WR1 Owners Club

Hi all, I thinking of goin for simtek

What are your view's and comments on this .. product

Cheers

Solaris yeah
Simtek nah

dynamix wrote:Solaris yeah
Simtek nah

Can you give some reasons why .. cheers buddy

Simtek is great value and will do everything you need but until it has active knock correction it relies on the driver acknowledging a flashing CEL as real det or enough det to stop putting his/her foot down.

At that point what do they do?

What can they do?
...Check with the mapper? maybe
...Put the foot down again to make sure it was really det? (maybe two lots of severe det on a bad fuel would kill the engine)
...switch to the second map but if on the conservative map already

Solaris is more expensive but it means you can just drive the car without having to put up with this issue. It can subsequently be mapped closer to the edge of det as the ecu will bring it back based on real time data... making more power IMO.

dynamix wrote:Simtek is great value and will do everything you need but until it has active knock correction it relies on the driver acknowledging a flashing CEL as real det or enough det to stop putting his/her foot down.

At that point what do they do?

What can they do?
...Check with the mapper? maybe
...Put the foot down again to make sure it was really det? (maybe two lots of severe det on a bad fuel would kill the engine)
...switch to the second map but if on the conservative map already

Solaris is more expensive but it means you can just drive the car without having to put up with this issue. It can subsequently be mapped closer to the edge of det as the ecu will bring it back based on real time data... making more power IMO.

Dunc what is a "flashing cel" ?

Check Engine Light.

Simtek uses this to identify when DET is occurring. Det is bad btw

Would you notice this whilst flat out?

dynamix wrote:Check Engine Light.

Simtek uses this to identify when DET is occurring. Det is bad btw

Would you notice this whilst flat out?

Thought that was what you meant !

I get it aswell

Not wanting to worry you but it could be:
- bad fuel
- bad mapping
- hot charge temps
- running lean
- mechanical issue

Not really a fit and forget type solution.

Were you not told about the CEL flashing for det when it was done?

What worries me more is the second generation owners of these cars who will be less clued up.

rocko wrote:Hi all, I thinking of goin for simtek

What are your view's and comments on this .. product

Cheers

what did your tuner say?

dynamix wrote:Not wanting to worry you but it could be:
- bad fuel
- bad mapping
- hot charge temps
- running lean
- mechanical issue

Not really a fit and forget type solution.

Were you not told about the CEL flashing for det when it was done?

What worries me more is the second generation owners of these cars who will be less clued up.

What worries me more is spending the money I spent for it to be like this.

Should have gone to specsavers !

I've got the simtek on my car, i've only had the cell light on twice now in the 3 months i've been running it, once due to a mechanical sound from me missing a gear and the time i couldn't find any 99ron fuel and had to use esso 97 .
the engine is a ej257 with md321t+ running 1.5 bar.

Surely the mappers experience is crucial to this discussion? I would have thought that a bad mapper could result in a blown engine with the most sophisticated ECU?

WR1 Bro wrote:Surely the mappers experience is crucial to this discussion? I would have thought that a bad mapper could result in a blown engine with the most sophisticated ECU?

Good point well made, if the mapper has a vast experience of SimTek ecus you shouldn't have a problem.
As mentioned you always have the option of a fall back map with reduced boost, timing, added fuel or whatever else you need to get you through a bad batch of fuel.
SimTek have always had the option of running closed loop knock control, and could do so very easily.
The problem with knock control on a non adaptive ecu isn't when to remove timing, its when to put it back in.
I would be interested in hearing your views on this Duncan.

Good point Martyn - I made suggestions to Steve a while back on this as to how it could be done in a straightforward way. Not sure whether that is further forward with the vast amount of work the group N stuff is bringing his way though.

A fall back map is a good idea but and it is a big but, a lot of people are using the base map as the std map and having map 2 as the high boost, methanol map. It doesnt leave an option for map 3.

I have no axe to grind on this but am shocked by how many people running Simteks that are not explained as to what they are losing by changing to it from the std very very good ecu that subaru/denso have spent millions developing. I appreciate that it does away with the MAF which can save money on classics and suit a lot of them because the std ecu is non mappable but with the newage ecu, I have only just found the limit at circa 550 bhp.

dynamix wrote:Good point Martyn - I made suggestions to Steve a while back on this as to how it could be done in a straightforward way. Not sure whether that is further forward with the vast amount of work the group N stuff is bringing his way though.

A fall back map is a good idea but and it is a big but, a lot of people are using the base map as the std map and having map 2 as the high boost, methanol map. It doesnt leave an option for map 3.

I have no axe to grind on this but am shocked by how many people running Simteks that are not explained as to what they are losing by changing to it from the std very very good ecu that subaru/denso have spent millions developing. I appreciate that it does away with the MAF which can save money on classics and suit a lot of them because the std ecu is non mappable but with the newage ecu, I have only just found the limit at circa 550 bhp.

At the risk of sounding thick reading what you wrote, the standard WR1 ECU is good for up to 550bhp?

It can be made to be.

I should ad that it is a pain in the arse to do it though

Can I also add that I have no direct experience of either ECU (yet !) so you should chat to your mapper and get their views as to what it means to you. Also chat to Steve Simpson to get the facts.

Well said Duncan, yes the stock WR1 ecu could be mapped to use a 3 bar map sensor for load input, mapped for antilag and mapped for launch control.
But the fact would remain that it still wouldn't be live mappable, would take longer to tune and wouldn't suit some mappers preferences.

Martynj wrote:Well said Duncan, yes the stock WR1 ecu could be mapped to use a 3 bar map sensor for load input, mapped for antilag and mapped for launch control.
But the fact would remain that it still wouldn't be live mappable, would take longer to tune and wouldn't suit some mappers preferences.

Given the choice I would have happily run Simtek this time last year

Taking it as far as I have on the std ecu has been interesting as an exercise but a long long journey that is now complete.

Motec,or is it just the price that puts people off ??

Chris B wrote:Motec,or is it just the price that puts people off ??

The Motec is an excellent bit of kit Chris, but the SimTek can do 90% of what the Motec can at a fraction of the cost.
Take the DBW STi9 we fitted a Motec to recently, by the time we had bought the ecu, the advanced functions upgrade, the DBW control, the cam control and mapped it, it came in at a fraction over £3000 inc vat.
The SimTek equivalent will retail fitted and mapped at half that.
The Solaris equivalent (Which looks as capable, if not more than a Motec) a few hundred more.

Well i just getting prices on the Motec as we speak...

Confuessed .com

It is slightly confusing I agree, you would require the ecu, cam control upgrade, and if you wanted antilag and launch control the advanced functions upgrade.
Don't have a price list to hand but £2000+ mapping sounds about right.

I think datalogging is another cost on top aswell.

It is the daddy but £3k put me off for starters.

Just glad I got my Motec fitted 4years ago.