Why do teams donot rely on stock ECU's

[Shahzad]

hi all, i belong from an under developed country & we are trying to participate in FSAE ourselves.. Actually i have read that most of the teams use PE or motec ECUU's... I just want to ask why is that? The original ECU that comes with any Fuel injected engine isn't good enough or the software isn't available that is required to operate the stock ECU..

Please Elaborate the senario... Thanking you all in advance http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Shahzad]

hi all, i belong from an under developed country & we are trying to participate in FSAE ourselves.. Actually i have read that most of the teams use PE or motec ECUU's... I just want to ask why is that? The original ECU that comes with any Fuel injected engine isn't good enough or the software isn't available that is required to operate the stock ECU..

Please Elaborate the senario... Thanking you all in advance http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Sormaz]

Mainly due to the air intake restriction, the engine needs to be tuned to achieve desirable performance. While I will admit I have never personally worked with a stock ECU, I believe that they are generally closed source (can't modify the map) which is why teams choose to use 3rd party engine management systems

[B Lewis @ PE Engine Management]

Sormaz - that is s true statement. Stock ECUs generally cannot be modified or tuned. Even without the addition of the restrictor there are significant gains possible to a stock engine by having complete control over the fuel and ignition. Not to mention the extra things that can be done with the additional features of the ECU (datalogging, drive a dash, shift cut, fan control, launch control, etc, etc, etc)

[exFSAE]

So this isn't totally one sided...

Yes, stock ECU's by themselves cannot be adjusted. However, there are piggyback units available (e.g. Power Commander) which allow you to modify maps. A big advantage to running a stock setup (and/or with a piggy back) is even if it isn't PERFECT, it will WORK without having to really screw around with it.

In my experience, we were always dinged in design for using a stock + piggy back system because it didn't show much development (valid), but we also didn't have the resources to really put in ECU development and tuning.

You can take it to the other extreme of doing your own ECU essentially from scratch.. which gives you ultimate flexibility in adding whatever functionality you want. However, you then have to come up with a fuel map entirely from square one. Seems the transient fuel mapping is what bites a lot of teams.

Just an alternate perspective.