ECU recommendations?

[The Pupat]

Wow - bit of an old thread...

My engine is still holding on - I'm still tossing up between various options. Once the front of the crank falls off, I'll have to actually decide.

Oops that was a bit of a big up from the dead wasn't it. Ohh well hope it all goes well.

[AB7]

A point of clarification for anyone considering an aftermarket ECU. My experience says the biggest drama is the setup of the ECU - not the tuning of the ECU. If you have followed the development of the Hydra for the MX5 in the USA you will see that all the things that affect living with the car, are setup based on not tuning based. Now, here's a broad generalisation, but, pretty much any tuning shop with a good air fuel ratio meter and a dyno can tune any ECU. Afterall, tuning is simply altering what is essentially an excel worksheet with two axis. Some now even use a third axis, motec just released a 4 axis map version - the principle is the same. Tweak the numbers until you get the correct AFR at each load point (this is a massive oversimplification but that what they are doing). The things that causes trouble for the MX5 are setup based such as closed loop alternator control and the ignition setup they use. That's why you need someone with MX5 experience. The tuning bit is virtually the same, regardless of the car.

Just found this old thread....

Is it true that E8 doesn't have closed loop alternator control, hence it kept draining the battery?
Also I was told that if it was the case, the alternator is pumping out so much juice you could start melting wires, which is bad.

Can anyone confirm this?

[greenMachine]

A point of clarification for anyone considering an aftermarket ECU. My experience says the biggest drama is the setup of the ECU - not the tuning of the ECU. If you have followed the development of the Hydra for the MX5 in the USA you will see that all the things that affect living with the car, are setup based on not tuning based. Now, here's a broad generalisation, but, pretty much any tuning shop with a good air fuel ratio meter and a dyno can tune any ECU. Afterall, tuning is simply altering what is essentially an excel worksheet with two axis. Some now even use a third axis, motec just released a 4 axis map version - the principle is the same. Tweak the numbers until you get the correct AFR at each load point (this is a massive oversimplification but that what they are doing). The things that causes trouble for the MX5 are setup based such as closed loop alternator control and the ignition setup they use. That's why you need someone with MX5 experience. The tuning bit is virtually the same, regardless of the car.

Just found this old thread....

Is it true that E8 doesn't have closed loop alternator control, hence it kept draining the battery?
Also I was told that if it was the case, the alternator is pumping out so much juice you could start melting wires, which is bad.

Can anyone confirm this?

E8 will control the alternator in an NB8A. If buying second hand, need to check what version of the software its running, but if it needs an upgrade that's simple and readily done - though best done before you start tuning your maps.