utec turbo XS in the fx

T

turbocad6

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OK, I just got finished installing my utec turbo XS in the fx, & let me tell you, it DOES NOT FIT! well, it does not fit the way it is intended to be installed anyway. keep in mind the kit is really specified as being for the 350Z, & as you may have guessed, our dash is a bit different from the Z:tongue:

the kit includes a few stand offs & instructions on how to mount this up in the Z, seems the Z has enough room to piggy back the utec unit to the ecu, then reinstall it on the OE bracket & bolt it back in. the leads for the ecu are very short & just long enough to reach when the 2 computers are stacked. the problems are #1 the bracket that the ecu mounts up to in the z is different & uses different mounting points to the ecu than the fx uses, so this will not mount back up to the bracket in the fx the way they specify. problem #2 is, the fx does NOT have enough room for these 2 computers piggy backed without moving a bunch of stuff around. we have a narrower slot that the ecu fits in & we have a motor up above the ecu for the recirculation door that is also kinda in the way.

what should be a half hour job on a Z turned into over 4 hours on the fx. I had to relocate several modules, remove a plastic plug holder, reroute several harnesses in the dash including the ecu harness & the main harness for the door on the right side. I also had to remove a stud from the firewall & bend a harness support tab out of the way, re drill the ecu mounting bracket & mount the utec back wards, necessitating rerouting the ecu harnesses to still reach.... all in all a tricky thing to get everything to fit. I'm sure that many would run into complications here & the alternative would be to have everything hanging under the dash with no way of buttoning it all up & having it look stock again, not acceptable:err: shoving it under the carpet, not acceptable.

the way I winded up pulling this off may help others who might go this route... now I am very curious though, hasn't anyone else ever installed one of these on an fx before? how the heck did they mount everything? I have a lot of patience & wouldn't give up till I found a way to get everything back together solidly mounted & secure but I could see this really frustrating someone trying to install this, the alternative would be just shoving it in there unmounted & tying it up or something I guess.... even that would require moving at least some things as it doesn't even fit enough to just shove it in there even.

I'll get some pictures up later when I button it all back up, I also have some other things going on in that side of my dash what with hard rive & power supplies & stuff for the PC that I also need to remount, but that doesn't affect the original problem of this just not fitting to begin with... pictures later:smile:
 
Yea John the space for the stock fx ecu is VERY narrow. Nice to hear you got it all in there somehow, lol. Let us know how the unit functions.
 
Don't worry, I had the same issues with the J&S Ultra Safeguard. Shady did as well. If I was going to keep it in for any longer than the few weeks it was there, I would've went the route Shady did and use a screw to hold the kick-plate up since it would hang down a few inches from its original spot in order to fit the auto-sport harness.

Oh but as for the J&S unit itself, it fits inside the right-side panel, almost directly opposite the driver's side fuse panel, but the thick wiring harness did not take to bending very well and I didn't want to rip splices out, hence the reason for the kick plate having to hang a little bit lower.
 
the utec is huge, it's way bigger than the j&s safeguard, it's bigger than the ecu... it's big. placement is not flexable at all, the harnesses are so short that it will only reach if sandwiched against the ecu, it would never reach to the rs kick panel or anywhere else for that matter, plus my pc power supplies are already there in the rs kick.

I got every thing in & all covers back on. I'll put up pictures later... it's pretty packed in there right now:smile:
 
turbocad6 said:
placement is not flexable at all, the harnesses are so short that it will only reach if sandwiched against the ecu, it would never reach to the rs kick panel or anywhere else for that matter
Click to expand...
Maybe they should look into different harnesses for the FX's :embarrassed:

Thanks for the info, and as I will probably be getting a Utec by the end of the year, this should be very helpful.

Did you buy used or brand new?
 
bought it new. heres a few shots... I didn't document this very well with pictures but you can see the important parts that if your in there, you'll be able to use this as a guide to see how to fit it. I had to flip the ecu & utec around & put the top of the utec to the bracket for clearance of the plugs up top. this makes the bottom plugs oposite than they should sit & the harnesses need to be rerouted for this.

I drilled small holes lined up with the utec small screws after figuring out how to fit it. you should be able to just copy this positioning as known to work rather than trial & fighting with it. the fit is so tight that I had to increase the length of the lower bracket slot just to be able to get it back in there, again, if you were in there doing this you'd realize what I mean I think... there is a module that bolts to the face of the firewall & the stud that it mounts too needs to be shaved off. I relocated this module to the side by bending the bracket & bolting it through the dash mounting bolt. the other smaller module I relocated to the right side, where a big white plastic plug holding block was. this was removed completely & the 2 plugs that went through this holder now are not in a holder, but theres more room now & the module fits right below these 2 plugs without the holder. you may be able to fit them in the rs kick panel really if you have nothing else in there.

my lower cover fits back on with just the 3 push in clips holding it up, but it does buldge down slightly. I also have my usb hub with usb modem in there held in by the lower cover too.
 
as far as function, this piggyback ecu is very cool. it can do alot, it can even run full open loop fueling speed density across the whole map even from idle, just like a full stand alone, but where it really shows it's worth is by not using it like that, but rather letting the stock ecu handle all the idiosyncrasies of maintaining a smooth idle & part throttle drive-ability closed loop, & then kicking in at the higher loads & higher rpm's with full control. in speed density mode with open loop fueling this eliminates the problem of the stock ecu switching maps on it's own, because all fueling & timing is run directly off the maps of the UTEC & not just modified to the stock ecu values like most other piggybacks... so when this is in control where it counts, the stock ecu map has no effect on the fueling & timing of this unit... it works just like a stand alone... you can also build into your maps when & when not this mode will apply. this means easier tuning & better driveabilty without the uncertainty of the map that the ecu may decide to switch to or fear of the stock ecu learning to fuel around this... all in all this is a nice solution.

the drawback & the biggest disappointment however is the actual software interface... it communicates & has all interface through hyper terminal as vt100 emulation. what this means is it is as ancient in it's interface as a DOS program... it's actually very similar to the first DFI I ever had, way back like 12 years ago... straight DOS, this is about the same:err: what's so disappointing is, the communication between the PC & the UTEC is low level simple command, & to write software for a GUI interface really isn't that hard... this things been around for a few years now & I'm sure turbo XS has made so much money that the development of a nice GUI interface would be trivial for a company such as this, but, even though they promised this from when this unit first came out, they never bothered to live up to any of those promises... that's probably the biggest complaint you see with this unit in general

aside from the interface, this thing does a whole lot for the money really & is more than enough for even the most radically modified cars, including tt's & superchargers, as well as even na as a unit you can self tune as opposed to a ecu flash which is pretty generic & not optimized for your individual car & conditions really... this is a nice piece even for a highly modded NA car...
 
I've been doing a bunch of research today & I found 2 different 3rd party software solutions to GUI interfaces with the utec:

http://www.jeffsoftware.com/

http://www.mpsav.com/MPSUTECLogger/MPS_UTECLogger_Download.htm

both look pretty promising, sucks that the first one seems better but doesn't support the zeitronix:err: for that one I'd be better off with turboXS' tuner module, but $400, & I just bought the zeitronix... like they say, you can never do enough research to avoid all pitfalls when it comes to stuff like this.... the second software does support the zieitronix though & I dl'd it & am checking it out, even that one is so much better than the turboXS interface... still learning...

the first one has the capability of actually analyzing your results & generating a map for you to correct the tune.... that is so cool, almost as cool as those almost 3K boxes that do auto tuning... man, you could just keep spending & spending when playing with performance... after this I gotta go back to the heavy labor but cheap mods like my dash & stuff :err: man, I hope I don't blow my motor too quick:cool:

also, I found out that the g's have the same issue fitting the utec in there dash... the pro tuners who install this thing actually cut the side brackets off of the utec box to install it & it still don't really fit 100%, but they do get it to button up like I did at least. I woulda never considered cutting the utec box up before it was at least installed & tested, but that is what they do :embarrassed:
 
Thread moved.

Will be installing UTEC in a few weeks *crosses fingers*

Gonna use your foh-toes of course. Thanks again!
 
still installed, but coming out now & gonna put it up for sale, not useful for the HR motor really... if anyone wants a utec lmk :tongue:
 
If you could start your FX modding over again, assuming you bought all the same stuff, at what point would you get the Utec?
Also, what peripheral equipment Utec have you purchased? (remote map selector switch, etc...)

EDIT: Why isn't it useful on the HR motor? Is it not compatible or not necessary?
 
I got the utec in preparation of installing a blower that I also bought. I installed the utec but never got around to installing the blower because my motor started ticking & then tapping & I realized it was foolish to FI such a tired & beat motor, so I sold the supercharger & bought a new motor instead, the HR.

the HR has variable valve timing on both intake and exhaust, vs our DE which only has variable valve timing on the intake alone, so the DE ecu can't run the HR engine by itself. the utec is not compatible with the HR ecu at all, so no matter how I wind up getting this thing to run the utec can not be in the equation. most likely I'll run a haltech which does have the ability of running the variable valve timing on both intake & exhaust

as far as peripherals, dude, it's me :tonguey:... I bought anything & everything extra for it. I have the remote map selector switch, the external map sensor to run speed density instead of map sensor and even the tuner add-on module for wideband tuning & logging.

in my opinion an unmodified normally aspirated vq35de does not really need something like the utec, there are cheaper options in tuning for just mild bolt-on stuff. if you were hell bent on getting rid of the maf sensor then the utec would let you do that, but there is not much reason to, you cannot exceed the flow rating of the maf sensor without changing the VE of the engine itself, & just external bolt on's without forced induction won't do that really. it would be very useful for a built NA vq though, say heads & cams... while it can give you multiple maps switching on the fly & the ability to create different timing & fuel maps for different situations, that & the data logging I guess, but is probably not enough to justify the cost of the utec for a stock motor to most people.

in my opinion the utec is mainly for the guy who wants to install a turbo setup or a supercharger setup & wants to use better management than many base kits would normally include. it is a step above many of the budget management solutions out there & a step below getting a full stand alone like a haltech or a motec etc.
 
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