I installed the new intake and exhaust from Bonez on my '88 convertible on Monday. That went great, and it's not the problem.

My problem started a few months ago when I bought a used ECU #N326, intending to send it out to be reprogrammed and still have my original stock unit in hand in case I ever had problems. Well, I sent it out on Tuesday to be reprogrammed by Autothority.com ($265 including shipping, with excellent turn-around!) and got it back today. Then I had problems.

After installing it, I took the car out for a spin and wound it up once and it seemed strong (it was wet out, and I didn't want to push it too hard on the slick road), but then there was a 'pop' and that was the end of it.... It still ran, but coughed and chugged somethin' fierce with anything other than very light throttle.

So I drove home, put my original ECU back in and everything's fine. I opened up the reprogrammed one and there are two blown resistors on the board. Oh, well. 'Could've been worse, I guess.

So here's my question, did I hose myself by using a N326 ECU from an '87 GXL n/a, instead of my '88 'verts N338?!? Should I just replace the resistors and try again or install sockets in my original and try the reprogrammed chips in that one?

Thanks!
A/.

 

The 88 vert uses a N338 ECU, it would only be replaceable with a N332 or N333 ECU.

The N326 was for a 86-87 NA car and is not even set up for the injectors correctly (it expects the resistor pack to be on the injectors).

 

Are you saying that the compatible replacement ECU for a n/a convertible would be a Turbo ECU, and not one from an n/a?

If that's the case, then did I purchase the wrong programming? I told them to program it for an '88 n/a....

 

Yep, the 88 vert uses a Turbo map.

 

In the future, an easy way to tell what ECU's will be compatible is by the first 3 digits... for example a N332 can be replaced by a N333 or N338.

Or a N327, can be replaced by a N326.

Or a N350 can be replaced by a N351.

 

So what happens if I put these n/a performance programmed chips into my N338? Does it cause problems, decrease performance, or just not deliver the best performance increase?

 

^^^

 

Don't know for sure... I would think that the inputs wouldn't be the same, between the two, like how the N33X uses the pressure sensor and things like that.

 

If he didn't swap harnesses, and left the harness/injectors alone, it shouldn't have cared if he used an N326. Since he left the harness (with no resistor pack) in place, and has high impedance injectors (simply because it's an 88 vert), the ECU wouldn't have cared because it would've saw the correct resistance. As long as the injectors are matched to the harness, the ECU shouldn't give a damn. Because, as long as the injectors and harness match, the ecu should see 12-13kohms (iirc?). If I'm mistaken, someone please clear this up for me (and hypntyz7's homepage).

 

Doesn't that seem just a LITTLE odd?

Or would it work fine seeing that the pressure sensor is still working in the range that a NA would be seeing?

 

Nah, because the biggest problem in '88 with the 'vert and 10th AE was that they were dangerously close to gas guzzler taxes. They just weigh too much. So that is why officially there wasn't even any automatics available as the 50 extra lbs just from the auto tranny would have put it into the gas guzzler bracket. Both should have got 27.5 MPG freeway to avoid any penalties, but Mazda got credits for the 323. It wasn't a problem in '89 because the CAFE and Fed fuel restrictions were revised back to '86 standards.

So Mazda did what ever they could to get the mileage up. The Turbo maps are much more oriented to better gas mileage.

 

I would stick with the original ECU # mixing any others could be problems!!!!!!!! I have never heard of using a Turbo II ecu on a N/A. and working properly.