Holy Crap - Quarterhorse + Binary Editor + EEC Analyzer is a powerful combination

[tim-in-oakton]

I bought a Quarterhorse (Welcome to www.moates.net! : Moates.Net) which is an emulator that plugs onto the EEC-IV J3 connector like Tweecer - it allows you to reprogram the EEC code running and change most anything in the car's tune.

I'd messed around with EECEditor and TunerproRT (both fine software packages, one is freemium, the other is commercial now) before a laptop crash pushed me towards BE/EA. Wow - I am *VERY* impressed and happy. The new combination wasn't cheap (QH = $250, EA/BE = $130, WB02 sensor = $200) as a "flier", but I would highly recommend it if you want to tune your engine and think about how you want it to run. There is a considerable learning curve, but these tools make it easier to manage.

In a couple of hours I now have my car running better than ever before, and long nagging items like hesitation on rapid throttle changes are now gone. Don't bother with fakery resistors to disable Thermactor/EGR/emissions, just tell the computer that it is removed. Want to change idle/rev limits/timing/MAF curve/injectors/driving behavior? Just tell the computer what you want it to do.

I've tried several other alternatives and this one just puts a smile on my face. Little drama, things just work - if you want to do EEC-IV (Fox Body computer) tuning, this is the combination that you want.

If there is interest I'll post some screenshots and "frinstances"
cheers-
timm

[Fasterpatrick]

Welcome to the nightmare, No it's not perfect but it did get my crazy combo to run when it was working. There are a few bugs in the system and the developers are working to get the software all sorted out. It's more of a windows thing than what they're doing. I have a 93 Mark VIII that is a EEC-IV and it was the only way that I could get it to work with a 2003 manual 5spd. I had to have the guy who decoded my strategy write special code to get them to play. If you have tunning questions head over to http://eectuning.org/forums/index.php: they have a pretty good idea on what your cars should need.
Patrick

[SeanHM]

I'd love to see some more details. I've been hesitating on pulling the trigger on this for awhile. Little intimidating, but interesting.

[MJN]

I'm more interested in EA as I have a TwEECer and wide band already but have only been making relatively simple changes based on datalogging. Please share more details. Thanks.

[GWL]

Timm,

Any more information would be great. I just spent the last 20 minutes looking at the Moates site and it all looks very interesting.

I have made some changes to my engine such as larger MAF (GT-40 from a '97 Explorer), larger injectors, cam and so forth and I don't have any idea where to start with a EFI tune. I'll be using an EEC IV from an '89 Mustang with a 5 speed transmission.

There is a local tuner with a chassis dino but I don't have any idea what he would be doing to my car. So here I am listening to you guys talk this back and forth.

Thanks for all you can do to further tell us about your experiences with this EFI tuning system.

George

[ltcjr71]

I am with Tim on this, this thing is great. Nothing like know exactly what is going on and being able to tune the little quirks out. Took me a little bit to get it working due to some O2 and computer problems, but now I'm very happy. I even had a SCT chip that I was able to pull the tune off using Jaybird (Moates sells it) and Binary Editor. Put that tune in QH and you are on the right track, assuming your original tune was good.

[tim-in-oakton]

Hey - if there is appetite I'll try to document my tuning experience, but be aware that there is a significant learning curve. This lets you control what the engine does, but you have to know what you want it to do. If you just want to turn off emissions and change your idle - just buy a chip from someone or fake the engine out with resistors.

Google "eec-iv strategy gufb ford" and start reading the hits - if you like this and have an appetite for learning more about engine performance than this is the tool for you.

Here's an example of tuning versus assembling parts:

Simple route - you want to put on bigger injectors, so you buy new injectors AND a MAF 'calibrated" to the new injectors. This confuses the computer (load calculations will be off) but it will work fine and is simple (just $ and new parts). Little thinking involved.

Tuner route - put on bigger injectors, tell the computer the size of new injectors and you are done. If you want a bigger MAF as well, slap it on and load it's voltage versus airflow curve into the computer (30 points in a table makes the curve).

What I like about this approach is that I can "get into it" as deeply as I like. New cam? We'll just update the injector timing, raise the idle, and then run EA on a datalog of it running to see what other changes are needed. Want to change the timing? You have literally dozens of knobs and tables to adjust to make the timing do whatever you want it to. That said - you need to know what you want - heard of "tip in"? Dashpot? How do you want it to behave when warming up? When hot? When decelerating? At altitude? You have control.

I plan to put a switch on my QH to support different tunes - I could set a 20 mph "valet mode" in one tune, a "high mileage" mode on another tune, and two different performance tunes.

It's a cool tool, but not for the faint of heart..... for the same reason I don't suggest that my less handy friends buy chainsaws, I suggest that you don't buy QH without being prepared to climb that learning curve and experiment - the WBO2 is very important for the experimenting.

HTH - I'll post some screenshots and videos when I get my act together.
timm