My piggyback ECU (SplitSecond FTC1-E) has gone bad- recommend a replacement!

[mastacox]

Hi guys, long time no post!

Well the 4Runner has been giving me fits the last few months and it reached a head a few weeks ago. I think I've finally found the root cause: my piggyback fuel/timing controller is a dying/dead and must be replaced. Basic steps of how I've found this:

I've been battling an intermittent misfire that I couldn't for the life of me track down. I was seriously about to consider swapping in a whole new engine rather than keep throwing money at sensors. For the last few months I've been getting an on again / off again flashing CEL for a misfire with no obvious cause:

- P0300 Random/multiple cylinder misfire
- P0302 Cylinder 2 Misfire
- P0305 Cylinder 5 Misfire

I've replaced random ignition coils, spark plugs, wires, checked fuel pump, new fuel injectors, you name it. Nothing would get rid of the damn misfire, it kept coming back! This reached a total shitstorm about 2 weeks ago with the addition of three more codes and the engine randomly dying while driving:

- P0100 MAF Sensor
- P0335 Crankshaft Position Sensor
- P0340 Cam Position Sensor

Desperately I bought new MAF sensor, crank position sensor, and cam position sensors and installed last thursday night. I was left with suspicion though, because I measured the resistance of the old sensors and they seemed to check out... Anyway last friday the car seemed to run better but not "well"; but on my commute home threw the same codes and died on me while driving down the highway forcing me to pull over and begin the cursing. About to send this money pit to the crusher, I decided in a fit of desperation to check the ECU wiring for loose connections...

So while digging around behind the glove box I suddenly had an epiphany when I was setting up to ohm connections: what do the crank, cam, and MAF sensors have in common? What would cause theses seemingly good sensors to intermittently go bad at the same time? The answer: the damn piggyback tuner!!! All 3 of these sensors are routed through the piggyback for tuning the fuel and timing.

So as an experiment I disconnected the signal wires for the cam and crank sensor from the piggyback unit and hooked them back up in the stock fashion (in other words went back to stock, no "man in the middle" timing retard) Immediately the heavens opened and my timing issues went away, no intermittent misfire (for the first time in months), no cam/crank sensor errors, and tire shredding torque again!!!

So anyway this post has gotten pretty long, it's been a long road and I needed to vent. I'm ready to kick this FTC1-E off a cliff and shoot it with a rifle, but before I do I need something new that gives me fuel/timing control. I'm currently living without timing control, but can't go without fuel mgmt given my larger than stock injectors. I want something more modern than this circa 2005 POS, something that can be tuned wirelessly (maybe even with an android app) and supports wideband fuel sensor input. Any suggestions on products to look at or people to talk to? I'm currently looking at:

- Perfect Power SMT8W
- MAP-ECU3 WiFi

I'm leaning towards the MAP-ECU3 and then adding WiFi later on if needed, it looks like they're available with a harness that will be nearly plug-n-play for my 4Runner. Suggestions are welcome! Having a path forward really helps with that whole light at the end o the tunnel thing!

[mastacox]

The pile of CEL lights before I bypassed the piggyback unit altogether:
http://pictures.strikeforceniner.com/wp-content/gallery/photobucket-pictures/Screenshot_2015-05-03-21-17-35_zpsmrzvswkh.PNG

[Kryptoroxx]

I know I'm planing a piggyback and while I don't really have any choice in the matter urd is where I am going to order from. They have a piggyback fuel/air with timing for around 430 bucks I think.

[mastacox]

URD sells the MAP-ECU3 as well, I may buy it from them, but implementation will be more work than the older SplitSecond setups.

http://urdusa.com/store/Electronics-Performance-Electronics/c66_72/p1260519044/Map-ECU3-Fuel-and-Ignition-Control-UNIVERSAL/product_info.html

[paddlenbike]

At any point did the truck run 100% the way you wanted it to with the setup you had? I ask because I never had good luck with aftermarket injectors on my Supra and a couple of friends that had the URD 6 injector setup never did get them running like a well-done OEM setup. One of those friends tore it all out and has no fuel management at the moment (he is planning on the URD 7th setup in the future) and the other made the move to the URD 7th. The latter has never been happier with the power and driveability and I can say the same for mine.

Once I hear your reply we can discuss options.

[mastacox]

I would say since I bought the setup in 2006 it has run about like I wanted it to until about 2 years ago, when these timing issues first started coming up. I've never been 100% happy with the SplitSecond unit and feel it's missing features a lot of competitors at the time like the SMT6 had; nowadays its just woefully under-featured. The FTC1-E's oxygen sensor calibrator is a joke, programing it is a pain, and it is difficult to tune precisely since there are no built-in logging options. I'm not ready to go 7th injector these days, mainly because my stock injectors are long gone and I'm happy with the performance of these Denso 195500-4430 injectors. The only symptom that I have and can't seem to get rid of is surging idle with the A/C on, who knows maybe that will go away with a better piggyback.

I've been ready to move on from the FTC1-E for a while, and nowadays there are definitely better tuning solutions out there. My feeling is with a better unit I will be able to get back to where I want to be and even do better than I could back in 2006. Even now with the timing retard disabled I'm basically happy (although I want to get timing control back to avoid HG/LRPM ping) but I do think the fuel map tuning could use some help, and it's such an imperfect science with the FTC1-E I'd rather just not do it as lazy as it sounds.

Ideally what I want is to get away from fuel trims altogether and just put in an AFR for the system to aim for (using my wideband O2 sensor I have permanently installed). Problem is from what I understand this is something not available in piggyback units (am I wrong?) and is more of a standalone management thing, which is way more than I'm looking for right now.

[mastacox]

By the way it turns out URD provides wiring instructions and even pre-wired harnesses for the MAP-ECU3, looking pretty attractive (other than the price maybe).

[Kryptoroxx]

I have the tiny engine so the only thing I will be after is the piggyback afm with map sensor. Sounds like you guys are way ahead of me on understanding this stuff lol. I just have heard great things about urd and they are also one of the only manufacturers that has an afm for the 3rz. Lots of stand alone support is out there but hardly any for a piggyback.

[paddlenbike]

I wish I could help more but it has been a number of years now since I have shopped for piggybacks or done any serious tuning. What I really like about the 7th injector setup is its simplicity--it only does two things and that's remove timing and add fuel. That is all I need it to do.

As such, the piggyback just sits there doing nothing until 3 psi of boost and 3,000 RPMs where you can see it starts to add about 1.1 milliseconds of injector time and fuel.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kNxkTD6bjpo/UdxPEVpDH_I/AAAAAAAAKjQ/g4g_AZ2Pkn0/s800/July2013_fuel.jpg

There is a timing retard table too, which I haven't posted.

One thing I find appealing about this setup is the Toyota ECU is still driving the injectors 100% of the time. The URD piggyback is only adding fuel as I prescribe via the table above, and it is doing-so through it's own dedicated injector. That means if I have a piggyback failure in the middle of nowhere, it just won't add that extra fuel and will be like a truck with no URD kit at all. In other words, it should still drive just fine.

I'm not trying to sell you on it, I know you already said you weren't interested. My advice would be to keep it as simple as possible and going down the MAP ECU road is adding complication. If you break down 1,000 miles from home it might be difficult for a Toyota or any other mechanic to diagnose. I'm not sure if that's important to you, but something to think about.

[mastacox]

Well I pulled the trigger on the MAP-ECU3 with harness and install instructions from URD. Getting it Friday, hope to install this weekend and we will see how it goes!

[paddlenbike]

Well I pulled the trigger on the MAP-ECU3 with harness and install instructions from URD. Getting it Friday, hope to install this weekend and we will see how it goes!

I haven't read much about it. Be sure to let us know how it goes!

[mastacox]

Small update-

Since I bypassed the timing sensors on Saturday (crank position sensor and can position sensor) from the piggyback unit back to the stock ECU the timing-related misfire codes have not come back, but I did get another P0100 MAF sensor error last night. This sensor still goes through the piggyback unit, I'm 99% sure this error will not come back once I've installed the MAP-ECU.

I've been reading up on the MAP-ECU tuning procedure and it looks like plugging in my wideband unit will be a big help. MAP-ECU supports an "auto learn" feature which uses wideband feedback to auto-populate the fuel map for an initial map on a new engine. Looking forward to trying it out!

[paddlenbike]

Cool. I am assuming it only does that for open loop?

[mastacox]

I'm not sure, I need to read about it in the manual. My feeling is it will try across the board, so I will want to do a reset on the Toyota ECU beforehand to try and take long term fuel trims out of the equation; short term fuel trims will still be present so I will have to do some tweaks to the map afterwards to take care of that, but I'm all for logging tools that get me in the ballpark quickly.

[mastacox]

Finally got some toys today, the FedEx guy was having some trouble showing up when we were home! Looking forward to wiring up, if I can set aside some time after work a few days this week. I'm going to set up the wiring harness for a start, which will give me the chance to do all of the soldering work on a table.

Pictures:
http://pictures.strikeforceniner.com/wp-content/gallery/photobucket-pictures/20150524_115748_zpspicmslp2.JPG
http://pictures.strikeforceniner.com/wp-content/gallery/photobucket-pictures/20150524_115714_zpshk4u2vrr.JPG

[4x4mike]

Cool. I hope it's what you need to get back in the game.

It looks a little more wiring intensive than I was expecting. I think you've got the right idea about doing some of the work on a table.