88pathoffroad Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 My thoughts: Most people that drive Pathfinders aren't skilled enough to mess with de-soldering the chip, much less programming a new one and troubleshooting the fuel map. One screw-up and you have to buy a new/used ECU... Most Pathfinders are still stock. Headers and cams work well with ECU upgrades but for a stock vehicle an ECU upgrade is generally too expensive with too small of a return. Please prove me wrong! Pathfinders aren't performance vehicles, hence the small following. Performance cars get all the good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitemedoughboy.com Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 My thoughts: Most people that drive Pathfinders aren't skilled enough to mess with de-soldering the chip, much less programming a new one and troubleshooting the fuel map. One screw-up and you have to buy a new/used ECU... Most Pathfinders are still stock. Headers and cams work well with ECU upgrades but for a stock vehicle an ECU upgrade is generally too expensive with too small of a return. Please prove me wrong! Pathfinders aren't performance vehicles, hence the small following. Performance cars get all the good stuff! pathfinders are 300zx's with bigger tires and a fat ass. i just de-soldered my guinea pig ecu and put a socket on it.... when it gets closer to freezing out (it was -5°f this morning, high around 15°) i will plug it into the pathy and see if my soldering is ok. then its up to indigent to get ahold of me so we can nuke the chip and see what happens. i kind of want to burn the stock pathfinder fuel/timing curves into mine (currently running 300zx ecu) to see if it improve the low/mid range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY1PATH Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 well being that ca models run a ca-specifinc ecu (found that out last week) I think I'm gonna wthdraw my TBI gineapig offer since ecu is gonna be harder to come by for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigent Posted December 17, 2008 Author Share Posted December 17, 2008 Sorry about this weekend. My sister got stuck in some snow up on snoqualmie pass on saturday. I had to go get her out. @MY1PATH Completely understandable. If you ever do find another CA ECU and would me to take a look, just let me know. I guess it's up to me and Bitemydoughboy now. Hopefully this weekend? Trust me guys and gals, I will not let this die. It is too much fun. @bitemedoughboy Let me know your work schedule. We could do it any evening (today if you want ). I usually head home around 4-5pm. Do you have any blank eeproms? I don't have a UV eraser. All I have are a few sst27sf512 eeproms. It will be trivial to put the pathy curves into yours. I have poked around the 300zx rom a bunch during my research and already know where to put what. Do you have the 300zx stock injectors and MAF? indigent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msavides Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 one you get this figured out I would be interested in sending you my spare chip and have you program it for me. I have a vg30e. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitemedoughboy.com Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 well being that ca models run a ca-specifinc ecu (found that out last week) I think I'm gonna wthdraw my TBI gineapig offer since ecu is gonna be harder to come by for me why not find a used Federal ECU for "tuning" and keep your cali ECU around in case you have to go in for emmisions testing. i just happen to have a spare ECU sitting on my kitchen counter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5523Pathfinder Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Id be a guinea pig if I was on the other side of the mountians and I had a spare ECU laying around. I might try and find one, just gotta have time to do some poking around. The Pathy is getting a workout right now being the daily driver while the weather is bad and my pickup has a cracked radiator. I could have some real numbers rather quickly as I drive near 100 miles a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY1PATH Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 why not find a used Federal ECU for "tuning" and keep your cali ECU around in case you have to go in for emmisions testing. i just happen to have a spare ECU sitting on my kitchen counter. Because I do no konw what is differant. the plug? unused wires? will the fed ecu have issues with the Ca components? If anybody can prove that the ONLY DIFFEANCE is the ECU itself being more conservative(maybe get more power going fed) I'll get a fed because my current ecu may have been damaged by my "performance injectors" Being a CA model not In CA I am emissions exempt in 49 states. And I think in 2015(truck will be 25) it goes 100% emissions exempt. doughboy do ya think I can try your federal ecu as a replacement? or after what I just said, do you think it will mess things up? Its funny the CA reman ecu Is the LEAST expensive ECU on Parts america($328.99) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burton8it Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 hey i have to extra ecu's for my 92 pathy xe this would be interesting to try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitemedoughboy.com Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Because I do no konw what is differant. the plug? unused wires? will the fed ecu have issues with the Ca components? If anybody can prove that the ONLY DIFFEANCE is the ECU itself being more conservative(maybe get more power going fed) I'll get a fed because my current ecu may have been damaged by my "performance injectors" Being a CA model not In CA I am emissions exempt in 49 states. And I think in 2015(truck will be 25) it goes 100% emissions exempt. doughboy do ya think I can try your federal ecu as a replacement? or after what I just said, do you think it will mess things up? Its funny the CA reman ecu Is the LEAST expensive ECU on Parts america($328.99) there is no difference other than the programing of the ecu.... that im aware of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigent Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 there is no difference other than the programing of the ecu.... that im aware of. That is one major reason I would like to poke around in the CA ecu. I would probably be able to tell almost right away. That would be a big benefit to you as well MY1PATH. If it is just the fuel and timing maps, you would definitely feel some power gains. I would imagine that a greater percentage of the fuel map is set to stoich. That means that those portions of the map are where the O2 and MAF actively monitor and adjust the fuel ratio to 14.7. I have a BIN from a federal 88 ECU. It would be easy to compare the BIN I have to what's in your ECU. I am working on the walkthrough and explanation of what I have done so far, so keep an eye out for it. indigent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 The CA ECU is equipped on vehicles with an exhaust gas temp sensor and all the emissions controls that you'd expect on a Cali model. Dunno about the map in the ECU, I bet it just has an extra line or two to deal with the EGT sensor and emissions operation, etc. I have a spare 89 ECU. It's probably a Cali model. I'd have to find it in the garage and look up the serial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitemedoughboy.com Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 i flipped through the EF&EC section of my 87 FSM... no sign of any mention of CA emmisions in it( i could have missed it), in my 300zx FSM there is very little difference in the ECU's except the CA model uses the variable resistor part of the TPS and not just the idle switch... yes the z31's only used the idle switch portion of the TPS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitemedoughboy.com Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 i flipped through the EF&EC section of my 87 FSM... no sign of any mention of CA emmisions in it( i could have missed it), in my 300zx FSM there is very little difference in the ECU's except the CA model uses the variable resistor part of the TPS and not just the idle switch... yes the z31's only used the idle switch portion of the TPS. did you get a chance to read the chip yet? let me know.... i'll keep a lookout for an 87 or newer 300zx ecu so we can burn the eprom (eeprom?). or i can look on ebay for an 8bit eeprom chip so we can experiment. send me a link to the tuning software and email me the .bin files so i can play with them once you get them copied. oh and if your interested i know a few local kids that run SR20's and pay jim wolf around 650 per ecu to chip them and 150/shot to re-burn the maps in them. you could make some serious dough off the local ricers if you wanted to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigent Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 did you get a chance to read the chip yet? let me know.... i'll keep a lookout for an 87 or newer 300zx ecu so we can burn the eprom (eeprom?). or i can look on ebay for an 8bit eeprom chip so we can experiment. send me a link to the tuning software and email me the .bin files so i can play with them once you get them copied. oh and if your interested i know a few local kids that run SR20's and pay jim wolf around 650 per ecu to chip them and 150/shot to re-burn the maps in them. you could make some serious dough off the local ricers if you wanted to... I was actually able to install a 28pin eeprom socket onto this 85 ecu. I had to rewire some jumpers and basically trick the hd6802 processor into thinking that's ok, but it should work. I am going to dump the pathy maps into the 300zx bin file i have from a different 85. One problem though. I did some inspecting on this ecu you gave me, and there is a blown 10k resistor on the main board. It is part of a voltage regulator circuit for one of the injector amplifier circuits. I don't know if it is bad because I can't test this thing. I know you said you have another 85 ecu around, so we may have to swap the daughterboard I modified into the ecu with a good main board if this one is bad. Not a real big deal, but a small snag. Hopefully this main board is good and wont cause any issues. Also there are some leaking capacitors on the board. I am sifting through my crap to try and find a suitable replacement. I cannot wait to get this thing into your rig dude! I will be calling you tomorrow afternoon. The tuning software I am playing with is the freely available live edit. You can either search for it, or I will give it to you when I bring you your ecu. The software is pretty rough, but it works with a pocket romulator. The main problem with using all of the Nissan tuning community software is that the pathy is 100% absent from it. I had to create my own address files from scratch. I will be making those available as well. Merry Christmas All. indigent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitemedoughboy.com Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 I was actually able to install a 28pin eeprom socket onto this 85 ecu. I had to rewire some jumpers and basically trick the hd6802 processor into thinking that's ok, but it should work. I am going to dump the pathy maps into the 300zx bin file i have from a different 85. One problem though. I did some inspecting on this ecu you gave me, and there is a blown 10k resistor on the main board. It is part of a voltage regulator circuit for one of the injector amplifier circuits. I don't know if it is bad because I can't test this thing. I know you said you have another 85 ecu around, so we may have to swap the daughterboard I modified into the ecu with a good main board if this one is bad. Not a real big deal, but a small snag. Hopefully this main board is good and wont cause any issues. Also there are some leaking capacitors on the board. I am sifting through my crap to try and find a suitable replacement. I cannot wait to get this thing into your rig dude! I will be calling you tomorrow afternoon. The tuning software I am playing with is the freely available live edit. You can either search for it, or I will give it to you when I bring you your ecu. The software is pretty rough, but it works with a pocket romulator. The main problem with using all of the Nissan tuning community software is that the pathy is 100% absent from it. I had to create my own address files from scratch. I will be making those available as well. Merry Christmas All. indigent. sweet, im doing the xmas thing with my kids friday, but shoudl be available after that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Wow, I totally forgot this thread! I have not looked at it since before the 30i's came into it! I live over by Olympia and am very interested in this for my 88 30i. I have aftermarket cams installed and will hopefully be installing the headers sitting in the garage in the next couple months.. maybe sooner if I can get to it or come up with the extra cash if I must have a shop do it. If remapping the chip can allow the truck to take better advantage of the cams/headers then I am all for it. I'll start looking around for another ECU, if your up for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY1PATH Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 One problem though. I did some inspecting on this ecu you gave me, and there is a blown 10k resistor on the main board. It is part of a voltage regulator circuit for one of the injector amplifier circuits. I don't know if it is bad because I can't test this thing. one of the things that came up when I was having vehicle problems (last week was it?) was a mechanics "identefix buletin" that stated Bad injectors(electrically bad not just leaky) can harm an ECU. I think I got somewhat lucky in this situation because it seems to run fine once I swaped the injectors. That is one major reason I would like to poke around in the CA ecu. I would probably be able to tell almost right away. That would be a big benefit to you as well MY1PATH. If it is just the fuel and timing maps, you would definitely feel some power gains. maybe after I get back from cali in mid JAN I'll consider finding out what happens if I just by plug in a federal ecu. or if 88 finds his ca you can compare the differances and give me some assureance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigent Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 Wow, I totally forgot this thread! I have not looked at it since before the 30i's came into it! I live over by Olympia and am very interested in this for my 88 30i. I have aftermarket cams installed and will hopefully be installing the headers sitting in the garage in the next couple months.. maybe sooner if I can get to it or come up with the extra cash if I must have a shop do it. If remapping the chip can allow the truck to take better advantage of the cams/headers then I am all for it. I'll start looking around for another ECU, if your up for it The 30I's aren't technically in it. The only reason I can do what I am doing to bitemedoughboy's is the fact that he has put the mpfi setup into his, basically turning it into a vg30e. I haven't gotten to the point where I can actually do a base tune on these myself. I just don't know enough yet. Once I get all of the hardware I bought myself for Christmas, I will begin to play with mine and actually do some tunes. I am even toying around with some ideas on building my own dyno. bitemedoughboy tossed some good ideas my way and I want to try them out. For now though, the extent of the "tuning" I can do is stick maps from different vg30 equipped cars into the pathy ROM. Once I figure the rest out, I will tell all. indigent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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