Aftermarket ECU Info

Im planning on getting a ca18det and running it at about 300bhp with my roller bearing t28 turbo.

would i be better wiring it upto the std management and having to fork out on a 300zx AFM and a chip on the std ecu

or get aftermarket management and never have to worry about overfueling again..

i only want to run about 300bhp and i know it is atainable on the std ecu, im just not sure which route to go

I wouldn't worry about overfuelling ... rather UNDER fuelling is where it gets nasty ;)

Well ... IIRC the ca18det MAF is the same as our ca18et stockers in size.

So straight away the MAF is restrictive. Restrictions hurt flow super imprtant for making power in a turbo car.

I'm not assuming you DON'T already know this, just for posterity ...

Cranking out 300hp is going to take a lot more than a T28 and engine management. T28s are great turbos, just not very big. You need a lot of air.

You could very well run the stock ECU with an SAFC. They're going gently used for $200 US and are programmed for the ca18det

That way you can run larger injectors etc etc.

Jim Wolf does reprograms, but he charges like $600, you have to wait, and I've heard by word of mouth that quite a few Z32 guys have blown motors from JW ECUs.

Or if you're an EE, or know one, you can get him to reprogram your ECU.

I have some decent upgraded ca18det codes, just don't know how to use em ;)

I'm pretty deep into the Z32 scene, and I have never heard of a JWT ecu being responsible for blowing a motor. JWT puts a large safety margin in their ecu's by making the fuel mixture a bit on the rich side. It sacrifices a bit of power, but it does create a safety margin. If someone blew up their motor with a JWT ecu, more than likely, it was their own fault. The fact that JWT does use that large safety margin is the reason I don't use their ecu's. You can run a much better fuel/air mixture than they provide, so long as you're not an idiot and actually tune it correctly.

I'm pretty deep into the Z32 scene, and I have never heard of a JWT ecu being responsible for blowing a motor. JWT puts a large safety margin in their ecu's by making the fuel mixture a bit on the rich side. It sacrifices a bit of power, but it does create a safety margin. If someone blew up their motor with a JWT ecu, more than likely, it was their own fault. The fact that JWT does use that large safety margin is the reason I don't use their ecu's. You can run a much better fuel/air mixture than they provide, so long as you're not an idiot and actually tune it correctly.

Ditto.....I ran an SAFC2 as well as my JWT to lean out there rich spots....Just a heads up, JWT knows more about tuning Nissans than any of us.....Its just a simple fact.....

hey mech how much did it cost to have jwt redo your ecu on the s12

my t28 is a rollerbearing unit rated to 330bhp..

and what is jwt ?

Jim Wolf Technologies, one of the major players in aftermarket Nissan stuff...

That just means that that turbo in a perfect environment (ie flowbench) can flow enough air to produce 330hp. But, your ca18det is not a perfect environment.

Yeah, like I said, I'd heard that JWT chips were bad. A guy I know has been through about 4 or 5 of them for his turbo KA. He races it in SOLO1, and has been less than thrilled with it. When talking to him, he told me about the Z32 guys. But ... either or, JWT does a simple reflash and dump with generic lookup tables. Part of the biggest pain is that they are not reprogrammable by anyone except for JWT. I've heard he even uploads some sort of encryption into the file as well. Makes sense,

But yeah the problem is, the JWT chip needs you to send him your ECU, wait a while, get it back, bleed from the $600 for a while, then do it all over again if you mod your car further.

The JWT road makes more sense for newer cars that run more complex ECU functions. The ca18et is so rudimentary, an SAFC is really all you'll need to get close.

now does anyone have the hack codes or what ever they are called so you can reprogram the ecu cause a buddy of mine does this to his and his brothers dsm ecu at ho,e and has gained as much as 60whp from doing so, if i had the codes i could have him take a look

the DSMs have a completely different setup and tools available

Nissan code is readily available, and I have uprated maps for pretty much every DE engine.

The MKII ECUs have an EPROM chip. This chip has to be removed and a socket installed. Then the chip can be downloaded by an EPROM reader.

Once you have all the lookup tables in front of you, if you have an EPROM writer, you just rewrite the values in the lookup tables.

Without booting up the program, I'll make up a number here

let's say that 270 cc injectors are programmed as "270" (they're not, there's a different value, but I can't remember the translation)

On your fuel lookup table you will have injector values ...

so if you rewrite the spot of code that says "270" with "450" the ECU now will treat your injectors as 450cc and make all the necessary adjustments.

Or you could go into the MAF table, and change the value for the MAF housing size.

I don't have a reader/writer, or an ECU I'm willing to try and socket ;)

ya he has installed sockets in others cars in order to use the eprom... i'll chat with him about this some more

the DSMs have a completely different setup and tools available

Nissan code is readily available, and I have uprated maps for pretty much every DE engine.

The MKII ECUs have an EPROM chip. This chip has to be removed and a socket installed. Then the chip can be downloaded by an EPROM reader.

Once you have all the lookup tables in front of you, if you have an EPROM writer, you just rewrite the values in the lookup tables.

Without booting up the program, I'll make up a number here

let's say that 270 cc injectors are programmed as "270" (they're not, there's a different value, but I can't remember the translation)

On your fuel lookup table you will have injector values ...

so if you rewrite the spot of code that says "270" with "450" the ECU now will treat your injectors as 450cc and make all the necessary adjustments.

Or you could go into the MAF table, and change the value for the MAF housing size.

I don't have a reader/writer, or an ECU I'm willing to try and socket ;)
This might be scary, but I believe that the MKII Turbo, and N/A Ecu's have the same hook ups, just different programming. If this is the case, we could probably try doing my CA20 ECU after the swap...8) Ah crap, I just remembered about the MAF setup differences...this could still work, I just need to think about it a bit more...

Then there's the hard part...finding a guinnea pig turbo car...8)

It's ok Alex, that ECU from the "mystery motor" you grabbed is an EPROM ECU, so we can do it to your "new" motor when it goes turbo ... and if we break the ECU ... D's got a spare :D