Can you tune an ECU on a manual car or is there only ECU tuning for automatics? I know ECU has controls over air intake and if/when I install my Injen Cold Air intake I want to ensure I am using them to their fullest abilities.

 

I thought you can just restart it after changing your CAI or exhaust cuz I did it for mines.

 

Tuning isn't necessary, the ECU will adapt to the mod in a short time. This applies to both AT and MT.

 

Christ Almighty... that wasn't his question. Why can't people stick to "the question"??? Did he ask if it was necessary?

The answer is, "yes". Any ECU can be modded. Whether or not it's necessary is debatable.

The big catch, though, is Nissan's code is proprietary and I hear it changes. It might be difficult or darned near impossible to find someone that "knows it".

To be completely fair, I think BB is trying to say that since newer ECUs "learn" (they adapt to driving style and air parameters), in the case of a CAI mod it probably is not necessary. BUT it's still interesting and as an engineer, I'm all about getting every little bit possible out of any system.

 

Geez. BB was just trying to help. Lets flog him!~!!!.

Any ECU can be tuned. Manual or auto. For example. Uprev can have your ecu downloaded to a pc and then it is cracked and then sent back to you so you can go to a tuner shop and have it tuned.

As far as minor mods as intake the ecu will adapt.

 

Maybe I am just playing too much Gran Turismo 5!

 

Yes you can tune it, and while it's not necessary for functionality if you really want to get the max benefit from bolt-ons it's necessary. The stock tune is conservative, even though the ECU can learn it's limited to how much adjustment it can make and it's not tuned for performance. Tuning basically edits the ECU's tables to put the car in the optimum AFR and timing for max HP throughout the RPM band.

In my case bolt-on's had zero impact to peformance, AFR was in the 10-11 at WOT. Post tune AFR was 12.6 WOT and HP increased by 25 and the car ran night and day different. Getting a tune was the single most benefitial and valuable investment I've made. It litterally woke the car up!

 

Has any of the ECU tuners been able to raise the redline on manuals to 8k? The dyno prints I have seen have been consistant with the dyno results from mine in that the engine hp curve is still raising when the rev limiter kicks in.

 

Yes, you should use Premium fuel

 

I think most tuners will, AT or MT. My throttle limit is 8K, fuel cut at 8150. Speed limit is 254 mph... haven't found a big enough hill for that yet though.

Here's Stock and post tune...

 

Thank you for the thorough reply. I do not know the first place to look to get my EDU tweaked; any suggestions on where to begin my research?

 

Start by considering your goals, if you're going to make an investment in intake/exhaust and want max performance you have two choices really, Cobb or Uprev tuning. Cobb's been discontinued however I've still seen them for sale and it's a handy device to have that serves as an real time gauge for a single selectable OBDII data item, data logger, 0-60, 1/4 mile time, ECU reset and code reader and is easily uninstalled. Cobb however only has base maps for the 2008 G37 AT,MT and 2009 MT only which can help make that decision easy.

Uprev has a neat feature that allows fast map changing from cruise control controls. Uprevs also faster at uploading maps although most won't be doing that very often.

Another big determiner of which to get is proximity of a tuner. You can go to both Cobb and Uprev's site and search thier tuner databases to determine which is closer and which shop has the most experience with tuning VQ engines since in the end their both just tools and it's tuner skill/experience that's most important. You can also bing/google and call your local peformance shops to see which they support. Custom tuning can run you ~$450-$650+ depending on how many maps you have made and that's in addition to the Access port or Osiris which run about $450-$500.

Hypertech is a good option if you're not modding and/or don't want to dump more then $380 for a tune. There are plans to support bolt-ons with future maps but we haven't seen dyno's yet to compare. My personal bet with a one tune fits all is that they'll be conservative and you max benefit will still come from a custom tune. Question is though what will this margin be... for 5hp difference a custom tune may not be worth it for most street running folk. Hypertech would also offer some consistency and these tunes would be developed with probably more time invested then would be done with a custom tune.

 

Can't thank you enough man!

 

I just studied this and everything really came together for me. Thank you so much.

The only thing I have a curiosity about is fuel; how is your fuel performance / gas mileage now? I would imagine a cold air intake would produce more air and hence more power, for the same amount of fuel inject. This is return would mean better gas mileage? I would suppose now tuning the car for performance would actually have the reverse affect as now you are pumping more fuel and much quicker now into the engine - making for worse gas mileage...

 

Yep, I lost 1 Mpg, use to get 20, now get 19. It's kind of hard to say though, post tune my foot changed from a lead weight to the mass of a black hole. According to the MPG tracker though, that's what I'm reading.