ECU, what would you buy and why, MBE or Emerald?

[The Pikey]

Trying to decide on a ECU for my new build and currently it's between Emerald or MBE. Can anyone offer any suggestions which way is best to go?

 

thanks

Jason

 

 

[Irrelevant]

I thought the unwritten rule was to pick a tuner (or whomever will map it) and then ask what ECU they recommend?

[The Pikey]

Im not fussed where it's goes for mapping really, if I buy Emerald then it will go to them or if it's MBE it will go to Northamton motorsport or the two Steves.

 

Just wondering if one is better than the other?

 

jason

 

 

[Doug]

Any reason for these two in particular?

 

I was torn between Emerald and OMEX. Probably going to go for an OMEX 600.

 

Sorry to not answer your question fully!

 

'Have you any idea what it's like to have the wind rushing through your hair!' (Quote:Sq Cdr the Lord Flashheart)

[The Pikey]

Doug

 

I'm considering the MBE simply because it's standard fit by CC. The emerald offers a map switch which means I can go for one mapping session and this will give me a IVA map and a road map at the flick of a switch.

 

Haven't really looked at Omex but maybe I should.

 

thanks

Jason

 

 

[oilyhands]

Feature wise there isn't much to choose between them although the MBEs usually run batched injection rather than groupoed or fully sequential.

 

Availability of maps and generl expertise might be a factor.

 

Oily

[Racing Snake]

Jason speak to Steve Greenald for the facts

Track & Road

The only place to get your 7 mapped

Drop me an email if you want his mobile number

 

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Mad Hatter Racing - Feel The Duralight R Torque 😬 Carl @ Penn 7's Caution - May Contain Nuts !

[Racing Snake]

He might be able to do you a good deal on an ECU

Let him know i put you on to him Jason

 

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Mad Hatter Racing - Feel The Duralight R Torque 😬 Carl @ Penn 7's Caution - May Contain Nuts !

[oilyhands]

"The only place to get your 7 mapped"

 

I know of at least 150 seven owners who would disagree..

 

No disrespect intended to Road and Track, they do an excellent job but it's always worth getting both sides of any story.

 

Oily

[A Ashby]

[Irrelevant]

Trying to decide on a ECU for my new build and currently it's between Emerald or MBE

You sure . . . . Motecs are nice and shiney

[charlie_pank]

Emerald, every time. Then you have access to it with your own laptop, so when a sensor starts misbehaving, you can plug it in and see what's wrong. Also, I don't know about the others but Emerald has a fantastic self-mapping feature for fueling if you have a wideband lambda probe, so any engine mods you make, you won't need to fork out for another RR session, and you can have perfect fueling right through the map.

 

back here because I want to be.

[Dave B]

Sorry for the hijack but does any Emerald work in the self mapping function ( with wide band lamda ) or only the later ones. Mine is about 7 years old.

 

Dave B

[Grubbster]

Just the later ones - you might be able to get yours modified though, check the serial number and the website - M3DK to K3 (serial number 41272 or higher only)

 

 

Solent Se7ens Web!

[Racing Snake]

Oily as ever there are two sides to everything

But i know how accurate Steve & Steve are at Track and Road

I spend my time doing my homework and getting other peoples opinions based on experience before i let anyone near my car

I also know a few Lotus specialists who know Steve Greenald very well and the same answer comes back every time.

And its a *thumbup* For Track & Road what ever car you want mapped

 

 

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Mad Hatter Racing - Feel The Duralight R Torque 😬 Carl @ Penn 7's Caution - May Contain Nuts !

[oilyhands]

I have indirirect experience of the two Steves on a number of engines prepared by me and direct experience of Dave Walker at Emerald on a large number. Both do a fine job of mapping the appropriate ECU. Dave tends to stick to Emerald mapping as he is always booked to the gunnels and hasn't time to spare to map other types of ECU. The two Steve's tend to do MBEs. DW also does a very accurate job and I have watched him do just that many, many times.

 

My experience of Emerald spans 15+ years and 200+ engines and I have yet to see an unhappy customer.

 

In my view the Emerald is a more approachable ECU from an owners perspective , requiring no additional hardware or software to map it.

 

Oily

[Racing Snake]

If i may just correct you on one point Oily

The two Steve's map all ECU's including Emerald

 

 

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Mad Hatter Racing - Feel The Duralight R Torque 😬 Carl @ Penn 7's Caution - May Contain Nuts !

[charlie_pank]

Get an Emerald and a wideband and so long as you can get the engine to start, you won't need a rolling road anyway!

 

back here because I want to be.

[Paul Deslandes]

so how do you adjust the ignition timing? Mapping is not just about fuelling and the ignition being out can cause as much poor performance and damage as incorrect fuelling.

 

DTA is worth a look as well. Their software is feature-rich and reasonably intuitive to use - more so than MBE Easimap -and the closed loop fuel mapping works with a number of preset wide and narrow band lambda sensors including the Innovate LC1. The two Steves do these ECUs as well as about 25 others.

 

 

[charlie_pank]

so how do you adjust the ignition timing? Mapping is not just about fuelling and the ignition being out can cause as much poor performance and damage as incorrect fuelling.

 

I have been led (correctly or incorrectly) to believe that unless you change the shape of the combustion chamber, the ignition timing will not need changing for a given octane rated fuel. The Emerald comes with standard igniion maps for lots of engines. I only needed to tweak the spark map to ramp up the advance towards 0 rpm to give a steady idle.

 

I'm very happy to be corrected on this and would be very interested to learn under what circumstances and how ignition mapping should be altered away from standard.

stances

 

back here because I want to be.

[Paul Deslandes]

I'm sure you're right about standard engines for which, as you say, there are numerous ignition maps available and only need a bit of tweaking to get the idle right. Because of the inevitable variability, the 'off the shelf' ignition and fuel map settings are sometimes described as 'rich and retarded', (a comment equally applicable to some of the owners). A rolling road session will eke out the maximum power by optimising the ignition and fuel mapping but how much difference you'd actually be able to discern on the road is questionable.

 

 

[Racing Snake]

Come on guys

You cant and should not even consider trying to map your own engines

This is a black art and takes years of experience to get it right

Most of the sprinters use the two Steve's and for a good reason, they want to win.

The first trip with YOB to the two Steve's was an experience i wont forget.

I thought my 7 was great performance wise but the additional of a cat to comply with MSA rules meant a rolling road session would be wise

Well one run on the rollers and i could see the map was carp

5 hours later and in the small hours Steve made me take it out on a road test

OMG it was 100 % improved and so responsive, better mpg too

Infact it was so responsive i spun it on the way home

If you value your 7's powerplant get it on the rolling road and set up, money well spent

 

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Mad Hatter Racing - Feel The Duralight R Torque 😬 Carl @ Penn 7's Caution - May Contain Nuts !

[charlie_pank]

I suspect that the reason more people don't self map is the attitude that it is a 'black art/black box' or they would rather spend their time doing other things. True, before self-mapping was available, it was almost impossible to get a perfect setup without an RR session, but this is why I'm advocating the Emerald, with self-map.

 

With fuel self-mapping, for each point in the throttle-pos/rev map you get to specify an AFR - the ECU then uses the info from the wideband to make it happen. It doesn't matter whether you're sprinting or pootling through town, the optimal fuelling for a map-point is the same (14.7:1) as the power-output increases you add a bit more fuel to cool the inlet valve, but that's it.

 

How would an RR setup differ, apart from covering fewer points on the map in a session?

 

 

 

 

back here because I want to be.