Nissan wanted the GTR ECU to be cracked. Lexus doesn't hence the un-crackable bosch encryption. But you get back to me when you've cracked it....
That's the exact reason I switched to GTR...

 

I don't tune cars

 

Fact is its all about supply and demand. Check the background of icode you
may notice a exec with a Toyota background. Fact is GReddy USA is looking at the feasibility of extensively modifying this platform. How do I know? I had my GTR extensively modified by them and have a great relationship with their Pres.

 

Well the Supra ECU has never been hacked, the MR2 ECU has never been hacked ect ect. So why would the IS-F ECU all of a sudden magically be hacked? There is already a very limited aftermarket anything for the IS-F. It would be great if it ever did happen but its highly unlikely that it will. This is nothing new, the car has been out for over 5 years now.

 

According to AutoBlog: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/07/14/h...ine-of-choice/ and the video attached, V8s are preferred in Formula Drift. Great video by the way.

Early privately-owned drift cars were fitted with with either turbocharged engines from Nissan S13, S14 and S15 platforms (four-cylinder) or turbocharged powerplants like the Toyota 1JZ (six-cylinder). They were easy to work on, reliable, and they produced plenty of the wheel-spinning power needed for a smoky sideways show.

But today, as real money flows into the sport, the teams taking the podiums at the professional Formula Drift events are much more likely to use American V8 power - naturally-aspirated big-bore Chevrolet LS muscle that makes a tire-cording 700-plus horsepower. The torquey V8s give the drivers more control when they run side-by-side. As one puts it, "...the way Formula D now is, with tandem, you want to be on someone's door."

This video, shot by MPGomatic, takes a closer look at why the motorsport made the switch from low displacement/forced induction to big displacement/naturally aspirated power. It's posted below, and as they say, there's no substitute for cubic inches.

So my question is, will some team decide on using the IS-F V8 for the sake of being true to their Japanese car/chasis rather than turning their car into a frankenstein by using a GM LS engine? Would the ECU prevent the use of the IS-F V8 then?

 

Good luck. I know people high up in Lexus too. It still hasn't happened for the Supra after nearly 20 years and millions of man-hours attempting to crack its secrets. I also know people who modify Bosch platforms for a living, so I'm not talking trash or hating. I'm talking about a lot of practical experience from a company whose engineers say, "We don't modify our cars."

GEMS said they could do it in 1997 for the Supra and failed. They ended up working with AEM on a complete aftermarket solution because they couldn't do it with the OEM ECM. BTW, notice their top-of-the-line EM-36 won't support 16 injectors required for the 2UR-GSE.
Cobb said they could do it and didn't.
World Tuning (Chris Rado) said they could do it and didn't.
Some other dude came here and claimed he could do it, but again failed to produce a measurable result.

TRD did it for the supercharger mod on the Scion tC with a read once update and it took forever to get it approved and implemented and then their fundamental engineering to mount the supercharger was a total loss.

None of the other US tuning houses have had any success. JDM and US spec are (unfortunately) quite different. So, as I said, if I had a dollar for everyone who said they're going to do this and failed over the last 20 years, I'd be driving an LFA.

I don't think you know ECMs the way I do. Good luck, you're going to need it.

 

You can add the world renowned AMS Performance to the list of No-Go for the IS-F as well. The demographic of IS-F owners is perfect for what they are looking for to target, in between the EVOs/STIs and GT-R. But they looked at the IS-F already, no-can-do b/c of the ECU. Spoke to them last weekend, when they hosted their annual track day here in Illinois.

 

Lems has their supercharger kit out on the market.currently sold out. For $23 grand and only an additional 70 hp....no thanks..ill keep dreaming

 

Yeah, that's the other piece of this - static compression ratio is pretty high. You won't be getting much without replacing the pistons first.

 

Already done.

 

^^^ they are on their fourth or fifth motor.they keep blowing it up trying to get as much power out of the F's engine.

 

from what i heard, the owner actually flew couple of people from toms (japan) and did bunch of stuff to get things going. so yes, no idea if the ecu is still us spec

 

So is it b/c their new ECU is not up to par with the stock one = blown engine? Or did they try to piggyback off of origin ECU = blown engine?

I guess what I'm getting is, if these guys who are using the IS-F engine in Formula Drift, considered the "front lines" in the battle to tune the IS-F engine, then does this also mean that we might see progress towards something?

 

They paired the ISF engine to a 6-speed tranny, could that be the issue with the blown engines? What about the ECU, I guess swtiching from the heavely electronic-based OEM tranny to a standard 6-speed would need some sort of ECU reprogramming, right?

 

Just wondering can one buy a JDM ECU?