Questions on stand alone ecu and direct injection

[brn12345]

I am contemplating dedicating my BRZ to track use only and have given much thought on the ability to tune the engine in real time. I know that Motec and Hydra do have stand alone ecu's that can control the oem direct injection, but I would like to run Haltech since I am very familiar with that ecu.


I have looked at all the sensors and actuators on the FA20 and I am comfortable with setting up a stand alone to work with all of them except the direct injection. I do want to retain the direct injection as I can see the benefits. I am trying to understand what signal the OEM ecu sends to the direct injection (ecu, driver) and can this be replicated by a standalone ecu. If not full control I was thinking of having the direct injection turn on statically like a mechanical fuel injection and then use the port injectors as trim. I know earlier on in the life of the FRS/BRZ there was much talk about this though I have yet to find a post that specifically talks about the ability to control the direct injection ecu, driver. Any thoughts?

[RickyB]

It will take a LOT less work to become familiar with another EMS than it will to get a Haltech or AEM or any other EMS that doesn't already have full support for this platform to work (even for a stripped down race-only setup).

For example, to run DI, you not only need very specific signals to drive the direct injectors (which fire at much different times and intervals than the port injectors do), but you also need the EMS to fully control the dump valve on the high pressure fuel pump (which is coupled to one of the variable cams and whose signals must precisely track the position of said cam). You will need the EMS to have maps for direct injection phasing and high pressure fuel rail targets, DI/port mix and several other DI related parameters. The fueling functions of the EMS must know how to properly distribute the required fuel across two very different types and sizes of injectors. In addition, if your EMS is not programmed to output and recognize the correct BRZ/FRS CANbus packets on the CANbus, you will have to replace the entire instrument cluster and figure out alternate ways to get the AC/power steering/ABS/VSC and various other components to work properly.

Unless you have the ability to changes the hardware, firmware and software of the Haltech, I recommend you spend your time learning to tune on the Motec or the Hydra. If you already know how to tune on one EMS, learning a second is not really difficult. You just need to spend some time with the manual and/or help panels and understand the similarities and differences.