Starlets and Fuel Cut

[Ceirwan]

Hi Ed.
I thought i'd post this here because you deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis. I'm getting to the stage where I want to get more power from the GT, and I like things to be done properly.

A lot of people say that when you start modifying, mani, exhaust, intake and then maybe winding up the boost a bit, you can hit fuel cut which can damage the engine... If it can damage the engine then whats the purpose of a the fuel cut?

And say you want more power lots of people use fuel cut defenders, but i've heard various opinions on whether they are a good idea or not... Could you clarify if for me? Cheers!

Rich

(I'm guessing if you don't have an FCD you need a remap if you increase the boost...?)

Edit: Sorry this should be in Tech Questions

 

[Ed]

There are only two ways to do this 100% correctly.

1, fit an after market ecu ~£1000-1500
2, fit a decent piggyback ECU ~£500 (capable of fuel & ignition) e-manage etc..

The fuel cut is to prevent you from causing engine damage by running too much boost. Obviously you can only turn up the boost so far, after which the stock ECU is not capable of correctly/reliably/accurately controlling what is going on.

A FCD simply limits the amount of actual boost the ECU sees, thus allowing you to run more boost than you otherwise could. However since the ECU cannot see this extra boost it cannot fuel for it, and thus its totally beyond the control of the ECU. If you go too far into this you will without exception kill your engine. For those that don't they usually don't go too far into this region. Usually any other accompyning mods to go with the FCD are bodges simply to hide the way it works. (uprated fuel pressure etc)

Quite simply a FCD is a bad idea and it always will be. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they are talking about or is ignoring the actuall risks. Usually its there "well it worked for me/my mate so it must be ok"

The way to do it properly is to fit a system where you can correctly tune for the regions the stock ecu is not capable of (piggyback etc) or remove the stock ecu entirely and use an after market ecu where none of these limitations exist.

Hope this helps a bit

Ed

 

[Arnold]

Good post Ed

What's the best ECU piggyback to purchase for Starlets, is it E manage Ultimate?

 

[Ceirwan]

Ok thanks! And say you got a piggyback, and had it all set up correctly, if you then had an electronic boost controller, would it be able to cope with you adjusting the boost?
Say on warm up keeping it very low until the engine is fully up to temperature etc?

And how much would you generally charge for a remap with a piggyback?

Just trying to gather all the info I need so I can make a list of parts I need to buy and then purchase them over a period of time!

 

[Ed]

Say on warm up keeping it very low until the engine is fully up to temperature etc?

That is what your accelerator is for. You need to learn to control that first!

E-manage blue fitted and mapped is £250. If you want it done on the dyno thats an additional £80.

The e-manage blue can handle as much as your engine can - and the blue is the one I recommend for the starlet.

Cheers,

Ed

 

[Ceirwan]

That is what your accelerator is for. You need to learn to control that first!


Ed

Your right!
I find the when I try and drive 'off boost' its very hard to keep a manifold vacuum when accellerating, I guess as long as your not producing loads of boost it isn't a problem.

Ok, will get back to you, but it won't be for a while as its gonna cost me abit to get all the bits.

Cheers
Rich

 

[Arnold]

It's alot easier to keep off the boost if you have the hi/low in place. Without it, mine was hitting boost all the time.

Ed, does E manage blue get round Speed Cut & Fuel Cut? I've heard one of the E manages doesn't do Speed Cut

 

[Ceirwan]

I think the easiest way to derestrict the speed is to convert from KPH into MPH.

 

[Ed]

Agree convert it to mph, e-manage ultimate can remove it, but again I don't recommend them as they are too unreliable.

 

[Ceirwan]

So excluding (the necessary) handling and braking mods I need to be getting for some decent power:

- Either Hybrid CT9, Or TD04?
- Aftermarket exhaust mani
- Catback exhaust system (2.5? or would 2 do?)
- Intake Mods, preferably with better inter cooler (RX7 Topmount or FMIC)
- Electronic Boost Controller
- If i want to use an external dumpvalve, weld up internal one.
- Greddy Emanage Blue + full Remap...
Which I imagine you could maybe take to around 200hp?

Cheers
Rich