Tweecer for Ford ECU's

[peepsalot]

"TwEECer" Engine Management for Protege's

I've edited this first post since starting this thread.

My summary of the situation:

Tweecer is a product that allows tuning of the variables in the factory ECU, including, but not limited to, fuel delivery, spark timing, idle speed, rev limit. It can be set between 4 maps, and one "off" position. By using the service port on the ECU, it is completely plug and play.

The base model that allows all the tweaking currently goes for the low price of $380(wow), and the realtime model which allows realtime sensor display and datalogging goes for $550.

It currently works on a variety of ford models. After contacting Mike Glover at STKR who developed the tweecer, he is willing to have a look at the protege and see if he can make it work with our cars.

I am currently looking for someone in the Houston/Katy area to visit them so he can download the rom from our computer for research purposes.
If no one can do it, I can go, but it will take me a couple weeks before I can make the trip.

This is an amazing opportunity IMO if we can get this off the ground.

Product Info from their webpage at www.tweecer.com:

What Is The TwEECer?
The TwEECer is an adapter which connects to the J3 service port of a Ford EEC PCM, giving you the ability to substitute parameters in the calibration data with parameters that match the modifications which you have made to your engine. So as you add performance to your car, you can easily match the EEC's calibration to your combo.
How?
Using your Laptop or Desktop PC, you connect the TwEECer to the USB port and run the user interface software CalEdit, which comes with the TwEECer. CalEdit gives you a very nice and easy to use graphical user interface for making changes to your calibration. Once you have your calibration setup as you like, then write/save the binary to disk and to the TwEECer.

What features does the TwEECer have?
In addition to giving you complete control over your EEC, it has a few additional features which make it stand out above the rest.

• TwEECer RT.with Real Time data logging & display along with playback capabilities. This allows you to see how the EEC sees things. This is a tremendous tool for tuning as there will be no more guessing as to what the EEC is calculating values to be.
• Four calibration locations. The TwEECer gives you the ability to flash four (4) completely independent calibrations and switch between them, all while the engine is running. An excellent feature if you want an Economy/Performance option or NA/Nitrous option. No other flashable chip/tuner on the market offers this feature. There is a 5th position which "Turns OFF" the TwEECer and returns to the stock settings, no need to waste a calibration location for a safety net. <LI class=bodytext>Graphical User Interface. The TwEECer comes with CalEdit, a very intuitive and simple to use GUI for making changes to your calibration data.
• Support Groups. There is a UBB forum setup at http://tweecer.oplnk.net where you can post, subscribe and share your EEC tuning knowledge. We have a discussion group at www.yahoogroups.com for the TwEECer owners, just send an email to tweecer-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. I also recommend that all TwEECer owners subscribe to the EEC-Tuner list at www.yahoogroups.com as there is an abundance of info there which relates to tuning.
  Calibration data includes:
  

  • • <LI class=blurbtext>Engine displacement <LI class=blurbtext>Injector size <LI class=blurbtext>MAF function <LI class=blurbtext>Base / Stabilized / startup fuel mixture <LI class=blurbtext>Base / Altitude / Limp mode timing tables <LI class=blurbtext>94/95 AOD-E shift points, TV Pressure, etc
    • Drive & Neutral idle rpm
    • Neutral & in gear rev limits

  This is just a brief list of the calibration data available to be modified.
  
  
  
  
  
  ​

 

[toucci]

ours have mazda programming. nobody has broken the code yet. I don't know the intricacies of this but it's just not gonna happen.

 

[Micah]

I noticed a bunch of mustang guys mentioning using this thing to tune their cars
Is there any chance in hell that this might work on ours? Everyone says that our ECU's are ford made, and there are so many products for fords out there that allow tuning the ECU. Is there something that sets our apart from theirs?
http://www.tweecer.com/index.htm

Physically - it's a ford ecu (EEC-V? I think), but the code running on it is Mazda's and is protected. If you were to search the forums a bit you'd see that this topic comes up about once a year. The long and the short of it is that nobody is willing to put up the money to pay someone (per hour) to spend time trying to crack it. Even if some person or group of people was willing, there is no telling how long it would take, or that it would be done successfully - and again, no way to tell how much the bill would total.

There are quite a few options available for engine management, piggyback, stand-alone, FMU - just to name what I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[LinuxRacr]

Last I hear, the ECU has already been read, but has a shitload of variables (like over 6,000) to tune.

 

[peepsalot]

I think I will contact them. They are in Katy, TX so I might even visit them if they'll let me. I do some programming, and I'm decent at reverse engineering things. I wouldn't mind spending long hours trying to figure out our maps, I just don't have the hardware to do so currently. I'm sure it is hard, but it can't be impossible.

 

[Dexter]

What you'll be doing is cracking encryption. Thats a pain in the ass...

 

[peepsalot]

What you'll be doing is cracking encryption. Thats a pain in the ass...

How do you know it is even encrypted? Any time someone brings up the ECU, there is so much hearsay, but little to zero factual data.

 

[Dexter]

I know, but ive seen actual ECU maps. Go to mazdatechinfo.com and you can find the maps. I think i downloaded one if you wanna look at it.

 

[Bigg Tim]

MPNick had my ECU sent out to see if it can be done and the compnay that he sent it to was able to do so. He could of bought the SW to do it, but it would of been REAL expensive and you would have to send him your ECU to tune. Then later if you changed something and needed a retune, you would of had to send it back, so the cost for the user would of been pretty high, since it's not like a honda, STI or EVO. It was just not worth the money for him or the customer to do so. There are other options that would cost less in the long run to tune.

 

[Micah]

What you'll be doing is cracking encryption. Thats a pain in the ass...

Yep, I was careful not to mention the word encryption because I don't really know.

 

[changedman]

I am with linux- i too, heard the code is cracked, but its going to be something else before people start getting "the code"

 

[peepsalot]

I've been corresponding with one of the guys that makes the TwEECer. Here is the latest email from him.

> OK I took the cover off the ECU and snapped some pics.
>
> I guess the four big letters you are referring to are MJJ8.
>
> I went ahead and wrote down every code I saw just in case.
> MSP0-18881 NPEF
> MJJ8 208021
> 3ALU-12A650-MA
> MLM-B12
> *P01AQGOZ05WD*
> NPF 2H01O

I find a MJJ1 binary (dont have a clue what it is for), which your MJJ8 is
probably a later revision, but this is not 100% for sure. I just don't want to
assume anything until I have checked it out myself.

If you can make it to Katy then we can check it out, read the calibration from
your EEC and see if we can find a strategy that is at least close and hack the
rest.


I haven't replied yet. I don't think I can make it down to Katy until the weekend after this one. If anyone else in the area wants to volunteer, that would be sweet. Otherwise I'll head down there myself eventually.

 

[peepsalot]

Updated first post.

 

[TurfBurn]

It's an awesome piece of software but just shy of impossible to use.. the variable names are often coded... and it takes a LOT of screwing around to even get remotely close to being able to tune the car. Often you have to guess at what each value is and screw with it to see if you can find out what it is... if you can get it to work.. knock yourself out, but in all seriousness it is VERY hard to use!! It usually takes months of research... most people that use it simply have one person that learns it and then people pay for a dynosession for that person to tune the car because the average person has no prayer of learning it... but if you guys can get it in for us.. it'd be AWESOME!

 

[Focus]

Update?

 

[peepsalot]

Well, someone local to the houston area volunteered to go down there, then flaked out on me. I've been pretty busy lately, haven't had time to take the trip down.

 

[flat_black]

I've got a stray ECU that I'm not using, if that might help..?

 

[Reffoxel]

How much time do they need to have the car?

 

[peepsalot]

How much time do they need to have the car?

I'm guessing just a part of a day from the sound of it. I think he can download the rom from our ECU and work on that without needing to have the car around.

 

[Reffoxel]

I'll see what my schedule at work is like and see if I can schedule a day or two off. Could use some time away from SA. And my car's about to get out of the body shop. Also I'm in the process of building an engine for turbo charging and am still considering which engine management system I want to use. If this will work I'd rather have the ecu tuned correctly instead of having a piggyback either trying to fool the ecu into doing the right thing or modifying the ecu output or going to a full standalone and trying to figure out how to get it to run my gauges. A friend of mine here is a tuner and would like to add this to his repetoir.

I'm guessing just a part of a day from the sound of it. I think he can download the rom from our ECU and work on that without needing to have the car around.