After Market ECU?

has anyone had any exprience with after market ECUs? i am toying with the idea of buying one, but it seems that sales people selling their particular 'brand' often line their own wares up with silver linings and shining stars. everyone is saying that the "competitors" products are inferior and that their products are the best. its hard to make an informed decision at the end of the day.

can someone enlighten me on which is which and what does what?
the contenders are:

Motec
http://www.motec.com.au/ this cost the most but might be slightly over kill

Autronic
http://www.autronic.com/ slightly less obscene pricewise

Link
http://www.link-electro.co.nz/plug_in.html abt same price as the Autronic system

Apex'i Power FC
http://www.apexi-usa.com/ the most popular Jap made ECU

EcuTek
http://www.ecutek.com.au/ Another very popular ECU

Unichip
http://www.airpowersystems.com.au/unichip/applications.html
i was told that Unichip is the poor mans ECU, with the price coming in last.

thanks for any 2 Cents worth from anyone who might help a confused buyer. ;)

what about the Greddy E-manage?

http://www.greddy.com/

You could probably pick one up on ebay for cheaper.
But i dunno, im using a standard ECU.

I know people who are using both the autronic & the link & are very happy. My best advice would be to talk to local tune shops & see what they recommend (just make sure there not back by a company & being told what to say ) & what they can tune. Theres no point in having something someone local can't tune properly.

Hi Toma, i was told by the car tuners that Greddy's e-manage would generally benifit the Honda's VTEC system better. it dosent do so well with turbo apperently. *shrug* i guess he was being honest, no point squishing a possible sale from discouraging me i think.

snoopy, my only beef with the link vs autronic game is apperently the standard link system don't come with anti-lag. its an optional addon apperently. with the autronic, it already comes built in with anti-lag. ha ha ha. i've recently sat in a mates car with anti-lag installed, and god damn! the noise, the chaos, sheer madness all rolled into one.

has anyone had any exprience with Apex'i Power FC? its the cheapest of all the 4 highend ECUs, namely the Motec, Link and Autronic.

There is no doubt whatsoever that of the readily available engine management systems MoTeC is the best, because of its adaptability/flexibility and upgradability. Autronic is also a very good product (both it and MoTeC are made in Oz), it does not have the flexibility of MoTeC with regards to installation and setup, both products being Australian made and engineered have excellent technical support (MoTeC second to none).
Link is an ok product but is in a different league.
Apexi Power FC is a vehicle specific plug and play ecu(plugs directly in place of standard ecu) and controls all that the standard ecu does eg. aircon idle up etc, it is very good but as I said is vehicle specific and am lead to believe is not available for a Micra.
Uni-chip and E-manage are both piggy back ecus (they interupt and modify the signals that the factory sensors send to the factory ecu to modify its performance, they are limited compared to most stand alone ecus.

Micrat, oh sorry to add now. the aftermarket ECU isnt for my micra. for my micra, i am alreadly satisfied with the CAT back exhaust and POD filter mod. its for my other non daily driving second car. i recently bought a 1998 WRX and was thinking of starting a new project, hence the ECU upgrade. and yes, i found out that the Power FC is in fact very make & model reliant. so for all its worth, you say go with the Power FC? i was kinda leaning towards the Power FC also, becuase there are numerous tuners who deal spcifically with Apex'i products.

Whitey runs an Autronic. I like it because made in Aussie so no issues re after market service whatever and they have a good network and even a distributor in Tassie.
Also price wise not as obscene as some of the others.
So far ( early days) no problems.

I thought the EcuTek folk were the ECU of choice for WRXs.

White Knight, i checked out the Autronic system today. it cost $2500 fitted and tuned for the WRX. apperently the Autronic is really flexible in being able to map and adjust most aspects of the car. the tuner went on abt cold running settings and hot running settings, with air con no air con, stable idle revs and so on. and the one that i liked most was the standard feature of the Anti-Lag :0) its the only ECU to come with it as a standard. well actually the MoTec came with it, but it cost $3750 installed and tuned, and thats more then i wanna spend at the moment.

micra-man, i have also tried to find a tuner for the EcuTek, well up till now, 1 week of searching around. i still have not found someone who deals in EcuTek in Perth. the bulk of the people i have been to generally tune the Apex'i Power FC. i have also heard great things abt EcuTek, price being one of it. apperently EcuTek is one of the ECUs that dont break your bank balance. i'll just have to make more calls to look around for the EcuTek.

thanks for the tip guys.

According to the EcuTek website

www.maximummotorsport.net.au in MALAGA
www.racetorque.com.au in Wangara

Are 2 businesses that could help you out.

I have an EMS Stinger 4424. Cost about a grand and they are pretty easy to work with as well. Any tuning shop that has a decent idea on tuning should be able to work with it.

http://www.enginemanagement.com.au

Also Reverb was running a Hawk ecu..which are apparently pretty good and I think they'd a good choice too.

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_0801/article.html

These are the budget sorta choices without compromising quality.

Dont necessarily have to stick to the expensive brands such as autronic, motec,haltech etc..chances are you won't be using them to their potential anyway. not to say they aren't good..they're awesome..but I think there's some money to be saved.

horses for courses.

hi Kirby, through work I regularly deal with the guys at both Maximum Motorsport an Racetorque, these guys are all very capable and competent with both EcuTek and Autronic and have vast experience tuning Subarus with either system.
I hope this is of some help,
cheers, Jeff