What ecu's are good for what

[Steve88t]

The later part of this thread is interesting.

DeviousKA says "A 91-97 vg30e manifold/harness with an early model vg30e maxima ecu would have a lot of potential. That gives you sequential fuel injection, easy rom tuning, consult capability, plus a lot more. The d21 vg30e ecu offers it all but the consult capability".

I've heard people talk about some of the early maximas but I never have found specific info on which body they are talking about. My guess is the 3rd generation (89-94).

All this info is resultant of me looking into information for my WD21 Pathfinder. I can't find much info on it either. But I may have a spare ecu soon and at minimum would like to get a bin dump for adding to the archive.

Why I'm the resident fucktard.....
http://ecu2.forumwise.com/ecu2-thread1215.html

[G-E]

yes grafz was investigating that.... one thing about sequential is you'll need bigger injectors for the same power, since they fire less often

however you could probably tweak some really good throttle response and fuel economy out of it....

but as jason's proved nicely, there ain't nuthin wrong with batch

[Jason84NA2T]

Re: What ecu's are good for what

The M30 ECU also has 6 injector drivers and runs sequential injection. It offers consult and uses a very similar binary to a Z32 (same config file works) but it's made for the VG30E. You could make an adapter or cut and splice the wiring harnesses. Graffz was looking into this a while back.

The thing is, sequential is grossly overrated in my opinion. It only offers an advantage below 2500-3000rpm, because at anything over that speed the timing difference makes no actual fuel atomization or flowpath differences. Hence it makes no additional power at all over batch firing the injectors, but might offer slightly enhanced fuel economy? Is that worth all your trouble to install?

The other advantage is consult, which is useless because it is available on the early ECU's with use of the NisTune board anyhow, which might actually cost less than installing an M30 ECU. So in the end I fail to see how locating and purchasing one, along with doing all the work to swap it out and get the car running is even remotely worthwhile.

[Steve88t]

I dont care about sequential or consult. I dont have either now and dont need them either. Im more interested in either tuning my original ecu or finding one I can tune while retaining the original harness in the truck.
/me knows this is a bit off topic

So I finally took the top off my ecu and took a few pics. Spare coming should be the same so I can socket it.

[Jason84NA2T]

Uh... maybe you missed it or maybe I forgot, I thought I told you that you can easily change the timing and fuel maps on the 88-89 (TBI) and 90+ (MPFI) pathy ECU's, have not located any of the other parameters though. I don't think I ever posted it on ztechz or anything, but I have a binfile from one of those ECUs and a config file for you to use to get started with some light tuning.

[Steve88t]

You'd mentioned the earlier TBI bin. But so far I have not seen a 90+ mpi bin. You should have one from me before long. When I do that we can talk again to see what is known.

[Jason84NA2T]

Steve88t wrote: But so far I have not seen a 90+ mpi bin.

derrrrrrrrrp! brainfart points for Steve! LOL:

http://www.redz31.com/pages/fuel/bin.html

[Steve88t]

Don't start with me boy! That was not there a few months ago when I last looked.

OK I'll have to start pursuing getting one socketed.

[j30_vg33et]

FWIW

I've got an M30 ecu running my 91 Maxima to provide Consult goodness. I used either a VPC or F-Con harness to adapt it to my unmolestered stock harness.

The downsides of the M30 are:
No idle air control. The Max has a stepper based idle motor that the old box can't drive.
Rear window defroster is always on. I'm too lazy to rewire.
The Security light in the dash no longer flashes. Not sure the effect.
No more plenum geometry change. Thus the valves always open.

What's the deal with the NisTune board? Are they actually available?

[Jason84NA2T]

Re: FWIW

j30_vg33et wrote: I've got an M30 ecu running my 91 Maxima to provide Consult goodness. I used either a VPC or F-Con harness to adapt it to my unmolestered stock harness.

The downsides of the M30 are:
No idle air control. The Max has a stepper based idle motor that the old box can't drive.
Rear window defroster is always on. I'm too lazy to rewire.
The Security light in the dash no longer flashes. Not sure the effect.
No more plenum geometry change. Thus the valves always open.
Minimal downsides, but the wiring harness issue is what got to me too. I was actually ready to tear the connectors out of a 84NA ECU to make my own adapter harness. Good thing I didn't spend too much time with that idea, it would have been a waste at this point.

j30_vg33et wrote:
What's the deal with the NisTune board? Are they actually available?

We are not allowed to really "advertise" the boards or their status. You should contact Matt directly if you have "questions". I'm not sure if he plans to add WD21/D21/J30/M30 or other ECU support, but it probably could be done in the future.

[j30_vg33et]

So what's the scoop with getting map tracing in either a 91 VG30E Maxima ECU or the M30 ECU? I've just been burning chips this whole time, waiting (in vein) for xtensives ZControl thru Consult programmability. I'm guessing that project is dead...

So, I see a decision matrix something like:
[pre]
Romulator Ostrich Autoprom* NisTune**
LiveEdit Y E E N
TunerPro Y Y Y N
NisTune N N N Y
[/pre]

E = Through kinda bogus sounding emulation.
* = Also offers chip burning, potential data logging (o2, KNK, etc).
** = May not be hardware compatable; unavailable?

The only one to offer map tracing is NisTune. Real bummer. One would think the Romulator or Ostrich would be able to tell the SW what cell is being accessed at any time, then paint that on the on-screen map. Of course this is a hardware guy talking... It also looks like the Autoprom has the potential to chat with the Consult port in real time, if the software were there. Add data logging in there, and it sounds real good. In a perfect world. With the software to glue it together.

It seems like everyone here uses either LiveEdit or NisTune. Has anyone tried TunerPro? Is there potential for LiveEdit to get map tracing support? Or will that only be in NRE?

Thoughts? Opinions? I'd like to hear other peoples input before buying the hardware.

Thanks!