This is funny. '00-'01 owners want the '02-'03 ecu because it runs leaner. Now '04 owners want the '00-'01 ecu because it runs richer.

 

My understanding, from what I've read through the years is that, the '00-'01 models would richen up once they got past their 8300 rpm peak power and because of that, power would drop off from 8300 to the 9000 rpm redline. It wasn't optimal for performance but it was probably easier on the engine. The '02-'03 models were reprogrammed so that the mixture didn't richen up quite so much and they would pull better in the 8300 to 9000 range but it still dropped off a little. The '04-'05' models pull hard all the way to the rev limiter because the mixture stays at a more optimal range. Of course, that's not saying as much because the 2.2's peak power comes at 7800 rpm with an 8000 redline. That's only a 200 rpm difference as apposed to 700 for the 2.0's.

Maybe, since these people are taking the 2.2's into rpm ranges that Honda obviously didn't intend for the engine to go, even if it is physically capable of doing so, they're being on the conservative side from a fuel mixture point of view?

All of the reports I've read on this forum from those who have modified the 2.2's and are taking them to 9000 rpm's have been that the engine is holding up fine. That's good to hear but I think it's still too early to tell what the long term effects on the engine are going to be with respect to it's overall reliability.

Just a thought!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

- Steve R.

I'd be a bit wary about the long term effects of running the 2.2L motor, with its longer stroke, regularly up to 9k. Time will tell. I DO, however, commend those folks that enjoy testing the engineering boundaries (ya'll know who you are!)....and, if past Honda engineering is any indicator, it's quite likely that this mod (00-01 ecu) will ultimately prove to work well. I work for a company where it's common to "over-engineer" by at least 20%.

Someone already posted that they were interested in running the motor to the 8.5 - 8.6k range. I'd be very interested in this too because most of the dynos I've seen on the 2.2L show that the motor is still on an upward ramp in terms of producing more horsepower.

And, paying $150 for this kind of mod is a bargain.

This is going to be a VERY interesting topic to follow...

Dan

 

Now that we know the 2.2L engine can momentarily rev safely to 9K, does that mean that people who ruined their engines by over-revving, with a red-line 3rd to 2nd down-shift, exceeded 9k RPM ... or is there some other aspect of over-revving from a bad down-shift that makes the same RPM worse than RPM generated by the motor?

I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question.

Thank you.

 

Mis-shifting (ie doing a "money" shift from 3rd into 2nd when you meant to go 4th) causes a mechanical over-rev for the motor. It can cause the motor to significantly exceed the 9k red line. The primary area of concern after doing this is floating the valves and 1. causing the piston to come into contact with an open valve (very bad) or 2. causing extreme stress on the valve retainers. The second problem may not manifest itself immediately. The over-rev could happen and, a month later, in normal driving, the valve could drop into the cylinder.

As I understand the 2.2L motor running to 9k, it's an issue of the longer stroke on the motor and the forces acting on the cylinder walls from the pistons. With higher RPM, comes more heat, so I think it's safe to say there are *many* other forces at play too.

 

[QUOTE=Roadster_1,May 22 2005, 09:21 AM] As I understand the 2.2L motor running to 9k, it's an issue of the longer stroke on the motor and the forces acting on the cylinder walls from the pistons.

 

i'm unaware of the a/f ratio's cause I don't have a wideband, but I plan on getting one soon. it seems to run better than my 04 ecu at any rpm point. i don't take it to 9k in 1st, I still shift at 8k, but it makes great power all the way up to 9 in 2nd and 3rd. it's so hard to explain... the only way you can really "understand" is to ride in it
I got the ECU from a local member on here.

 

yep... here's what u have to do.

1) buy the ecu
2) go to honda with the ecu
3) leave your 04 ecu in
4) Honda will hook up the OBD2 scan tool and pull all the required information from your 04 ecu
5) Honda will look up the password for your 04 ecu
6) after all the info is pulled from the 04 ecu, they have the leave the tool plugged in and you swap out the ecu.
7) after the new ecu is installed, Honda will program all the keys that you want to work with that ecu. (I left valet key @ home so it will still work with my old ecu.)
8) that's pretty much it.

I don't know how much Honda will charge you to do this. mine was free since I know the service manager. I talked to another fellow member on here that's a tech and he said it all depends on how much they want to charge you. even though it takes all of 15 minutes to do everything... the charges can be anywhere from $40-100. my friend that's the service manager said that for any other customer, they would have charged $41.95 plus tax.

hope this helps

 

thanks s2kevolution!

 

How about the warranty issue? Is your car still under orginally warranty? How about if you have the extended warranty by HondaCare?

Thanks.