which engine is the best engine for little money, fast, durable?

[cre]

Don't ever assume that you're safe swapping in ANY engine blindly. A used engine is a used engine... P E R I O D. You wouldn't believe how many are known to be complete garbage and are still shipped. Video of it running? I've driven cars home after throwing a rod... 10 seconds of video of it running doesn't mean a thing. I've seen engines with phenomenal compression test results which then sat in an open yard for months with no spark plugs in place all the while allowing the rings to seize and the cylinder walls to pit like the surface of the moon. If you buy used plan on rebuilding it.

As for suspension: It doesn't take much to beat old, stock parts. Stiffer springs and decent dampers. Eibach's paired with KYB GR-2 dampers make for a great feel with a very low ticket price (while still streetable thanks to the subtle progressive spring rates). Add to that new bushings where needed (no need for urethane unless you can just get them cheaper) and stiffer sway bars and you may find yourself flat out stunned by the difference.

A fuel controller a type of piggy back. They all require an ECU to pair up with. Is there something else you're referring to?

[ochowdero]

Originally Posted by cre

Don't ever assume that you're safe swapping in ANY engine blindly. A used engine is a used engine... P E R I O D. You wouldn't believe how many are known to be complete garbage and are still shipped. Video of it running? I've driven cars home after throwing a rod... 10 seconds of video of it running doesn't mean a thing. I've seen engines with phenomenal compression test results which then sat in an open yard for months with no spark plugs in place all the while allowing the rings to seize and the cylinder walls to pit like the surface of the moon. If you buy used plan on rebuilding it.

As for suspension: It doesn't take much to beat old, stock parts. Stiffer springs and decent dampers. Eibach's paired with KYB GR-2 dampers make for a great feel with a very low ticket price (while still streetable thanks to the subtle progressive spring rates). Add to that new bushings where needed (no need for urethane unless you can just get them cheaper) and stiffer sway bars and you may find yourself flat out stunned by the difference.

A fuel controller a type of piggy back. They all require an ECU to pair up with. Is there something else you're referring to?

I don't know much about them I just seen them.
I was looking at the Greddy e-manage.

Suspension is indeed a need. I'm riding stiff..
That's was along the lines I was looking at. Coilovers are too expensive.
I do want to handle corners like a champ tho. Haha

[cre]

The Greddy E-manage is well, I guess the best term would be "super piggyback"... It's much like the MAFT-Pro, MAFT Gen II and MAP ECU. With all of these the stock ECU remains in place and these devices intercept and modify sensor and ECU signals such as air flow (used to control fueling, there are set backs to controlling fuel this way), ignition timing (can be used to correct for the aforementioned problem), boost control, air flow meter conversion and so on. You can get all of this with a couple separate devices or got with one of the "super piggybacks" and get it all in one shot. On upside to getting a device with everything rolled into one is the ability to record what everything is doing on your laptop where you might otherwise only be able to log one device at a time and have to learn and use a number of applications. On the down side having to learn all of this at once can be confusing for many people and often ends up in abandoned projects. I don't recommend them for the novice unless it's not their primary vehicle or they can otherwise afford some likely downtime.

[ochowdero]

uhm sooo, is there a more "basic" one?
i love the idea of data recording. its easier to detect problems but seeing how im new to fuel controller, i dont want to confuse my self specially when trying to go to work.

[MA70-3.0GT]

cre, all this talk of f-cons etc, is that really necessary for 400bhp? I was under the impression that using the lexus kvafm/custom air screw, uprated fuel pump, adjustable fpr and 550+ injectors would be a good starting point on a stock GTE motor with the turbo wound up, while keeping the fuel cut feature, and then when funds allowed, add a decent turbo elbow, larger I/C and hard pipes etc just leaving the boost as 11-odd psi before finally uprating the turbo...

Would that not be sufficient to make 400bhp once the turbo was replaced & boost increased? IMO I'd feel happier using a similar setup & keeping the fuel cut for any unforeseen fuel system malfunctions.

I was reading this yesterday... http://www.suprasonic.org/lexusriemer/lexusnotes.html

Seemed to suggest that with that done around 330-340 would be realised with relatively low boost and with potential for more in future (I was getting near on bone stock hardware at the limit of the turbo's capacity, and running into fuel cut at higher revs on occasion, hence I'm on the lookout for the aforementioned injectors & afm as a precaution with the new turbo)

The only potential issue I can see with this, is that it could cause a rich condition on cold starts before the O2 sensor is in the game. However I don't see this as a major problem as cold engines like a richer mixture anyhow, and the O2 would warm up & the system go open loop in about 5 minutes anyway?
(and if it proved TOO rich in certain circumstances I'd think you could devise a switch/resistor setup to disable the CS Injector from the driver's seat & not throw a code?)
Obviously as injector sizes and boost levels increase the f-con etc would eventually become necessary as the closed-loop richness would become too much even with the CSI disabled & you'd get bad starting & flooding, but my point is that for the lexus & 550's etc mod and an upper goal of 400bhp, wouldn't the stock ECU be able to handle it?

[cre]

MA70-3.0GT, fuel controllers aren't essential but they're a very good idea and I wouldn't try for that level of power increase without a basic SAFC II at the minimum. Just because a 550cc/m injector flows 125% of what a 440cc/m injector flows it doesn't mean they flow the same amount at idle, low load, mid loads, or even high loads. You may waste fuel, lose power or in some odd cases find that the 550s flow LESS at low or mid loads. Depending on if your ECU is setup to still run closed loop you could spend a lot of time running quite poorly (whenever the system is operating in open loop). A fuel controller isn't going to change the fuel cut level, that's determined by factors such as the duty cycle of the injectors (which IS affected by the size of the injectors).

Ochowdero, sure there are simpler piggybacks than the MAFT Pro or MAP ECU, etc. There are a lot of simpler devices with fewer functions and a ton of support... I'm sure you've hear of the SAFC, SAFC II, NEO all by Apex'i. These are just fuel controllers, the list is quite long. The functionality varies per device, some support data logging and some will integrate with an on-board wideband which I also strongly recommend (and it's essential if you're looking to tune on your own). There are independent units for timing control and boost control. The 'super piggybacks' roll all of these into one package which uses one app for data logging but often at the expense of a steep learning curve.

[MA70-3.0GT]

No worries, I was under the impression from that write-up that fuel cut primarily based on the frequency of the signal from the kvafm (partly why the lexus body was used, with the adjustable "bypass" to allow more air to be flowed than the ECU believed), and the ECU then used the O2sensor to correct the resulting lean mixture using the fuel trim.
Then the 550cc injectors were required to "correct" the fuel trim back to the basic level by flowing more fuel for a given pulse width hence leaving more room to correct when boost increases.

All that worried me about the f-con was that modifying further the kvafm signal might affect fuel cut, but you're right it'd still cut at around 80-85% injector duty cycle so no probs.

I was thinking of building a fuel trim monitor using the Vf terminal in the diag. socket, that'd be nice to know what it's doing through the rev range (guess it'd help you pick up a slow switching O2 sensor too)

Anyway, not wishing to hijack the thread sorry ochowdero. so I'll do a bit more research & any questions I'll be sure to bore you with them cre