I have been searching for a little over a month now on this topic. And have basically read every thread that pops up from a sitewide search (along with a lot of FC information that got my hopes up then let me down.) I found one post that looked promising as far as FD's, but the last post is a link by a Mod on here that doesn't go to a topic, I assume all the information I could want is probably under that dead link. I think other than that the topic is untouched. I assume (Which is always a bad thing to do) that if people had problems running these there would be posts complaining about what happened.

Basically I am running an FD and don't want to go full stand alone management for the basic bolt ons (Intake, DP, MP, CB and stock boost) for two reasons. First, I don't plan on adding any other power mods past this point. And if I spend another thousand because of this car it will be for the divorce my wife makes me pay for.

Why not run a pettit or M2 ecu you may ask? Basically a used variant of either runs $350 to $400 and I can get a Mines, Knight Sport or R.E. tuned ECU for less than $150.

Now some of the key factors as far as I have been able to find out are:

1. Octane ratings. I realize 101 ron is available in Japan. Which give or take would be a 95 octane rating. But was 101 available when the first series FD came out in Japan? I was under the notion 101 was fairly new over there and that 96 ron used to be the "Premium Gasoline" for Japanese cars. I am sure someone will correct me on this. If I am right thought, 96 would be the lovely equivalent of 91 stateside (Give or take, no real way to compute the difference).

2. Timing maps. This goes with the whole octane thing. If they were running such higher octane than they could run advanced timing. Once again. I have seen a lot of speculation so far, but nothing that looked concrete.

Once again, I apologize for anything that might be a repost. But I have really searched my *** off trying to get some good info on this. And its not that I am cheap, as I said, I have blown a wad of cash in the last couple of weeks. Its that I don't see a reason to pay higher prices for the same thing.

And if all else fails it might help the n00bs like myself find the the answer in the future.

Thanks,
K.C.

 

I'm sorry, but I find that hard to believe...
A ROM-tuned ECU from Japan from those companies are more like closer to US$1,000!

You're talking about those rip-off artists on eBay that supposedly have copies of those ROM chips.
There's no guarantee that those are the exact same codes from those tuning shops.
Even then, why are you supporting these rip-off artists?

Work a little more...
Support a legitimate business in the U.S.
Pay the little bit extra for the peace of mind.


-Ted

 

Ted,

I have friends stationed in Japan, so no, these arn't coming from Ebay. A 16-bit model may still be $1000 over there, but there is plenty of 8-bit chipped ECU's from the likes of Panspeed and R.E. selling for 15,000 yen and less. And thanks for the free bump, you did absolutely nothing to answer my question.

 

It depends which shop did the retune and for what mods, if its a street car ecu, chances are it will be tuned safe for the worst gas avialable, not the best gas possible...Thats the main difference in approach from western tuners to Japanese tuning, is the the way and how safe its tuned...Alot of Japanese tuners, will fill the car up and tune it on everyday medium grade pump gas, then tell the owner to run the best gas they can afford, that way, its always erred on the safe side, should they get a tank of so so gas, the car can handle it.. Some shops do tune to the edge, but they have a warning they issue with the mods/car..
I like they way they tume, to me there is no sense running a car on mega buck gas just to attain a number if the car will never see that gas again, if its a track car that will only see that gas , well thats another story..
If its a brand name tuner ecu from Japan, I wouldnt doubt its tune, it will have a fairly large octane fudge factor built in...You just have to make sure its matched to your setup, running 8.5:1 rotors and lots of boost is pretty popular over there with the stock twins, and pretty much noone there tunes with plugs as hot as the stock plugs..It will probably be tuned with 10 or 10.5 heat range plugs...Max

 

Good info to have.

I run a Pettit by the way. lol.

Thanks Max.

 

Just to add to this info. I run an RE ecu pushing 15psi. Runs great at 91 gas. Max is right they detune their ecu's for the octane ratings.