VG30E Ecu Rom Tuning.

[Nefarious]

hey all, I am preparing to begin tuning my pathfinder. It's a 93 WD21 with a 97 R50 VG33E swap. It has a free-flowing intake, as well as OBX headers, 2.5" exhaust, full EGR delete, etc.. but is still running the factory VG30E ecu, injectors, intake manifold, etc..

 

I can tell with all the changes to that have been made to the truck, the factory tune is just not doing the truck justice, I know I can get a lot more power out of this setup now with a good tune. I am also planning on swapping my old VG30E cams into the truck at the same time so the tune will be needed even more. I have a bag of solid bridged, gold plated connector EPROM sockets and I'm going to get a spare ECU to play around with.

 

My question is does anyone else on this forum do their own tunes? Any good tune files .bin etc hosted on here? I looked but couldn't find anything. I'm kind of surprised there isnt a lot of resources for information for tuning pathfinders. It's a far easier ecu to work with than what I have in my 240SX which is 16 bit and requires a daughterboard (I run a Nismotronic in there and love it but it was expensive and I don't want to buy another one lol).

 

Anyways I will keep up with working on getting an ecu ready to tune but if anyone can supply some maf VQ tables or bin files for a pathfinder ecu (VG30E), even maf VQ tables from a maxima or other nissan with a bigger maf is fine, I plan on running some larger injectors (Q45), larger MAF(Maxima, z32, q45 etc), larger throttle body (prob q45) and larger intake tube to match the rest of the big pipes.

Edited January 12, 2013 by Nefarious

[Nefarious]

Also would a different ecu, possibly one with a CONSULT plug work? I remember someone did a M30 ecu swap before, is that also 8 bit? Does it have consult?

[Kingman]

M30s are 16 bit (I think) and consult.

 

Hop over to Z31performance.com and look around there. Here's two links from redz31.net with tunes and a rommulator how-to.

 

http://redz31.net/pages/fuel/romulator.html

 

http://redz31.net/pages/fuel/bin.html

[Nefarious]

Thanks kingman!! That's bloody perfect. Exactly what I was looking for! Man I love Npora!!

 

This will be perfect for the mid mount turbo setup on the vg33e too

 

Hey who do I contact for some stickers? I been a member here for ages and I still have no Npora sticker on my rig! It's just not right...lol

Edited January 12, 2013 by Nefarious

[Nefarious]

The m30 is 16 bit hey, blah don't want that then. I want to stick with the simplicity of the 8 bit ecu, one 16 bit is enough to work with lol.

 

Has anyone here used a z31 ecu in a pathfinder? Does it support consult? I see its 8 bit as well.. what about the harness? Plug and play or cut and splice?

Edited January 12, 2013 by Nefarious

[Kingman]

Haha yeah, me. Ran the whole Z31 setup in mine. No consult, only thing you can do with it is Nistune it or add a rommulator.

[Slartibartfast]

My1path put an M30 ecu in his Pathfinder. It's supposedly easier to hack that in than to hack in a z31 computer, a little smoother, and compatible with nistune.

 

the z31 ecu is probably the worst ecu to use. they had firing order issues with the injectors and many of them were recalled and hot wired to become bank fire instead of sequential fire. If your looking for easy, pull everything from an MPFI Pathfinder, all the harnesses go the right places and lay right.

 

The M30, early maxima and pathfinder ECU are all very similar in terms of smooth running, idle quality and error free operation.

Simply put, the m30 ECU has more capabilities and is a little more performance friendly when it comes to doing modifications to the engine. (better MAF and programming for that MAF and a tiantia o2 sensor and associated programming)

 

I believe Nistune will do a pathfinder ECU but it would be on a case by case basis. where as the type 2 Nistune board (for m30 and other cars) is part of their line up.

^^from my1path's thread, I can't vouch for the info as I only sort of understand it!

Edited January 13, 2013 by Slartibartfast

[Nefarious]

hmm... that's good to know about the z31 ecu problems...i definitely won't use one of those then.. im going to do some research and see if the m30 ecu is 8 bit or 16 bit...the maxima ecu is also good too hey? does it come with consult like the m30? i could get a maxima ecu for dirt cheap around here.

[Nefarious]

having a really hard time finding any information on swapping a maxima ecu into a pathfinder, I may just have to do it and figure it out myself. From what i have read they use a 80 mm maf as well! That alone would be a huge bonus with all the increase in air flow i have.

[MY1PATH]

M30 is NisTune compatible, type 2 board which uses consult cable, I did the swap but it was from WD21 TBI to M30 MPFI
I still haven't bought Nistune.

I think Pathfinder ECU is also Nistune compatible but I think its a NisTune type 1 board which uses USB. I think I saw ONE in discussions; the guy had to send down under for them to map for compatibility.
Chances are, since they did one, they saved the map and they can just send you an install kit w/o you sending it out. If you are bad at solder you can still send it out or have a local pro do it when the kit shows up.

 

The pathfinder ecu shares allot of the refinements that made it and the m30 ECU so much better than the early z31 ecu's.
If you already have MPFI I would call Nistune vs all the effort of wd21 MPFI to M30 MPFI

[Nefarious]

Well I am kind of thinking of just Rom tuning the m30 ecu, if I can find an 8 bit consult supporting vg30e ecu then I can tune very cheap. I am in electronics tech school right now so wiring/soldering is a non issue. For just 40$ for a chip burner and pennies for the 8 bit eeproms and eeproms sockets which I already have I can be up and running but without a consult it makes it way harder to Rom dump my factory tune to work with. I also want to run full time onboard datalogging and engine diagnostics and stats which I can do very cheap with ecutalk. The capabilities of the consult alone are huge in my books. I wish Nistune wasn't so spendy!!

 

I already run Nismotronic in my 240sx and don't really want to shell out another 600 for tuning my pathy. Plus I really want to learn to rom tune. Hmm, must weigh the options...

[Nefarious]

I wonder if theres a way to add consult to the pathy ecu, would sure be a lot cheaper and easier than swapping to the m30 ecu. I know the 240 crowd has done it with the ka24e 8 bit ecu. Adding consult to their existing ecu rather than swapping in the ka24e stanza ecu which has consult built in.

[Slartibartfast]

Maybe look into how the consult went into the KA ecu and see if there's anything in common with the VG30. If it's a matter of tapping into pins on something, you could look up datasheets and maybe figure out where to hook in.

 

If the eproms (I sort of know what that means LOL) chip in the ECU is removable/reprogrammable, what're the chances the same chip is used in some other ECU, and would therefore plug right into a chip burner made for something else?