I know that a few of the people on this forum in Canada use this ECU or have used this ECU. I want to know a few things about it.

For anyone who's used this, could you give me your opinion about it in regards to:

1) reliability of the ECU
2) effectiveness of the ECU
3) any bad things you noticed about the ECU

I'm generally reluctant to buy mail order chipped ECU's because they say on the site, that it's tuned....but more importantly, is it tuned in a way that is appropriate for our Canadian climate? more specifically, the climate in Southwestern Ontario.

I'm considering getting a version1.7 but I wanted the opinions(and experiences) of the Canadian members who have used this setup before.


to anyone that replies. thanks in advance.

 

I had the 1.5, and I loved it, I think I daily drove with that ecu for 50k km's or more, turn the key, and drive, I even made very decent power on the ECU. Definitely a great investment. Only thing I didn't like about it was the the fact that I had the AFM still. I have it for sale as well.

 

I got the 1.7 last fall and matched it with Venom 720 secondaries. At first it seemed extremely rich on startup, and I often ended up using my fuel cut switch to prevent flooding. Since getting back in the car this spring, however, it fires up normally and hasn't flooded at all. The main thing I notice with the Rtek is that the car needs to be warmed up a bit before it will really run happily; it's a little rough and hesitant when genuinely cold (below freezing startups). This isn't a bad thing, however, as it reminds me to behave myself and stay off the boost until the car is completely warmed up. Once warmed up even a little bit, however, it runs very smoothly and the driveability seems great. I had the same questions about whether the tuning would be appropriate for our climate (I'm in Saskatchewan). The Rtek guys informed me that the original programming was actually done in BC; ain't quite Moose Jaw, but there's serious Canadian content in that chip. Of course the big advantage of the upgrade is that it allows you to go to 720's in the secondary rail without additional tuning, and eliminates fuel cut without leaning out your mixture at higher boost levels. I don't have a lot of miles on the car with the upgrade yet, but so far I'm happy with it.