OK been thinking of starting a thread on this for the last couple of years now for those like myself that (let's say ) do not understand the ins and out of ecu tuning.

I understand the basics of " plug and play " ecu . What I don't understand is how you guys do it yourself, is it necessary ?

I've read so many threads , here and other forums online . Non the wiser ?

I'll start with my car , 1996 850 R with upgrades consisting of :

18T turbo

Japanifold

3" turbo back exhaust with 200 cell cat

Do88 intake pipe open air box filter ipd

Forge actuator, recirculation valve and mbc

Rip kit

Intercooler

Ipd gearbox cooler

Uprated fuel pump

A set of white and blue injectors ( not fitted , running standard ones )

Afr and boost gauges

I'll be getting a bigger maf soon

Also I'm keen on keeping this car an automatic and understand I'm limited to around the 300 bhp mark , I'm fine with that.

Before I fitted the mbc

I was running these

First the hd ipd but was getting spikes so went to the Pierberg.

So ok onto ecu's, reading threads dated back to say 2010 it seems ARD were the go to place Lucky I believe his name is . Fast forward and now MTE , VAST etc .. I bought an ARD green ecu from a member here to try it out . Obviously it's not tuned for my car but worth a try I thought. I've not run it for a while now as when it's in it throws an error PNP switch, I have a new one but not put it in yet .

With the red button when the ecu is in the car if you switch it , it lights up . Does this mean it's tunable ? Ir so how ?

Recent just bought this also as I understand I may need it but what for ?

Last year I was all up for an MTE tune , speaking and several emails to a company over east . Myself waiting and the guy pulling his hair out as MTE / IPD would not reply to him . So we came to the conclusion that they wouldn't help , I've had no contact since ?.

The MTE , we were speaking about the stage 3 with the modifications I have .

Also what's the roughly the pricing of new ecu set ups ? No one says .

Brings me onto laptops I have one but 14 years old and battery is dead so driving around with the laptop connected to the obdII isn't an option but I could use the wife's one as its newer lol . So I suppose that'll work .

With the modifications I have and the standard ecu I can get upto 16psi , a little over and the ( I think ) ecu cuts the fuel shortly . So I only go upto 15psi .

A few of you guys have gone the Vast route I've read and seem pretty happy ? If my ard ecu is tunable can a vast be added ?

I've probably got a load more questions on this as we go along ( hopefully) but atm I'm a total newbie on this ? but I want to understand .

At the end of the day I want the car with a decent amount of get up and go and not think about it . The mbc is great as long as I don't do anything stupid before 3000 rpm .

I'm also aiming for the engine to be stripped at 200000 ks for new rods etc next year for piece of mind as the car is a keeper.

Bit of a long thread fallas I know , hopefully some of you can shed some light for me and maybe others ?

Ive got a set of rods.

The red switch is for new tune , yes. The GREEN tune in it is for green injector and upgrades to suit.

@Ghettobird Julian was converting 4.3 to 4.4 ecu and putting in a chip you can customise selfly, hit him up.Look at his posts.

Ask VAST about the option?

@Ex850R

Hey Les , yeah cheers , Ash bumping Julians thread this morning prompted me to write this up . Read pretty much most things on the forum about it . He's not posted for a while .....

You've still got the rods then , hit me up later in the year , 139.5mm yeah ?

Just go to Aaron @ Vast, it'll save you a lot of headaches, trust me I've been through most companies over the 15yrs I've been messing with the whiteblock, all of them from Rica/MTE/BSR, etc including Turbo Tuner which I had tuned by several people including myself, no one really comes close to Aaron for understanding the 4.4, yes some UK people which are also friends of mine are great also but the communication and feedback from logs with Aaron was 2nd to none.

Send Aaron an email and explain what you have ecu wise he is more that happy to help I asked him a shit load of dumb questions and he was more than helpful.

If you can't find out the correct info on the ecu you have from @Ghettobird or @Ex850R then just add the +75usd for no core return I did that so I had my original ecu as spare and in its factory form if I ever needed it.

Price wise it was custom tune builder on the vast site is where you will get a price depending what options you want.

https://vasttuning.com/product/tune-builder/

OK I know it's probably a bit like this to some guys ?

I just want to make sure. I'll email VAST and go from there , cheers guys. @TL_V70 I appreciate what you said about asking dumb ass questions, that'll be me ? when I ask . Cheers for the link

You will deffinately need a laptop and the vag com cable. So if you partner has one the your halfway there. The program you use is free but does require some setting up tho. Its not to difficult I managed and I suck at computers.

Buy a cheap eBay 12v power cable for your old laptop, so you can data log in the car. Vast will check your logs and make sure tune is doing what it should.

You can diy tune the m44 ecu but it's a big time and learning investment.

VAG-COM cable , any recommendations ?

oh and i was looking at the link with all the drop downs , anyone gone for the  Burbles/Crackles ?

+1 for Aaron at Vast.

There's lots of options out there, not all are equal. Support and experience are paramount. If you follow Aaron's M4.4 threads you'll find no single person with the wealth of knowledge that he has.

I need to make this step also, I have had dealings with Aaron on and off for the past 5 years and he has always been helpful.

As for Vag com I bought one from Vast when I purschased the ecu. I figured he would supply one that works so it was easy just to tick that box and it does flawlessly it doesn't have any numbers on it sorry Steve.. Ebay supply them in just has to be ths right chip (FTDI FT232RL) I believe there is plenty of info on vag com cable out there. or if your stuck you can borrow mine.

As for burbles / crackels i couldn't comment there wasn't an option for that when I purschased my ecu. I was looking the other night and I noticed there are a few more new options available that weren't there in 2019. They got me a bit curious too

Cheers guys yep was thinking the same Tom , I'd get a cable included. There's so many different cable's out there . Yeah there’s a few drop downs on the menu now on the site hey . ?

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