quesion concerning ECUs for P5s

[NinjaSYXX]

question concerning ECUs for P5s

i'm curious to know if there are any nice piggyback alternatives for the protege5 outside of the microtech ecu from protegegarage.com, i've been hearing that the Apexi S-AFC II, works from a couple friends of mine, its pretty low priced, and i was thinking of getting it, also how tough would programming be for a piggyback to get a nice amount of hp?

i want to research and learn more about this before i buy it, i'm planning on getting the racing beat catback before i get this.

 

[SuperProtege5]

I'm sure that most people on here will tell you that it's best if you are turbo'd before having a standalone. But there are some that are N/A that have a standalone but I'd figure they are fully built. If not I apologize for leading you the wrong way.

 

[xelderx]

There is a lot of conflicting info piggyback ECUs. It is my understanding that the Apexi SAFC II doesn't work. The stock ECU learns around it. Basically, the stock ECU is too big of an issue for just a piggyback to solve. My thought is that to see any reasonable power gain from ECU tuning you have to remove the stock ECU out of the system and go stand alone. There have been a good # of members with standalone ECUs on N/A cars that have documented gains. If your inspections require the OBD II hook up you're screwed at the moment.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

its all about what you want out of these cars. its hard to argue against the sheer amount of tunability and features that a standalone provides if you are going all out and want to make some real power. more of the most powerful/quickest cars on this forum run or have run standalones - cwill, superprotege, pdhaudio, hiboost, ddogg, nsn motorsports to name a few. this is not to discount a piggyback unit for what it can do, and some of them do very well. on the protege its complicated because the factory ecu really is too smart for its own good. it has a tendency with piggybacks to ignore/override/learn around the signals being sent to it within a short amount of time. unichip is an example of a successful piggyback on the mazdaspeed protege, but without a mazdaspeed protege ecu a unichip isn't going to do you much good.

if you are die hard staying N/A i think there is alot of untapped potential in going with a standalone. a setup with custom cams, high compression pistons, adj cam gears, full exhaust, ported head and intake, etc etc mated to a well tuned standalone would be killer in my opinion.

 

[Maxx Mazda]

I'm running the Split Second AFC II

 

[NinjaSYXX]

what if i buy that mazdaspeed ecu from protegegarage and then go piggyback then? will that be an OK alternative instead of going for the microtech standalone? sadly i was thinking of getting a mazdaspeed3 instead of upgrading my p5 but, i won't be able to do the car payments on that car, thats why i'm in need for research on the p5 ecus and all, sadly i can't really afford going turbo atm, and if i turbo my p5 i don't know how expensive it would be after buying just a turbo kit.

 

[Kansei]

YEah definitely don't bother with the SAFCII.. it just messes with sensor readings to try and trick the ECU into doing stuff, but our car's ECU is too smart for that.. it goes closed loop and ignores the SAFC

 

[Captain KRM P5]

what if i buy that mazdaspeed ecu from protegegarage and then go piggyback then? will that be an OK alternative instead of going for the microtech standalone? sadly i was thinking of getting a mazdaspeed3 instead of upgrading my p5 but, i won't be able to do the car payments on that car, thats why i'm in need for research on the p5 ecus and all, sadly i can't really afford going turbo atm, and if i turbo my p5 i don't know how expensive it would be after buying just a turbo kit.

mazdaspeed ecu - $300
unichip - between $750 and $950

by that time you spent the same or more than a standalone

 

[Maxx Mazda]

Ken said it. It totally depends on what you wanna do man. If you're gonna turbo and keep it below 7 psi, MSP ECU will be pefect. Is your P5 an auto? If so, the MSP ECU won't work. You'll keep your stock ECU and go piggyback.

 

[Kansei]

Yeah I'm at 7psi on just an MSP ECU and it's working wonderfully so far!

 

[NinjaSYXX]

i don't believe in automatic, i have more problems driving automatic, i have no problem driving stick ;p so yea i'm all for stick shift, well i'm gonna go NA for now, i guess the ECU isn't something i should invest in, i still need to get my racing beat catback and tokico suspension before that, and the camshafts too. So the microtech works perfect for NA tuning?

 

[Maxx Mazda]

You would get WAY more of a benefit using a full standalone with N/A, because you can advance the s*** outta the timing as well, and control your fuel to a T, so in short a standalone would be better bang for your buck if tuning it N/A and then going turbo later.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

i don't believe in automatic, i have more problems driving automatic, i have no problem driving stick ;p so yea i'm all for stick shift, well i'm gonna go NA for now, i guess the ECU isn't something i should invest in, i still need to get my racing beat catback and tokico suspension before that, and the camshafts too. So the microtech works perfect for NA tuning?

stock engine a well tuned microtech can take a half-second off your over all quarter mile time

 

[NinjaSYXX]

awesome, i'll make sure to add the microtech into my to buy list as one of the later things to get, first is the RB catback and the suspension, how hard is it to program the microtech? is it worth getting someone to program it for me or what? also any possible way of hacking into the stock ecu? ;x

 

[Captain KRM P5]

awesome, i'll make sure to add the microtech into my to buy list as one of the later things to get, first is the RB catback and the suspension, how hard is it to program the microtech? is it worth getting someone to program it for me or what? also any possible way of hacking into the stock ecu? ;x

if you mean reflashing the stock ecu the answer is no.

the microtech is easily user tunable. there are good number of maps for the protege for a variety of situations that can be written to it from the time you buy it.

 

[Kansei]

^^ so I'm guessing looking into reflashing ECUs to MP3 spec fell through?

Is the Ford EEC ecu like the hardest ECU to crack evar?!

 

[Captain KRM P5]

^^ so I'm guessing looking into reflashing ECUs to MP3 spec fell through?

Is the Ford EEC ecu like the hardest ECU to crack evar?!

no, that can be done. we just need to find someone willing to do it. i'm not going to pay $10,000 for the unit from mazda, thanks basically i need to find and buy both an mp3 ecu and a regular protege ecu and start asking around.

i am sure there are ECUs that are harder to crack or at least as hard.

 

[Kansei]

10000 dollars

So basically you have to find a dealership that is willing to flash a bunch of ECUs over a period of time.. yeah they'll pretty much record the VIN of each one (I'm assuming the VIN is somewhere programmed into the ECU for identification purposes.. maybe not?) and automagically void the warranties if any are still under warranty

I missed my MP3 ECU for a long time until I got teh boostage