Could anyone here, that has a little more than average experiece with Aftermarket ECU's, give me some advice on choosing what route to go with...

I need some help to determine what way to go with regarding ECU and wiring harness (my old wiring is bad , needs to be replaced )
As much as I could find here I got 2 options....
1. Power FC + datalogit + new wiring harness (old is bad) ~ $1800
2. Haltech (e8 I guess that includes wiring) ~ $1300 (do I need anything else and how much would cost like sensors etc..)...

As much as I can see here there is a debate which ecu is better... It would be great to get some info from guy that has some direct experiece with both...

My setup is going to be single T04R and other matching mods...

Any info would be great because I got to make decision soon...

Thanks

 

Neither are that great. Given only those two choices, I'd get the PowerFC. You'll have better luck finding someone who tunes FDs being fluent in using it, and it's preconfigured for your application.

Good luck.

 

What is good? Why these are not that great?

I have a friend that has enough experience tuning both... He said Haltech is easier and more reliable

 

For the price range of the Haltech E8 and the E11v2, I like the Autronic SM4. It's an extremely flexible ECU, and it's stable. Autronic's modeling approach works really well; tuning Haltech and AEM's products (and MoTeC to some extent) seems like an exercise in pulse width tweaking.

With the SM4, I can have an engine up and running on the dyno in 10 minutes, from scratch without a base map.

If he's going to tune it, I'd go with what he says. These ECUs are just tools, and will only work as well as the person setting them up.

Without the FC-Datalogit, the tuning experience on the PowerFC is pretty miserable. The Haltech's (especially on the low end) have quirks with their setup, but this will be a little less of a pain since you're in an FD.

 

How come I havent heard of this ECU type before (Autronic SM4) ?
Anyone had experience with it could give me more info.
What is the cost of the unit and necessery accesories?

 

It's because every group of car owners seems to have a set of recipes and parts everyone tends to use. For FD owners it's PowerFCs. For FCs it's Microtechs and Haltechs. For Supras it's AEM EMSes. For MR2s it's the Hydra Nemesis. With forums, everyone tends to buy the same parts because everyone else did before them.

Unless you want to become an EFI/ignition expert (or at least well versed), find a good tuner and use whatever they'll agree to setup for you. If I were building your car, I'd use an SM4.