I put a new fuel-injected engine into my old carbureted car, and paid a person to program the ECM (apparently from what I read about this activity, he needed a special programming attachment to his PC, and then he input parameters such as weight, HP, exhaust setup, and few more items). All ran well for several years until, as luck would have it, the ECM became flaky and again I had to pay a guy to program a new one.
I heard that there is a “self learning” ECM on the market that basically tunes itself based upon what it learns from the engine. Can this really be true? How does it know the HP and other parameters? Or does it care?
Here is my question: would anyone recommend using a new “self-learning” ECM? (pros and cons appreciated)
Here is a link to a youtube video that explains it a little. Keep in mind, even a self-learning ECU must be programmed first with information specific to your car. You still have to pay someone for the initial programming.
Nearly every factory ECU I know of “self learns” to some degree. You do need to get a basic tune in it to start but then it fine tunes itself using wideband O2 sensors instead of the cheap narrow band ones. Some aftermarket EFI systems self-learn a lot more than others.
Edelbrock builds self learning FI systems, follow the link and read.
Hot Rod magazine has advertisers that sell self learning fuel injection systems. See if you can find a recent copy and take a look at the advertisements, you’ll probably come up with a list of half dozen vendors. What you are probably going to have to do however is work with the vendor of the one in your car now. Perhaps they have an improved replacement they offer.
BTW, just b/c the engine isn’t performing as it used to, that doesn’t mean the ECM is the cause. It could be something else, like maybe it just needs new spark plugs. The ECM programming, no matter how good it is, can’t overcome bad spark plugs or some other engine problem like that.
