Paul_J

I bought a spoon ECU from Mad Max for my S2000, and just fitted it. Needed to follow the advice here to ground the fuel pump imob https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/346...1#entry7197966

I've previously had a J's Racing ECU and was kind of expecting the same, but it's completely different. It also seems different than my friends Amuse ECU.

The spoon ECU opens up the bottom end so much that it left me confused. How was it making so much more torque low end without changing the manifold?

Essentially now with the Spoon ECU I have good torque from about 3.5-4k rpm all the way up to 8.5-9k. I can't wait to use this on track.

As a comparison:

J's Racing ECU, bottom end is still a bit torqueless, but has lower vtec point at 5300rpm which makes up for it, then really peaky up to 9300 rpm.
Spoon ECU, loads of bottom end torque from 4k, vtec point is only lowered to 5800 rpm, fairly linear / smooth up to 9k rpm.
Amuse ECU, extremely peaky and feels to pull hardest of the three at the top end, but lacks at the bottom a bit.

People give these bolt on ECU's a bad rep because on a dyno they don't 'gain' much peak power. I would probably agree, at peak rpm there's probably little difference, but throughout the rev range and especially lower down you can definitely tell the difference.
It makes these cars so much more drivable on road and track.

s2konroids

IMO the J's was much better than the spoon (not massively but never the less yielded more power), on a dyno it out performed the Spoon with my mods. The spoon did feel a little bit lower down.

But that's the catch you should really run these ECU's with I/E/M by the same manufacturer, to gain the benefits due to the hard coded ignition maps and fueling maps.

Paul_J

Yup I'd agree with that, at the top end my j's racing ECU felt faster / more powerful compared to the Spoon, however I think the spoon feels more drivable in the mid range, which will benefit it on track.

I sold my j's racing ECU a while back and regretted it as soon as I did, the s2000 really feels like something is missing on the stock ECU - especially on track, constantly waiting for the vtec cross over when getting on the power after apex.

That's why when I saw Mad Max selling the Spoon I jumped at it, but I didn't realise it would be this good at lower rpm, imo better than the j's racing below 5.3k.

s2konroids

Yup these cars should have a had the vtec engagement set earlier, but the CAT negates dictates a cross over at x rpm.

MIP

So you have to have a de-cat to benefit from these ECU's?

Paul_J

MIP I used to have a decat with my j's racing ecu, (infact with the j's I had j's header, decat, ecu, hks 75mm exhaust) ... with the spoon ECU I've just stuck it on a standard S2000 (inc cat) and it still is giving great overall gains throughout the rev range.