What is the best standalone unit? What is the cheapest/still reliable standalone?
Thanks
(no im not throwing in the towel on the FIC, I just have a friend that really wants it, and i figure if i could sell it...i might upgrade)

 

pretty sure you can get the haltech on ebay for 8-900...

 

yea...i know about haltech and EMS...but are there others?

 

Depends if you want to do it the "right" way or not. If you want the proper standalone for the Gs then there is only one, HKS FCon Vpro. It has full Vvti control etc etc....you can even buy a harness already wired up (Aristo) so it's basically just plug and play and it even retains all your factory warning/check engine lights, OBD codes etc...

If you want to do it the "half" way then you could run a Aem, Haltech, etc etc...as they are all pretty much the same. I would trust my car to a Haltech before an Aem due to the reliability issues a lot of the late Aem's have had. The reason I call this the half way is because it doesn't control Vvti etc....which I would want if I was spending the money on a standalone as there is a lot of power to be had with valve timing on turbo cars, especially in your case where the current profile is N/A.

 

I have an HKS FCON V Pro in my IS and it is a beast of an ECU. Only drawback is you need a HKS Power writer to set it up and depending where you live it can be hard to find

 

all i can say is MOTECH but they $$$$

 

ok...if i were to go with a haltech...which one, and what all would i need (if anything) besides the unit and the flying lead harness (only running 9psi) also will i be able to wire my AEM wideband into the haltech? and i would really appreciate any input from anyone who has installed/used/has a haltech (im looking at the f10x...is that the one i would want?) also could someone give me a quick run down of what a standalone does...how to tune it...is it really hard/time consuming?
Thanks

 

anyone? and correct me if im wrong...but with a standalone your ecu cannot fight you can it?

 

In your case the F10x would work great.

There absolutely no interference by the stock ecu as you are 100% replacing the fuel control aspect of your factory ecu. I like to call the F10x a STANDALONE FUEL controller because you don't have to mess with timing or lots of experimentation to get it running right. You install the F10x using the flying lead harness and that's it. It controls your fuel pump (even the fuel pump is controlled by the F10x), injectors etc etc... and your factory ecu is out of the equation.
As I mentioned in another thread of yours, the F10x has a dedicated iat (intake air temp) sensor that compensates for changing temps etc....so you don't have to constantly fiddle with it like "other" units out there. You will be 110% happy with the F10x for your needs, I'm sure of it.

You will need the F10x, a map sensor, flying lead harness and an iat sensor. All of that is available through Haltech. You will also need a laptop for tuning etc...It is not difficult to tune as you don't have to worry about all the things a full ems has. You basically just follow a graph and add/subtract fuel as needed. I'm 99% sure the F10x will support your wideband but you may want to double check if it supports the Aem.

 

will my headache go away? lol i havnt lost faith in the FIC...but kudos 2 those that have it working right...i could probably get it 2 do what i need it 2...but i dont have time for it really...i have somewhere i have to be everyday..and not another option to get there...so i really just need something i can install, tune, and forget about...you think the f10x will let me do that? i was so stressed the other night about getting it to work right, i cut and soldered the SAME wire 3 or 4 times, each time forgetting 2 put the heat shrink on before i soldered it!!! lol

 

Yea, the F10x should do well for you......could have swore I gave you that advice a long time ago and you dismissed me and the idea. Lol...no big deal...no hard feelings

 

ok...im getting ready to buy a Haltech Platinum Sport 2000...any objections? (its new...it replaced the e11v2

 

You really don't need all that, not sure how much your getting it for but you are stepping into a tuning world MUCH bigger than the FIC and you will probably want to take your car to a Haltech dealer for proper tuning. Your call but I think you may be stepping further into frustration with the Sport 2000 instead of stepping out of frustration with the F10x.

I ran a Haltech E6k on my Supra and I had someone with experience tune it, even with someone that had tuned 100 Haltechs it still took a good couple hours of dyno time to get it running correctly. If you are just learning the software you may be in for HOURS of tweaking once you get the car running, not to mention if you don;'t know what to look for you could have a car that won't start at all because of an option buried 6 screens deep in a menu somewhere. I'm not trying to discourage you but I have watched this guy tune LOTS of Haltechs and the amount of options of the Haltech is not trivial and could prove to be quite the headache for a new user on a daily driver.

One final thing to consider, if you are in need of tech support trying to get your car running, you will be on the phone to Australia. An F10x is a pretty straight forward install and you could most likely have your car up and running over a weekend.

 

i contacted haltech, and after talking to them, i was kind of turned off by the f10x, maybe im confused...but the guy said it didnt have closed loop function...dont i want that? do you have personal experience with the f10x? if so what can I NOT do as far as afr and boost control/tuning...how will not having a closed loop function affect my daily driving?

 

also...i know its far more complex...but i didnt plan on using all the functions, just from what i read, it made it seem worth it for closed loop wideband control, and boost tuning