Well, I did a thing.

[Jonohhh]

I now own an EMU Black standalone ECU and Plug & Play adapter for a Euro 500 Abarth.

I'm likely in for one hell of a challenge, but I'm willing to take it on. Having too many simultaneous projects is how I keep occupied, I guess. The factory ECUs on these cars are so finnicky to work with, and the risk of bricking during a reflash leaves you at the mercy of the dealership- a multiple thousand dollar adventure.

Since I don't have my X1/9 or M3 projects up here at school to work on, and thanks to having an excess of time (due to leaving extracurriculars that were negatively impacting my school work), I have a bit of time to spare, and I've spent this month reverse engineering the NAFTA 500 Abarths CANBUS. Hopefully, I will be able to get this standalone implemented - leaving me to simply swap the cam carrier with a TJet one, and all is complete.

New video by Jon Olaivar

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[dllubin]

Nice!

 

[Jonohhh]

The main issue is that it's not known whether or not the euro 500s canbus is different - and depending on how different it is, I'm either in for a easy time or an absolute pain.

Still, a documented path to standalone operation could be a good option for USA X1/9 Abarth engine swaps.

 

[86X]

I have a ECU Black in my other car, great unit and the support is great also. I knew nothing about tuning so I took a couple online courses and I had a lot of help from a group using the same unit. I am putting the finishing touches on my tune, all I have left is getting my AFRs set better. The fiddle factor is high. My advice is add all the sensors you think you may want on the front end It’s much easer that way, ask me how I know 😆

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I've looked at the EMU products before and liked what they offer. I chatted with the owner of the company at a trade show. He's a young guy and very knowledgeable.

Seems I've heard the US 500's are very different from the Euro ones. Apparently we got the same units as Mexico and a couple other parts of the world? But that doesn't mean the electronics are different...lets certainly hope not.

due to leaving extracurriculars that were negatively impacting my school work

What was her name?

 

[Jonohhh]

I've looked at the EMU products before and liked what they offer. I chatted with the owner of the company at a trade show. He's a young guy and very knowledgeable.

My attention was brought to them due to their popularity in the E36 BMW community. I've been involved with a huge group of people, working with ZF8 automatic transmission swaps various older cars, and have run across many people who recommend them. The value for money is like little else on the market too.

Seems I've heard the US 500's are very different from the Euro ones. Apparently we got the same units as Mexico and a couple other parts of the world? But that doesn't mean the electronics are different...lets certainly hope not.

Very different indeed. The USA 500 Abarth is (from a powertrain perspective) more of a Punto Evo Esseesse, with the Multiair engine and Magneti Marelli ECU. The euro 500 got a regular DOHC cam carrier atop an otherwise identical engine (TJET).

The CANBUS differences are not yet known, so I'll be the first to give it a shot and know for sure (and be willing to share info). I do have a lot of harness repinning in my future, however.

What was her name?

Her name was Formula SAE. I'll miss her, but she took too much of my time away from being successful at school. It's how it seems to go I guess.

 

[Jonohhh]

So, I ran into some useful information online from someone trying to adapt a Euro Abarth 500s Bosch ME7.9.10 ECU for standalone operation, and;

Everything I have checked so far regarding CANBUS (message IDs and contents), is the exact same, so things are looking up. While there certainly may be differences still, the more similarity the better. The immobilizer I now know is identical - and it appears that'll be a non issue. More info on the immobilizer function is here. Fear not, there's no risk of this small amount of data introducing a security vulnerability to the platform.

Additionally, the harness repinning isn't going to be anywhere near as bad as I thought. I think I have a solution for most of it already.

 

[gwbfiat]

Hopefully your still making good progress Jon! Having a stand alone ecu for the 1.4l multiair engine would be absolutely wonderful for anyone wanting to install one of these engines in their X1/9! Any idea how much you would charge to share your tune with everyone?

 

[Jonohhh]

Hopefully your still making good progress Jon! Having a stand alone ecu for the 1.4l multiair engine would be absolutely wonderful for anyone wanting to install one of these engines in their X1/9! Any idea how much you would charge to share your tune with everyone?

Progress is soon to resume! I'm about to order a Tjet cam box and some tappets, and then i should be able to get to repinning!

My multiair engine is becoming a Tjet engine, as the only difference is the cam carrier used. I toyed with making a multiair controller that'd simply stay in full lift mode, but it's far from ideal for many reasons, so I'm instead doing the conversion of the engine itself.

It's a simple task, barely harder than changing a timing belt, and opens the door to aftermarket camshaft options to break the 300 wheel HP barrier!

As far as sharing info or tunes. As much as I'd like to (and need to) make money, I'm doing it for a learning experience and for the community. So probably nothing.

 

[gwbfiat]

Wow Jon, that's fantastic! I can honestly say that I am very excited about what you are doing and I can hardly wait till you have perfected it. I have a great X1/9 that would be a perfect candidate for a new Fiat 1.4 engine swap . I look forward to watching your great work that you are sharing with us in this post. I assume that you need to order the Tjet cam box from Europe. Are they easy to source and fairly cost effective?

 

[Jonohhh]

Wow Jon, that's fantastic! I can honestly say that I am very excited about what you are doing and I can hardly wait till you have perfected it. I have a great X1/9 that would be a perfect candidate for a new Fiat 1.4 engine swap . I look forward to watching your great work that you are sharing with us in this post. I assume that you need to order the Tjet cam box from Europe. Are they easy to source and fairly cost effective?

I look forward to making the project a reality. Hopefully the X1/9 gets further along this summer as well. I miss it!

The T-Jet cam carriers can be sourced from Europe for less than $300, plus shipping. New tappets are quite expensive but I'm searching for an alternative supply of OEM ones. Mopar here in the states charges $47 a piece when the INA part usually goes for less than $10/pc.


As I make progress I'll probably be posting here and on the wiki page I've linked above.