99 Montero ECU, 92 Stealth TT

[aaronatstate]

After some investigation, it was discovered that 98 and 99 Montero ECUs shared the same circuit board with 98 and 99 VR4s. There are a few differences in the boards. The Montero board is missing 39 pieces, and has 4 that the VR4 board does not.

However, most of these missing pieces, are not needed for the majority of people who want a tuneable ECU. They are for things like the stock boost gauge, boost control, active exhaust, and a few other small things. One thing its missing is 2 of the 4 02 sensor paths, not a big deal for 1g cars, but the stuff would need to be soldered on for 2g's, or people who need OBDII. The most major thing missing, is the 3 pieces in the knock sensor circuit. Once the correct surface mount parts are soldered in, it works just fine.

Anyway, I had an adapter harness made for me, that included an OBDII port, and flashing enabler cable. I got it from a Brett, and it is awesome. The only problem was the AC controls weren't hooked up 100%, but Gatecrasher and I managed to figure it out, and got the AC working.

So Gate and I got it installed, and we flashed 99 VR4 code onto the ECU. Flashed it for 450cc injectors, and started it up. Started up like stock. After doing a few test drives, was getting knock, just like my original ECU with SAFC. Got into editing the timing tables. First thing that needed to be done was to account for the latency differences between the 1g cam sensor, and the 2g cam/crank setup. After calculating that at different RPMs, and taking out an additional 2 degrees for my higher compression pistons, and all the knock went away. Also all the knock I was getting at low RPMs and high load, i.e. flooring it in 5th at highway speeds is now gone as well.

So I know have a 92 Stealth TT, running a 99 Montero ECU, with 99 VR4 code. I have 13t's set to 14psi, 450cc injectors, all the other supporting modes, running 91 octane, and not a lick of knock. Also have a fully flashable ECU, and the best part is, my total investment will be about $450 bucks, for the ECU, harness, and a Tactix Openport 2.0. Another amazing thing is, it has 100% stock driveability, I got 24.4mpg with it, and its only using 1 02 sensor for right now, and no tuning has been done on the closed loop stuff yet.

TL : DR - 99 Montero flashable ECU with 99 VR4 code running a 92 Stealth TT with bigger injectors, and bigger turbos. Stock driveability, and full control.

Anyway here are some videos.

[ChargerX3]

Might as well subscribe here as well...

[aaronatstate]

Might as well subscribe here as well...

[ChargerX3]

[CoreyB]

Pretty cool. Nice work.

[DocWalt]

Snazzy. Would this also work for hybrid owners?

[aaronatstate]

Snazzy. Would this also work for hybrid owners?

Both Jeff and his GF have 94s. So far it has worked on his GFs car. Her car has some other small issues, like boost leaks and what not, that need to get fixed first. We did start it, and take it for a drive however. So it seems to work, but the weekend I was in KC, we spent most of our time getting my car running, so we could get some highway/cruise testing in as well on my drive home. The biggest thing with the hybrids, and OBDII pre flash cars (96-97), is the downstream cat monitoring has to be disabled for the car to run properly. This is probably most likely due to the missing 02 hardware on the Montero ECUs.

I plan on going back up to KC in a few weeks, and we can concentrate on her car more. I can update more on the hybrids at that point in time.

[HLxDrummer]

So you get a Montero ECU, do something for the knock stuff to work (what does this involve), wire it in to the correct wires/pins, wire in an OBD2 port, buy a Tactrix cable, flash the VR4 tune and your set? That's crazy! What did you have to do with the A/C stuff?

Overall, how hard would you say it would be to get a stock car to run on this setup? My VR4 is my DD but I've installed/tuned my eManage no problem and I'm wondering if I could get away doing this on my car. I have like $450 in my eManage setup.

Also, right now I'm using the Scanmaster/MMCd to log wideband. How would I log wideband without the Scanmaster/MMCd?

[DocWalt]

Both Jeff and his GF have 94s. So far it has worked on his GFs car. Her car has some other small issues, like boost leaks and what not, that need to get fixed first. We did start it, and take it for a drive however. So it seems to work, but the weekend I was in KC, we spent most of our time getting my car running, so we could get some highway/cruise testing in as well on my drive home. The biggest thing with the hybrids, and OBDII pre flash cars (96-97), is the downstream cat monitoring has to be disabled for the car to run properly. This is probably most likely due to the missing 02 hardware on the Montero ECUs.

I plan on going back up to KC in a few weeks, and we can concentrate on her car more. I can update more on the hybrids at that point in time.

Cool beans

[jba3]

Apparently, firefox crashes from the sheer awesomeness of this thread.

Snazzy. Would this also work for hybrid owners?

Probably. I'll have an answer in 2-3 weeks, hopefully.