I have a known good socketed p28 laying around. If I were to put the chip from my potentially shot p75, would it be able to simply idle my car? I don't plan to drive with it, but I'd rather have 100% confirmation before spending money on a nonvtec ecu. Unfortunately, I can't get my hands on another good nonvtec ecu for testing purposes.

 

No double posts

 

If it's a chipped P75 then yeah, simply swap the chip over.

 

If you have the components in front of you then try it. You could've answered your own question already.

 

Sorry, I'm posting with my pos iPhone and it must've submit twice.

In response to grumble, the only reason I haven't done so is because I wasn't sure if anything negative could happen. The p28 belongs to a friend of mine and I didn't wanna cause any additional damage to his ecu or my car. However, I appreciate the responses. It is a chipped p75, so I will swap the chip over. Is it safe to drive it with the vtec ecu if chipped for the b18b then? I was only interested in using it for testing purposes, but if it can be used permanently I'll just throw him a few bucks for it lol.

 

I guess you don't understand how the "chip" works. If it has maps for the engine you are running then there will be no damage. It's pretty much the same thing as taking a Windows box, wiping the hard drive, and installing Linux. Hardware is the same, unchanged, the operating system, software, is all that is different. Certain ECUs are hardwired to look for minor things but this is not one of those instances.

 

Ok, cool thank you. I understand the maps on the chip, but was unaware of whatever effect the hardware inside a vtec ecu differing from that of a nonvtec ecu would be. I know they can not be interchanged on a vtec engine, but if it works for this instance, great.

 

You can chip a VTEC ECU to "turn off" VTEC because it, in essence, is just ignoring the VTEC circuitry in the ECU and VTEC components on/in the engine. However, you cannot program a non-VTEC ECU to have VTEC because that circuitry is not present.

 

I've been using a chipped P28 for my LS since day one. Grab the P28 off your buddy if you can. That ecu is pretty much the only ecu you'd ever need. Change setup, then change the chip.