I'm having Randy put in the pully in Vegas next week and wanted some opinions on the ECU. Obviously, there is quite an expense involved in doing the ECU and I wonder if I only do the pully what am I missing? It seems like adding the pully reduction in itself makes a big difference in performance (I think that can be agreed upon based on previous discussion here), so why should I do the ECU?

Thanks for the input!
-Ryan

 

The ECU will make a nice increase in power, but you're right, the bulk of the performnace comes from the pulley.

There's nothing wrong with running the pulley by itself, so if you're unsure about the ECU, just go with the pulley for now. If you decide you want the power an ECU offers later on, it's an easy upgrade to perform so you can do it yourself.

 

Even though it was tough on the budget (and a mean look from my wife when she saw my credit card statement), I went for the pulley and the ECU at Randy's pulley party last year. The main reason I did this was an article in European Car magazine which spoke of ECU change was really beneficial on an MCS (something about the stock ECU does not fully open the throttle?), and also Randy was there to install it and make sure everything played well together. I recently dyno'd my MCS, and I was seeing 184 HP and 159 torque with Madness CAI, Evotech ECU, 15% pulley, and UUC catback. That's around 200hp at the wheels no matter what driveline loss calculation you want to use. With that being said, the pulley in itself is a great upgrade. Like any othe mod for your MCS, it's how much you're willing or can afford to spend. Randy says it best, "it starts to become a slippery slope after a while." This is especially true if start getting into tracking the car which unfortunately for my budget, I have really got hooked on.

 

Just to throw out the alternate view, I had the pulley installed at Randy's Phoenix pulley party (Alice has Randy's 200th pulley) and don't feel the need to do the ECU. True, it might give more go, but I am extremely happy with the pulley and intake as my only "go-faster" mods.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the opinions!

 

Hey Ryan I am going to have mine done in Vegas too! I am going with just the pulley for now.
See you there