ECUflash 02-04 Lancer ECU in 1g

[Spleen8urLSX]

Looking to use ECUflash and Evoscan on my 1g and I’m seeking advice from those a bit more versed with that platform. I have read through threads on building a jumper harness which would be no issue for me, have found it seems a Tactrix 1.3 cable is what I would need to use, etc.

The price of Evo 8 ECU’s has risen it seems and while one write up I’ve seen a handful of times an ECU from a 4 cylinder manual trans 3g Eclipse was used it doesn’t answer my question directly. Now with digging I have found threads on EvolutionM of users flashing an Evo 8 ROM to the 02-04 Lancer manual transmission ECU and that just like the 3g Eclipse ECU the pin out is near the same as an Evo 8 (I think I recall 2 pins are different and likely the same difference in the 3g Eclipse pin out).

Since I have indeed confirmed that the Tephra v7 ROM can be flashed to the Lancer ECU, is there anything that stops me from utilizing that ECU in my 1g or am I overlooking something that would put the brakes on that?

Again the connection at the Lancer ECU is the same as what’s used in the Evo 8 and the pinout is near the same so building a jumper is not a problem, so with what I have gathered this should work unless im missing something. I do know that I would not have the capability to control boost with the ECU (same scenario with the 3g ECU) but other than that don’t see why this can’t work.

Before someone gives me the “just get ECMLink!” speech, I’m well aware of ECMLink, have used it in multiple cases, it is a fantastic tuning solution, but I’ve always wanted to play with this set up and also we are hitting a time when there’s many more tuners available that work with ECUflash opposed to ECMLink and from what I can find it’s just as capable if not more capable.

 

[steve]

Sounds like a good experiment. I haven't seen the ECU in question, do you know what pins are different and what knock sensor it supports?

If I were going to do this I'd start out by documenting all the differences between the Lancer ECU and the Evo ECU and see if there are any internal jumpers that are used for those differences or if it's all code.

 

[Spleen8urLSX]

I have a feeling it’s all code, but can not verify yet. My understanding is they’d use the Evo 8/3g Eclipse knock sensor which is one of the things appealing about playing with this as they’re still widely available compared to the 1g knock sensor that’s almost extinct.

I’d have to reference the thread on EvolutionM to confirm the pin differences, but from what I can gather is when I build the jumper harness just wire according to where they need to go matching the 1g harness. I need to get my hands on one to confirm but from what I can gather is on that era, all 4 cylinder manual trans Mitsubishi products seem to use the same black box ECUs minus boost control function aside from that the differences are only in the programming. It appears several who have turbocharged that generation of Lancer or 4g63/64 swapped them with boost in the mix have flashed the Tephra v7 ROM to their ECU to give them the same tuning capabilities as an Evo 7/8, and some have switched to the Evo ECU to gain boost control by simply depinning those wires and placing them in the correct location and it’s plug and play from there.

I do know of an early 2000s Kia Optima running a 2g EPROM ECU and ECMlink on the stock Kia harness, so I suspect the Kia’s and Hyundai’s of that generation also use the same flashable ECU but I need to open one can of worms before I open that one.