I was just wondering if anyone was using the Greddy e-Manage or any other piggy-back ecu on there fd? any feed back would be nice. I need a ecu for my car and was wondering if i could get away with using a much cheaper piggy-back unit insted of a stand-alone such as the Power FC. Any advice would be appreciated. my mods are dp, cb, intake, walbro fuel pump, street port, 3mm apex seals. i will be putting a mid pipe in with the new ecu also. and an intercooler next summer prob.

 

Piggy-backs, like the Greddy unit, are good for "removing" fuel from the system. i.e. if you got a rechipped ECU and used the e-manage to fine tune it.

Other than that, they aren't a replacement for a PFC or a true standalone.

 

so basically what ur saying is that to get my ecu done right its gonna cost me

 

Feedback?

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...greddy+emanage
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...greddy+emanage
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...light=e-manage
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...light=e-manage
https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...light=e-manage

As far as other options, I KNOW you didn't even look if you aren't aware of the Pettit and M2 ecus....

 

Yes, performance costs.

 

power fc isnt much more....

 

Well actually i am aware of these but they are just ecu upgrades and you have to ship your core to them, but thanx

 

thanx for the links though

 

Chipped ECU's show up frequently on Ebay as well, especially ones from Japan.

The way the FD's fuel injection system is designed, it just doesn't respond well to piggybacks. Kills me too, since I'm a big fan of the E-manage (wrote the E-manage FAQ and own/administer the Yahoo Groups list).

IMHO, the PowerFC is the way to go for the majority of FD users. It's reasonably priced now (about $750-850 new with commander), makes the car run great as-is, and has the flexibility to handle most any mod you want with the car.

The FD is not a cheap car to make power with, unfortunately, and is also not a cheap car to maintain properly. If you want to do neat things with the car, you're gonna have to save or sacrifice.

Dale

 

Power FC's pop up forsale in the forsale section quite often. Price ranges from around $500 (no comander) to about $750 with comander.

Here is a link to help you get an idea.
https://www.rx7club.com/search.php?searchid=1517542

 

yea tell me about it, last spring i spent like $8000 cnd on a rebuild and street port and a whack of other things. now my tires r bald. i guess i got a heavy foot.

 

Actually, used ones are for sale all of the time -- about $400. They will work with the mods you have planned, without tuning issues. I think the PFC is a better way to go, but you can't beat those Pettit ecus for a budget upgrade.

 

the pettit is good, my friend has one, but they cost quite a bit in canada i think it cost my friend close to $1000 all said and done. ill look for a used one i guess. are they tuned differently for every mod? would i have to find one specifically for a street ported engine?

 

Nope, there is only one map (which is why you can buy a used one without much problems). The Unlimited verses Limited just has to do with Fuel Cut. Limited has fuel cut at 14.7 PSI.

 

PM Poweraxel. Last I saw he has a Pettit for sale for $350. He had two but I bought one
Good transaction.

 

So....the Greddy e-Manage isn't a suitable alternative for the PFS Purple box for us automatic owners? I was hoping it would be as it is hard to find a PFS box with the latest upgrades right now. (Seems like there were 6 of them when I didn't want one...lol!)

 

Hey bajaman! I hope us auto guys can get an answer on this ECU thing someday. I've been looking into ECU's for two years now and no luck. other than the PFS PMC. not much out their.
Jeff

 

Check ebay. I just bought a brand new PFC with commander 750 (US). Shipped to Canada in 4 days!

 

The E-manage only really works best with a chipped ECU on the FD. The biggest problem with it and pretty much any piggyback ECU (save the PFS box) is the FD uses the boost sensor as its primary fuel input and also to determine fuel cut.

The whole point of running an aftermarket ECU is to allow you to change the VE of the engine (intake, exhaust, etc.) and to properly fuel that change, as well as running more boost to make more power. With the E-Manage you'd have to set up a fuel cut to clamp the MAP sensor's output at a certain level - with it clamped, you just ruled out the main way the E-manage tunes fuel. And, since you add fuel by increasing the voltage the ECU sees from the MAP sensor, you hit fuel cut even sooner.

With the E-manage, there are some ways around it - you can directly add injector pulsewidth with the injector harness add-on, and you can also get an optional boost sensor to have a true reference to tune with. But, with all the add-ons the price gets VERY close to PowerFC territory, and you've just hacked and worked around all sorts of stuff. Hacks like that mean lean spots, stumbles, etc - you will have a VERY complicated car to tune, and it very likely won't be able to get you 100%.

Now, the E-manage could be used to fine-tune a chipped ECU for more power, but you're also looking at needing a laptop and possibly some of the extra options to do that well.

There have been a few who attempted to make a PowerFC work properly with an automatic. It most likely can be done, but most owners that would be at the level where they'd take on that task just end up doing a 5-speed swap. Can't blame them myself .

Dale

 

Excellent info, Dale. Very informative as always. Thank you.

 

Did you get the one for the '93-95 cause i heard that there are two different ones. what was the total cost canadian $ ?

 

yea thanks for the info dale

 

Yeah just arrived today from japan. Total cost Canadain was just over $1000. It was 950 to my door in 3-4 days and something stupid like $80 duties etc. Remember to get them to devalue the item. You take the risk but the duties would be outrageous then. Mine was valued at $300 US on the papers. And yes it is for the 93-95 RX. Good Luck