i had heard that you can plug in an integra ecu into a civic and get more hp. is that true? or perhaps they were just thinking that the rev limiter would be higher and that is what they meant. i haven't had a chance to dig out my 2.0 ecu yet and swap it with the 2.1 - i was curious if i would get more performance, more horesepower, or what out of the other ecu. or, would they run the car the same way? does anyone know?

 

Each ECU is tuned for that particular engine, running it on another car wil make it run like ****. No point in it. The only need I see for that is if you're running a newer engine in an older car, you could run the older ECU from that equivalent engine(like running a B18B with a B18A ECU)

 

well, first, i am using an integra ecu in my crx autocrosser and there are no problems. i got a higher rpm out of it, but it is also an 85 si with an 86 integra ecu - no horsepower difference, just higher rpms. i was told that if an ecu plugged in for a car that had less power to it, the ecu would be programmed for more hp and would give the less hp car more hp. if you follow me. so, i was wondering if i swapped ecu's from a totalled b21a1 with my b20a5, will i get that additional 5 or 10 hp? or is the difference in the stroke? i am most likely going to try this out, but i didn't want to rip apart my 2.0 yet, so i was curious if anyone had heard of this before or knows the answer to this.

 

nah that's bs...
I went through this same trial & error process you're going through back when I had my 87 civic in early '94. I tried the same thing you did, cuz i heard from around the block, that using an integra ECU on a civic would yeild more power .....it doesn't.

It just extends the rev limiter and a few other things such as fuel/timing maps. But I felt no power gains from the seat of my pants. I didn't know of dyno's back then either hehe...so going to one for testing wasn't a possiblity for me back then.

You can do what you're doing, but it makes no sense if your trying to rev your 85 Si's engine higher than stock redline -- because it makes no more power beyond that! Unless you have a race cam of some sort, you should just stick with your stock Si ECU.

 

right! right! You won't be making anymore power by reving your engine higher. You need more modification done to get the power out of higher rpm's and you also need a more reliable valve train to prevent valve train wear and valve float.
valve spring and retainers.


[Modified by chi1874436, 5:13 PM 12/30/2001]

 

actually, i have a racing cam in the crx and i knew that there wouldn't be more power, just a higher rev limiter. but thanks for the input guys.