I have a 98 civic with a 98/99 gsr motor swap in it...how can I upgrade the ecu or chip it? i've only seen conversions for 92-95... also since I've done the motor swap the motors been smoking. what could this be from? thanks

 

What do you need a performance ECU for? This isn't Gran Turismo, you know. Unless you are boosted or running a moderately built N/A setup, don't waste your time.

The smoking is probably oil burning. The rings may be shot. Do a compression and leakdown test to confirm.

 

I was hoping to add a little more where ever I could....

 

You'd have to convert to OBD1, and run an OBD1 ECU...unless you spend $1200 on an AEM EMS.

 

are their any disadvantages to switching over to obd1? I was hoping top advoid all of that...

 

If they check for OBD2 when they do emissions testing, it will fail.

If you don't have any major modifications to the engine, you will see very few benefits to running a chipped ecu.

 

To be able to use a chipped ECU setup you would need an OBD2 to OBD1 ECU conversion harness, an OBD1 distributor, and of course a chipped OBD 1 ECU.

If your GSR has the stock IM with the dual runners, then you'll want to use an OBD 1 GSR ECU which will allow you to still use the dual IM runners. If you have an aftermarket single runner IM (like the ITR) from Skunk2 or Victor-X, then you can use an OBD1 P28. With a single runner IM you dont have to worry about dual runner support so you can save money by going with a chipped P28. If you do get a P28 you also loose the ability to read your GSR's stock knock sensor since P28 ECU's dont support knock sensors.

I agree with Das Schmoo though. If you only have I,H,E then it wouldn't be worth it to get a chipped ECU setup. But if you decide to get cams and gears then a chipped ECU would be worth it cause then you can start tweaking your setup to get a lot more power out of that setup.

 

I am running the OBD2 distributor with my OBD1 setup, so don't need it. If you convert the engine harness to OBD1, you would need it, but if you are just using a conversion harness, all functionality of the OBD2 stuff should work (assuming you are using a P72 ECU). The only issue with the conversion is the EVAP purge solenoid which the OBD1 ecu doesn't support, so just unplug it.

 

hmmm...weird, a friend of mine wanted to convert from OBD 2 to OBD 1 and everybody on H-T that I asked said that you needed an OBD 1 dizzy.

 

That is assuming he was doing the complete switchover with the complete engine harness too. He would need an OBD1 distributor and oil pump among others, but with just a simple conversion at the ECU, none of that is needed.