Introduction

The EcuTek ProECU Honda tuning suite provides an all-in-one OBD-II tuning solution for the 2-litre i-VTEC Honda Civic Type R/Si & Acura CSX Type S. The Honda Civic Type R is the highest performance version of the Honda Civic made by Honda Motor Company of Japan. It features a lightened and stiffened body, specially tuned engine and upgraded brakes and chassis. The third generation Civic Type R was offered in two distinct forms: one developed for the European market and one for the Japanese domestic market, matching the availability of their regular 8th gen. counterpart.

Supplemental Content

Platform Specific

General

• ECU Programming Overview

• Software Help and How-To

• EcuTek Knowledge Base

Summary of Software

ProECU software has been introduced to allow reprogramming of the factory ECU in order to tune the necessary components of the calibration in order to allow for modifications and increases in power.  This is not a standalone repalcement ECU so you shouldn't run into the associated issues or disadvantages of setting up a purpose-built ECU and control system from scratch.

The software allows easy control over most factory parameters including:

• Boost Targets and wastegate control

• Target AFR

• Ignition Timing

• Fuel Delivery including fuel pump calibration (using the same style pump as OEM)

• Airflow Measurement and fuel compensation

ROM Compatibility

There are Main Regions of ROM, these region ROMs are not generally compatible as there are many differences in the calibration and in some cases the Hardware (JDM cars do not have a MAF sensor):

• Euro - FN2 Cars

• US – FN2 Si cars

• JDM – FD2 cars

• Asia – FD2 cars as well

To see the latest version ECM ROM that should be chosen for your region, go to Feature & Licence Information under the Help menu, and the select the Supported Tuning ECUs tab.

Which ROM Version To Use

We recommend using the original ROM that came with the vehicle, if there are newer revisions like M120 and the M220 you may be able to swap these.  If you connect to your vehicle and the ROM is unidentified please Dump the ROM using ROM dump in the programming window and submit the ROM with the relevant details through the ROM Dump Web form.

Open

RaceROM

RaceROM offers special custom written features for the Honda, these are only available from EcuTek using ProECU.

• Launch Control - Stationary, Driver-adjustable rpm limiter for fast takeoff.

• Flat Foot Shifting - Allows you to change gear without lifting your foot from the accelerator.

• Custom Parameters - Provides the ability to put specific parameters into custom maps.

• Accelerator Trim - Allows adjustment ratio of throttle movement to pedal response

• Map Switching -  Provides up to 4 sets of switchable maps with visual feedback of the current mode displayed on the tachometer.

• Speed Density & Alpha N - Replace the MAF system with a MAP or TPS based load sensing.

• Increased Engine Load Limit - For high horsepower forced induction installations.

• Custom Maps - RaceROM Custom Maps provide completely adjustable user-defineable maps.

  • By using custom maps we are able to add additional levels of control including functionality like

    • Boost Control (Including a fuel cut boost limiter)

    • Ethanol Flex-Fuel Tuning

    • Traction Control

Programming

For information on how to program as well as flash recovery, check out.

• ECU Programming Overview

• How to Recover an ECU
  
  
  

For more software guides check out:

• Software Help and How-To

Tuning Guide

Accelerator

Accel to Throttle and Accel Trim Maps

These are simple, the Accel pedal to Throttle map is the throttle opening angle for a given engine speed and accelerator pedal % value. With RaceROM there are map switch mode specific maps that allow you to profile the trim of the accel to throttle map to any value you desire against vehicle speed.

Open

Camshaft Timing

The Honda VTEC system combined with the Variable Timing Control (VTC) gives control over an additional “wilder” camshaft lobe and also allows the tuner to vary the intake camshaft angle. These maps can make a significant difference to power and drivability when set up well, there are a series of OEM maps that can be calibrated as well as some RaceROM VTEC activation maps.

VTC is the target cam advance angle and there are maps for Full Load and VTEC ON and OFF

Cam Angle

The Full load threshold to choose between the maps is believed to be manifold pressure but is yet to be defined.

VTEC Activation

VTEC is the switching point that enables the engines “higher lift” camshaft lobe to be engaged, the factory VTEC switches at a fixed RPM of around 5400rpm. RaceROM offers 4 x new VTEC switch maps, one for each mode and they offer VTEC switch against RPM and Manifold Pressure.

Fuelling

Like most ECU’s the Honda has a series of calculations that measure or estimate an airflow which is then tuned into an engine load amount (Honda uses mg/stroke) which is then used to calculate a matching volume of fuel depending on the target AFR.  The first task of tuning fuel is to get the actual AFR to match the target AFR after this you can adjust the targets to find more power.

The Fuel Maps contain target AFR based on Engine Speed (RPM) and Manifold Absolute Pressure (Bar Absolute). These maps are used in both open loop and closed loop conditions. Fuel Map (Full Load) will be used when the ECU detect WOT and will use its Fuel Map - Full Load VTEC when it goes past the VTEC switch point. The X and Y axis scaling can be adjusted to suit higher RPMs or higher MAP if required.

The fuel maps are an AFR Target value and these work in closed loop on full load up to 12.6:1 AFR (the AFR Target Minimum). When not using WOT the Fuel Map & Fuel MAP VTEC are used with the same CL/OL switchpoint.  There is also a safe mode fuel map pair that should not normally need adjustment.

The factory AF sensor is a wide-range sensor, this sensor has a good range but may not be particularly accurate, the Front AF sensor can be rescaled using a calibrated aftermarket wideband Lambda sensor for reference.

Fuel Compensations

The Compensations maps allow you to alter the injector pulse width for given parameters such as IAT and ECT. The maps are an adjustment percentage multiplier (100% = No change). These are applied after the fuel pulsewidth is calculated from engine load.

Injector Scaling

The Injector scaling methodology for the Honda uses a base Injector pulse width for Lambda 1 map and makes compensations and adjustment to give the correct amount of fuel for the stock injectors. Using a RaceROM patch modifies this OEM methodology and adds a real injector sizing value that can be used to accurately scale the injectors. When using RaceROM to scale the injectors all you will need to change is the Injector size, open time compensations and minimum open time, which are generally available from quality injector suppliers.

Some other features that have been added are

• fuel density maps, which allows alternative fuel densities to be accommodated for example if the car uses a specialised Race fuel mix.

• Accurate injector size maps (cc/min), shown above

Open

• Injector Flow Multiplier and Offset, which allow for map switch mode dependant flow multipliers and offsets (to lag time) to be chosen. This could help account for the injector latency and flow rate changes when using the alternative fuels in discrete MS modes.

Overrun Fuel Cut & Recovery

When under deceleration an overrun fuel cut condition is triggered, while not all of the maps are fully defined here the recovery maps are most essential to good running. There are 3 fuel cut recovery maps, two vehicle speed based recovery RPM’s and one coolant temperature based RPM limit, It is recommended to change all three of these maps by the same amount.

There is a time delay map which must pass before the vehicle will go into overrun fuel cut mode. It is gear dependent and may allow fuel to be maintained at the start of overrun.

AFR Limits

The Honda will run in closed loop fuelling as long as the fuel map target is below the AFR Target minimum closed loop value.  There are also absolute AFR target thresholds, The AFR target minimum value will prevent a richer AFR being targeted and must be changed if you wish to target a lower AF then 10.2.

Fuel Trims and Rear O2 Corrections

The range of the short term fuel trim can be limited using the short term maximum and minimum this will take effect during closed loop.  The long term fuel trims cannot yet be disabled. Rear O2 sensors can be disabled using the HO2S Enable and Monitoring Enabled check boxes.  The trimming effects of the rear O2 will be disabled when the HO2S systems are disabled.

Cranking and Starting

As with most ECU the Cranking fuelling is independent of the injector sizing calculation and the injector time is directly controlled until the cranking condition has ended. There is a base cranking pulsewidth map which may need to be adjusted when running larger injectors.

Open

The ECT and IAT are also used to make corrections to this value and can be altered if required.

Cranking fuelling is split into two modes the initial batch mode injection (before full synchronisation of the engine has occurred) and the sequential injection modes (after full crank signal synchronisation).  These two modes are listed as #1 & #2 in the maps if you are adjusting the cranking fuelling ratio maps for larger injectors make sure to adjust both modes by the desired amount.

There is also a cranking ignition timing 2D map, this map is the base timing used when the engine is in a cranking condition, after the engine starts ignition timing will be referenced from the normal ignition maps (after a short delay).

Idle

The Idle Target maps are available, there are two maps one for idle target out of gear and idle target when a gear is engaged, simply set the values for the desired idle speed.

Open

Ignition

The Ignition maps are against RPM and Man Absolute Pressure, there are dedicated maps for each Camshaft angle in 10deg steps and there are also maps for VTEC ON and VTEC OFF.  There are a series of base, maximum, addition and retard maps as well as many compensations maps to give the finial ignition timing value.  

The strategy employed uses a MBT map with a maximum allowable ignition value based on the known knock limit of the engine on a specified octane fuel.  This base MBT and the knock limited maps then have corrections added and the knock sensor is used to specify how much of the values in the maximum knock limit maps can be added.

Ignition Calculations and Timing

As previously discussed there are several defining function that the ECU uses to calculate where to set the ignition timing and the three components according to our understanding is a fuel based correction (octane correction), an engine conditions correction and the base ignition timing (MBT MAP).  The maps and logging parameters interact roughly as per the image below. 

Open

The octane correction function includes the corrections for AFR plus the calibrated Max timing map and knock sensor activity. When you plot the maps out per RPM you will see that the octane correction factor function sum add up to a negative number this value is added to the base map. So for 5500rm the ingition timing output plot looks about like this (Timing Value vs MAP)

Open

After the octane correction has been added to the base map the other orrections and limits are applied and the FINAL timing is then calculatedTo show this using the logging parameters you can see how the maps are shown represented at various points through the calculations. 

Here is a simplistic view of the final ignition timing calculation

• Ignition Timing Base (20deg) minus

• Ign Retard Combined (-6deg)

Open

To calculate the Ignition Retard Combined (-6 deg) is calculated as follows:

• Knock Retard (KR) map output is -8deg

• Knock Retard Multiplier is 0.45 KR*KRM

=-3.5deg Knock Retard amount plus

• Ignition Maximum map output is -4deg plus +2deg from AFR Target map so:

-4 plus +2deg = -2deg Ignition Maximum

If there were other corrections applied due to high IAT or ECT these would be applied to the sum of the Timing Base + Ign Retard Combined Final timing

• Ignition Timing Final is 20-16 = 14deg final timing

Tuning the ignition timing can be done many ways, the base map could be changed and this would mean that the ECU will advance as much as possible from the base map depending on the knock sensor output.  You could also adjust the Ignition timing MAX map which will effect how much timing can be added to a max but the tuning will have to be done with a KRM value at 1 which can take some time to build up.  

If you are tuning a turbo car with much less ignition timing requested than normal, you start by adjusting the axis values to accommodate boost and use the base timing map to do the majority of the igntion changes you could use the ignition timing max maps to effect the amount of correction that is being applied when you start to encounter knock.

Ignition Timing Base

The Ignition Base map is an idealistic value to produce maximum best torque (MBT). There is a base map for VTEC ON and OFF and for each 10 deg cam angle. There is a logging parameter called Ignition Timing Base that follows the output of this map.

Ignition Timing Maximum

The Ignition Maximum map shows the knock point for low octane fuels. There is a maximum map for VTEC ON and OFF and for each 10 deg cam angle and a logging parameter called Ignition Maximum.  Decreasing these values will retard the ignition timing

Ignition Addition Maps

These maps are applied all the time and should be seen as a global addition, There are maps for each 10 deg cam angle but not VTEC ON and OFF. The Ignition Addition maps have negative values but they can be made positive.

Ignition Addition for AFR

The output of this map is added to the Ignition Maximum calculation for a given AFR Target. The values are multiplied for the current AFR Target, using the “Ignition Addition Multiplier – AFR Target” map, so the richer the AFR, the more advance is added. The map values can only be positive values not negative.

Ignition Advance and Retard

There are 3 pairs of ignition advance/Retard maps.  They advance the ignition timing from cold and retard it when hot depending on the level of load on the vehicle

Ignition Timing Advance Cold - maps add ignition globally as per the map values in the high or low load map 

Open

Ignition Timing Retard Hot - maps remove ignition timing globally as per the map values in the high or low load map

Open

Ignition Timing Retard - Charge Air maps will remove ignition timing globally according to the values in the high or low load map

Open

Knock Control

Knock control in the Honda is used as a fuel octane adjustment to ignition timing as opposed to an instantaneous knock adjustment when improper combustion occurs.  The system monitors the knock sensor values and averages them reducing the timing globally to reduce the level of knock sensed.  The logging parameters that are relevant to knock control are repeated below.

Knock Retard Maximum

Maps are against RPM and MAP and there are maps for VTEC ON and OFF and are only active under higher load conditions.

Open

The output of the knock retard Maximum maps is then multiplied by the Knock Retard Multiplier (KRM), there is an initial value set but after start the KRM may increase or decrease. 

Open

Open

If the KRM is currently 100% then ALL of the Knock Retard value will be added to the logging parameter called Ignition Retard Combined. If the KRM is currently 0% then NONE of the Knock Retard value will be added to the Ignition Retard Combined calculation.

The Knock Retard Initial (KRI) can be edited and is set at 50% by default. If the engine is knocking then the KRM will increase and more of the Knock Retard map will be added to the Ignition Retard Combined calculation

Limiters

Rev Limiters

These maps control the engine speed that the fuel injectors will be cut to maintain a set RPM. There are several maps that set the Rev limit in the Honda ROMs and these are used by the ECU when VTEC is on or off, there are other limits (Rev Limits #5-#8 & alternative maps) that are used when the ECU is in different calculation modes.  The rev limits use vehicle speed on the first axis but it is recommended to raise only the RPM column and change both values by the same amount. 

Open

Speed Limiter - Fuel & Throttle Cut

There are two methods to reduce power at the speed limit these are the value at which either fuel will be cut or the throttle will be closed. The fuel cut value is a simple 1D map, adjust it to the desired value.  The throttle cut is a set vehicle speed with a max allowed throttle opening, you could adjust either but changing the vehicle speed column is recommended.

Open

Engine Load Limiter

There are engine load limits that can be adjusted if required, these can be raised if there are high loads created by forced induction installations.

Open