Powell, I agree with you. The tuner is not the question rather what the members think about running a standalone. Years back it was important to me to use the factory DME. Now I could careless. I am very interested in seeing what your build does.

 

I always run what works best for my application.. Not that i dont care about what my customers think but its my time and wallet and whatever will yield me the best results on my setup is what i go with.. just sayin..

Mike

 

If you can get around smog checking I say do it, you have so much more room to tune and failsafes and more data back. Downfall not many have gone this route it will be a bit of trial and error to get the best tune out of the car.

It's 4k to get an elaborate stock DME tune from vendors that have reliable cars. That half a motec you could adjust yourself as I know your a knowledgable car guy tim

 

OS, Good points and as a matter of fact the MoTec cost is not the problem its the smog issue. Next problem I feel is the dashboard. Will the time date air temp A/C No CEL's that type of stuff. Or just throw the MoTec dash in? Hell no the fat kid needs A/C so that must work too. HAHA.

 

too bad you're not in NJ, stickers just fall onto your windshield

 

On a side note I always pondered the whole Motec idea myself.

 

[quote=Tim941NYC;3118891]OS, Good points and as a matter of fact the MoTec cost is not the problem its the smog issue.quote]


Tim,this was my point earlier and one of the reasons i am worried about TT a Lambo.They use a Motec on the big builds and until i see one pass through the computer i am worried about having to jump through hoops to get one to pass in NY.In other states that don't emissions test the way they do here and this is a no brainer and i would have already had a motec in my car.

 

The air temp / AC controls are all a seperate system if memory serves me correctly. I know in our car we recently ditched the factory dash in favor or an AIM unit and still have control over the AC and other vehicle comfort features. When we first installed it we did have a circus of lights on the dash from taking over the DBW, PSM, etc.

I'm not quite familiar with emissions testing because Florida is quite lax in that department, but from what I've been told when integrating a Motec with factory ECU, the vast majority of emission controls can be made "functional" or appear as so, it's just a matter of knowing what they'll be looking for, and having the appropriate number of outputs to address or fake out those systems.

 

In NY only one OBD2 fuctiion of the test can be in the "not ready state.None can fail and turning them off through the stock ecu does not work because they show up as not ready.

 

Why don't you just set the codes to ready in the DME? It is possible in the ME7.8, it is not like the old LS1Edit days where you have to turn off. I think even HP Tuners now has the option to set the codes to ready with the LS1s. Our emissions are the same in Houston. It can't be turned off, it has to be set to Ready.

 

Yup,they will not renew your registration here if it doesnt pass .

I put the straight cats on and put pump gas in and go for a drive and it passes.done! The only codes my car will throw is a occasional misfire on cold start which is mostly due to the VP120 and the cold and the secondary o2.I have been putting cats on it up till now because I have been to lazy to take the ecu out and send it out while I was driving it.Since its winter I am going to send it out.(Remember you can only jave one not ready.)Is this a god enough explanation ?

 

Yes Chris,that works but you can only have one set to ready but not go through the test cycle(on my car I will use this for the secondary o2's) which works for a stock ecu and a piggy setup but as far as o know not a full motec.

 

I still don't see the advantage of a using standalone over Bosch 7.8DME, except if you want to tune it yourself. Correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that most people, including race teams, can't crack the 7.8 DME code so they use something they can tune like a Motec. Proto and others have built high HP cars on E85 where much greater fuel delivery is needed using 160 lb injectors, extra pump, etc.. The 7.8 DME does an excellent job on big HP cars and you don't have to worry about smog. Heck you can pass emissions with a catless system, if you have the right tune.

 

I'm not a smog expert but in CA they plug into your OBDII and do a sniffer test. I don't think having very similar O2 sensor readings would be problematic. If you have a very clean burning tune, the values would not differ much whether you have a cat or not.

 

Again, if you have a clean burning tune, 1:1 stoich, your primary and secondary O2 values will not differ (in theory) regardless of whether you have a cat in place or not. They are not going to fail you just because your O2 values don't differ, at least not in CA.