Evo 8 ECU in a 2g - Your Visual Guide

[knochgoon24]

The How-To many of you have been waiting for...

Evo 8 ECU in a 2g - Your Visual Guide
By Knochgoon24

Difficulty: 3 out of 5 - Intermediate wiring skills
The difficulty is not from the install. It's from the learning curve on how to actually tune it.

This is a VFAQ on how to do this swap. I'm not responsible for any damage to your car from doing this mod. Do it at your own risk. Also, this was done on an automatic '97. You may find slight differences between this and your car.

Ignore the red electrical tape. That's covering pinholes from removing an SAFC 2.

There are additional steps that need to be taken to swap this into a 95/96. It's basically opposite what the 97+ have to do to run a 95 Ecu. If someone would like to send me the steps (photos a bonus) I'll add it with credit to you.

You'll need:
Evo 8 ECU
Openport/Tactrix 1.3 or 2.0 cable
male and female crimp/solder connector

Tools you'll need:
10mm socket or wrench
short phillips screwdriver
mini flat screwdriver or paperclip
solderng iron

Stuff you should have already:
Wideband o2 sensor

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Step 1:
Disconnect your battery.

Turn your boost down. You're installing a completely new computer in your car that isn't tuned for your car. Crawl before you run.
I pulled my MBC out and ran direct WG pressure on my s16g.

Step 2:
Remove your driver and passenger center kick panels.



Step 3:
Unplug the 4 connectors from your ECU. Just squeeze the tab down and pull. I like to start with the bottom one and work my way up.


Step 4:
Remove the 3 screws that hold your ECU in.
(Someone send me a photo.)

You'll also need to remove one screw off your HVAC ducting so that it moves enough to let you pull the ecu out.


Pull the ECU free. Put the HVAC screw back in.

Step 5:
Get oriented. This is the view of the connectors that is used in the two diagrams. Printing the diagrams out is helpful.



Here's a good link to a full list of pins and wire colors on the 2g. Very helpful. 2g Turbo ECU Pinout w/ wire colors -Thanks Eric (turbosax2)

Step 6:
Our first pin to remove will be pin #58, the tach pin. It isn't used after the swap, so it makes a good pin to practice on. If you damage it while getting it out, don't worry. But it's best to practice trying to remove them undamaged.
It's the white wire here.


To remove a pin, first pop up the white lock on the connector. I just used a mini screw driver to get under the small tabs and pop it up. (First photo is a different connector - I know :) )



Now take that small screwdriver, a paperclip, or some other small implement, and push down near the front of the pin. It may help to push the wire into the connector as you push down on this. When you pull the pin out, it comes out freely with little or no resistance. DO NOT PULL HARD!
The part that's shiny is what you want to press down on.

(I'll try to get a better image later)

The pin itself looks like this. You're pressing down on the one tab. (Facing left)

[knochgoon24]

Step 7:
Continue down the list, pulling all the pins that you need to remove. Keep track of wire colors. I wrote directly on the pin layout sheet.


First connector (22 pins)
Pin 91 (large black) - remove - not used
Pin 87 (yellow w/ red stripe) - remove - not used



Second connector (12 pins)
Already removed pin 58 - not used



Third connector (16 pins)
(Sorry but I don't remember a few pin colors. If you have them, please send me them.)
Pin 32 (?) - remove - not used
Pin 34 (?) - remove - not used
Pin 42 (?) - remove - not used
Pin 46 (orange w/ black stripe) - remove - not used

(32 and 34 have the new pins in already, 42 and 46 have been removed - I got ahead of myself)


Fourth connector (26 pins)
Pin 8 (white w/ red stripe) - remove - used
Pin 16 (red w/ black stripe) - remove - not used
Pin 20 (green w/ orange stripe) - remove - used
Pin 21 (green w/ black stripe) - remove - used
Pin 22 (green) - remove - used

(Already has the new pin swapped in)
(16, 20, and 21 have been removed, 22 has the new pin swapped in)


Step 8:
Now it's time to put some pins back in.

Third Connector (16pin)
Hole 32 - pin 20 (green w/ orange stripe)
Hole 34 - pin 21 (green w/ black stripe)
(42 and 46 stay empty)


Fourth Connector
Hole 8 - pin 22 (green)
Hole 22 - pin 8 (white w/ red stripe)
(20 and 21 stay empty)



Step 9:
You need to source a pin for your flash pin. You need the pin from one of the small holes. You can uses the wires from pins 16, 42, 58, or 87.
Make sure to leave a nice length of wire on it. You will need to solder on about a foot or two more.
I added 16 inches to mine with a terminal on the end.
(photo coming)

Cut the reflash wire on my Openport 1.3 cable and added the male connector. Solder the connector. I left enough wire on the connector end, that I could reconnect the original connector if I ever wanted to.
(photo coming)

Solder a female connector onto the ECU wire. I prefer to put the female connector on the ECU end, because the cover around it helps prevent accidential grounding.
(photo coming)

Put this into hole 79


Step 10:
Put the Evo ECU into the spot the old ECU was in. It doesn't have any bolt downs. You could secure it some way, but I didn't worry about it for now; you may want to.
Plug the 4 plugs in.
(photo coming)

Reconnect your battery.

Step 11:
Sorry but these next steps are very brief. This is just a summary of what you need to do. For more specific information, read through Evo 8 Ecu In 2g Works!! .

Prepare a ROM for use on your car. You'll need to change...
*Injector Size
*Injector Latency
*MAF Size
*MAF Scaling
*Immobilizer (disable it through the periphery bits)

You may also have to eventually need to change...
*Low knock multiplier

There are two ROMs that seem to work best with our cars. 9653 and 9055. 9653 ran really really rich in my car, even with the correct scalings. I'm using 9055. 9653 may work for you. If it does, it's the most supported, so use it. You might as well use one of the Tephra modded ROMs. Just disable anything you don't plan on using.

Step 12:
Plug in your flash cable into the OBD2 port and flash plug. Use a program like ECUFlash to read the ROM on your ECU. This is a good first test. Save this ROM to your computer. Save it in multiple spots. You may want to come back to this. Stock ROMs are available on the net, but it's convenient to just reference yours.

Step 13:
Flash your prepared ROM onto the ECU and attempt to start it up. If it cranks over but won't start, make sure you disabled your immobilizer (or copied your immobilizer code over to your new ROM).

Step 14:
Once it's running, just let it idle. Log using EvoScan. Make sure your fans turn on at the correct temperatures. You can also test this with the actuator test buttons in EvoScan.
Also keep an eye on your fuel trims. Once the car is at operating temperature and running, make sure your fuel trims are withing +/- 5%. If not, you may need to rescale your injectors.

If you trip any CELs, I'd recommend turning off the car, and pulling the code. If it's non critical, you can just turn the car on and keep running it. Better safe than sorry.

Step 15:
Go for a short test drive. Keep alert to how your car is reacting. Watch your knock counts and your AFR. I ran really rich, you may run lean. Currently, there seems to be a problem with low RPM phantom knock. You may need to adjust your low knock multiplier.

From here on out, you're on your own. Most of what you'll have to do will be tuning, but that's the whole reason you installed this ECU, right?


Comments, suggestions, corrections? Send me a PM or e-mail. I'll add your photos, with credit to you. This is under development. There will be differences between models, and it would be nice to have them documented here. If you send me anything that gets added to this thread, you will get credit.