Power FC tuning

[lucio_libre]

I have an appointment later this morning to see what the boys at Meridian in melb. can do with a power fc. Hopefully the facelifted stivo has a different ecu unit and the monkeywrenching tuned fc works 100%. Will let you guys know how it went after.

[Northy]

unless you get the car tuned from scratch you wont be seeing the best gains, you may not see any at all. This is because each engines VVTL-I is diff, when myself and bill got our Power FC's we put my map on bills car, he made a 1kw gain over the stock ECU....Also the pre and post facelift sportivo's have the same model ECU, we looked into this when i had my power FC fitted. Also with the MWR Maps they are for a US so they will most likely be tuned for alot let then 98RON Fuel...

[JSL]

Pre tuned plug and play ECU with a preset Map is not useable.. if your expecting massive gains..

We never talked up the amount of gains but only proven by the 2 cars Corey and Bill. If anyone been in them you know what I am talking about..

Also just for some stats.. Corey car did over 63 runs on the dyno and run number 29 (around there) was the best map we went to.. Bill car did like 58 runs.. and run 38 was the best.. All in all both maps were completely different.. and lift change points were also different but both cars perform amazingly..

Preset maps are dangerous especially ones from Japan.. We have a few incidents of Subaru owners plugging in a PowerFC with the factory maps and the car was pinging at idle!! I would advise that ALL powerFC be installed by professional and at a tuner ready to remap the whole ECU. If your going to invest in an ECU pay the extra and get it tuned by a professional..

We are working on one more change and we will push out more PowerFC in sydney by AMS (Ant Motorsport)

Good luck to Meridian I hope they get amazing results like we did.. There a whole lot of fun to be had now..

Watch out Honda world.. hahha well the DC5 ITR anyways hehehe

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year..

[ZEEROLLA]

Very interesting info here. Is it because LIFT is hydraulically controlled hence the LIFT engagement point in each Sportivo is slightly different?

[Northy]

its more to do with the VVTL-i becuase its software controlled each car is diff, because the ECU will adjust to suit what ever the car is doing, unlike v-tec thats basically an on/off thing. this is also the main reason that it has taken so long to get a VVT-i/VVYL-i controller like they have for v-tec.

[Mintos]

Lucio so reluctant to get just an exhaust yet you are already into the committment of a power FC...good to see :D

I hear these ECUs have given awesome gains...I need some cash so the Freshmaker can get a new ECU, it is running so lean that i blew a gasket in my exhaust from too much heat the other week and the paint is stripping from the piping :( anyone got any unichips or anything lying around? :P There isnt a Power FC equivalent for the 1zz is there?

Sorry to raise new questions on your thread lucio, but we know how the mods are with excessive threads...

[lucio_libre]

Well what can I say, first of all a big F@@K YOU to TOYOTA.....just had to get that off my chest :D. They make everything so friggin complicated. Get this....If you take the engine out and the toyota ecu that came with it and place it in a different chasis, the car won't work....why? because it contains sensor points that if the ecu senses a change in the positioning it will fail to operate the engine. Hence Meridian went to the power fc, for their clubman conversions since they couldnt get the ecu's to work. But since they used ex celica 2zz's the monkeywrenching ecu works with mild tuning required. For the corolla looks like we require major tuning, pretty much starting from scratch. I also found out that there are 5 different series of 2zzge's and the head design on the latest ones does not flow as good as the early models.

Meridian will talk to monkeywrenching to see if they can come up with something, but either way it will require more tuning here anyway hence more dyno time and more cash.

For the record...Meridian are in the process of converting a 2 liter stroked 2zz-ge in an 89 MR2 chassis for track use, putting out 242hp. Now that should be fun :)

[Northy]

its not only that it will need a retune the looms are diff on both cars, the celica has a 2nd computer in it as well. Also in regard to the question bout the 1zz-fe ECU's Apexera make a Power FC for the 1zz-fe.

[JSL]

Well from what I have seen and done on corolla sportivos.. I will say one thing..

It is a great car.. in some respect.. BUT OMFG can they mix more parts into a single in it's life!!!!

There bits of everything in that car.. At least now you know why WE here in sydney worked so hard to get the 2 cars going with a powerFC we had to do alot of work..

We still finishing off 1 more thing before we go to market.. and we have worked out 1 thing... there is NO WAY we can make 1 timing\fuel map to work with all cars.. there no 2 cars the same when it comes to a your version of vtec..

even with the honda DC5 ITR the I-VTEC is the same thing.. every car has to be tuned.. hence getting a powerFC into a corolla is not going to be cheap..

When we go live we will estimate supply, fit and tune to be around the 2.5k mark which i am sure the melb guys will come to the same price with the additional tuning... when they get it right..

Well it is good that we have another company feeling the pain we went thru here at AMS hehehehe

[SILVABULLIT]

Lucio so reluctant to get just an exhaust yet you are already into the committment of a power FC...good to see :D

I hear these ECUs have given awesome gains...I need some cash so the Freshmaker can get a new ECU, it is running so lean that i blew a gasket in my exhaust from too much heat the other week and the paint is stripping from the piping :( anyone got any unichips or anything lying around? :P There isnt a Power FC equivalent for the 1zz is there?

Sorry to raise new questions on your thread lucio, but we know how the mods are with excessive threads...

How do you know it's running lean? Cause it blew a gasket and some paint burnt off. Could it be that the flange wasn't tight and bad preparation or the wrong paint was used? Unless you have an air/fuel ratio meter or it's been dynoed then it gonna be pretty hard to tell if it's running rich.

As for the different heads on the 2zz seems that PRE FACELIFT IS THE WAY TO GO....and of course silver is always faster :P

[lucio_libre]

Pre tuned plug and play ECU with a preset Map is not useable.. if your expecting massive gains..

We never talked up the amount of gains but only proven by the 2 cars Corey and Bill. If anyone been in them you know what I am talking about..

Also just for some stats.. Corey car did over 63 runs on the dyno and run number 29 (around there) was the best map we went to.. Bill car did like 58 runs.. and run 38 was the best.. All in all both maps were completely different.. and lift change points were also different but both cars perform amazingly..

Preset maps are dangerous especially ones from Japan.. We have a few incidents of Subaru owners plugging in a PowerFC with the factory maps and the car was pinging at idle!! I would advise that ALL powerFC be installed by professional and at a tuner ready to remap the whole ECU. If your going to invest in an ECU pay the extra and get it tuned by a professional..

We are working on one more change and we will push out more PowerFC in sydney by AMS (Ant Motorsport)

Good luck to Meridian I hope they get amazing results like we did.. There a whole lot of fun to be had now..

Watch out Honda world.. hahha well the DC5 ITR anyways hehehe

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year..

You too mate see you early next year :D

[Mintos]

How do you know it's running lean? Cause it blew a gasket and some paint burnt off. Could it be that the flange wasn't tight and bad preparation or the wrong paint was used? Unless you have an air/fuel ratio meter or it's been dynoed then it gonna be pretty hard to tell if it's running rich.

Well lets see...firstly the exhaust runs so hot that after driving the car, if you try to touch the cannon for more than 1/2 a second, you will get burnt (i got a 6" ring burnt in my leg once while cleaning car, not realising i was touching the exhaust). It was actually the flex joint that burnt out from the excessive heat, the exhaust system was done perfectly, heat resistant paint, etc. It just runs REALLY hot.

I had a lengthly conversation with the mechanic who knocked up my exhaust system, he is not an idiot, knows what he is talking about and basically he said that the only reason it would be producing such heat and having so much movement at the flex joint would be because it is running too lean, putting too much strain on the exhaust system.

And as i have argued before, my air intake does not run hot AT ALL, even in very hot temperatures (45 degrees for example today) i can touch the AEM pipe and it is hardly warm. The stock exhaust of the 1zz does not run hot. Also i was thinking about what heatseca said about his car when he got the Greddy in, that the AF graphs on the dyno indicated that his car was running too lean down low and too rich up high. Well i think it seems to be a similar thing for my car. My exhaust is louder in the lower revs and at the higher end it gets quiter. Infact, at 140+ kmh it goes completely flat, you cannot hear it at all, only the engine. These are obviously not conclusive ideas, but since i planned on getting a performance ECU anyway, it seems to be a good excuse :D Also i have had the car dynoed before, but they didnt use an AF mix meter.

If anyone was compelled enough to read all that rambling and can think of any educated conclusions to draw from that, it would be much appreciated.

[CHA54]

easy, could have been a cheap ***** flex your mechanic used, I doubt a stock ECU'd Z motor is capable of generating enough EGT to destroy a quality flex joint. If it was running in a state of tune to ruin a good one, the ECU would go into limp mode and then you would really notice the difference...

Exhausts do run hot, Marks melted the lip of his rear bumper, as have a bunch of other ZZE corollas. The heat at the tip is more to do with the rear muffler and tip design than anything else (and if you're running a cat :P).

Stop guessing and go get it dyno'd with a wideband, if it is running lean, something simple like a SAFC or emanage will fix it with only 15-20mins of dyno tuning for half the price of a unichip

[CAP]

Exhausts are meant to run hot to be running efficient ( Hot pipe = Hot gas = faster gas velocity ) After a straight 3 hour drive averaging 110km/h I had the inside of my Remus glowing faintly red in the dark, looked damn cool! :D

[JSL]

You too mate see you early next year :D

ok see you then!!

easy, could have been a cheap ***** flex your mechanic used, I doubt a stock ECU'd Z motor is capable of generating enough EGT to destroy a quality flex joint. If it was running in a state of tune to ruin a good one, the ECU would go into limp mode and then you would really notice the difference...

Exhausts do run hot, Marks melted the lip of his rear bumper, as have a bunch of other ZZE corollas. The heat at the tip is more to do with the rear muffler and tip design than anything else (and if you're running a cat :P).

Stop guessing and go get it dyno'd with a wideband, if it is running lean, something simple like a SAFC or emanage will fix it with only 15-20mins of dyno tuning for half the price of a unichip

Doesn't Corey have a box full of emanagers hahaha

Seriously i think he does..