Mr. Wankel

I'm plannin on makin a street sleeper out of an Omni GLH or a Ford Festiva and a Mazda 4cyl turbo motor. I don't like the idea of runnin high boost conditions on either vehicle without some kind of serious engine management. You can get chips for the Mazda ECU but I don't think the Omni has that large an aftermarket. Should I go with an Electromotive TECII or a bleed off screw from the hardware store between the wastegate and the vaccum signal? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Boost Junkie

hmmm...Do u mean that ur gonna use a Omni GLH or a Ford Festiva with a Mazda 4 cyl turbo?! Or ?

Mr. Wankel

I might get an Omni GLH or a Festiva. The Festiva would have a Mazda turbo motor swaped in if I decided to get it. The Omni would keep the stock engine, naturally, if I went with that. The main question being should I go with an aftermarket engine management system that takes care of everything, a chip, or a cheap bleed off screw? The question is really the same whether I get the Omni or the Festiva.

Evil Aviator

Well, to run high boost, you would need both a chip AND a fuel controller. For this kind of money you may as well just get an EMS which will also give you boost control, ignition control, data logging, and an AFR readout. My own opinion is that the stock EMS is a slow and outdated, and the stock AFM is an unnecessary performance-robbing restriction, so it would be in your best interest to eliminate both for a true performance vehicle. Also, I doubt that a simple chip would run your particular application correctly, anyway.

I don't know of anybody who had an easy time tuning a TECII. If you like the Electromotive EMS systems, then you may want to wait a month or two when the TECIII is offered on the public market. It is supposed to be much easier to tune than the TECII.
http://www.electromotive-inc.com/tec3.htm

Mr. Wankel

Well, I've read other threads in the ECU forum and the TECII and III appear to run in the 2000 to 2500 dollar territory. That's way over my budget considering the car I'll be buying will cost around an even grand. If there was a programmable system for a grand or less I'd consider it but anything over is just insane if you ask me. That bleed off screw is beginning to sound pretty nice.

Evil Aviator

LOL, welcome to reality!

The TEC EMS units are a better value if you also need a good ignition system. You can get a Haltech E6K for a little over $1,200, and the Wolf3D 4.0 with 3d boost control will be available soon at similar pricing. I think that this is about as cheap as it gets for a quality EMS.

Here's a link for a chip. I guess it's rather ironic that I think that THIS price is insane for what little you get, but I guess it's all in your perspective.
http://www.reichracing.com/project323/page2.htm

BTW, I love bleed-off screws. Were it not for bleed-off screws, there wouldn't be such a large, inexpensive supply of parts cars with blown turbo engines.

Coolidge

I expect you read the SCC article about Cam's festiva with the mazda 4cyl turbo. It's a nice car - www.cwstuning.com

I would personally go with the omni glh. Way easier and cheaper to make much faster, bigger aftermarket, more used parts, faster, more of a sleeper in my opinion.

Mr. Wankel

Well, I guess I should have indicated that I wasn't goin to just start bleedin wastegate vaccum signal and throw caution to the wind...that's why I asked these questions in this thread. The facts are I need some type of way to control spark and fuel other than the stock GLH (or Mazda) computer and I was wondering what my options were. It sounds like chips or a Wolf or Haltech is goin to be the solution for me...I just hope it ends up working on the car and setup I use, and keeps things reliable while makin good power.