm or something along those lines.

(Edit: FWIW, 4531rpm doesn't look right in the existing definitions)

If you track down the current definitions, their actually in those. I don't fool with its settings as there are other tables associated with it that aren't well documented yet.

 

How do you disable the lean spool code? Also, what do your LOW Octane Maps look like -- are you running richer, pulling timing, or both? Thanks

 

My low octane tables are stock and will remain like that. Properly tuned a car should not more than take a peek at those maps and if it does it should make adjustments.

Do a serch for lean spool code. I then entered the definition in ecuflash so that I could change both the activation and disactivation the same essentially disabling it. A stock 1g dsm does not have this lean spool code so I've learned to not have it in the way when tuning. I run my car without it and two friends cars without it. Much more consistent that way.

 

Disable it and the car doesn't want to take off at all from a stop or low load it acts l;ike fuel cut.