nice work Brian

The AFRs are getting better and better. I recorded a few datalogs to sit down and disect tonight so that I can make preparations for the next tuning session. I know there is some more power to be found though.

240sxguy said:

There isn't any reason to overclock an EFI system IMO, if it's not fast enough to do what it needs to do it needs to be upgraded. An automotive environment is very harsh and I would want a processor loafing along as cool as possible given the choices.

This is a good point. I'd rather be sitting in my office and have my PC fail from an overclocked processor than be in my car out in the boondocks with a toasted ECU

I could see overclocking being a sort of novelty computer geek project coupled with a piggyback or some signal controllers so that you could manipulate a stock ECU but theres definitely no NEED to do so when Megasquirt exists.  

fun fact for computer geeks: The Siemens MSS54 ecu in the E46 M3 is a 32 bit dual core processor.

3000GT VR-4 owners, it's sort of common to "overclock" your ECU, it'll raise the rev-limit, and advance timing.

AE86 owners- not really an option. A few have done it, you change a "crystal" (what?) and it'll up the rev-limit as well. And *CAN* help with stage 2 or higher cam durations.

Here's a neat read as well: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1736906

That's subaru related. Yet to find anything BMW related.

someone said:

It has been my experience that proprietary computer devices/controllers don't respond predictably to clock speed increases. Dependant on the design of the entire system, certain functions can depend on cpu clock speed and timing issues can develop when it changes. Mostly this manifests itself in I/O operations. If the cpu is waiting for a response from an external device and is programmed to wait x-amount of clock cycles or generate an error, when the clock cycles are sped up and the external device still responds at it's original speed, problems... This may or may not be the case with the Bosch ECU but in NC machinery, it's definitely an issue.

That was taken off a TDi forum.

So, I guess it's safe to say. That yes you can overclock an ECU, but the work-to-reward isn't really there. At that point, you might as well go open source!

snap oversteer said:

Yes you can overclock an ECU processor for a faster processing speed. How? I am not entirely sure. Maybe someone good with computers can chime in on how this might be done on an ECU.

I'm good with computers. But I can't see an ECU having a sort of "OS" that's navigatable.

Overclocking a normal PC is alot easier then you'd think. I feel it's doable. But it'll shorten the life of the ECU to a really short span.

KaiserRolls said:

all of it.

explain all of it

Chuckle.

Is there any possible way to overclock an ECU in a car, such as in a computer? If so, you could squeeze out a bit more proccessing power.

Might be a stupid question, but ECU wise. I'm about as knowledgable as Rowley is at life. Not much.

snap oversteer said:

be more specific good sir

all of it.

explain all of it

Merl is upgrading his e28 to run on Motronic 1.3 which is better than the original e28 ECU for a few reasons but one of the main reasons is that  Motronic 1.3  has a faster processor. It could be either a 12, 16, or 20 MHz processor (tech sheet online calls out all 3 speeds). Based on my experiences with MS2 already, I would guess that its the 16 MHz processor. 

Megasquirt 1 is 8 MHz but it only operates fueling, not timing.
Megasquirt 2 is 24 MHz

Megasquirt 3 is 50 MHz

1 MHz = 1 million calculations per second. The more calculations a computer processor can do, the more things it can do at once, and the more accurately it can do those things. 

but yes, this thread is mainly for things to be discussed, ideas, questions asked and answered, for those who want to know more ( including myself) anyone can feel free to answer things they have knowledge about and hopefully we can all learn something about such a complex and awesome topic