Early Sedan ECU - swappable??

[tollboothwilley]

I know the early 2003's have older style ECU's. Is it possible to swap these with other ECUs, like from a 2004?

[Sentientbydesign]

What's the purpose, benefit, gain?

[4drmadness]

the purpose is that he will be able to do an osiris tune. the early 03's have different ECU'S and they are not compatible with osiris

[tollboothwilley]

I've heard of someone swapping a 350Z ECU and they actually are tuned more aggressively from factory. Picked up quite a few ponies when he dyno'd.

[4drmadness]

nice, thts a real good idea dude. btw how much u think tht ecu would cost?

[tollboothwilley]

Dunno. The guy who did it said it was a direct swap for him, he just had to go the dealer to have the ECU reprogrammed to his keys. I wonder if its different for me since my ECU is the older style.

He said he bought it for like $175

[4drmadness]

not a bad price at all. definetly worth it if you can get it to work.
Modified by 4drmadness at 12:35 PM 2/3/2009

[tollboothwilley]

looking at the picture, the TB would go on the left and plenum on the right with gaskets in between

[4drmadness]

THANKS, i finally get it. i wll install this MYSELF tommorow morning and take some vids off my car

[tollboothwilley]

ECU question is probably something only a tech can answer...

[BrandAidDesignG35]

yeah, better to be sure first... Ahhh, the ongoing battle of the first gen sedans

[tollboothwilley]

I know, sucks. I have heard that you can tune with UTEC/Turbo XS on a early sedan. Cobb claims they are coming out with one, but they only have one programmer working on like 8 projects. This one is in a different programming language so the code is harder to read. He'll probably wait til last to get to it. IF EVER. Aside from that, Technosquare ECU reflash is it.

[BrandAidDesignG35]

I take it that your attempts to adjust the timing were "relearned"?

I know this is stupid to say, but have you considered running a resistor in the MAF? It tricks your ecu into thinking it's around 53 degrees F. It may help, but I would look into the 350Z ECU, and how / if it will adapt to your harness. It would be a nice option, and you could find one in a junk yard or something

[Jacko3]

I have learnt so much about performance from NICO. We can trick the ECU into beleiving that the 02 is there. We can trick the MAF into beleiving that the air entering the engine is cooler than it really is. We can trick the intake to accept more air than the manufacturers ever dreamed off. We can trick the butterfly in the Throttle Body to open/close when the car is still technically off. Seems like the manufacturers have some ways to go in fortifying their cars from unintended modifications.

[4drmadness]

Why dont you go with technosquare. they provide very similar gains to the Osiris, only thing is that they will not have multiple maps. U might wanna look into tht. tht might be the cheapest and best solution for you.

[Sentientbydesign]

Why dont you go with technosquare. they provide very similar gains to the Osiris, only thing is that they will not have multiple maps. U might wanna look into tht. tht might be the cheapest and best solution for you.

The issue with technosquare is an ECU reset or 10 mins with a dead battery mean your tune is...bye bye

[tollboothwilley]

I don't believe that is the case. I've disconnected my battery and I don't think that the 2* timing advance was ever changed. This (according to Steve) is likely the cause of my idle air problem. It won't take with the 2* advance. I'll update with new info as I go to the dealer and check on it.

The Technosquare ECU reflash actually goes in changes the parameters. It becomes a permanent thing. The only way to undo it would be to reflash it again.

[Sentientbydesign]

You might want to do some more research on that. I was talking to somebody who either bought the technosquare reflash or inquired about it and they said that they guy from technosquare charges an additional $200 to re-reflash it once you've reset the ECU.

As for the 2* timing advance, I've also heard that this gets "unlearned" over time. The stock ECU parameters can't advance the timing to 17 degrees, but it can't retard it from 17*.

Maybe steve can come in here and shed some light on this as I'm curious too.

[tollboothwilley]

Yes, its true that the ECU can retard timing back from 17* and will never advance it manually, but that is only if it detects knocking. As long as you dont have a problem with knocking you shouldn't have any problems with keeping the 2* timing advance.

I haven't done enough research of the technosquare reflash, but I believe the re-reflash might be for additional specs that you would like in the tune.