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Aftermarket JDM ECU?

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Old 04-25-20, 05:22 PM
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Aftermarket JDM ECU?

Hi Folks,
I was working on my car today and noticed something peculiar hiding behind the passenger kick panel.

I'm hoping someone on here would be able to identify what the heck this ECU is... Maybe an OEM ECU from the wreckers in Japan??

The construction looks like it could be something OEM but it also has aftermarket branding as well as intel branding on it..... I'm really confused.

Old 04-25-20, 05:25 PM
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A quick google and I found out what it is..

Ohhhh ****.... what have i gotten myself into....
https://recharge.jp/blog/ecocpu-buy/
Old 04-26-20, 08:45 AM
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shoot at PM to

Kaigreenfd

he is buddies with the guys who make that ECU.
Old 04-26-20, 08:58 AM
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Originally Posted by j9fd3s
shoot at PM to

Kaigreenfd

he is buddies with the guys who make that ECU.
Thanks for this. A little light at the end of the tunnel.
Old 04-26-20, 09:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Oppai
Thanks for this. A little light at the end of the tunnel.
for me its newfangled, but they guys are active, i've actually met them at sevenstock,
Old 04-26-20, 11:55 AM
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It's a chipped ECU which is VERY popular in Japan. At one point you could take your car to a tuner, they would dyno the car and write a custom chip for your stock ECU. You could also buy an ECU outright to plug in.

Reading the Japanese web page it sounds like a pretty good ECU, a lot of thought went into it. Or it's just a lot of marketing BS .

It's over $1000 for that ECU!

For a stock or near-stock car that ECU should work great.

Dale
Old 04-26-20, 12:02 PM
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Originally Posted by DaleClark
It's a chipped ECU which is VERY popular in Japan. At one point you could take your car to a tuner, they would dyno the car and write a custom chip for your stock ECU. You could also buy an ECU outright to plug in.

Reading the Japanese web page it sounds like a pretty good ECU, a lot of thought went into it. Or it's just a lot of marketing BS .

It's over $1000 for that ECU!

For a stock or near-stock car that ECU should work great.

Dale
That was my impression as well reading through the website.

I've sent an email to the creator of that ECU-- Nakamura san. Have also sent a PM to KaiGreenFD.
Since I'm moderately fluent in Japanese I'm hoping he could help me get set up with the tuning software.
It seems to be built in Visual Basic 6 which is quite ancient. I had some trouble even getting it installed on my PC.
Now I'm just trying to find out how I can actually connect to the ECU...

I have some minimal experience tuning rotaries from when I tuned my turbo rx-8 using VersaTuner, but I have no plans to tune this car for power.
Mostly looking at it as a learning opportunity and also an easy place to monitor all my sensors at once.
Might use it for some silly antics like shooting flames out the exhaust on which is a relatively benign way for beginners to have fun tuning.

I'll be keeping this thread updated with my findings as a resource for anyone on the forums that might also happen to run into one of these.

Last edited by Oppai; 04-26-20 at 12:04 PM.
Old 04-26-20, 12:05 PM
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Originally Posted by DaleClark
It's a chipped ECU which is VERY popular in Japan. At one point you could take your car to a tuner, they would dyno the car and write a custom chip for your stock ECU. You could also buy an ECU outright to plug in.

Reading the Japanese web page it sounds like a pretty good ECU, a lot of thought went into it. Or it's just a lot of marketing BS .

It's over $1000 for that ECU!

For a stock or near-stock car that ECU should work great.

Dale
this one is newer than the others, its only a few years old
Old 04-26-20, 12:09 PM
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Originally Posted by j9fd3s
this one is newer than the others, its only a few years old
How can you tell?
Old 04-26-20, 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Oppai
How can you tell?
the owner of the company goes to sevenstock, and he was telling us about his new thing. or i should say its not like the RE Amemiya or Knightsports ECU's that can be 30 years old, this one is only like 5...
Old 04-26-20, 03:44 PM
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Originally Posted by j9fd3s
the owner of the company goes to sevenstock, and he was telling us about his new thing. or i should say its not like the RE Amemiya or Knightsports ECU's that can be 30 years old, this one is only like 5...
Oh I see. I thought you meant my specific ECU, but you meant this brand in general.
If it's that recent, I wonder why he decided to use Visual Basic 6.... Microsoft dropped support for that in 2005.
Maybe he just used what he knew.
-Joey
Old 04-27-20, 08:42 AM
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I don't know how far down the rabbit hole I'd go with trying to hook up or tune that ECU. You'd be time and effort ahead going with a PowerFC, it's VERY well supported and has English software .

Also at this point the car is so stock that I don't think messing with any of the ECU settings will help beyond what's already there. It's really cool that you have that ECU though!

Dale
Old 04-27-20, 12:57 PM
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Originally Posted by DaleClark
I don't know how far down the rabbit hole I'd go with trying to hook up or tune that ECU. You'd be time and effort ahead going with a PowerFC, it's VERY well supported and has English software .

Also at this point the car is so stock that I don't think messing with any of the ECU settings will help beyond what's already there. It's really cool that you have that ECU though!

Dale
I'd hate to see a $1500 ecu go to waste just because of my ignorance.
Plus, I like to learn new things so I think I'll try a little longer to hunt down the creator, Nakamura san.

From my phone call with KaiGreenFd yesterday he describes Nakamura san as being extremely helpful and kind.

Since I can speak Japanese, there shouldn't be any issues communicating with him.
He could also potentially put me in touch with the previous owner of this car since he probably tuned the car for them. That would also be pretty cool.
Still awaiting a reply to my email.

-Joey
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