ECU swap, how to do it.

[Brett]

Continuing on with our theme of mods and results, I fitted an ECU today in my tea break.

 On an FC the ECU is located in the passenger footwell under a protective
plate.

 Disconnect the battery before attempting this.

 Step 1)  Remove Plastic kick plate, this is held on by 6 screws.
 Step 2)  Remove inner plastic panel.
 Step 3)  Pull carpet back to expose the passenger side floor pan, in front of you is a metal plate approx 30cm square.  
 Step 4)  Undo the Nuts and bolts securing it to the car and remove it. It has two bolts at the bottom and two nuts at the top.  These are all 10mm A/F.
 Step 5)  You will now see the ECU and ABS controller. (Just ECU on the earlier cars)  The ECU is held in by 4 nuts, again these are 10mm.   Remove the nuts and raise the ECU from its mounting point.  
 Step 6)  Unplug the Loom from the ECU.  There are 3 plugs.  Be warned they are pretty stiff and do not move easily, tease them out DO NOT EVER pull them out by the cable.
 Step 7) Plug in new ECU and start the car.  Make sure no warning lights come on and that it seems to run as normal.
 Step Reassemble the interior of your Rex!  

[Brett]

A View of the ECU with its internals exposed.

[Brett]

This is the PanSpeed ROM that replaces the stock Mazda ROM.

[FD3SNuttah]

the most important bit is missing! how does it run!???

[Brett]

Like a limping dog :reallymad











































Only joking!  It goes ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! :yes

  :3gears-rh  

 Boost is increased slightly in 1st and 2nd, also seems to come on much harder too?  0-60 seems to have come down a hell of a lot.  When I get my timing gear back I will let you know.
 Still over fuels a lot and flames like a b**tard at every gear change

[FD3SNuttah]

Good to see its made a huge difference mate, when are you booked on the rolling road? *good job its still overfuelling*


btw doesnt this latest mod exclude you from the 0-100 mph compo we got runnin?

[Brett]

I dont know, I can always swap it back anyway
Cool thing is my total spend so far including buying the car is only £1850

[grinder]

I dont know, I can always swap it back anyway
Cool thing is my total spend so far including buying the car is only £1850

oohhh thats a lot of money

[Brett]

Spot the mod who is so tight he squeaks when he walks..... :rollin

[shortcircuit]

glad to hear your ecu has made a difference :cool can\'t wait to see what the power gain is .

[Brett]

Its probably nothing more than a placeabo, not sure when I\'ll next get the chance for another dyno run, got no more holiday left so it may be new year.

[Prof]

Nice one - I noticed a bit of a difference with my ECU  

Most notably, when you put your foot hard down on the gas, the boost comes on nice an evenly, where as on the stock ECU it does this crazy thing with the fuel :

Boost and fuel up until 8.8 PSI, then cuts fuel to rear rotor.  Now if you hold the gas at WOT, the car goes into some crazy rich fuel mode and you get an extra kick

Seems these after market ECU\'s are normally mapped for after market exhaust and intake, and they have FCD and REV Cut built in.  You should get a load more Torque, wider boost range and a better top end.  You can also scare the Honda S2ks and RX8 with big revs - fun at the lights

My ECU seems to push the idle revs up about 200-300 when I select 1st - not sure what the point of that is ?

One thing I am pleased they kept is the AWS defeat that I found on the old ECU - slip the car in 1st when you start and the revs stay at or below 2K - none of that engine killing cat wamer stuff going on - besides I don\'t have a CAT anymore !

Does yours have this in as well?

[Brett]

One thing I\'ve noticed with the revs is that the cold start now revs upto 2000rpm and drops down very slowly (about 5mins running before normal idle speed is attained) but I\'ve got a feeling its been doing that since the exhasut change.
  I still have my FCD in line at the moment.
 The power band seems a lot wider, not sure if theres any more peak torque or HP but it is a lot smoother in its application.  All in all £50 well spent.