Im stock right now with a 93 touring FD and im planning to go single turbo. As i do small build ups of adding small parts i know im gonna have to tweak the ECU a little. I was thinking of getting a piggyback but then u pay like 300 something every now and then to get the ecu re-chipped to work out for all your new mods. I was thinking to get a stand alone and map it as close to stock as possible and then just map it myself or bring it to a local tuner to tune it to every mod as i build up so i dont have to get it rechipped or anything. What are the PRO's and CON's of a stand alone? Is it hard mapping it to stock settings?

 

no one? =/

 

A standalone ECU is never going to be set to stock settings because it does not operate the same way as your stock ECU. However, you can certainly have the standalone ECU set up to run your otherwise stock engine.

PROs:
Better gas mileage, more power, more flexibility (can make a race map, emissions map, daily driving map, etc.)

CONs:
Initial tuning will cost about $500-1,500 in addition to the $1,000-10,000 cost of the ECU, additional fine tuning (about $500) is required for engine modifications and wear, the engine can easily blow up if the tuner doesn't know what he is doing, and a standalone ECU may cause the loss of functions like automatic transmission, sequenced turbos, cruise control, etc.

Talk to your local ECU dealer/tuner for more details.

 

ok ty

 

Total Noob questions here...

What can be adjusted with the stock ecu? I'm broke paying for parts for the rebuild that ScrapFC and I are doing on my 91 NA, but we felt that since the motor needed a sh!tload of new parts anyway it was a good time for a streetport (and the labor was free, Thx Scrap!!!!) . It's mostly conturing and polishing, but Scrap considers it to be about a stage 2. I have a little intake and exhaust done (tb, elbow, and no cats). My real question is can the stock ecu be adjusted for this in any way? I know almost nothing about ecu stuff. I know that I need to get at least a piggyback before we do anything else, but right now i'm broke, and the only available mods are free ones.

 

Idle

Actually, you can rig things a bit, such as larger fuel injectors, increased fuel pressure, etc.

You can get a reprogrammed ECU or a piggyback. It is better to just buy an EMS rather than spending money to piece together a bunch of band-aid components, but sometimes finances don't allow for the large chunk of money required for an EMS. Just keep in mind that any piggyback or EMS tuning is going to cost about $500-1000 if you don't know how to tune, and you don't have any friends who are tuners. A piggyback doesn't require any tuning, but will be set at factory settings, which will not be optimal for your particular engine.

Actually, if your street port is very mild, the stock ECU may work OK. Just monitor your AFR to make sure you are not running lean. The S5 ECU is twice as fast as the S4 ECU, so at least you have that in your favor.