So I was chilling with my computer geek friend, and he asked me a few things about cars, and I ended up mentioning the ECU. At the instance of hearing a car actually has a computer, he totally wanted to mess around with it, hack it, and make it do cooler stuff.

My question is, has anyone ever modded their own ECU? Have it socketed? Had their ECU read, backed-up onto another chip, and then customized a chip for their own specifications and/or racing use?

Alot of places seem to be making craploads of cash by doing this stuff, but with the proper knowledge of cars and computers combined, is it possible and realistic to do something like this yourself?

My friend and I discussed the idea of starting small and going up. Meaning, the first thing we'd do to my car would be something more practical, eg lower my rev limiter to 5000RPMs to see if we did it right, or limit my speed to 70MPH and see if it worked. From their, the rest would be mainly programming it based upon the mods I plan to install on my car, and also seeing what else we could do. Anyone ever do this? My friend said a new chip, socket and other stuff would be way cheaper than a Jet Chip or sending it away to someplace else.

Thanks, Nick

Car ECUs are not like normal computers. It is a completely different languge and takes a long time to "hack" to understand it. You can only modify Eprom ECUs and even then it takes professionals thousands of hours to do.

If you want to destroy a couple dozen rare and expensive Eproms, go for it. :thumbsup

Originally posted by Jeff_99gs
If you want to destroy a couple dozen rare and expensive Eproms, go for it. :thumbsup

That means for the love of God please don't do it!

LOL :P

Defintley not as easy as you think.

Originally posted by L2RTSiAWD
Defintley not as easy as you think.

Like everyone above said, if you have a few thousand hours to spare, you might be able to come up with something. It's a full time job of R&D.

Hmm...doesn't howell allready make a ecu for our cars?? Or the 97 model I mean. If it was so simple don't you think a big name company would have allready done it. I'ts not as easy as it sounds.

Originally posted by EclipseStar
Hmm...doesn't howell allready make a ecu for our cars?? Or the 97 model I mean. If it was so simple don't you think a big name company would have allready done it. I'ts not as easy as it sounds.

Yeah for the 2GNT. This is the 4G63 section.

Originally posted by Jeff_99gs

Originally posted by EclipseStar Hmm...doesn't howell allready make a ecu for our cars?? Or the 97 model I mean. If it was so simple don't you think a big name company would have allready done it. I'ts not as easy as it sounds.

Yeah for the 2GNT. This is the 4G63 section.

DAMN BANME!^

What should I do with myself....
<<<jumping off bridge into sharp boulders>>>