Lol, I'm not touching a DE ecu. What what I've read and understand is that I can just use an e ecu with the de fuel maps on a chip.
Wiring the injectors and dizzy is easy. We re wired a whole sr to suit gtir loom a few weeks back in my brothers car.
Not to mention the block I'm picking up is completely rebuilt and just shy of a 2.5 Litre.
I dont see a headache.
Just to re quote this, I'm running a SOHC ecu not a DOHC. Lol
i have no problem tuning that. what i am saying is the install. as colby has said, a full swap would be easier for the install. but then i think i'm overcomplicating it all. you're changing a head, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, distributor and timing kit. you only have to worry about sensors and what not on the head. so distributor, idle control, throttle body etc. everything south of the head will be sohc kit, so keep the sohc ecu. just check the impedance of the injectors between sohc and dohc, i can't remember if they're different or not.
as for the tune, i can tell you now that dohc maps are leaner than sohc maps and timing is different as well. in simple terms, this is because of different multipliers for the maps between the two ecus. running a dohc map in sohc ecu, it is the sohc ecu doing the calculations.
eg.
80% throttle, 4000rpm sohc ecu might have a value of 92
80% throttle, 4000rpm dohc ecu might have a value of 36
now, to over simplify it for point of an example, we'll say we're wanting to achieve an air fuel ratio of 13.5:1 and you achieve that with the sohc ecu and it's value of 92. 13.5:1 being a reasonably optimal afr for performance in a non turbo vehicle
so for the purpose of this, we'll call 92 100% of 13.5:1, what does the dohc map give us in the sohc ecu?
36 / 92 = 39%
keeping in mind it is air:fuel so higher number:1 = leaner, lower number:1 = richer
39% of 13.5:1 = 34.6:1 @ 80% throttle and 4000rpm = very bad.
for those that don't know a lot about afr's, you want 12.2:1 for a
safe performance turbo tune and 13.2:1 for a
safe n/a tune. all the people that tune turbos to 10:1 in my opinion just aren't doing their job right. stoichiometric (most efficient use of fuel) is 14.7:1 a lot of cars will 'lean burn' on cruise, which is around the 15:1 area. if you start getting leaner than 15:1 you should really be reconsidering what you're doing.
obviously an extreme example and not using the real numbers, just numbers i have plucked out of the air, although i do know the high load/high rev area of the sohc map to be in that 80-90 area. i could pull up the exact values for you between a tuned (stage 3) antrx chip which i know run at that 13.5:1 range and a stock dohc map if you like.
Either way you'll want a nistune board to open up to a proper range of mods, and then you wont have to rely on Noss to retune stuff for you... you can do it yourself!
there is no more that can be done on nistune that can't be done without nistune. nistune just puts it all in one neat little package so you don't have to buy this and that piece of kit to realtime tune, program chips etc. essentially all nistune is is an emulator that you plug in to your ecu and you have software that only works with that board. once a tune is done though, you shouldn't have to re-tune. unless of course you're have a turbo, then any change you make to boost, exhaust, intercooler piping routes etc, you might want to assess your tune.
i find that people that have access to nistune tend to attempt to 'tune out' stuff that is simply maintenance. i.e. unstable idle due to an intake leak. people for some reason think 'oh shit my tune is out i need to fix it' which is just plain wrong. not saying that you have done this colby, but it is what i have experienced with various people in the past.
the other annoyance is people that tune without a wideband, but whatever.
this is also not me trying to get money off aaron. it is just my opinion but $100 for a tune that you're never going to have to change anyway vs $600+ to get nistune running (that is pricing board, cable, software licence) is a no brainer cost wise.
for a sohc ecu like the ka24e that runs an 8bit eprom, if you want realtime tuning all the time (i.e. without needing me), i would suggest buying an eprom emulator ($200) and using romeditor before bothering with nistune.