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I'm running a piggyback, which is really the only way to go for an S1. For an S2, if you want to replace the existing ECU then buy the one with the most processing power and inputs/outputs you can get. Something like the adaptronic M6000. I haven't really kept up with what features are there now, but you will need the ability to program some behavioural logic into the ECU. If you need to outsource behavioural logic to an external microcontroller like I have, you need lots of inputs/outputs on the ECU. Does the A/T control unit have any serial communications with the ECU? If not, then it shouldn't be too hard to provide the necessary digital or analog signals. Most importantly, is this some racecar or roadcar? IMO you'll regret manualising an auto for a road car. There are workarounds for all the issues of tuning autos. There's tons of 15 year old outdated threads on SAU with misinfo on the problems. I've tuned my S1 and still have ignition retarding on gearchanges. Plus I installed the MV shift kit too. So I know what it's like to have a well set up auto that shifts fast, but still has smooth power delivery on the 1-2 shift without jolting, regardless of whether at part or full throttle. I also know what it's like when the box is operating at full line pressure all the time, and frankly it gets on the nerves real quick. Oh, you're going from neutral to drive or reverse? THUNK

In terms of the auto, what specifically are you looking for in the ECU that makes it different from any other aftermarket ECU for a manual vehicle?

Did the giant picture of a crimping tool in my post give anything away?

Errrr, have you ever opened any electronics in the history of ever? ECUs, controllers and even PCBs in sensors have soldered connections, and they are all subject to vibration. I mean, this is a thoroughly engineered topic that goes well beyond automotive. Vibration testing methods is an aspect of electrical engineering after all. Solder itself isn't the problem. When you make a solid solder connection you form a mechanical system that has a resonant frequency. As long as there is sufficient strain relief and damping of the vibration, it's not going to magically break off. I think my post is pretty clear about the scope of what to use where.

That's not the reason. Plenty of things are soldered in automotive and industrial environments. Soldering heavy gauge wire is not a good idea because the heavy copper sinks away the heat very quickly and if you get the solder to wet, you end up with a giant clump of soldered wire. I have one of these tools to crimp heavy wire: Ive had to do the battery terminals before because there's been a few different battery terminal layouts that needed a longer terminal wire.

I'm working on connecting my ECU to the speed sensors on the C34 stagea, and I'm pulling up a couple of pins for vehicle speed. Just wanted to double check these pins. The wiring diagram says pin 58 is the output shaft rotation speed, which I'm guessing is the speed of the gearbox output driveshaft. Then there is pin 29 which is speed sensor 2. What does this other pin measure? Is it the front wheel speed? I tried to get the info out of the workshop manual, but alas I can't decipher japanese symbols.

Sounds like it would be worthwhile you making a relay harness for the lights. The general concept is that the headlight circuit is made with thicker wire, and is shorter than the factory wiring, both of these lower the circuit resistance and maximise the voltage applied to the headlights. Even small increases in voltage are beneficial as the power usually increases with the square of the applied voltage (but lights also have a positive tempco of resistance, so power increases are probably less than square). The harness also protects your factory wiring, as switching high currents is risky to manual switches. As they degrade, the resistance will increase and cause heat to be dissipated in the switch, and potentially destroying it. This can also happen to relays, but they can be swapped out for less than $10 and 5 mins. It's not so easy replacing a factory switch. With the new harness, you'll only be switching 100mA tops through the factory wiring. See if that all helps the output of 55w bulbs. If not, try seeing if you can find some higher power, maybe labelled "off-road" bulbs around 65w. Since you're talking about high beams, you don't really need to consider dazzling other drivers. As above, I wouldn't recommend 100w globes.

Alright, I've got a cometic one on the way. Are the plastic inserts on the plenum reusable? If the cometic gasket is made from a stiffer material, I'm guessing the plastic will crush down more than the gasket.

I have to replace my plenum gasket on an RB25DET, and it looks like I can get either a genuine Nissan gasket, which I believe is flexible rubber, or a Cometic gasket which I think is a more rigid piece, though it's hard to find info. Cometic doesn't list the info. Looks like the original gasket deformed laterally, basically the seals around the runners got sucked in under vacuum. Not surprising since the factory gasket is just rubber. Does anyone have a recommendation, or info mainly on the Cometic gasket?

The type of fluid can affect the operation under certain circumstances, but not outright failure. Before I replaced my valve body with a modded unit, I replaced the fluid with some inexpensive ATF, maybe valvoline. It caused 3rd and 4th gear to flare a lot, especially on downshifts. In your situation I'd be tempted to look inside the valve body to see if there's any contamination or build up from old fluid like sludge in an engine. The valve body is a made up of 2 plates sandwiched together, which is then bolted to the transmission body. Pretty tough job if you've not done anything like it though. Looking up at the transmission, it's not obvious which bolts are holding the valve body plates together, and which ones are holding the entire valve body onto the transmission. Oh, and if you get it wrong and try to take out the ones holding the valve body plates together before removing the entire body, the bolts snap.

From memory, for 3rd gear both solenoid A & B are off, and 4th gear solenoid A off, solenoid B on. If they weren't working, 1st and 2nd should show problems too. Don't jump to replace them yet.

I would imagine there's no compensation or feedback in the auto ECU's software for the delay between powering the solenoids, and the clutches engaging. I can't see how the ECU would know when the clutches are physically connecting. Since the shift time has decreased, the shift RPM point is now too early. It's been a long time since I put my kit in, and I can't remember the upshift RPM changing, but I have noticed that it doesn't rev out as much as I would like. If it's a big deal to you, you'd be better off going with an aftermarket auto controller. Swapping valve bodies won't address the issue without going backwards in the areas you need (ie shift time, flaring on changes). There's a few things to tweak with the stock mapping anyways, such as line pressure vs engine load (rather than just TPS), lockup clutch engagement conditions, shift points vs engine load (rather than just TPS), or setting up proper timing retarding on upshifts. I've been interested in setting up a controller myself, but nothing has annoyed me enough yet that I haven't been able to solve in other ways with my ECU.

My CAS was temperamental before it died permanently.

Just an older adaptronic unit. Those values are pretty close to what I was expecting and so is the delta. Thanks

Alright thanks I saw those, but need more data points. Those are listed at 14V, but the normal operating range is going to be 12.7 to 13.4V. Even a rough change in time vs voltage. Maybe 80us per volt decrease from 14V to 12V?

So after 25 years, is there a definitive list of values for the stock R33 injector dead times vs supply voltage. I've found a few references to base maps from ECU brands, but the dead times vary. Is it going to be around 0.53ms at 14V?

A little late to the party, but you probably haven't made a move on any option yet, so here's a few things to keep in mind: The short answer is that the S1 stagea can be run with a standalone ECU piggybacked to the standard ECU no problem. The longer answer is that it does require supporting mods, and quite a few tweaks to work well. Be mindful if you really want to, or can, reinvent the wheel here. By which I mean an aftermarket ECU will require you to be able to tweak a whole host of trim tables in varying conditions (eg cold start maps, coolant temp trims, air temp trims, transient throttle conditions etc). You are also talking about now having to remap stock auto trans maps as well (including line pressure maps, which could result in the destruction of the clutches if done improperly). You are setting yourself a mammoth task. The auto trans requires a few mods to work well with an aftermarket ECU (or even just power increases): You will need a modified valve body - I use the MV auto shift kit. Increased resistance value for the line pressure dropping solenoid resistor. Standard is 15R or something, I run a 2-step system with 25R at low loads to keep shifts smooth, then 4.7k above about 130kpa MAP to prevent any slipping since the standard ECU doesn't expect the torque my engine can produce at a given throttle opening. A 2-step system like mine requires an aftermarket ECU with programmable outputs. If you go with an aftermarket ECU, you will lose the ignition retarding logic when the auto shifts under heavy load. Although the shift kit partially addresses the issue by speeding up the shifts, the harshness and loading on the clutches, especially on the 1-2 shift is unacceptable for both comfort and mechanical sympathy/reliability. So far I think I'm the only one to implement a solution for this with an aftermarket ECU. I made a microcontroller based piggyback to monitor the auto trans shifts and communicate with my ECU, in conjunction with negative RPM rate ignition retarding which is a function already built into the ECU. On the engine side of things, there's tons of opinions on RB25 mods, but for stagea specific opinions, don't go a for a big turbo. I run the hypergear RB25 high flow 21U unit, and I wouldn't want any bigger, in fact I'd go a bit smaller. You'll want the response and early spool rpm for the weight of the stagea, and the auto trans. As soon as possible get a wideband exhaust sensor. Otherwise you're flying blind with AF ratios. It's tricky because you'll probably need to put the turbo on first, then get an exhaust made for it, then weld the bung on for the wideband. Only you can judge whether you're willing to try all this yourself. You can't rely on a tuner to do a full map. I paid a fair amount to a reputable tuner for a full tune and looking back at it, it's laughably bad. I had to retune nearly all the map to make all the lower load/rpm an improvement over stock. Also keep in mind what I mentioned about coolant temp enrichments for winter, cold start maps etc..... the list goes on. I have to disagree with Kiwi that the auto trans is guaranteed to die when power is upped to any extent though. I've been running 200awkw for 5 years now. It's not huge numbers, but it's still a considerable increase over stock. I'm more concerned about what effect my early shitty tune had on the engine more than anything. But I've spent those 5 years constantly tweaking things and working on the ECU maps to try different things. Maybe that's part of the fun for me, but keep in mind if that's really the end goal for you.

MOSFETs are great and perfectly acceptable in an automotive environment - if properly protected. The gates must be protected against transient spikes. A few tens of volts can be all it takes to destroy the oxide layer and short the device. Unfortunately cars are terrible with transient spikes. So you'll have to trust that whatever device youre using has been designed by an automotive minded electrical engineer. Not to mention that high currents controlled by PWM are probably going to create transients of their own. Those kinds of MOSFET controllers are going to switch hard and create a lot of high frequency transients. I'd be cautious about those devices which are probably just someone's side project - which isn't intended to be a slight, but creating a rugged device for automotive use is going to take a lot of testing.

A SSR cannot "arc" as part of normal operation. Without an oscilloscope, you can't characterise any particular SSR, except trusting the datasheet. Or trust the ebay listing details - lol. From memory, I was able to use those cheap fotek ones up to switching a 1kHz square wave. But I've never used them in anything critical like a fuel pump. The problem with switching frequency is that you increase the time spent in a transition region between on and off states, where the power dissipated in the switching element is the product of the current and voltage across the device. Eventually it reaches a frequency where the device is floating in a partially on state - which is bad news. I doubt any ECUs take the PWM frequency that high though, they only seem to go to a few hundred Hz tops, and it should be adjustable. Also be sure that you SSR is legit. From memory a youtube creator called Big Clive did a tear down of one, only to find a measly 10-15amp rated TRIAC as the switching element. Anyway, an oscilloscope is the tool to measure this stuff.

YMMV. My MTXL setup with the original sensor has been running fine now for 4 years and 4 months. I have been careful not to leave the ignition on without the engine running. The only thing that has given me pause for thought is the fact that the car has begun to run richer than normal according to the gauge, but I haven't done a free air calibration in ages either.

For the love of Dog, always check nuts and bolts that have been touched by any tyre or suspension shops. Bob Jane tmart left my camber bolt loose once.

In the case of a misfire, the ECU wouldn't necessarily have to do anything. The chemistry of the situation with oxygen in the exhaust will read as lean, whether or not unburnt fuel is present.

Could be a misfire under load.

For the bonnet at least, the generic ebay maxima ones are easy to find, drop right in and they work well. I must have replaced mine circa 2012 and they still hold the bonnet up very firmly. The problem is the boot. Now that I have a good idea of the force, I remember trolling ebay years ago and finding a whole host of generic struts with various attachments on either end. So, on one end look for a ball mount, and on the other, it will require a bit of creativity to mount it to the tailgate.

That's good to know about the force. My struts have held up for another 6 years.