ecu swap, help!
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Joined: Oct 2004
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From: OR, USA
ecu swap, help!
i believe i have a pm8 ecu in my 1989 CRX hf! if thats right! am i able to swap any other ecu like pm6 into my CRX HF? and those chips they sell on ebay! are they worth buying! let me know! 
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 8,732
Likes: 3
From: Ft. Hood
Re: ecu swap, help! (zerogravitycrx)
No you can't swap any other ecu out for yours as your motor is just plain backwards, as in the concept of its design is for fuel economy and so is your transmission. There really is no way to make your car go faster with the stock motor, on the matter of the EBAY chips ~shudder~ I present to you this lovely tirade.
Excerpts from an excellent write-up at http://www.sdsefi.com/techchip.htm
"The first reason is that on most naturally aspirated engines operating on pump fuel, the only way to achieve tangible power gains is by increasing airflow through the engine. Chips cannot do this therefore they cannot make much difference in power output. Chip re-programmers can richen the mixture slightly at full throttle and advance the ignition timing slightly perhaps but this would be at the expense of lowering the factory safety factors for detonation and emissions. The absolute maximum gain in this instance would be on the order of 5% and could be as little as 0%. Most independent tests that I have seen on performance chips for naturally aspirated engines have indeed shown minimal or no gains in acceleration. Some were slower than the factory chip.
...Finally, we have chip companies doing "custom" chips for modified engines. What does this involve? This is a technically sound modification only if your engine has the same mechanical mods as the motor on their dyno that the chip is being developed for. If your cams, heads, turbo, exhaust, intercooler, injectors, throttle body or fuel are different, the chip will not be correct for your engine. A chip made for an engine slightly different from yours will be slightly wrong under some conditions. In some cases, poor driveability and performance are the result.
The only way to get good results on a modified engine with different mods from the base engine is to take your vehicle to the tuners facility and get a true custom chip burnt for your engine. This must be done on a chassis dyno then tested on the road also for driveabilty faults which often don't show up on the dyno. This will cost more.
Here is some advice when buying a performance chip:
Before buying, do acceleration testing with a stopwatch, Vericom, G-Tech or at the strip.
Get the chip maker to guarantee the performance gain in writing and make him understand that you will return the chip to him if the chip does not work as claimed. If emission compliance is a concern, ask if their chip will pass the test and get it in writing.
Follow all of the instructions provided by the chip maker when installing it.
Stick to reputable companies. Some people in the chip industry really don't know what they are doing. Talk to some people first who have used a certain chip and see if they are satisfied.
Test your car to be sure that you got what you paid for. This is all good advice when buying any aftermarket devices such as ignition wires, ignition products, oil or fuel additives etc. which advertise a performance gain. If it doesn't do what it is advertised to do, you just got hosed and with some chips costing $500, this is something that you should not put up with.
If all of this doesn't sound too good to you, the alternative is a programmable engine management system. These allow you to tune your engine yourself. This can be good and bad. The same things apply as above. If you don't have a fairly thorough understanding of the system, engines and tuning plus a dose of patience, DON'T buy one of these. Understand that you will have to program all of the values to make the engine start, warm up, cruise, accelerate and run at full power. This can entail entering hundreds of points in most cases and you will require either a dyno or a long deserted road plus some indication of mixture strength to properly tune such a system. These systems are great for the knowledgeable person and a nightmare for the lay person."
Excerpts from an excellent write-up at http://www.sdsefi.com/techchip.htm
"The first reason is that on most naturally aspirated engines operating on pump fuel, the only way to achieve tangible power gains is by increasing airflow through the engine. Chips cannot do this therefore they cannot make much difference in power output. Chip re-programmers can richen the mixture slightly at full throttle and advance the ignition timing slightly perhaps but this would be at the expense of lowering the factory safety factors for detonation and emissions. The absolute maximum gain in this instance would be on the order of 5% and could be as little as 0%. Most independent tests that I have seen on performance chips for naturally aspirated engines have indeed shown minimal or no gains in acceleration. Some were slower than the factory chip.
...Finally, we have chip companies doing "custom" chips for modified engines. What does this involve? This is a technically sound modification only if your engine has the same mechanical mods as the motor on their dyno that the chip is being developed for. If your cams, heads, turbo, exhaust, intercooler, injectors, throttle body or fuel are different, the chip will not be correct for your engine. A chip made for an engine slightly different from yours will be slightly wrong under some conditions. In some cases, poor driveability and performance are the result.
The only way to get good results on a modified engine with different mods from the base engine is to take your vehicle to the tuners facility and get a true custom chip burnt for your engine. This must be done on a chassis dyno then tested on the road also for driveabilty faults which often don't show up on the dyno. This will cost more.
Here is some advice when buying a performance chip:
Before buying, do acceleration testing with a stopwatch, Vericom, G-Tech or at the strip.
Get the chip maker to guarantee the performance gain in writing and make him understand that you will return the chip to him if the chip does not work as claimed. If emission compliance is a concern, ask if their chip will pass the test and get it in writing.
Follow all of the instructions provided by the chip maker when installing it.
Stick to reputable companies. Some people in the chip industry really don't know what they are doing. Talk to some people first who have used a certain chip and see if they are satisfied.
Test your car to be sure that you got what you paid for. This is all good advice when buying any aftermarket devices such as ignition wires, ignition products, oil or fuel additives etc. which advertise a performance gain. If it doesn't do what it is advertised to do, you just got hosed and with some chips costing $500, this is something that you should not put up with.
If all of this doesn't sound too good to you, the alternative is a programmable engine management system. These allow you to tune your engine yourself. This can be good and bad. The same things apply as above. If you don't have a fairly thorough understanding of the system, engines and tuning plus a dose of patience, DON'T buy one of these. Understand that you will have to program all of the values to make the engine start, warm up, cruise, accelerate and run at full power. This can entail entering hundreds of points in most cases and you will require either a dyno or a long deserted road plus some indication of mixture strength to properly tune such a system. These systems are great for the knowledgeable person and a nightmare for the lay person."
but good on gas! 
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