Why second hand ECUs are not just plug and play

[sukugtr]

A guy got a second hand ECU from Japan tuned for racing...probably for highboost. He bought it and put it in his car thinking it would just work. He thought it was cool that the huge fireballs coming from his exhaust was cool, until his car started running funny and later would not start. He took it to RBMotoring when I was there and Kenny took a look at it. It was pretty flooded...

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=8281671

[ikeyballz]

LOL i love how theres fuel shooting out and they're cranking it -->Starter = lots of sparks = boom? hahah nah, that thing must be crazily tuned..or the fuel injectors must not be similar..cuz thats fkkin NUTS. thats like fuel injector always on! hahaha

[corytomo]

Probably tuned for massive fuel loads, I've ran my DSM so rich that the EGT never went about 700C and fireballs about 4 feet long shot out the exhaust. Pretty cool really, but 4mpg using leaded race gas is kinda expensive.

[idiosyncratic]

oops. i wonder if the dude had a warranty or return policy of sorts...

[ikeyballz]

haha well, if he can have a switch that goes between the two ECUS, anytime theres a ricer/annoying guy tailing you, just switch it over and blow fireballs. mmmmm :D

[spider_monkey52]

my friend can light the exhaust on his 240 on fire. just puts a lighter near it while the car is running and "flame on" did it for a minute straight before shutting it off. it's his special trick, i forget how he said he did it but if he did it wrong the motor could blow.

[corytomo]

it's his special trick, i forget how he said he did it but if he did it wrong the motor could blow.

that would be an expensive fireball!

[sukugtr]

I found the my photos again of this...

After the video you saw of him cranking the car over with spark plugs removed and fuel pump fuse taken out to relieve pressure on the system, Kenny took compressed air to each cylinder to blow the fuel out.

http://a980.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/72/l_c8f83d904d75bd0022372ccd00771833.jpg

It kept on streaming out

http://a516.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/70/l_6aa2b447cabb0287725c72ebe3c7b863.jpg

We removed the piping between the turbo and the intercooler. Fuel dumped out of that and we saw that fuel was all in the intercooler too and all in the intake. We took the piping off from the throttle body to the intercooler out and fuel dumped out of that. We saw this from that side.

http://a112.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/120/l_71bc7f4f7320d83f0b272c5ebe536bcf.jpg

You can see the fuel level of the intercooler.

This engine needed to be rebuilt since the fuel had got mixed in with the oil. Luckily none of the internals were damaged from this. He got the car tuned after the rebuild and it's running good now. Happy ending :)

[ArchangelX]

Pretty cool stuff...if a little crazy. :wtf:

[Zhanshi]

Dang...

If he had that kind of money to rebuild his engine, wouldn't it have been easier to go with a standalone or piggy back? I mean, picking up a used ECU that is tuned for someone else's car is pretty iffy. Even if you have the same components as the guy had for his car, it still wouldn't factor in engine wear and other variables.

But I still have to say, daaaaaaaamn...

[kombi731]

this is a bad signhttp://a980.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/72/l_c8f83d904d75bd0022372ccd00771833.jpg
and if I was blowing that out I'd be wearing googles

[corytomo]

Ouch, fuel and oil... its kinda amazing he didn't score a bearing somewhere if he ran it like that!