ECU Recommendations

[TwedleJoe]

Researching ECU options for my R400 to upgrade from the unlockable Caterham one. I have looked at Emerald and SBD but am sure there are 100's of other options. Anyone have experience/advice they would like to share and make a recommendation?

 

I just up-tuned the motor with headwork, roller barrels and dry sump and am prepping for a dyno trip. Nothing done to the lower end BTW.

[yellowss7]

I have the MBE from SBD and I had Steve do a remote tune. Worked fine.

[The Stig]

I’ve used Omex in the past on a number of different cars and always found a suitable unit. http://www.omextechnology.co.uk/

[Ferrino]

I'm also in the market for an ECU for my Duratec build. Emerald K6 is top of my list, since they offer Caterham wiring looms and should have a pretty good base map. I've also found them very responsive to e-mails.

 

Other contenders are Omex 600 and the MBE 9A4. I'm not sure how easy it is to get a US dyno operator to use the different software, since they're not that common over here?

[Croc]

For a long time there, the Emerald was considered a "hard to tune" in the US as not many people were permitted to by the company. Has this changed meaningfully? Lots of people use it - very popular usage on our cars. I have not had much exposure otherwise.

 

I have an older Omex ECU on the Cossie and works fine. Needs a retune but the dyno guys 100 yards from my garage have a AWD roller set up and know Omex. Wont help you as they are wrong side of the country from you. Not sure about the distribution of US based dyno knowledge otherwise.

 

For MBE, the approach for locked Caterham systems is to rent Steve at SBD in the UK and do it remotely. He takes control of the dyno and remotely tunes it on a dyno here. Quite a few have done it that way to great success. I suspect Beachman Racing also has a west coast solution for this re locked MBE ECU. For unlocked MBE ECUs you can use any shop with a decent dyno guy who downloads the easimap software from the internet. I know a few who have done this without problem.

 

One key question - what are you doing for wiring harness? Custom or off the shelf?

[xcarguy]

I have an older Omex ECU on the Cossie and works fine. Needs a retune but the dyno guys 100 yards from my garage have a AWD roller set up and know Omex. Wont help you as they are wrong side of the country from you.

 

Can your guy remote tune Omex?

[Ferrino]

Emerald: I'm pretty sure the K6 is an "open" ECU, that can be tuned by any shop. They told me they could even help the dyno operator remotely, using TeamViewer.

 

MBE: so are the ones supplied by Caterham "locked", while aftermarket ones are "unlocked"? I quite like the idea of it being done remotely by SBD, assuming I can find a compliant shop here.

 

Harness: if there is a ready-made harness that suits the Caterham chassis and Duratec engine layout, I'd probably buy that, but I'm able to make my own custom harness too.

[JohnCh]

Croc, are you thinking of a different manufacturer (or perhaps started your Gin & Tonic vacation a little early)? I bought my first ECU from Emerald in 2004 and upgraded that to K3 a few years later. Neither ECU was locked, the tuning software was free for anyone to download, they provide a free starter map based on their extensive library, and offered to speak with my dyno operators if needed. Great support and the software is very easy to use.

 

When I installed my Duratec I rolled my own engine loom, but replaced that a couple of years ago with one from Emerald. Wish I did that from the start. Very well made, fully labeled, and they'll customize it to fit your installation.

 

-John

[Croc]

Can your guy remote tune Omex?

 

Doubt it. He was surprised when I talked about using his dyno to have Steve at SBD do a future Caterham retune. Clearly never done it before. So at least I have a local Caterham tune person myself on the locked ECU. Or I can just use the secret password I suppose...

 

 

 

MBE: so are the ones supplied by Caterham "locked", while aftermarket ones are "unlocked"? I quite like the idea of it being done remotely by SBD, assuming I can find a compliant shop here.

 

Harness: if there is a ready-made harness that suits the Caterham chassis and Duratec engine layout, I'd probably buy that, but I'm able to make my own custom harness too.

 

Yes thats it. If you buy an ECU from Caterham or even a Caterham one from SBD, it will be locked with a password. But you can just buy an unlocked MBE from SBD and tune it yourself via the easimap software and the password they give you.

 

If you have it done by SBD then keep in mind he does it during UK business hours. California is quite a bit slower than the UK/East Coast/Majority of the World... :jester: Not many dyno tuners are open at 6am Pacific.

 

For harness, I am not sure there is a ready made one other than Caterham. They sell it in in 3 chunks - chassis harness, switch harness, engine harness. Not cheap - probably GBP1000 that way?

 

Simon at Meteor Motorsports in the UK has a connection for a custom harness but that has a pretty lengthy lead time.

 

I am aware of these guys below. No idea if they are any good. They have a generic kit car wiring harness - probably exactly what you need. If you go with an Emerald ECU and a Duratec then they sell their own engine harness.

https://www.autosparks.co.uk/

 

 

 

Croc, are you thinking of a different manufacturer (or perhaps started your Gin & Tonic vacation a little early)?

 

Would you stop! You are like the uncle that turns up at Thanksgiving, gets drunk, farts, gropes Aunt Mabel and generally make a nuisance of himself.

 

No. I went back searching this forum. A long time past, there were a bunch of issues with Emeralds on Dunnell engines where the tune would be locked down. Another factor was likely TMW and Birkin. Having re-read the problems the issue was not so much the Emerald as it was Dunnell locking owners out of their ability to reset the tune, i.e. identical to Caterham with MBE.

 

Its the problem knowing so much, you forget the important bits! :svengo:

[wemtd]

There are others as well... my car has a Haltech. Tbox is using a Typhoon ECU's in the cars he builds. One advantage is none of these are locked. You just need to find a trustworthy tuner.

Edited November 29, 2019 by wemtd

[JohnCh]

Yada yada yada, yada yada yada, yada yada yada, yada yada yada...

 

So to summarize, you were wrong. Glad I could help clarify. Shane, it's your turn! :jester:

 

-John

[Ferrino]

Thanks Croc. Emerald makes a harness specifically for a Duratec in a Caterham:

 

http://www.emeraldm3d.com/duratec-caterham-wiring-harness-loom-for-emerald-ecu.html

 

I'm making my own chassis harness and will probably use this Emerald engine harness if I go with their ECU (which I probably will).

[Croc]

So to summarize, you were wrong. Glad I could help clarify. Shane, it's your turn! :jester:

 

-John

 

Let’s be honest on this forum. Men are never wrong. The results of their failures are usually pretty spectacular though! :-p

[xcarguy]

So to summarize, you were wrong. Glad I could help clarify. Shane, it's your turn! :jester:

 

-John

 

You’re doing great....and I’m enjoying the moment.:lurk::smilielol5:

[panamericano]

So to summarize, you were wrong. Glad I could help clarify. Shane, it's your turn! :jester:

 

-John

 

Not just Thanksgiving. It's like an early Christmas.

[tajordan]

My R400 has an AEM EMS-4 in it. I just bought the car so I'm still learning about it, but it seems like a decent unit. I can try to answer any questions you might have.

[Sean]

In Southern California, Bisi at Bisimoto Engineering has hands-on experience tuning Duratec Caterhams with MBE ECUs as well as some other brands of ECUs the names of which I cannot recall, although Bisi had help from Magnus at the time, and Magnus has since moved away from So Cal. Steve at SBD or Simon at Meteor Motorsport are good reference sources of MBE info. At one time, SBD could supply harnesses for a variety of MBE applications, and probably still can.

[BruceBe]

For those doing power upgrades to their existing Caterham Sevens with MBE controllers, the easiest path is an aftermarket MBE 9A4, which is pin-compatible with the "locked" factory MBE's.

 

For those wishing to upgrade *exactly* along the Caterham specification curve (e.g. R300->R400->R500), we might have a very cost-effective solution for you. PM/email for details.

 

Cheers,

-Bruce

[Cat7even]

When I upgraded to a 1.8K series I decided to use an Emerald. The base map allowed me to run the engine without op much hassle and the self learning loop worked like a treat. Ten years later I dropped by with Emerald themselves to have the car properly mapped after a rebuild. The only place they had to change more then a few % was low down around 2500rpm ... you don’t spend enough time there with different throttle positions for the car to learn.

 

 

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[Road Ready]

You guys are so far beyond me re: ECUs!

 

I know where it is. In the effort to fix my issue I grounded it externally. That was a pain in the ass and didn't help. How do you guys access the ECU? Remove the passenger seat and lie on your back with a headlight?

 

My ZETEC is running rich at idle. My guru says it might be any ECU problem. He's very diligent but I don't know where I should be focussing my efforts now. Who idles for long anyway?