by dash » Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:09 am
there's nothing wrong with SAFCs. Quite popular opinion on that side of the pond. On the contrary, it is found on lots of crisp running 11sec full weight 4cyl street cars in the u.s. - many "waste money" on a ecu, go slower and run worse.
Its a way of life with the mitsu camp; $50-150 datalogger + safc + wideband = A great way to learn tuning for those interested in furthering their knowledge rather than 'have somebody else always tuning your setup'. Most here won't 'settle' for that.
SAFC will affect timing, yes. Once you understand what you're doing that can actually be used to your advantage.
A popular 'blackbox' for timing control is the "MSD boost timing master". Dial in how many degrees of timing you want, per pound of boost. $160usd.
Both work well together, *proven* on many well tuned fast street cars.
Transparent operation once tuned, and no pita wiring like a standalone.
Don't forget the greddy Emanage or perfectpower.com smt6. Both control fuel & timing for approximately half 'a proper ecu' price. They work.
There was a popular ae86 silvertop 20v t3/t4 turbo on club4ag, managed via blacktop ecu + emanage. Frightened everybody silly, who rode in the car... and the boost wasn't even cranked up yet.
A friend runs a map 4age ecu on a redtop/blue bottom (stock 9.4:1). safc + 440s. T3 turbo @10psi. No timing control. Pins you hard in the seat. Auto tranny, rwd and will spin all 1st & 2nd at will. Killed 2 4spd rwd already, so he's 'nicer' to this 3spd. Been running like a brand new car for ~3years now. He did mention some "trick mod" to the map sensor tho.
megasquirt is not a 'just put it together and run' venture. Tonnns of reading for starters