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Thread: Which ECU for 6 Cylinder Coil On Plug and Custom O/S

  1. #1
    Senior Member Tydriver's Avatar
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    Default Which ECU for 6 Cylinder Coil On Plug and Custom O/S

    Hey guys, I am not completely new to EFILIVE and GM ECUs. I had an '02 and '05 Silverados that I tuned and also now own an '05 Avalanche all of which I tuned with EFILive.. The '02 I ran on a custom EFILive OS. I've been away from this scene for a couple of years but I have a new project. I am looking to install an ECU on a BMW 6 cylinder engine and retain COP (Coil on Plug) functionality ?

    I plan on modifying a BMW harness and using the GM ECM to control it. I definitely need to retain COIL ON PLUG functionality. I'd like to use a V8 PCM as it offers the most tuning options (vs the 4.2L ECU route).

    Any help, links, or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

    Thanks in advance,

    Todd

    Todd

    1993 BMW 325is <- For Sale
    2003 Silverado LS 4x4 <--- you want to autocross what?
    2005 Avalanche 5.3L LS(EFI Live tuned) <-- my gas hog running on e85 3+ years now
    2012 Subaru Outback (wife's daily)

  2. #2
    Lifetime Member GMPX's Avatar
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    Your deciding factor will be the crank trigger signal on the BMW, it will have to match whatever the ECM is capable of. I can tell you now I don't think the LS1 PCM is going to work, the 24x signal it uses was specific to the LS1.
    I no longer monitor the forum, please either post your question or create a support ticket.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Tydriver's Avatar
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    Thanks for the response GMPX, I appreciate it.

    I am not concerned about the crank sensor, the newer(LS2+) generation uses a 58x ring where BMW calls this a 60-2 wheel (basically 60 teeth minus 2 or 58 ). There is a small amount of concern on the cam sensor but I think I can work that out, not sure exactly what GM and BMW use for cam sensor.



    The biggest question I have is, (i haven't been able to resolve this issue) is how can I just plug it into a harness and tell it that its only running 6 cylinders ? The 2 spark outputs that I will not be using will obviously cause a problem in the ECU (or will they ?).. I wanted to use an ECU for a 4.3L engine but they to the best of my knowledge are not COIL-ON-PLUG and I need to retain this functionality.

    I can not tell you how much I want to make this work. There is basically nothing in terms of datalogging in the BMW world unless your one of the chosen tuners. In short I've been spoiled by EFILive and their ease of use on the GM applications, software and hardware like EFILive just do NOT exist on the BMW stuff. There is increasing support for DIY tuning but still NOTHING that logs the data seen by the ECU. I am not afraid to make my own harness or do the R&D but the answers I have been looking for have eluded me to this point and I am running out of ideas...

    Todd

    1993 BMW 325is <- For Sale
    2003 Silverado LS 4x4 <--- you want to autocross what?
    2005 Avalanche 5.3L LS(EFI Live tuned) <-- my gas hog running on e85 3+ years now
    2012 Subaru Outback (wife's daily)

  4. #4
    Joe (Moderator) joecar's Avatar
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    The GenIV crank reluctor (60-2) may not be a problem like you said, but are the other BMW sensors compatible with the GM ECM (i.e. do they have the correct range/direction)...?

    The GenIV cam reluctor is 4x.


    edit: correction
    Last edited by joecar; November 2nd, 2012 at 06:13 AM.

  5. #5
    Joe (Moderator) joecar's Avatar
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    How far along is your turbo project, and what amount of torque and power do you anticipate...?

    What are you doing about the rest of the powertrain...?

    I don't know how you would handle 2 missing cylinders...?

    Would you consider upgrading to an LS3 (it's fairly compact)...?

  6. #6
    Senior Member Tydriver's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by joecar View Post
    How far along is your turbo project, and what amount of torque and power do you anticipate...?
    No hard goals in mind, the M50 motor will do with fine with boost on stock components well past 300hp, in all honesty anything past this is going to require major driveline hardware changes I don't want to mess with so it will be a conservative build overall..

    Quote Originally Posted by joecar View Post
    What are you doing about the rest of the powertrain...?
    Worst case scenario I change it from auto to 5 speed manual, I've already converted one 3 series to 5 speed, if I have to I can do this car and that's it, end of story.

    Quote Originally Posted by joecar View Post
    I don't know how you would handle 2 missing cylinders...?
    ARRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH This is the golden question that I cant seem to get an answer for !!!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by joecar View Post
    Would you consider upgrading to an LS3 (it's fairly compact)...?
    No in all honestly, BTDT on another car, not looking for another LSx swap project.. Believe me throwing a turbo on this engine is much more appealing than trying to re-engineer a complete drive line swap. Besides there isn't anything wrong with the BMW engine I just for some reason cant leave well enough alone.. I have a love affair with turbos and have 2 brand new garretts sitting here from a previous project, I also have a set of 60# high impedance injectors sitting around as well...

    If I can just get the engine management figured out, current game plan is to do the following if I can get an answer on how to make the GM PCM work:

    Swap Harness and PCM to stock engine
    Tune to run with WBO2
    Tune to run with 60# injectors with WB02
    Tune to run e-85 on 60# injectors
    Perform turbo installation and tune to run w/WBO2.

    In all honesty, I already bought the Ostrich and Tuner pro from MOATES,(to run on the stock Bosch Motronic ECU) and I could use this setup but again there is NO DATALOGGING available on the stock ECU. I would need to use aftermarket dataloggers and that at best is a band-aide.. It still doesnt let me see what the ECU is seeing... VERY FRUSTRATING !!
    Last edited by Tydriver; June 6th, 2010 at 02:27 AM.

    Todd

    1993 BMW 325is <- For Sale
    2003 Silverado LS 4x4 <--- you want to autocross what?
    2005 Avalanche 5.3L LS(EFI Live tuned) <-- my gas hog running on e85 3+ years now
    2012 Subaru Outback (wife's daily)

  7. #7
    Senior Member Tydriver's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by joecar View Post
    The GenIV crank reluctor (60-2) may not be a problem like you said, but are the other BMW sensors compatible with the GM ECM (i.e. do they have the correct range/direction)...?
    The parallels between GM and BMW (on these items)are amazing, its enough to generate another complete thread so I wont get into it here. But I am sure the rest of the sensor inputs are very similar or at least close enough that I could still swap over to GM sensors if needed.

    One little tidbit of information, the automatic transmission in this car was manufactured for BMW by GM, its the TH4L30e (IDK, sounds alot weaker than the 4L60e)..

    Quote Originally Posted by joecar View Post
    The GenIV cam reluctor is just 1x.
    This is also good news as the BMW sensor is as well, for some reason I thought they switched to a 4x cam sensor on the later ECUs... Thank you.

    Todd

    1993 BMW 325is <- For Sale
    2003 Silverado LS 4x4 <--- you want to autocross what?
    2005 Avalanche 5.3L LS(EFI Live tuned) <-- my gas hog running on e85 3+ years now
    2012 Subaru Outback (wife's daily)

  8. #8
    Senior Member Tydriver's Avatar
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    The ECU I am looking at is 12200411... This ecu was used on 4.3L v6 applications as well as the 4.8L, 5.3L and 6.0L in '00-02.. This obviously means its COP compatible right ? I would be interested in seeing a PIN-OUT sheet for this ECU.. I just dont know how to tell the ECU to fire only 6 cylinders vs 8.. Is this just an OS Flash?

    Does anyone know.. I am ready to pull the trigger on this if I could only get the answer I am looking for.

    Todd

    1993 BMW 325is <- For Sale
    2003 Silverado LS 4x4 <--- you want to autocross what?
    2005 Avalanche 5.3L LS(EFI Live tuned) <-- my gas hog running on e85 3+ years now
    2012 Subaru Outback (wife's daily)

  9. #9
    Joe (Moderator) joecar's Avatar
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    E40 cam reluctors are 1x, E38/E67 are 4x...

    I just recently ordered an LS1 cam sprocket and the part I received I assume is the GenIV 1x sprocket, see attached pic.


    edit: correction/addition.
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    Last edited by joecar; November 2nd, 2012 at 06:11 AM.

  10. #10
    Joe (Moderator) joecar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tydriver View Post
    The ECU I am looking at is 12200411... This ecu was used on 4.3L v6 applications as well as the 4.8L, 5.3L and 6.0L in '00-02.. This obviously means its COP compatible right ? I would be interested in seeing a PIN-OUT sheet for this ECU.. I just dont know how to tell the ECU to fire only 6 cylinders vs 8.. Is this just an OS Flash?

    Does anyone know.. I am ready to pull the trigger on this if I could only get the answer I am looking for.
    I don't know the answer to this... there are forum members who do V6 stuff, let's see what they say.

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