Greetings fellow Type R owners...as my title states I was curious to know if installing a Vtec controller on my 98 ITR would be worth the trouble and money spent? Any insight or advice???

 

all depends on ur setup.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by infulleffect &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Greetings fellow Type R owners...as my title states I was curious to know if installing a Vtec controller on my 98 ITR would be worth the trouble and money spent? Any insight or advice???</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you just plan on installing a VTEC controller and playing with the engagement point, then it's probably not worth the money. However, if the unit is also a fuel controller (e.g., V-AFC or Field SFC-VTEC) and you tune it properly, you could net reasonable gains depending upon your current setup.

 

Could a good ECU tune, net me the same gains?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by infulleffect &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Could a good ECU tune, net me the same gains?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Better, but might not be worth it, depends on your set-up, like they have said

 

like uberdata..
.. u can fully tune your car

 

if you get the VAFC and get a good tune, you will get some gains and have a much smoother vtec engagement.

 

Thanks again H-T crew...so what is the recommended vtec controller for the type R?

 

what is your current setup?

 

Do your self a favor. Save up for a chipped obd1 ecu & conversion harness.
Make sure you buy your chipped ecu from someone who knows what they are doing :-)

If the basemap on the chipped obd1 ecu does not satisfy you, simply have the car dyno tuned on crome, uberdata or hondata using the chipped obd1 ecu.

 

save up for a spoon ecu , jun , ect then later get a VAFC

 

to spend 300 on a vafc is pointless.
might as well spend 600 bucks on a full tune, which can be hondata or neptune software

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM_DC2_2001 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">save up for a spoon ecu , jun , ect then later get a VAFC</TD></TR></TABLE>

Um no...

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MugenHonda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">to spend 300 on a vafc is pointless.
might as well spend 600 bucks on a full tune, which can be hondata or neptune software</TD></TR></TABLE>

$600 is a bit overpriced, but yeah I agree. Get the car tuned on a chipped obd1 ecu solution to see the best results possible.

 

Good deal, thanks again...I will look into a tune down the road.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDM_DC2_2001 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">save up for a spoon ecu , jun , ect then later get a VAFC</TD></TR></TABLE>
#1 both of those computers are designed for thier specific set ups which he obviously doesn't have
#2 why even bother with either of those two computers if you're going to install a VAFC to mess up the programs both of those computers have in the first place?? you're not very bright

 

i agree with MugenHonda, spend the $500-$600 and probably get 2-3 times more HP you'd gain doing anything else

 

i currently have an apexi vafc 2 on my stock r with exhaust , but its not tuned , i wouldnt have put it in yet if it wasnt laying in my room from my old car , so my opinion is for the money on a basically stock r , no its not , IMHO

 

Thanks again, basically all I have is a comptech header and a cat back exhaust system...along with some Nology wires and a fuel pressure reg...for whatever those items are worth .

I am toying with the idea of boosting the thing so I'll need a tune regardless...who knows now...time will tell

 

NOt worth it........you will stop using it after a while. It only looks good mounted up, and you can use it for tuning, but dont expect any good gains.

 

i mean its worth the time and the money if u already have a ecu

 

On the factory ECU it's a waste of time. The ECU will fight everything U make changes on & give a CEL. A re-chipped ECU w/ OBD1 is the only way to get it to work properly.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HYREV2NR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">On the factory ECU it's a waste of time. The ECU will fight everything U make changes on & give a CEL. A re-chipped ECU w/ OBD1 is the only way to get it to work properly. </TD></TR></TABLE>

i dont have a CEL from my vafc 2

 

From pgmfi.org:
Piggy Back controllers allow stock ECUs to do things that they normally can't do, like run larger injectors or deal with boost. Remember that piggyback controllers work by altering sensor signals before they get to the ECU.

Most of the time, the primary signal being messed with is the Map Sensor. This is critically important in a Speed Density car. The Map Sensor is used by the ECU to guess how much air is going into the car, and therefore how much fuel to supply in order to match airflow. When you "lean" out a car with an AFC, you are simply decreasing the Map Sensor signal - the ECU responds to the decrease in manifold pressure by supplying less fuel. When you "richen" a car with an AFC, you are simply increasing the Map Sensor signal - the ECU responds to the increase in manifold pressure by supplying less fuel.

The change in fueling happens for a reason: if you look at a fuel table, Map Sensor values correspond with columns. When you increase or decrease the signal from the Map Sensor, you are simply making the ECU use a different column than it originally would have used. (see Understanding Maps if you need some help understanding reading Fuel and Ign tables)

But wait, isn't the Map Sensor used for determining ignition requirements too? When you "lean" out a car with a Piggy Back, you also in all likelyhood advanced timing. When you "richen" a car with a Piggy Back, you also in all likelyhood retarded timing. Look at trends horizontally (as MAP changes) in an ignition table, and you will see why this happens. This helps explain why so many boosted cars running on the "AFC hack" have issues due to excessive ignition advance.

The bottom line: Piggy Back Controllers suck because you cannot independently adjust fuel and ignition. Any changes to fueling will produce a change in ignition too, and often this is undesirable.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HYREV2NR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">On the factory ECU it's a waste of time. The ECU will fight everything U make changes on & give a CEL. A re-chipped ECU w/ OBD1 is the only way to get it to work properly. </TD></TR></TABLE>

This is not true.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 00-501itrspec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

i dont have a CEL from my vafc 2</TD></TR></TABLE><TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jetydosa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

This is not true.</TD></TR></TABLE>Well, I had a VAFC version 1 that was installed properly on my 01 R & any suttle changes I made would result in a CEL w/in 20 to 30 miles of driving. Maybe my ECU was just a spaz. I now only use my VAFC 2 for monitoring purposes & a shift light since I have Hondata.