ECU rule / standalone question (I promise I searched first...)

[JeffYoung]

GTISpirit, in the humble opinion of this singular (and I am not speaking for the whoel ITAC here, they had good reasons for the result) that is exactly what was done (maybe inadvertently) -- newer cars with cam and crank position sensors can more readily take advantage of the open ECU rule v. older cars that read that position from the distributor.

My own personal experience with a Haltech system has been a nightmare trying to get a reliable signal from the distributor to the ECU.

Note that a crankwheel is legal because pulleys are free. But that doesn't get you where you need to be: you need a sensor too. As Josh notes right now, the rules don't specifically allow for the moving the sensor from the distributor to the crank even though the "equivalent" sensor rule doesn't talk about location.

Last, there is the prohibition on crankfire meaning no way no how can you fire the ignition (you could fire the injectors assuming your sensor is legal) with the added crank wheel.

On the other hand, note that MAP sensors and TPS sensors are already allowed to open up the playing field and make it easier to install an aftermarket ECU.

My understanding on why MAPs and TPSs were allowed is that they were perceived as having no performance advantage, while a crank wheel sensor does.

I think there is some arguable performance advantage to a MAP and a TPS on cars that don't have them -- they clarify and improve some of the inputs to the ECU.

But, the bottom line for me is that a motor's total power is restricted by design, cam and compression. Plenty of muscle car tests out there that show carbed cars making as much ore more peak power than an ECU unit. Where the ECU helps -- sometimes a lot -- is area under the cover, and that is the real advantage we are talking about here.

The issue is should we make it easy to open that up to all varieties of fuel injected cars by making all sensors legal, or should we try to limit creep and restrict the sensor rule?

Arguments on both sides.