Applies to ODB1 models. Most the 5spd guys out there can throw whatever ecu they want in there odb1 honda/acura and tune it, but auto guys are left with few options that feel like no options at times. I have done much experimenting and i find auto ecus are actually tunable when the correct auto ecu is chosen. I have a p14 in my prelude, its untunable, so i swapped for a p06, i put a socket kit in and s300 hondata. It wont work. Car runs great but missing gears and a blinking d4 in gauge cluster. Ill get to the reason why this didn't work. So now i find that tegs had auto setup much like mine. I get a p75 tunable auto ecu and now I'm back up and running 100%. Reason why teg ecu works is the teg had a separate TCU and the civic p06 ecu did not have a TCU present. Yes a auto can be chipped or hondata just like a manual but the gear based stuff in the software should be set to zero. Anything gear based just put a zero in. A auto does not need these options for any reason really anyhow.. So when wanting to tune a auto use the correct ecu if you are swapping. Below i would like to start a list of model of car/auto ecu/ and whether there is a tcu present in that model. This is to help aid in correct auto ecu choices and save someone else a lot of bucko's!

 

Tunable P06-civic dx/lx-no tcu
Non-Tunable P14-prelude si-yes tcu
Tunable P74/P75-integra ls/gs-yes tcu

 

Good info dude. Btw what year is ur lude ? Would it work on auto with SS tranny ?

 

Good idea, I had difficulty finding info on this topic when trying to find a way to chip my auto Prelude (did end up finding info on pgmfi).

Something to add to the list of successful chipping:

JDM 1991 Automatic Prelude (BB1 chassy; P13-900 4W ECU; has TCU) can run a chipped manual P72 ECU (OBDI; P72-003) with Crome and have the auto tranny shift perfectly normal (I have 4ws disabled).

Only issue I sometimes have is overdrive not engaging (intermittent problem) but its not that big an issue, cruizing rpm jumps from ~3000rpm to 3200rpm. So for the most part the TCU runs the show. Can't report if there are any tranny error codes (sports light or D4 lights etc) because I have swapped in a manual EL cluster. One other small thing, I think the tranny shifts quicker (less lag when changing gear) when running a foreign manual ECU. Its quite noticeable between the ECU's but I can only speculate this to be the case.lol.

 

Good info i was interested in the whole manual ecu in a auto car. I tried it but didn't work because or poor ecu choices. I wondered and now confirmed that a p72 can run a car like ours. I think that the p75 is best choice still since it contains a few more parts for helping execute proper stock shifting patterns. I do know the p75 is a nonvtec though and p72 is vtec. Also my prelude is a 1993 prelude si h23a1 common to us.

 

Care to elaborate on the gear based stuff setting it to zero? Does not seem to make any sense on the software part. Should go into more depths if your going to explain about the TCU.

 

This tread is to address what ecu's use tcu's and what models don't. Reason why is to encourage a good ecu swap in a auto car. I purchased two p06 ecu's (one auto one manual) and socketed them for s300. Now I have two p06's for sale. I tried p06 because they were tunable and available to me. Studying revieled the civic didn't use a TCU and thus a waste of my money. I found a Acura integera had used my similar prelude trans and TCU. I aquired a p75 and got my cars gears back. The p06's I had to manually shift the car (meaning I would not downshift to 2nd without moving the shifter down) and only had two gears(2nd and d3). The p75 I regained stock features like I had with my stock untunable p14. I had to use in the past the stock p14 and a aem/fic. If you ever messed with a aem/fic then you know why I wanted to get away from it ( I did a nice writeup about the correct way to do it on a odb1 Honda, interesting because you can't monitor fuel trims without a crazy setup). Chipping a p14 is not a option. I will do a writeup separate on tuning and adjustments as soon as the weather permits me to do some good hard pulls and full speed tests. I've been doing this all between snow storms. All I can tell you for now is how to get your automatic car running on the correct ecu swap.