Paid a visit to SEMA in Atlantic City NJ this weekend, and spoke with Dan Ziegler of Performance Motorsport. He had on hand several 350z cars with a South African made piggyback ECU. On a Z with nothing but intake and exhaust, it made about 16 extra HP in the mid-range; on a forced induction Z it made 6 or 7 times this extra power. Or so he claimed. He also claimed mid 13 sec 1/4 mile on the Z with ECU/intake/exhaust on drag radials. All very promising.

The ECU allows full adjustability of fuel, timing, etc. It also has data logging and a laptop connection capability. Will cost about $800. The bad news is that they are still ironing the kinks out.... they are getting occasional "Check Engine" lights, which seem to come and go without explanation.

Also promising, is Dan mentioned they expect to get another piggyback unit made by Vishnu Engineering to try out very shortly. Given their rep, this could be extremely interesting.

To me, while I like the idea of a reprogrammed factory ECU, the idea of being able to control ECU tuning through my laptop, (while still having the option for professional assistance) takes it one step further. While no local dyno-tuning shops have the expertise of some of the West coast shops with respect to flashing the factory ECU, I'd bet there are a lot more places that can deal with a laptop progammable piggyback ECU.


04 G35s 6MT BS Aero Kit/Nav/Prem
Warning: Objects in Mirror Are Losing!

 

doesnt the Z already have piggyback ECU's available for them?

G35s6mt/TSecu/350Z Springs&Struts/K&Nfilter+Z-tube/StillenDualExhaust /6WireGroundKit/KinetixHighFlow

 

Well, the reason that I do not like piggyback ECU's is the general unreliability. Only the very best piggyback chips, and they still only handle timing and a/f mixtures, like AEM EMS (which won't be out for the near future - this one is the absolute best) or the HKS F-con (Okay generally speaking) are worth the effort and money IMO. Trust me, just because you can adjust a/f and all that, does not mean that you will all the time. Also, I would really suggest you do some research on the piggyback vs. native ECU pros and cons... it is very hard to get them talking to each other without problems and for a prolonged period of time. At some point, the native ECU learns that it is being "infringed upon", and begins to take over. That's why (I heard - may not be totally correct) the STi guys reset their ECU's every couple of weeks. Some things are just plain gimmicks, especially from a company that no one has ever heard of. As an example, Greddy has been out for a long time, but most serious people that have any choice in the matter, do NOT ever go with their e-manage solution. My $0.02

EDIT: The obvious point that i did not spell out above, there are several piggybacks that you can put on right now, HKS F-con, Apexi, e-manage, if you really wanted to. Also the claim of 16hp increase from an ECU is a fairy tale.

Gurgen


<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Edited by gurgenpb on 05/24/04 12:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>