Which ECU is Right For You? - REFLASHED OEM vs STANDALONE ECU
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2022-02-20に共有
Infinity 506: bit.ly/D4Ainfinity5
In today's video we're talking about ECUs and comparing stock OEM ECUs vs aftermarket. We will see the pros and cons of both and we will see what can be achieved with reflashed oem ecus vs standalone ecus and which approach best suits which type of end-user.
What is an ECU? Well ECU stands for ENGINE CONTROL UNIT and it's the key component of every electronically fuel injected vehicle. Sometimes you will also hear the terms ECM or PCM which stand for engine control module or power control module all of these mean the same thing. An ECU is basically a computer that receives inputs from various sensors on the engine which basically tell it how much air is coming into the engine and then based on these inputs the ECU will control the injectors to inject the correct amount of fuel and instruct the ignition coils to fire the spark plug at the correct time with the goal of extracting the maximum efficiency and/or power from the engine. This controlling of injection and ignition is done using what is known as maps. The most important of these are fuel maps and ignition maps.
An OEM ECU is technically not designed to be tampered with. If evidence of tampering with it is found this will obviously void your warranty if you have one and tampering with the OEM ECU obviously risks engine damage. But tampering with anything engine related obviously carries a certain level of engine damage risk, however these risks of tampering with things have never successfully deterred humans from tampering with them...so we tamper.
So how do we even tamper with an OEM ECU? Well, the first step towards this is actually reading what's inside the ECU. Manufacturers are not keen on giving anyone with a laptop easy access to what's inside the ECU, which is why the data in the maps and other features of an OEM ECUs isn't really straightforward to read. But people have encrypted anything and everything and OEM ECUs are no exception. Once the contents of the ECU are encrypted an interface that reads and displays them in a meaningful manner on a pc is created. There are countless different interfaces out there. A few examples are: HP tuners, hondata, ecutek, k-tag, versatuner, etc. Some are open source and free, others must be purchased. All of these interfaces or software packages cover different makes and models and many overlap with each other. Obviously popular vehicle platforms will be better off here and will always have access to more community, aftermarket and software support, whether it be paid or free.
The final step will be acquiring a special USB cable which will connect your vehicle's OBD port to your laptop's USB port and then you will be able to see and modify the MAPS stored inside your ECU.
So this sounds great right? What more could you ask for? What is the purpose of a standalone ECU if re-flashing already let's you modify your stock one?
Well, reflashing, just like anything else has it's limits and depending on your vehicle platform, goal and desires these limitations may make a standalone a ECU much more sensible option.
The reason behind this is that your stock ECU is designed for your specific engine. In contrast to this a standalone ECU is infinitely more flexible. For example the AEM infinity 506 that I'm holding in my hand can run any engine with up to 6 cylinders. It doesn't even care if the engine is two stroke or four stroke, the injectors can be either high impedance or low impedance, the engine can be turbocharged or naturally aspirated, the throttle can be dirve by wire or cable, it can control nitrous, compensate for flex fuel or the amount of ethanol in your fuel, it can control boost based on rpm, vehicle, speed, gear, ethanol content, it can even perform traction control and launch control, it can protect your engine based on coolant temperature, oil pressure, oil temperature, knock, intake air temperature, fuel pressure, air fuel ratios, it can even control stepper motors and log data for your.
But there is a catch. A standalone ECU may be almost infinitely flexible...but as such it is also a blank canvas. When you read the data from your OEM ECU you will have a starting point, a setup that is known to work. A standalone will have no values in its maps unless you type something in. This lack of a starting point and large amount of features and settings my make a standalone ECU seem more intimidating than it really is.
So to better see the pros and cons of both setups let's go through a bunch of typical user scenarios to see which setup shines where and which category of user do you see yourself fitting the best.
A special thank you to my patrons:
Daniel
Daniel Morgan
Pepe
Brian Alvarez
Jack H
Dave Westwood
Joe C
Zwoa Meda Beda
Toma Marini
00:00 What is an ECU
00:59 Map basics
02:12 Features
06:13 Just the tip
10:31 Getting hooked
12:15 Totally addicted
16:00 Racing
#d4a #ecu #reflash #aem #standalone
コメント (21)
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d4a live: superpeer.com/driving4answers Infinity 506: bit.ly/D4Ainfinity5 Digital dash display: bit.ly/D4Acddash Support the channel: driving-4-answers-shop.fourthwall.com/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/d4a
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The "just the tip" guy just wanting some pops and bangs and mostly getting an aftermarket exhaust and also being portayed as driving a Golf Gti is priceless
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This man does absolutely one of the best jobs of explaining these topics. If I would've seen this video back in 2008 and knowing my intentions for my 86 Grand National I had just bought, I would've definitely forked over the cash for a stand alone ECU. Probably the only benefit now, is the technology has gotten even better, in microprocessor performance, and there is a plug and play stand alone ECU for the Grand National. This stand alone will allow you to add some nice features, like COP and get rid of the coil pack, and say better control of the wastegate solenoid should you elect to keep an internal wastegate and want more precise control of it. I am at a point where I have rebuilt my little 231 v6 and it's a fragile little fellow and the power has to be extracted safely. Any presence of knock at the boost level I am planning on running, will put the crankshaft in the oil pan. I also have another Buick Regal, but it's from 2000 and it appears the best way to go about getting power from this guy is perhaps reflashing. With the ABS and other modules and this car being a daily driver, I don't want to necessarily lose the ABS feature, especially when traction control can be disabled. The VE tuning, well that does sound a lot better than providing an injector PW for a given RPM and load point. Also nice that I am getting some exposure to working on a dyno at work. Normally I wouldn't be involved with such work, but as an embedded C programmer, I am between projects at work and there is a shortage of engineers for running/managing the dynos. Although, the technicians running the dynos seem to know far more than the majority of the engineers, for some reason my company wants someone with the title engineer in their job description in front of the customer. As always I tend to post too much and have much more to say above beyond the topic at hand that a person told me I needed to take up another hobby. However, I was posting about boxing at the time. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK D4A. Got to go back and watch your video about the Mazda with EGR Cooler that is allowing Mazda to run much leaner AFR when running forced induction and improving fuel mileage.
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I think stand-alones are also great for improving reliability of old platforms with limited parts availability such as the Porsche 944, regardless if you want more power or not.
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Dude you are amazing ! Tons of useful information in an interesting and fun way. " Vehicle modification is the biggest financial mistake you can make " This sentence is sooooo freaken true on so many levels ! 😅😅 Keep on doing what you do 🤘
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In the early 90’s, I had a Buick grand National with a reprogrammed eprom “chips” that you simply plugged into the ecu When I ran 23 lb boost and 104 octane Sunoco unleaded fuel…I plugged in the 105 octane chip. Very very fast
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This man always speaks to my heart, he is like some sort of oracle that solves the mysteries of my life.
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HUGE FAN bro! From Philippines with love. You have made me more knowledgeable with cars than I ever could have. Other channels don't expound enough on the nuances of the machines, but you are one hecl of a tutor. Keep it up
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I do really like and actually laughed at the jokes in this video 😂🤣! Keep up the good work and thank you for all the information and knowledge you give to us. 🙏
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For the SW20 and ZZW30 world, Marc at Frankenstein motorworks does lots of reflashes for 2ar and 2gr swapped cars. Possible to get 300 hp out of the 2gr on one of his reflashes, N/A. Pretty cool what you can do with just a reflash.
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Standalone ECUs also are able to bring modern engine management features to good old mechanics. For example, upgrading an engine from benzin batch injection + rotary ignotion to full sequential e85 injection and ignition with flexfuel sensor and knock sensors, enhancing car performances, fuel economy, car emissions and giving direct access to sensors states to quickly identify the issue when something starts going wrong. Obviously standalones can also manage big mods like turbo setup on originally N/A engine, etc. The only con to standalones is specific communications to other car modules like those often found on modern vehicles, that can be tricky to impossible to make working.
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THANK YOU for breaking topics down to teach when and why we should take things to which level.
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This channel just keeps on crushing. Love the content, always excited for a new video
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Huge Bulgarian fan, but living in Spain. Your videos helped me be more savvy and made me enjoy more my Megane RS 225. Thank you, Sir. Hats down to you. Keep like this 💪💪
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just love how you have detailed whatever topic you're on
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Thank you once again 🙂 Your talks provide the best technical explanations I have found anywhere to date. (I have found a Maf sensor will adjust to exhaust and intake mods without the need for a re-flash as long as the timing table isn't the limiting factor).
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God how i love the fact that i can go onto your channel a month after the last visit and have a whole holiday worth of intresting content. Have a good day sir!
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Thanks for making it easy for a bone stock home mechanic to understand the more technical aspects of ECUs and aftermarket ECU options..
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The humour and animations are as awesome as the info. Bravo Sir! 👏
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Oh thank God you have a video on this. I'm beginning to look into aftermarket ECUs and its so complicated.
