Aftermarket ECUs

[N7GTX]

Having read this and followed with interest - thanks to Nick - if I was in the market to update from the original system, then this does look to be an excellent way forward. And if Motul's cost assessment is under £2k then its good value compared to others.

[Pink_Floyd]

Not having read the article yet, does it use wideband lamba sensors or the standard narrow band ones?

[450Nick]

Pink_Floyd said:

Not having read the article yet, does it use wideband lamba sensors or the standard narrow band ones?

it uses twin wideband sensors, but they are the narrow thread type so will plug straight into the TVR manifolds with no mods.

[motul1974]

Yeah....what Nick said! 😉

[motul1974]

Although to be fair to Mark, it was the detailed conversation he had with me that included the crank trigger sensor and fitting it to the flywheel.
Also. I've not spoken to anyone else re. Cams, but mark did say I could use a Gems one, as fitting would be straight forward. I understand that Nick already had a fresh cam and didn't want to take the Gems route....??? But I'm sure he could explain more if needed.
I had in my mind a stealth cam from V8d, which I believe may be available in Gems, but not spoken to V8d yet as I'm a long way off that stage!

[450Nick]

You'll have to clarify with V8D but I believe that if you want to go with the GEMS cam, sprocket and full set up then you'll need:

- GEMS cam (short nose type)
- GEMS cam sprocket
- Possibly a different chain?
- front cover (GEMS uses a different one with no dizzy mount)
- different sump (the GEMS front cover seals in a different place than the intermediate one on TVRs)

I thought about going this way but it seemed like a lot of faff so I just drilled out the existing boss and added the trigger disc - no other changes required!

[motul1974]

I don't know about the sump, but I did ask Mark specifically about the front cover, and he assured me I won't have to change mine.
I'll be asking more questions next week when I collect my ecu off him.

[450Nick]

Well he is the expert so he's probably right! I'd be interested to see what his plan is there ☺️

[MisterT]

Hi Nick, great article, thanks for the mention, nice to know the conversion is working so well in your car, it's renewed my efforts now. It's only the wiring loom that's holding me back now.

It isn't necessary to change the front cover from the intermediate engine to use a GEMS cam. Mark can provide a cam position sensor which is slightly longer than the Range Rover GEMS sensor which was used in the NAS spec GEMS engined LR Defender which had an intermediate front cover but without the dizzy hole bored out.

As I understand it the problem is there are only std Range Rover profiles available in GEMS cams although this may have changed since I started planning this for my Griff (it is 2 or 3 years since I first started discussing fitting GEMS with Mark Adams). As Nick says in his article I am running on a slower schedule than he did with his GEMS conversion!

The main reason I started developing the idea of a GEMS trigger disc fitted over the JP timing gear was because I have a stealth cam with very low miles on it and didn't want to change it, with Nick being much further ahead in his plans than I was it seemed an ideal opportunity to combine efforts and Nick had some discs made to my design and it worked.

I believe John Eales does a duplex adjustable timing gear and chain to fit the GEMS cam nose.

On the crank position sensor, in discussions I've had with Mark I understood attempts had been made to put a sensor and trigger on the front pulley but the GEMS system wouldn't work with it, I don't know the detail why not but as a result it seems it's necessary to use a flywheel mounted trigger. I'm planning to put a lightened steel one on mine from TTV which isn't strictly necessary but then again we don't do any of these mods out of necessity...do we?

[carsy]

Surely kent cams or piper can grind any profile onto a gems style cam if you ask them. Or am i missing something.

Has anyone succesfully mounted knock sensors onto a pre serp block. If so it would be good to know where.

[Boosted LS1]

^ If you can find a threaded hole midway along the block you can make a custom stud for the knock sensors.

[Twistygit]

Found the DIY kit I had seen a while ago, Lloyds specialist developments. Anyone any experience? Is it pretty straight forward?

[QBee]

Dunno, but for me the drive in, drive out two weeks later with a fully installed, fully mapped system, guaranteed to work, and remapped as often as needed until spot on, has a lot of appeal. I can spend that time doing what I do well to pay for it, and know that the guy who knows what he is doing is in charge. 99% frustration reduction

[Hedgehopper]

QBee said:

Dunno, but for me the drive in, drive out two weeks later with a fully installed, fully mapped system, guaranteed to work, and remapped as often as needed until spot on, has a lot of appeal. I can spend that time doing what I do well to pay for it, and know that the guy who knows what he is doing is in charge. 99% frustration reduction

Spot on! Lloyds are excellent and are a one stop shop for install, mapping and dyno in one go. Very helpful after-sales service as well.

There was an article in Sprint about their DIY kit. It appeared to be a lot of work, especially all the bespoke wiring connectors, and a fair bit of confidence in ones electrical abilities would be required.

Without a doubt the best money worth I have ever spent on my car!

[Classic Chim]

Ecu installs, not for the faint hearted and your having to splice into alarm wiring etc so knowing your wires and testing equipment rather important. Not for someone without good electrical skills I'd say.
It's a marvel when someone else does it for you.

[pb450]

Hedgehopper said:

Spot on! Lloyds are excellent and are a one stop shop for install, mapping and dyno in one go. Very helpful after-sales service as well.

There was an article in Sprint about their DIY kit. It appeared to be a lot of work, especially all the bespoke wiring connectors, and a fair bit of confidence in ones electrical abilities would be required.

Without a doubt the best money worth I have ever spent on my car!

^ +1 on this.

[urquattroGus]

I'm considering Omex 200 ignition only and keep it looking original, or Omex 710 after having great success with fitting Omex 600 on my 1966 Alfa, and a good local mapper.

I think out of the drive in drive out kits, I would favour the Powers MBE. They use the rover coil pack setup, not the ford ones, which is neater, and the loom looks higher spec.

I have found that cororgated plastic loom to (Lloyds) be not so good, and cheap looking, at work (tractors etc) I've found it can chafe wires etc over time.

With the Alfa I fitted a "race spec" Omex loom that had heat shrinkwd joints and was well worth the money, flexible, neat and durable.

The quality of the Powers trigger wheel etc look a cut above the rest too.

I also get the impression that Canems is good for the money, but it's a small company with just two People? I like Omex as they are a fairly big company who have and can provide good support, and it can be widely and easily mapped. MBE seems to be pretty good too, race proven and around for a while etc.

[Classic Chim]

^^^^^ this.

Post your loom pics as I fully agree the one thing that dissapointed me a little with my friends excellent Canams install was the corrugated loom shrouds. Seemed more a continuation of the same way Tvr and many car companies did it 25 years ago. The wiring itself was excellent I might add.
I'm bound to be biased towards Mbe although I try not to be because I like all these Ecu but the wiring loom was a huge vote of confidence for me when looking at Mbe.
Something to do with the fact they'd been using Mbe in Tvr for many years so well used in our hot engine bays and proven to work was another plus point.

It's surprising how much confidence and down right pleasure I get looking at my nigh on water tight engine harness.

I'm not the most technically advanced of chaps so others are welcome to use these pics to identify and explain what this lot does.







Coil packs nicely hidden behind plenum. Blanked off old stepper







Smooth big bore air pipe extends all the way to elbow with no AFM restriction. I think this has benifits in throttle response, sound from induction roar and instant cold air at the plenum keeping the engine slightly cooler. The biggest difference that I noticed when the car came back to me was this deeper roar as the engine sucked and was louder on induction in a very good way, seemed like the engine had more compression. It's really quick for a car with otherwise standard plenum and Tvr 38mm nasty sharpe edged trumpets !

Here's the plenum as it is now. Pic care of Powers Performance the day almost two years ago they started installing Mbe. I went over when the cars guts were exposed, interior wiring and Dash off everything in a thousand bits, kind of decided it wasn't that expensive considering the skill involved in putting a new brain in. Massive task.









The Ecu itself is a small box of tricks about 100mm x 75 x 50 and is placed on the shelf and accessible by removing the two screws that hold the glove pouch in place, it flaps down and Ecu is in easy reach. I've padded it with a small amount of impact type foam and it stays solidly in place. Bit better than sitting on a wet floor squeezed between the battery.
I had the option of moving battery to boot for minimal cost but I oddly decided not to.

Two years outside in all weathers and driven through the winter so getting a hammering. Faultless. So cocky I jet washed the engine and it started instantly. Not to be advised but it proved a theory I had, it's water proof.
Mbe have supplied Ecu for marine environments

Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 15th July 05:54

Injector wiring and connectors are neat.

Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 15th July 06:00

Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 15th July 06:02

Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 15th July 06:04

Your removing dozens of potential failure points as a matter of course.
Sell your CUX and associated parts which can fetch good money, for so many benifits after market Ecu are fantastic especially the new wiring

Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 15th July 06:26

Edited by Classic Chim on Saturday 15th July 06:36

[trev4]

Well after a visit to Mat Smith this morning It looks like my preferred option of going for the Gems system is out of the running as I don't have a block that could be cross bolted, apparently the 4.5s and later 5lt cars should be ok, so it's back to the usual suspects for my 4lt

[Boosted LS1]

^ Wrong, there's no reason you can't run a bespoke trigger wheel on the balancer.