I have a genuine Spoon ecu in my crx. It came with the swap years ago, has all the stickers, etc.

Car runs like a champ, never has any issues, no stuttering, no misfire, no backfires, etc. However, for the longest time, the back bumper quickly gets coated in soot and the spark plugs get carbon deposits on them.

I haven't driven the car very often over the years, and I will be driving it more and would like to resolve this issue before putting it on the road.

A friend suggested that maybe the oxygen sensors were disabled by Spoon. I unplugged them, took the car for a drive, and the CEL did not come on. This leads me to believe they have been disabled.

What would the long term effect/disadvatages of running the car in this condition be?

 

first thing you need to do is get a wideband and see where the afr's are at idle, crusing, and full throttle pulls. if its too rich everywhere than the spoon tune is for a motor that needs more fuel. the best solution would to get a ems and get your car tuned for what you got.

 

This is the ecu that came with the swap, so I'm assuming, it may be chipped/tuned/etc. to this specific motor.

When I purchased the swap, it came with the ecu, spoon vtec controller, j1 LSD tranny and a Mugen header. Keep in mind, this was all purchased back in 2005/06 when this stuff wasn't so rare.

As stated, the car runs like a champ, and I feel it could keep up with my ITR swapped 96 hatch.

I'll look into the wideband idea. Thanks for your input.

 

you can't assume. things like a vtec controller were already outdated in 2005.

 

if its too rich. if this is not your daily and you have access to e85, do a 93/e85 mix to get the afr's comfortable, thats if your not wanting to get ems and get a tune.

 

I may just see if I can locate a standard OBD0 JDM B16 ecu.

I was also considering converting it to obd1 and using a JDM p30 I have laying around.

My main concern is avoiding damage to the motor.

 

is your motor a jdm b16? if yes then the jdm p30 would be fine. i would convert over to obd1 if your obd0 right now.

 

Yes to both questions, it is a JDM motor and it is currently OBD0.

 

convert over to obd1 and use the jdm p30 ecu or go with a ems.

 

If you switched to a PWO or PR3 ECU you would need to hook up the 2 single wire O2 sensors to not throw a code or have highway lugging issues.

 

There is currently two o2 sensors on the header. I would really rather find an OBD0 B16 ecu than anything else.

 

IIRC I may have the ECU you are looking for that I may be willing to let go of. PM me if you are interested.

 

Those "spoon" and other chips disable lots of sensors, run rich and often have timing too advanced. The o2 sensors from the factory are only accurate at 14.7:1 but when enabled it creates fuel trim tables to adjust part-throttle fuel.

The whole purpose of a socketed ecu is to be able to get tuned, a full wideband tune and is the most important part of your setup. Don't skip out on this like many do. Basemaps of any sort will never be perfect as they are just a starting place to begin tuning that particular setup.

 

This is a genuine Spoon tuned ecu. This isn't an ebay chip tossed in an ecu, this is the "real deal" kind of thing.

I picked up a JDM pr3 last night from a local and am going to put it in when I get home from work. I'm going to fill up the tank with some fresh gas, wash the back of the car and see how it does.

If all else fails and this does not work, I will simply convert it to OBD1, toss in my JDM P30 and go from there.

Thanks to all who have contributed, it's appreciated.