355 Motec or other standalone for F355?

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge about a stand alone MOTEC for the F355. Seems to be a great way to side step Gremlins by installing a MOTEC

 

What gremlins does a Motec ECU fix vs the stock ECU?

 

I believe that Toda Racing in Japan used MoTec systems on their highly modified engines. However, not sure what you think will be gained on a stock engine.

 

Simplicity, reliability and I've read the Motec delivers a bump in power.

 

^ I think there may be gains with Motec on a 5.2 if you reconfigured the 5.2 induction to 2.7..

More so, gains to be had by going from 5.2 exhaust to 2.7 but more difficult/expensive.

Goes without saying that any 5.2 car subject to OBD2 plug in emission test isn't passing with Motec.

If that's not a problem, could be worthwhile if doing other mods.

In my opinion, if the car is otherwise stock/unmodified, probably not worth the cost/effort.

 

Reliability? In the past 7 years on the forum, I've only heard of two or three F355 Motronic ECUs failing.

 

Motec or standalone is great if you like to do tunes with the season

 

it's not about the motronic ECUs failing. It's about all the peripherals. Like a 355 top, you don't hear about the top frame failing much, or the pump motor itself. A stand alone system would offer simplicity as well as tunability and better performance.

 

But again, what engine sensors are you getting with Motec that replace unreliable stock sensors? I'm really not aware of any. This isn't the source of the 355's many areas of unreliability.

 

Airflow meter/s, egt sensors, egt computers and O2 sensors could all be deleted with an aftermarket ecu. Would be a good idea to still run O2 sensors for closed loop but you can use readily available, relatively cheap ones. If I ever need to replace any of the above, I'll seriously consider going aftermarket ecu.

 

On 355's, MAF's rarely fail and o2 sensors are generic Bosch, about $100 each. The exhaust temp monitoring is finicky but unrelated to ECU (each thermocouple has its own computer and they do fail regularly). Again not seeing how the juice is worth the squeeze. I'm sure you could tune your car on a dyno and pick up a few hp, especially if the engine is modded.

 

If you're looking for more reliability, something I did that's working great is to delete the cats, thermocouples, and thermocouple ECU's, and replace the latter with the Technistrada dummy load plugins. You get rid of several unreliable components and also a ton of engine bay heat which degrades everything back there.

 

I think its a good idea, modern ECU's are lightyears ahead of the tech that was used on these cars back in the day.
You could also fit some more modern injectors too, modern injectors are lightyears ahead of what was used back in the day too.

I wouldn't limit my choice to Motech, you could also use a Link ECU which is what a friend of mine is a agent for, he does a lot of conversions, and its not always about increasing power, its about drive-ability, economy and perhaps unleashing a few more horses along the way.

I am going to be doing this very thing on my 348....

 

There are two ways to make more power via ECU tuning on a NA engine: adjusting 1) AFR's and 2) ignition timing across the RPM range. That's all you have to work with. There's no big mystery here. I'm sure livemapping a 355 on a dyno would result in a tiny bit more power (I understand that Ferrari didn't leave much on the table), and maybe a tiny bit more via Motec's increased resolution. But we're talking a couple of ponies here for probably an almost $10K investment in ECU/custom wiring harness/dyno time. There's a reason people don't do it.

 

Its not going to cost anything like that for my project with the Link ECU, but then I can do most of it myself, and my good friend is a tuner and has a rolling road dyno at his business....
But certainly, if you were doing it on a retail basis with someone else doing then work, then yes it could get very expensive.

 

Please post pics, sounds like a great project.

 

Absolutely!!

 

a) Ferrari did not leave much on the table WITHIN emission limits.

b) I suspect that Ferrari did leave useful increment of power in the upper RPM band that might be available with a non-emissions compliant engine tune.

c) Every time I had mine on the dyno it was running 13.2±.2 Fuel/Air ratio; and mine would sniggle under certain conditions (a sniggle is the precursor of pinging that one can hear.)

d) But different header diameters and lengths might release 10-20 more HP something that definitely would require a different tune in the ECU.

 

Howel racing in the uk do a plug and play kit basest on a syvecs ecu (Life Racing) to replace both ecu's and control all the fans and pumps.

 

Are you suggesting a standalone ecu could control your top? Is that even possible? *



* yes, with enough time and money anything in this realm is possible.

 

No, I was making an analogy to the top ECU.

 

Wouldn’t think a MoTec would be great bang for your buck with a stock car. Gains would be minimal and the cost plus effort involved would be a negative. What would a proper installed and tune MoTec system cost you? $10k? $15K? Maybe if you were going down the big mod path (turbo, bigger displacement, cams, etc.) it would make sense to start with a stand alone. But on a stock car? Nope. My best friend is a certified MoTec tuner and I have two systems myself - one an M4 in my highly modified Porsche 968 Turbo and the other was an M48 planned for a built race car. I also have a plug and play AEM V2 system in my supercharged NSX and have used Haltech systems in my past RX7s. So I am obviously not a “leave everything stock” guy. It’s just in this case the gains would not be worth the effort.

 

Having owned a number of 968s I always wanted a 968 Turbo. Are you using the 944 cylinder heads or 968? My real goal was just to ensure reliability by only having sensors where I need them rather than where Ferrari, due to the EPA, determined to put them. CEL lights, limp mode, gremlins, etc., would be eradicated with a far more streamlined system that a standalone system can offer.

 

A little off topic but my 968 is one of the better known ones out there. It's the speed yellow widebody car from Excellence magazine back in 1999 that was built by Kelly Moss Racing. I believe they hired Jon Milledge (JME) to build the engine with the 16 valve heads. If you want a 968 turbo I have entertained selling mine since I just don't drive it any more as I have a 911 Turbo now that fits the bill. PM me if interested.