Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

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BiNiaRiS
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Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

Not many of you know me. Some of you may know my car though. I bought advansti's 91 SS. Here's a link to the build before it was in my hands:
http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=46656

Feel free to skip the next few paragraphs if you'd rather not read how I initially chose this setup.

So long story short I bought this car and and it was solid, for the most part, after a year of ownership. The PP6 left a lot to be desired. I knew this had a lot more potential and the tuning/ECU was what was holding it back. I spent a lot of time researching options. A standalone seemed like the best and most optimized option but expensive and technical. I don't like messing with wires. So a robtune seemed like a good option. I'd have to switch the ecu and convert from wasted spark to COP. Not that difficult but again another step.

I had my car in the body shop for a hit and run and when i went to pick it up, it was running poorly. I was worried someone had taken it out for a joy ride. In the end, I narrowed it down to one cylinder (#3 iirc) that wasn't firing. Shit. I was working a lot and didn't have time so i took it into a local shop. Rick at Superior Subie and Import and Portland was who I decided on. He confirmed that it wasn't firing and called me back a few days later. My injector had crapped itself. I was running 480cc yellowtops out of a v4 STI. Not easy to source. I had the choice of waiting for a set to pop up for sale, or getting something else. But by grabbing some new injectors, I'd have to retune and that cost $$$. I figured that if I was gonna up my injectors might as well do some mods at the same time. Rick, who owns a 91 SS himself told me about this ESL board that he'd yet to try or see in person but on paper it seemed perfect.

Enter http://www.enduringsolutions.com

If any of you have done any research on using a 20G ecu in an SS, or looked into a robtune (or already have one) this is going to make a lot of sense. The SS wiring is essentially 99% the same as a 20G ecu. A 20G ecu plugs into our existing wiring and will some small modifications + a robtune you can have a much more aggressive and efficient tune. Who doesn't want more power?

20G ecus have an IC port on them that was initially there for aftermarket shops to be able to install a chip that would modify the software. Literally chipping your car as some people like to say. Robtune does this and is very good. Rob has done some very extensive work and has made two different setups for our cars but is very limited to what you have under the hood. I talked with Rob a handful of times and even he was unsure of what I would see with my heavily modified setup.

The ESL board is radically different. The guys at ESL have managed to essentially reverse engineer the entire ECU. You need a 20G ecu...any ecu from any 20g. Auto wrx? Good to go. The hardware on 20g ECUs is all the same. The ESL setup is a daughter board. It uses the IC socket on ANY 20g ECU to modify the software. You solder on the socket, plug the board it and throw it in your car and your car is already talking to it. The only mod needed is to unpin one wire and repin it (MAP ground). The software on the 20g ecu doesn't matter as ESL can flash any 20g map on it when you buy it.

This is where it gets cool...you don't need to switch to COP. After some discussions with ESL they told me it was capable of wasted spark. It had been bench tested but never used on a car. They sent me the board and some experimental software. We got it hooked up and after changing the MAF scale (remember my car is very modified) it started right up. I drove it on a stock 6K map for 2 weeks...very conservatively. It's a very rich map to begin with that maxes at 16psi.

The board allows you to tune ON THE FLY. This very similar to a megasquirt or any opensource tuning for modern subarus. An example is my MAF scale being off from the stock map. On the 6k map, my car would barely start. It would start, putter and die. Do this 10 times and once it was warm it would idle and drive but be pretty rough. I adjusted the MAF scale up, while the car was running, and INSTANTLY the engine responded and started to run better (granted this was all before a dyno tune).

The beauty of this setup is that it allows you to retain a stock ecu with all the benefits (cold start, close loop fueling, etc) but have the ability to tune on the fly like modern cars). It's really stupid how amazing this is.

Let me boil this down to how easy it is to install.

-Purchase ESL board/cable
-Procure a 20G ecu
-Solder on IC socket (easy mode for anyone that has used a soldering iron before)
-Plug in ESL board
-Unpin and merge ONE wire going into the ecu (MAP ground)
-Get dyno tuned
-Profit

Another things to note...while running the PP6 my car constantly threw ECU code 41 and sometimes 51. I couldn't figure these out and choked them up to the ECU being confused. 41 made some sense but 51? The car was a manual to start with with a 6spd swap so 51 shouldn't have ever popped up. I have never had a CEL since switching to the ESL setup.

This whole post was probably pretty efficient but meh. PM me, post here...ask me questions. This setup will work for anyone on here. Hell it should work for anyone with a 20g swap in there car if they've done a harness merge (even imprezas). I really don't see any advantage of a robtune over this unless you have no plans on upgrading past what a robtune is capable of.

TL;DR This board allows you to use a 20G ecu and ONE wire swap to be able to tune ON THE FLY. Even your mom would approve.
MConte05
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by MConte05 »

So, being that we are playing with $4k cars, the big question is: how much?
BiNiaRiS
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

MConte05 wrote:So, being that we are playing with $4k cars, the big question is: how much?
$610 shipped + plus whatever the price of a 20G ecu is. You can pretty easily find those for $100 or so.
mike-tracy
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by mike-tracy »

I had one of these in my hands, and let it slip away ;(
1992 Legacy SS 5mt, build in progress
Josh Colombo wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2002 10:23 am Wait....I'm confused now.
wtdash
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by wtdash »

These are cool...Looked into them b4, too. $$ seemed high But for what you get, not so much.
- Tuning: Assume this can be tuned by any competent tuner? Base maps to get your car to a tuner are supplied by ESL?
- MAFs: One limitation of the RT is the MAF. A Nissan/Infiniti Z32 is supposedly an upgrade path....and might even plug in?
- Soldering: I thought this required a special soldering "tool" for the eeprom socket to go from this:

Image

to this:

Image

W/the ESL board plugged in:

Image


Thanks for the review.
TD
Turbo Subies:
'87 GL-10 Turbo - SOLD
'90 BJ EJ22T/DOHC & 5speed swap - SOLD
'04 FXT, Forged internals, VF39, STI TMIC, Cobb AP- SOLD
'93 Legacy SS - 5-speed, SOLD :-(
'02 WRX -SOLD
'96 BD-turbo'd-SOLD
'98 SF - NA-T
BiNiaRiS
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

wtdash wrote:These are cool...Looked into them b4, too. $$ seemed high But for what you get, not so much.
- Tuning: Assume this can be tuned by any competent tuner? Base maps to get your car to a tuner are supplied by ESL?
- MAFs: One limitation of the RT is the MAF. A Nissan/Infiniti Z32 is supposedly an upgrade path....and might even plug in?
- Soldering: I thought this required a special soldering "tool" for the eeprom socket to go from this:
There's for sure some stuff I left out. $700 for a setup like this really isn't bad. Compare it to a cobb access port at $650 and its right there. This is probably not the right setup for someone that has a stock SS. But if you're looking at a robtune, this is just a bit more and gives you SO much more. The tune is really the extra money you'll be spending. But a tune is also the most important part. For what it's worth, I ran my car on the stock 6K map for two weeks. Nice and rich and actually ran surprisingly well. I don't think most would be able to tell the tune wasn't custom for the car.

Tuning: Absolutely can been tuned by any competent tuner. The software is very easy to use. Maybe not as advanced as some standalone software (cause, well, this ain't a standalone).

MAFs: I run the jecs maf which maxes out at about 19psi so depending on your setup, the Z32 MAF is a good option. I've looked at switching to that myself.

Soldering: Easy. I've done a decent amount of basic soldering and it took me 10min. If you don't wanna do it yourself, just ask around and I guarantee anyone that has used a soldering iron before would make sort work of it. They supply the IC socket you see in your 2nd pic. I used a solder sucker to make all those points open (solder is flowed over them at the factory so you need to remove it). This actually took the longest amount of time. Once the holes are open you push the socket it, flip the board over and solder all the pins and you're done. I could teach someone and they'd be comfortable with this in 30min.

ESL has been really slow and adding the motorsport features for this setup. But once they do, it should have launch control, flat foot shifting,and antilag.

There's also some amazing features i forgot to mention. 3d boost mapping is great. Don't need a boost controller. I was using a perring MBC before this and now it's all controlled by the ECU. Knock control is just great for safety. And something I plan on switching to later is converting to speed density. You just have to add an IAT sensor and change one wire and bam. Get rid of that MAF sensor. And it's nice to know that a year from now, i can change anything on my engine and just get it retuned and be done and know it's optimal and safe.

If anyone has questions about it, feel free to post here.
Alphius
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by Alphius »

mike-tracy wrote:I had one of these in my hands, and let it slip away ;(
You should get another for your current project. ;)
mike-tracy
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by mike-tracy »

Alphius wrote:
mike-tracy wrote:I had one of these in my hands, and let it slip away ;(
You should get another for your current project. ;)
Dont/wont have room for 3 cars any more.
1992 Legacy SS 5mt, build in progress
Josh Colombo wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2002 10:23 am Wait....I'm confused now.
wtdash
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by wtdash »

BiNiaRiS wrote:..... Don't need a boost controller. I was using a perring MBC before this and now it's all controlled by the ECU....
Plz explain how this works. What's controlling the wastegate?


Tangent:
FWIW, most/all the 2000-2006(?) Subies used the same MAF which included an IAT.
Turbo Subies:
'87 GL-10 Turbo - SOLD
'90 BJ EJ22T/DOHC & 5speed swap - SOLD
'04 FXT, Forged internals, VF39, STI TMIC, Cobb AP- SOLD
'93 Legacy SS - 5-speed, SOLD :-(
'02 WRX -SOLD
'96 BD-turbo'd-SOLD
'98 SF - NA-T
BiNiaRiS
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

wtdash wrote:
BiNiaRiS wrote:..... Don't need a boost controller. I was using a perring MBC before this and now it's all controlled by the ECU....
Plz explain how this works. What's controlling the wastegate?


Tangent:
FWIW, most/all the 2000-2006(?) Subies used the same MAF which included an IAT.
I think it's a combination of the target boost paired with the boost duty map. I know in the manual it states that the boost duty is more important in hitting the target boost. I'm sure you could message them on facebook and they'd give you the details.

As for the IAT, they have instructions on how to add an IAT to switch to speed density.
Legacy777
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by Legacy777 »

Thanks for sharing this information.

Do they have any information on their website? I didn't see anything listed on their site. Additionally, is the software available for download so you can see the interface? Can you run/open the software without being connected to the ECU? What about opening saved ECU maps to adjust offline and upload to the ECU?

It'd be nice to see a list of documented features/capabilities, etc.
Josh

surrealmirage.com/subaru
1990 Legacy (AWD, 6MT, & EJ22T Swap)
2020 Outback Limted XT

If you need to get a hold of me please email me rather then pm
Legacy777
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by Legacy777 »

BiNiaRiS wrote:
wtdash wrote:
BiNiaRiS wrote:..... Don't need a boost controller. I was using a perring MBC before this and now it's all controlled by the ECU....
Plz explain how this works. What's controlling the wastegate?


Tangent:
FWIW, most/all the 2000-2006(?) Subies used the same MAF which included an IAT.
I think it's a combination of the target boost paired with the boost duty map. I know in the manual it states that the boost duty is more important in hitting the target boost. I'm sure you could message them on facebook and they'd give you the details.

As for the IAT, they have instructions on how to add an IAT to switch to speed density.

Just to clarify some things, you don't need an "external" boost controller with the ESL board. It's just like having the stock ECU control boost.


If you go to a speed density setup the IAT needs to be placed after the intercooler so it can adjust fueling based on the temperature of the air entering the cylinder.
Josh

surrealmirage.com/subaru
1990 Legacy (AWD, 6MT, & EJ22T Swap)
2020 Outback Limted XT

If you need to get a hold of me please email me rather then pm
kimokalihi
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by kimokalihi »

mike-tracy wrote:I had one of these in my hands, and let it slip away ;(
I did also, as you know. Robert has it now for a very hansome price. The reason I let it go rather than trying to run it was because through my research there was no one in the country who was licensed to tune it according to various forums I found and the only guy they knew of was in canada and he had already screwed somebody over apparently when this person paid him to work on his car. However, the tuner said it was the customer that was not being honest so I didn't know what to make of it. Either way I wasn't going to canada to tune my car.

Rob also told me when I emailed him about acquiring the ESL board that he didn't like the way it scaled the injectors. I trust Rob and he knows way more than I do about electronics so I decided to sell it. My car smells rich all the time though and it leaves me wondering how much more power I could get out of my setup or future setups.

Hope he doesn't mind me quoting his emails but perhaps you guys can better understand what he's saying than I can.
Hi Kimo,

That's good to know that it works. Adjusting the scalar for bigger injectors and MAF would be a concern for me. You will need to pay close attention to your live cell tracing. When you mess with the scalar, you change how the ECU calculates load and you will land in different load columns for the same boost. Thanks for the offer, but I don't need to take a look at it. Let me know how it goes.

-Rob


On Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 1:11 PM, kimo kalihi wrote:

Thanks rob. I've found the threads on the forum about the issues with the boards they had. The seller says this board was used by a friend of him with no problems and that the issue they were having was due to not seating the board properly or bad connection. Anyways I got this not only to do a more precise tune but I also want more power mea ing larger injectors, more boost, ej257 block and either mafless or different maf such as the z32 maf. The seller says you can use any maf including the z32 one and he said he used the z32 on his svx.

I got an email back from esl saying they only sell directly to the customer in the usa and don't have any authorized tuners here or canada. He says a board runs 295gbp and 75gbp for the cable and software. I'm hoping I can use this without issue and find someone to tune it. Did you want to check it out when it comes in the mail?

Kimo

From:
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:07:36 -0700
Subject: Re: ESL Daughter Board Tune
To:

Hi Kimo,

Yes I am familiar with the ESL boards and actually picked up an older version in an ECU trade a while ago. You should check which version you have. The older version has to use the older software. It is a good middle step between a chip tune and a full standalone. It gives you the ability to adjust your tune, but still run OEM code. The downside of this is of course is that you HAVE to have it tuned :) I don't know any tuners around here that have ESL experience. So you are either tuning it yourself or convincing a tuner to learn the software. Either way it is time and money that you have to budget for. You have the potential for a more optimized tune for you particular car (and the current state of mods) than with a vanilla chip tune. The other thing to consider is that going to ESL from my tune you will lose some of the nice extras I have coded in; knock light, launch control, and a couple other non user visible enhancements. Also, I will say that I don't trust how ESL handles injector scaling. It is a bit technical, but there are some important considerations to be made when monkeying with the scalar value. IOther EJ20G tuners I have seen either don't understand or completely ignore this. It probably would run ok with the yellow injectors, but at some point, not doing this correctly becomes a real concern. It is possible that he has this figured out behind the scenes, but from what I see from the software, it doesn't look that way.

The other thing to pay attention to is that I have seen a few report from the Canadian guys about issues with the ESL hardware itself. You may want to search and see what to look out for.


I am not sure what they go for used (esp for the older HW) so hard to say if it is worth $320.

I have been working on a similar live tuning solution for quite a while now, but with the popularity of the chip tunes and other small projects, it taking a long time to complete. ESL finished theirs first, so Kudos to them.

-Rob

>>
Hey Rob,

This is Kimo. We haven't spoken in probably a year. I just found an EJ20G ECU with ESL Daughter Board for $320 shipped. I bought it quickly since it seems to be a good price and probably would sell quickly. This is supposed to be a fully tunable ECU add-on. Comes with software. Just need the OBD1 USB cable and a laptop and maybe a dyno. Do you know anything about this hardware? Is it worth $320? Do you know anyone who can tune it for me? I would love to hear your thoughts and input on this setup. Maybe you want to take a look at it? I'll let you know when I receive it.

Thanks

Kimo
98 Metro Hatch Daily Driver :)
91 SS EJ20G Engine/Tranny/Diff Swap Build Thread Here
"Your testes are close to your bottom but you still play with them all the time." Jeremy Clarkson
BiNiaRiS
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

I'd really like to know why rob thinks the scaling would be a problem. Granted the board you had was a much older revision. The new boards are completely different with new software.

Any competant tuner can tune this. If they can tune a standalone this is easy mode.

My tuner looked at the stock 6k map before I brought it in and he laughed because the stock map is so rich. He said most subarus run very rich from the factory.

This isn't some new product at this point in time. It's been under a few revisions now and has changed quite a bit.

This is one of the cars they sponsor. Made it to the finals of the 2014 Gymkhana Grid last year. Got smoked by ken block but still haha. Powered by an ESL board.
https://youtu.be/yq1WX7KFBeA
Alphius
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by Alphius »

My guess based on what rob said is that the ECU uses injector scalar to calculate load. That would throw off every load-referenced table by a predictable amount every time you changed the injector scalar.

The other possibility is that the ESL uses the MAF scaling to compensate for injector size which would not be the correct way to do it. That would be like the 300g/s MAF trick on newage WRX to halve the load calculation which causes you to have to modify a lot of tables to fix the problems that crop up by the ECU always thinking there's half the load on the engine as there actually is.

One thing to keep in mind is some tables in the ECU (tip-in enrichment, maybe others) can sometimes be implemented by adding a fixed amount of injector pulsewidth to the current injection event. If injectors were resized that would mean these tables would be off and would need to be adjusted for perfect drivability.

I'm confident I could road tune or dyno tune an ESL board if anyone in the PNW gets one and can't find a tuner.

If someone can get me the software and a map and if it can be loaded on a computer without having the accompanying hardware I'd be more than happy to look at it and provide my thoughts.
BiNiaRiS
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

Alphius wrote:My guess based on what rob said is that the ECU uses injector scalar to calculate load. That would throw off every load-referenced table by a predictable amount every time you changed the injector scalar.

The other possibility is that the ESL uses the MAF scaling to compensate for injector size which would not be the correct way to do it. That would be like the 300g/s MAF trick on newage WRX to halve the load calculation which causes you to have to modify a lot of tables to fix the problems that crop up by the ECU always thinking there's half the load on the engine as there actually is.

One thing to keep in mind is some tables in the ECU (tip-in enrichment, maybe others) can sometimes be implemented by adding a fixed amount of injector pulsewidth to the current injection event. If injectors were resized that would mean these tables would be off and would need to be adjusted for perfect drivability.

I'm confident I could road tune or dyno tune an ESL board if anyone in the PNW gets one and can't find a tuner.

If someone can get me the software and a map and if it can be loaded on a computer without having the accompanying hardware I'd be more than happy to look at it and provide my thoughts.
I talked to PIA in Tacoma and they seemed more than happy to tune it for me once I told them what the software is like. Like I said. If you can tune a standalone this shit is a cake walk.
th3band1t
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by th3band1t »

This is all VERY INTERESTING. I was just about to purchase a DIYPNP MegaSquirt as it seemed to me the only viable option to get all that I wanted out of the car without spending thousands on an AEM or LINK. The MegaSquirt would have had the car down for a while as wiring would have taken a few weeks, but at the cost of $490 it seemed the best. Luckily I decided to look here one last time!

I have a few questions about this system. Since I am new to these older legacies, I just acquired a 91 SS, what is this 20G ECU that is being talked about? I have tried a search but I guess I dont really know what I am looking for. I also see that on the site there are a few options, Im assuming I would fall under the 92/6 board? I would really like the 97/8 as Antilag would be fantastic. I guess I need to know if theyll both work in a 20G ecu?
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by mike-tracy »

th3band1t wrote:I have a few questions about this system. Since I am new to these older legacies, I just acquired a 91 SS, what is this 20G ECU that is being talked about? I have tried a search but I guess I dont really know what I am looking for. I also see that on the site there are a few options, Im assuming I would fall under the 92/6 board? I would really like the 97/8 as Antilag would be fantastic. I guess I need to know if theyll both work in a 20G ecu?
Friend, check out this link: http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=47252

The chip mentioned in this thread fits into an expansion slot that you may/may not have to solder into the ej20g ecu you buy.

The 92-96 Ej20g ecu will fit your car with minimal changes (as listed in the link I provided), whereas the 97-98 chip is designed for cars with an ej20k engine (or the Forester EJ20G, which is an ej20k in all ways except name), and will require a full rewire, different sensors, etc. I'm not sure it's even possible with an ej22t engine.

So... you HAVE to use the "92-96 chip" in a 92-96 WRX/STI "20g" ecu fitted to your 91. I asked the owner of ESL about updates regarding antilag and other things the 97-98 chip got, and he seemed to imply that he really wasn't interested in putting effort into that.

Also, I got feedback from Alphius when I showed him the ESL software - he commented that it was very basic and limited compared to megasquirt. My thought is it may be limited, but it is certainly better than no solution.
1992 Legacy SS 5mt, build in progress
Josh Colombo wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2002 10:23 am Wait....I'm confused now.
th3band1t
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by th3band1t »

Ahh so the version w/ the motorsport package will not fit into the 20G Ecu. Big Bummer.
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

mike-tracy wrote:
th3band1t wrote:I have a few questions about this system. Since I am new to these older legacies, I just acquired a 91 SS, what is this 20G ECU that is being talked about? I have tried a search but I guess I dont really know what I am looking for. I also see that on the site there are a few options, Im assuming I would fall under the 92/6 board? I would really like the 97/8 as Antilag would be fantastic. I guess I need to know if theyll both work in a 20G ecu?
Friend, check out this link: http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=47252

The chip mentioned in this thread fits into an expansion slot that you may/may not have to solder into the ej20g ecu you buy.

The 92-96 Ej20g ecu will fit your car with minimal changes (as listed in the link I provided), whereas the 97-98 chip is designed for cars with an ej20k engine (or the Forester EJ20G, which is an ej20k in all ways except name), and will require a full rewire, different sensors, etc. I'm not sure it's even possible with an ej22t engine.

So... you HAVE to use the "92-96 chip" in a 92-96 WRX/STI "20g" ecu fitted to your 91. I asked the owner of ESL about updates regarding antilag and other things the 97-98 chip got, and he seemed to imply that he really wasn't interested in putting effort into that.

Also, I got feedback from Alphius when I showed him the ESL software - he commented that it was very basic and limited compared to megasquirt. My thought is it may be limited, but it is certainly better than no solution.
If you're racing, a standalone is always going to be the better and more robust option. The beauty of the ESL board is that it retains the oem reliability (cold starts, etc), it stupid easy to install, and can still scale to whatever you change in the engine bay.

I don't understand why they haven't taken the time to add the motorsport features to the 92/96 board. I know they planned on doing it at one point.
th3band1t
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by th3band1t »

I just sent them an email concerning questions I had about their product. Hope I can hear something soon and get the beast a decent tune! I have been looking to drop some coin into this legacy so I am also looking into a nice little V-Mount intercooler setup as well!
BiNiaRiS
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

th3band1t wrote:I just sent them an email concerning questions I had about their product. Hope I can hear something soon and get the beast a decent tune! I have been looking to drop some coin into this legacy so I am also looking into a nice little V-Mount intercooler setup as well!
Message them on facebook. That's the best way to contact them.
Legacy777
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by Legacy777 »

BiNiaRiS wrote:Any competant tuner can tune this. If they can tune a standalone this is easy mode.

While the tuning associated with the daughter board seems pretty basic, I'll throw in my comment that if you go down this route, make sure you talk with the tuner first to make sure they're knowledgeable with the tuning software. A tuner may have general tuning knowledge, but every software is slightly different and if you don't have that knowledge of the software it could be problematic.

I went through two tuners in Texas with my Link before driving to California to have the car tuned by one of Link's primary US distributors/tuners. The first tuner in Texas I kind of question his overall tuning abilities. The second definitely spent some more time on things, but he didn't quite know where some of the various enrichment settings were and so we were adjusting the main fuel table while warm-up enrichment was still activated. Again, I think this issue was just more of knowledge of the tuning software and where to go to make sure certain things are configured properly.

If the ESL board just has main fuel & timing MAP changes, then yes that would make tuning much more generic so any competent tuner can do it.
Josh

surrealmirage.com/subaru
1990 Legacy (AWD, 6MT, & EJ22T Swap)
2020 Outback Limted XT

If you need to get a hold of me please email me rather then pm
Alphius
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Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by Alphius »

Maintaining factory cold start reliability is a joke when a factory EJ20G ECU can't keep the car running in cold weather. I'd rather have a standalone any day whether its a Link, Haltech, MegaSquirt or others. The ESL board does look like a decent step for those who want an intermediate solution that's easy to wire in and doesn't cost quite so much.
BiNiaRiS
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Location: Portland, OR

Re: Enduring Solutions ECU board and why you should buy it

Post by BiNiaRiS »

Alphius wrote:Maintaining factory cold start reliability is a joke when a factory EJ20G ECU can't keep the car running in cold weather. I'd rather have a standalone any day whether its a Link, Haltech, MegaSquirt or others. The ESL board does look like a decent step for those who want an intermediate solution that's easy to wire in and doesn't cost quite so much.
Define cold weather? Before I had this setup tubed my car was starting upon immediately when the temp was in the teens. Doesn't get much colder than that though.
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