can ecuflash safely be used to tune a fully built engine running high amounts of boost?

 

i'd say so.... ofcourse the aem will give you better results

 

are there people on here who have successfully tuned built motors running high boost, without a piggy back or full stand alone?

 

There are plenty of people who have built motors that just used stock ecu for engine management. If you do a search you should find a lot of thread in regards to this. However, the most I have seen power wise on the stock ecu is smogrunner and he put down like 585whp but now I think he at around 600 or so...

 

Yes, although you will probably have to rescale your load columns if your going to be running high boost as you will over-run the 300 column on a IX or the 280 on a VIII. You will also need to properly scale your injectors and there are articles in this forum with instructions for doing these modifications to your ECU.

 

in theory can ecuflash, if done right, work just as well as a standalone?

 

It depends.

With a relatively stock car, there will be little to no difference. Once you get past the normal bolt-ons you will probably start to see a slight loss with the stock ECU (at least for now). This is due mostly to the fact that the stock ECU is not completely understood yet, but may also have to do with it's design. However, a standalone is about $2k and the stock ECU is free, so bang-for-the buck is squarely in the ECU's favor. It remains to be seen if there are hardware limitations that will keep the stock ECU from ever closing or eliminating the gap but I'd say keeping it stock is the "best" choice for 90% of the evos out there.

 

what does past normal bolt ons mean, I plan on doing a full 2.4L engine build, with 20lbs of boost. has ecuflash been safely tuned with something like that?

 

I'd say adding a stroker kit is "past normal bolt-ons" but it's not impossible to use the stock ECU on such an engine. If the car is still primarily used on the street with pump gas (you mentioned 20lbs of boost) I'd still say you won't give up much using the ECU and a good tuner. I suppose worst case is that you reach some limitation and then buy a standalone to get the last bit of power.

 

I know that ecuflash has been used to safely tune 3G eclipses, which have the 2.4L 4G64 motor.

 

20 is not high boost for a Mitsu. Evo's run 20 stock and there more than a few running 25 right now on pump gas on the stock ECU. I can think of at least 4 people off the top of my head that I personally know that are running 1000cc injectors on a stock ECU, I am personally running 780's with zero issues. With all but a few cam choices, even cams arent that hard to make work with the stock ECU.

Pros of a standalone-
Added features like antilag, Live tuning, faster processor speed, increased resolution, ability to switch to speed density (though the stock ECU will be doing this before long), etc.

Cons of a standalone-
They dont have all the accessory features programmed ready to go (you have to add these functions), some standalones make cold weather starting alot harder (but not impossible) than the factory system, wont pass emissions, etc.

 

20psi stock, hmm, I guess I'll be shooting more for 25-30psi, or whatever is safe on 93 octane with the 2.4L stoker motor. if people can get 1000cc injectors to idle on a stock ecu I think I'll be fine. I can save the $2000 on a standalone and upgrade the cams, valves, etc.

 

you might wanna do a little more research about the car and mods your doing, its a little more than just knowing how to use ecuflash

 

I don't exactly have an evo, but I'm using an evo 2.4L stoker motor, ecu rom, and etc. I didn't realize that evos came stock with 20psi of boost. I thought at that level that they should be making more power than they do. I guess the compression ratio must be lower on the 4G63 than the 4G64. correct me if I'm wrong.