ECU tuning for toyota 1G GTE engine

alcyon

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alcyon

500 RPM
Sep 13, 2015
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Hi guys, recently a 89 toyota soarer popped up for sale. If i can get it for a good price I was thinking of doing a few mods to lower fuel consumption. Its a pretty heavy car weighing at 1450kg, with the 2000cc 1G GTE twin turbo engine. It also comes with an auto trans as you know autos guzzle more fuel. I hear that the 1G GTE runs too rich stock from factory. Question is, can i do something to the ECU perhaps with a SAFC to reduce the fuel supply or richness to reduce fuel consumption. with the auto trans normal driving should yield 12l/100km which is pretty steep. If i could get some one to tune the engine to be less rich and perhaps swap gearbox to W58 manual with a 4.3 diff to rev lower (with auto its 4.556 diff understandably). My goal is with the ECU tuning and the gearbox swap to get it to 10l/100km.
Has anyone any experience with tuning this engine for fuel economy and not for power ?
I am not a kaki race , just want to ride in style, as long engine dont semput while accelrating its fine by me.
 

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RENESIS VIII

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RENESIS VIII

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Yes sir thats the one, and the price that was offered to me was lower than that..Like i said if the price is right..so anyone with experience to tune ECU with a piggyback ? Just wanna know if it can bring difference to FC , and which shops can do it.
Full cash payment or loan? I'm not sure such an old car is applicable for loan or not. If it was cash also, wasn't really a bad idea. At least no monthly installment and you can have the money for restoration or mod.

I don't know much about ECU tuning in KL area. But I know a tuner in Pandan Indah who occasionally tune cars like R35, R34, 350Z, 370Z, Supra and some European cars. Not sure can he do this old 1G-GTE engine or not. Shop name is Redsun Motorsport and the tuner's name is Meng.
 

alcyon

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alcyon

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Sep 13, 2015
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Kuala Lumpur
Full cash payment or loan? I'm not sure such an old car is applicable for loan or not. If it was cash also, wasn't really a bad idea. At least no monthly installment and you can have the money for restoration or mod.

I don't know much about ECU tuning in KL area. But I know a tuner in Pandan Indah who occasionally tune cars like R35, R34, 350Z, 370Z, Supra and some European cars. Not sure can he do this old 1G-GTE engine or not. Shop name is Redsun Motorsport and the tuner's name is Meng.
Yes full cash payment. I went to some shops in sunway they said they can do tuning for many cars, but they look so busy. How bout any mechanic expert at swapping auto to manual? I want a W58 gearbox with 4.1 diff.
 

RENESIS VIII

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RENESIS VIII

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Yes full cash payment. I went to some shops in sunway they said they can do tuning for many cars, but they look so busy. How bout any mechanic expert at swapping auto to manual? I want a W58 gearbox with 4.1 diff.
If you already got the money, I guess now the only thing left for you to do is to decide whether to get this car or not. :biggrin:

The same shop I mentioned earlier, Redsun Motorsport, should be able to do a gearbox swapping. I have a relative who converted his 350Z auto to manual from this shop. I think a few more 350Z that he tuned also did gearbox conversion over there. Workmanship I think he should be skilled enough because 3 years ago, he did a complete BNR34 Skyline GT-R rebuild from a bare chassis into a fully functional car. Complete with interior trim, seats and everything including the multi function display in BNR34. When he started the project, the car was actually a stripped car without engine, bumpers, gearbox, interior. Just chassis and wheels.

Wow!! if everything is still stock virgin...maintain it.
twin turbo, 2.0 lehh...better word is to "optimize" FC consumption, make sense.
But he will swap out the gearbox. :biggrin:

Twin turbo 2.0 inline 6. Sort of like a predecessor to the JZ engine family.
 

alcyon

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alcyon

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Sep 13, 2015
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Yes, still doing my research, its a pretty heavy car but i love it. Depends on Sakan if they will take my offer.
The 1G has basically its roots wayy back from the celica XX . Back then it wasnt turbocharged, but back then the celica XX weighed under 1300kg. The reason it was turbocharged is to give japanese buyers a chance to own these cars(Soarer/Supra Mk3) while paying lower road tax,much similar to malaysia road tax system. 2000cc 1G RM380 a year, 2500cc 1JZ 840 a year.
The more i read around, the more inclined I feel that the 1JZ is better in this car because of its 1450kg weight.
with a MT the 1JZ could also get slightly better mpg than 1G GTE because of more torque, therefore can go for lower ratio diff like 3.9.
 

RENESIS VIII

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RENESIS VIII

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Yes, still doing my research, its a pretty heavy car but i love it. Depends on Sakan if they will take my offer.
The 1G has basically its roots wayy back from the celica XX . Back then it wasnt turbocharged, but back then the celica XX weighed under 1300kg. The reason it was turbocharged is to give japanese buyers a chance to own these cars(Soarer/Supra Mk3) while paying lower road tax,much similar to malaysia road tax system. 2000cc 1G RM380 a year, 2500cc 1JZ 840 a year.
The more i read around, the more inclined I feel that the 1JZ is better in this car because of its 1450kg weight.
with a MT the 1JZ could also get slightly better mpg than 1G GTE because of more torque, therefore can go for lower ratio diff like 3.9.
Perhaps you can think of doing some minor mods to this 1G-GTE engine to improve torque instead of changing it to 1JZ?
 

alcyon

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alcyon

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Quite true, but i really dont know much about ECU controlled engines and what can be done. Like i said, more torwards fuel economy. I wonder if I am better off with the older 1st gen soarer, its only like 1250kg vs this sakan one at 1450 since it has TEMS and ESC with auto GB. a zth member has one 1st gen to sell but it requires a lot of work.
Also makes sense not to change the engine because the wiring is totally different.
 
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RENESIS VIII

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RENESIS VIII

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Quite true, but i really dont know much about ECU controlled engines and what can be done. Like i said, more torwards fuel economy. I wonder if I am better off with the older 1st gen soarer, its only like 1250kg vs this sakan one at 1450 since it has TEMS and ESC with auto GB. a zth member has one 1st gen to sell but it requires a lot of work.
Also makes sense not to change the engine because the wiring is totally different.
Huh? You mean you are usually still dealing with old school mechanical engines instead of ECU controlled engines? Engines with ECU should be able to control fuel consumption via fuel mapping I guess? Like controlling the amount of fuel sprayed by the injectors or maybe playing around with the ignition timing? But then, the 1G-GTE engine is a very early example of fuel injected engine, so I am guessing the ECU's ability is still quite limited compared to modern fuel injected engines. Since 1G-GTE engine is not a very common engine over here, I am a bit worried whether if you are able to get spare parts for it or not. Not to mention that this is a performance engine not a normal engine. Parts might be hard to source and may require a long waiting time to order from Japan.

1st gen Soarer is for sale here?
 

alcyon

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alcyon

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Sep 13, 2015
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Huh? You mean you are usually still dealing with old school mechanical engines instead of ECU controlled engines? Engines with ECU should be able to control fuel consumption via fuel mapping I guess? Like controlling the amount of fuel sprayed by the injectors or maybe playing around with the ignition timing? But then, the 1G-GTE engine is a very early example of fuel injected engine, so I am guessing the ECU's ability is still quite limited compared to modern fuel injected engines. Since 1G-GTE engine is not a very common engine over here, I am a bit worried whether if you are able to get spare parts for it or not. Not to mention that this is a performance engine not a normal engine. Parts might be hard to source and may require a long waiting time to order from Japan.

1st gen Soarer is for sale here?
Bro, I have been driving a 91 Proton saga carb car for 20 years and still driving it, so that's all I have experience with. No doubt my wifes car is EFI but I don't touch it. One reason I am still driving it is because it is very reliable, only have no start condition when battery is spoilt. I am also able to get from 7L to 8L/100km with 35L full tank in this car, averaging 7.5L/100km. Spare parts are cheap, tyres are cheap, but it does have is limitations handling and comfort wise, but if you can live with it why not. Another reason is money, struggling with low pay for most of my life, basically these last 2 years only I can think about buying other cars.
Yes fuel mapping. If you run a search on soarer for sale you will find it. It was listed years ago still not sold.
 
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Bro, I have been driving a 91 Proton saga carb car for 20 years and still driving it, so that's all I have experience with. No doubt my wifes car is EFI but I don't touch it. One reason I am still driving it is because it is very reliable, only have no start condition when battery is spoilt. I am also able to get from 7L to 8L/100km with 35L full tank in this car, averaging 7.5L/100km. Spare parts are cheap, tyres are cheap, but it does have is limitations handling and comfort wise, but if you can live with it why not.
Yes fuel mapping. If you run a search on soarer for sale you will find it. It was listed years ago still not sold.
Maybe you already planned to do this but I suggest don't sell of the Saga even when you got the Soarer. Since your Saga should be in a good condition, best to keep it and use it as a daily car. If use Soarer, might just increase your normal daily fuel consumption and at the same time, increasing wear and tear. Also more frequent service interval. Would be better if you keep the Soarer at home or somewhere away from sunlight and weather abuse to maintain the good condition. I'm quite sure that keeping your Saga and maintaining it will still be cheaper than driving Soarer as a full time daily car for a year. It is just a suggestion though.


Try contacting that 1st gen Soarer owner to see if he is still selling it or not.
 

alcyon

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alcyon

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Thread starter
Sep 13, 2015
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Kuala Lumpur
Maybe you already planned to do this but I suggest don't sell of the Saga even when you got the Soarer. Since your Saga should be in a good condition, best to keep it and use it as a daily car. If use Soarer, might just increase your normal daily fuel consumption and at the same time, increasing wear and tear. Also more frequent service interval. Would be better if you keep the Soarer at home or somewhere away from sunlight and weather abuse to maintain the good condition. I'm quite sure that keeping your Saga and maintaining it will still be cheaper than driving Soarer as a full time daily car for a year. It is just a suggestion though.


Try contacting that 1st gen Soarer owner to see if he is still selling it or not.
He is selling, I am in contact with him, but as i said it needs a lot of work, which he did not mention in his advert. It has this touch panel air cond controls and it does not work becuase the engine was swapped over from a gen2 soarer .He had to use a gen2 soarer dash meter, but it doesnt really fit in the dashboard properly so it looks prettty ugly. He has the old meter set but need find electronics guy to do wiring. So like i said a lot of work. Of course he neglected to mention it until I actually saw the car.
 

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He is selling, I am in contact with him, but as i said it needs a lot of work, which he did not mention in his advert. It has this touch panel air cond controls and it does not work becuase the engine was swapped over from a gen2 soarer .He had to use a gen2 soarer dash meter, but it doesnt really fit in the dashboard properly so it looks prettty ugly. He has the old meter set but need find electronics guy to do wiring. So like i said a lot of work. Of course he neglected to mention it until I actually saw the car.
Oh, so you have seen the car in person. How much is he selling for the car?

http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/showthread.php?t=261217

This car?