Electrical

Prevolution · Post by **Prevolution** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:47 pm

I'll be the first to admit that i know very little about the workings of ECU's, trigger wheels, etc... I even had to google "CAS" to learn what you guys are talking about.

My car is old school with a set of dual 48mm downdrafts, some guage wires, lights, accessory rally odo, etc... *simple*

I want more power, the option(s) to drift the car and 1/4 mile it by changing the turbo and increasing the boost once the swap is complete. (blah blah blah)

In preparing for the swap, the electrical component scares the shit out of me and will no doubt include a sharp learning curve.

A few starting questions :

1.) Am I better off doing the swap from a running 1g talon or buying the engine and harness seperately ?

2.) I've read that one of you sells a stripped down harness... (DJ?) How much and what's the lead time on shipping, since you're going to Europe?

3.) I read in one of the other posts that the ECU gets a signal from the tach. I don't have a stock instrument cluster and will be running autometer guages, is this a problem ?

That should be it for now.

By the way... this forum is awesome, thanks so much to everyone here !

Bill Hincher · Post by **Bill Hincher** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:35 am

the ECU is a dumb instrument wth two sides, one side is for input, it recieves a tempurature signal, an RMP signal, an air velocity signal and many more. This side of the ECU is like an octopus with its tenicals feeling what is going on in the engine
The other side of the ECU is a driver, after the inputs are diagnosed by the ECU it correctly drives the mechanical devices that run the engine. It tells the injectors to turn on and off, it tells the injectors how long to stay open, it adjusts the timing and the idle speed .
You can tell the input side of the ECU because the size of the wire is smaller then the driver side, the drivers are connected to transistors that do the heavier load work and require heavier wires and out lets
You must understand what the engineers had in mind when they developed that system, after you grasp how the engineers intended to manage your particular engine electronics, you can adjust it out , just like a carburater, because you know where to look for full throttle, partial throttle, hot and cold temps and on and on
There are no real special tools, it can all be explained with simple DRO and Analog meters for under $100.00, the trick is to be able to explain what the meters are saying
Learning how to build your hot rod is supposed to be a way to explore new learning curves, its not supposed to scare you >;o)

Post by **DJpowerHaus** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:27 pm

Its scared me before, but I figured it out. Just about everything in life can be broken down into input->process->output so once you start thinking like that, this stuff makes more sense.

1)Depends on how cheap the Eclipse is.

2) I do sell stripped down harnesses. I think the soonest I should be able to ship another one out is early September. I should be able to post a picture of one done up before I leave though. I've got one I'm about to finish up this week.

3) The only thing I think the ECU gets from the tach is the Vehicle Speed Sensor. Honestly, I have no clue what its for, but I've run without it just fine.

Prevolution · Post by **Prevolution** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:15 pm

Thanks for the input guys !

DJ I'll need to get going on the project before September because I'm hoping to race the car in October. : (

In searching for a donor car...

Is there a difference in block (and subsequent bell housing match from bill) between AWD and FWD or for that fact in electronics ?

Bill - the housings you've done for the W series or the R154 are all for narrow block right ?

DJ - you're running a wide block with the housing from the late 80's B2600 and the turbo 2 gearbox right ?

(I'm just trying to confrim that I have the facts straight)

Is it the simplest to run the stock ECU or is it easier to run a stand alone set up ? I'm just a newbie who wants to have a plan before I start because i don't want the project to drag on.

Bill what's the lead time on a housing for the W series and the R series respectively ? Can you supply everything I need to bolt the engine to the gearbox ?

89coltgt · Post by **89coltgt** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:43 am

The vss input comes from the speedometer(on a 1g). I am not really sure what a stock ecu does with it, maybe just to limit top speed. When guys install DSMlink, thye can utilize this input for a stutterbox setup and specify what speed you want to disable it, etc.