i know alot of you may not know me but i have been lurking for a bit now and moved back to the area about 2 years ago after school in western ny. my questions are what are my good fuel management options for a 2000 civic. i have a single overhead (D16y8) with a set of dsm 440 inj. and walbro 255lph fuel pump and a t3/t04 turbo running 7psi im not looking to get all that much more out of the car because i am happy with it the way it is. however i am looking to get a better set up to control fuel in my car. currently i am running a vafc2 to pull back fuel out of the injectors and it also changes the timming a little. this has been running well for me for 3+ years but if i am on the gas at lower speeds and let off the the car bucks like an injured horse. my biggest thing is keeping the car as streetable and legal as possible, i dont mind bending a few rules here and there but i want to have a car that can pass a ny inspection with little to no problem. so what are my options? i know i could swap to an obd1 ecu and chip it but then i cant pass an inspection without doing alot of work unless things have changed since i built the car. i could also do a piggy back but i have heard mixed reviews on this and know some tunners will not tune them. so let me know what you think my best fit would be?
There is no reason why you can’t get the afc 2 tuned to near stock ability given it appears you aren’t applying that much correction. I am sure there are better options for your platform though.
there are no adequate EMS’s that pass nys inspection for obd2 with the exception of the K series. your best bet is to use an adapter harness and convert to obd1, and once a year you swap out stock injectors, remove the adapter and put the stock ecu in. probly about 15-20 minutes of work once a year. its not all that bad.
the point is i dont want to have to go and do that every year and that also means that i have to have two full fuel management options. i have to keep the set up i have now and buy an ecu and conversion harness. thats alot of work for little benifit. if i could do a megasquirt controler that would be good but i thought that replaces the ecu too.
you dont want to work on your car for 30 minutes a year?
there are Zero viable options that give you what you are asking. you either get a tuning system that isnt very good for your application similar to what you ave now or you tune on a standalone/chipped obd1 ecu which is the proper way to tune a honda and swap in stock injectors/ecu once a year to get inspected.
you dont have to keep the setup you have now sell it, when the stock ecu is in the car though you cant beat on it, you can only drive it right to the inspection station and back.
No car is ever tuned. You will always have to tinker with it especially cars with modified fuel. However, piggybacks can be every effective management systems. I’ve made quite a bit of power on it without much tuning knowledge and got several friends in the 9s/10s on a piggyback. Sure, there are better options but it can be a viable one.
on certain applications yes. but on turbocharged honda’s its not a very good one. the stock ecus have no mappings for boost so you are relying completely on the piggy back which only controls fuel. on your ecu shawn the stock ecu is still doing a lot in those boost levels. pulling timing etc. the honda ecu doesnt. at 10psi it still thinks you are at 0psi.
Agreed. Certain cars things just work, others don’t. My old dodge was tuned off the stock PCM fuel/timing maps, running a port fuel EIC 8 injector setup(4 primaries, 4 secondaries) and a MAP check valve(synapse engineering piece actually). Car thought it was at 0hg at WOT when actually running 26-28lbs boost, but I got away with it because the thing ran such f-ing retarded timing from the factory to begin with. Just kept throwing fuel and boost at it like a damn diesel until it stopped making power. “CIS” tuned style EFI :lol
Those that ran an AFC on the boosted 420a’s blew up, as it masked the PCM from TPS load readings and the car advanced timing thinking it was in a cruise situation(highway). Pop, pistons and rods want to say hello!