Gotech Pro X nearly melted my engine
 

My race car (2WD Sapph with T3 and 36mm restrictor) ran with a Gotech Pro X ECU until recently. The unit is only about a year old and has done about eight race days. A few weeks ago at Brands Hatch the car gave out the occasional brrr as it misfired at various bits of the RPM range. Had nothing in the qualifying session or first race of the day, race two heard a couple of worrying misfires, race three the car misfired a bit more and went down onto three cylinders so I pulled in.

Plug three was fused and I was worried that the car had detted. Compression test says all is OK so we started on the diagnosis. Luke (Enhanced Performance) pulled the ECU off and hooked it up to a frequency generator which simulates the input from the 36-1 trigger wheel. As the RPM rose the ECU seemed fine until suddenly at around 5700rpm the ECU decided to put out random spark trigger signals.

Lucky there doesn't appear to be major damage to the engine. The ECU has failed in a major way and has gone back to the supplier for a replacement. I won't be using one again obviously. The ECU was well mounted, hadn't been wet or been placed in a hot area or suffered any shocks and was relatively new.

Charlie

Crikey thats a lucky escape.

yet another story of a gotech product doing it's own thing seems like they have a little life of there own and from time to time just do as they please just glad it didn't take the engine with it

Not good fella. Its got nothing to do with the map thats been put in the ecu has it. What ecu are you gonna go for next.

gotech is utter junk, i have removed 2 systems from 2 escorts that were probalmatic , chnaged to emerald and dta and both have been fine, i wouldnt use gotech

Had a similar problem with car mis-firing on higher rpms turned out it was the trigger and cps that couldn't read signal right. check that first. same setup on gotech. mine was not ecu causing missfires.

The map was fine. 297 safe HP from a newly built 2WD engine. The loom is also brand new, and the ECU was tested independently of the car - isolated and fed with a trigger signal. At certain RPMs it just started randomly firing.

Link Atom ECU next I believe. Should be more robust.

Positive marks for Luke at Enhanced Performance for the engine build, mapping and diagnosis of what went wrong with the Gotech. Negative marks for recommending the Gotech in the first place. It's clearly cheap and should never been installed. Lesson learnt.

Charlie

Or well you learn by your mistakes. Just think it could of been worse.

i wouldnt fit gotech to my lawnmower tis terrible stuff, link is alot better and will be a million times better than gotech

ive had the problem previously to went back to old if its not broke cossie management

whats wrong with a L6 or L8??
works fine in 95% of cossies!!
Im going to be using a L8 in my race car..

steve

i would say gotech is a step back from l8, l6, p8 .... actually any ecu :)

You know how it is with tuners and their preferences. I'm happy for Luke to use whatever ECU he feels is best and whatever he's happy mapping with.

I don't care if the car uses a Link Atom, Weber Marelli or a Speak and Spell as long as it works, is reliable and produces good power.

Charlie

your saph is the light blue one, with full cage and single seat??

was looking around that on monday nice car :) i thought it was lukes track toy as its got luke neal competition engines on the back :)

link ecu's are alot lot better than gotech

Yeah, that's the one.

Charlie

Good work by Luke by the sounds of it :top:

Speaking as someone who designs and has made ecu's .....

Very surprised any ecu fails on its own as most faults are usually caused by external factors.

I have no direct experience of Gotech so cant comment on its quality.

Using a signal generator to test an ecu is not the right way to test it !
The ecu signal needs a missing pulse and also needs to have an inductive profile and rpm related amplitude ... all of which it cannot do so I would expect it not to behave correctly when being tested this way.

Unless of course this is a custom designed piece of kit to test it that simulates the signal exactly ...?? !

I'm not sure but lets not get into a marathon technical Passionford war over this one. I'm confident that Luke tested it properly and the ECU is firing randomly under certain conditions. So it's off the car and the engine is undamaged.

If a different ECU produces the same problem then Luke will be investigating further but I trust him to get the diagnosis right.

Charlie

Charlie,

I am not after a war but you did post the problem on a public forum where there are people like me who understand these things in great detail.

I was just pointing out that a signal generator cannot be used to test an ecu this way as you stated as I have had a great deal of experience of this in my career.

Also, this is most definitely not a dig at EP in any way before anyone says otherwise :)

I don't have the technical knowledge to answer.

Charlie

Fair enough... Hope you sort it to your satisfaction :)

Was going to say the same thing but you beat me too it. I would actually EXPECT the ecu to go haywire at high speed if using a speed related amplitude signal with no interlaced positioning signal.

^ Interesting comments above on the ecu diagnosis by two hugely knowledge chaps. Regardless, luckily you 'caught' it before in caused you some serious damage. Have you bore scoped the engine and had a good scout around to see the extent of any det damage?

i know a few people running gotech with no problems at all.

when taken apart inside the gotech ecu looks well built, ecu's only usually go haywire when they have a faulty reading off a dodgy sensor/pick up ,you could find that changing the ecu does cure the problem because more that likely the new ecu will need new or different sensors loom etc which is probably your problem anyway

Checked with Luke. He's accurately simulated the conditions of the ECU in the car including giving it exactly the right signals, upping the ambient temperatures, etc. He knows what he's doing, and the ECU has failed.

Onwards and upwards.


Charlie

Bore scoped and compression tested yes. That's it. The car's on the dyno today producing good safe power across a good range and performing well so should be OK.

Charlie

I have come across the Gotech giving seemingly random spark outputs before, so it maybe a common problem.

Rick

i car in our championship used gotech didnt last long had firing issues and then melted a engine also. :( cant believe i was thinking about getting this ecu aswell

if you don't think yourself lucky that there are people capable and willing to pass professional comment on such things, don't post about it in the first place :?

I would like to know how the ECU was tested. A race car we built for a customer is using a Gotech Pro-X. The last track day we were testing on a trackday, when about 3 laps in, it started to hesitate about 6500 rpm. It would still pull strong up to that, no difference. About half a lap later, the hesitation came on about 5500 rpm, and within another half a lap, it came in about 4500rpm. When it came in I checked it over, and everything looked ok. He went out again in about half an hour, and the car seemed fine until 3 laps in again, and a repeat. This ring any bells.


John

Serious question, why bother with an aftermarket Ecu for what is basically a stage 1 conversion? The L6/8/P8 ecus can do everything you need and more? There are years of experience behind the webber ecu's, just seems so pointless changing them unless you are going for stupid power ?

i had gotech fitted to my 200sx, after been looked at by a well known 200 specialist they reckoned the standard nissan ecu had more features plus the cold start was a nightmare.

id always though gotech as a good sysyem

So did I, but I'm concerned now, as I have 3 cars running them

John

I had very similar symptoms. It got worse during the day and was at varying RPMs.

I didn't test it - for that sort of thing I rely on Luke at Enhanced Performance. Maybe worth visiting him or the place that sold the Pro X in the first place for testing.

Charlie

Agree that the ECU doesn't offer a major improvement in performance over standard Cossie management. Obviously a new loom and ease of set-up is nice and the tuner can make quick and easy changes to the map if he needs to.

Charlie

During a race my car is doing 15 mins at a time of high stress accelleration and the engine is very carefully balanced. I don't trust the Gotech in these conditions. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad ECU - just not reliable enough for competition, in my opinion.

Charlie

Has anyone actualy informed Gotech or Jamsport of this 'common' problem as I'm sure they would like to know and hopefully offer some feedback with regards to this?
Would be nice to know as I'm going to be using one soon :cry: or maybe not now :(

Yes, Jamsport informed and they offered to replace the ECU as it's less than a year old.

Don't know if it's a common problem.


Charlie

sounds like it might be related to driver temperature and may be a fundamental design issue rather than manufacturing defect, although it could be not properly heatsinked or something.