Wiring loom and ecu

[drscott]

I have decided to keep the ford gt 40 engine for my 1998 air nautique.

I'm getting a new block and assembly. I need to find out where I can get my ecu re-programmed for this application and also does anybody know where I will get a new wiring loom for this.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

i hope to start posting pictures of my 1998 nautique project.

Cheers

scott

[SquamInboards]

RE: Wiring loom and ecu

The ECM is a commissioned EEC-IV unit from Ford which is no longer in production. The only units left from PCM are the early versions which had issues with hunting at idle and were later replaced with re-designed units. I have done extensive research into this area and it is really not feasible to replace beyond buying an older unit from PCM. The old gen 1 (93-95) Ford lightning with the 5.8 is maybe the most similar ECM but would still need a lot work to "trick it" to run in a marine application. There is a lot of info online about EEC-IV tuning but unless you feel like learning to be (or are) an electrical engineer I wouldn't bother wasting your time. I have spent some time trying to retrofit an older 351w block with Ford parts to build a "GT40" and ended up finding a good amount of parts from similar model year Vovlo engines (owned by Ford). If you search around Volvo built something very similar to a GT40 but because it is not marinized by PCM it lacks the FCC and other quality parts but does share many characteristics. I have a loom and ECM but they are disimilar enough that it is going to take some time to adapt it to a GT40 style set up. You're probably better off having someone build your loom or do it yourself, I didn't catch why you need a new one but I assume fire damage? The ECM is $5-600 or more I think from a dealer but probably your only option. Also, after speaking with a dealer, the GT40 does not run well after being bored over if that is your thought and there is no chip I can find available to compensate with the stock ECM. Hope this helps. What are your intentions with this project? Maybe I can help more.

[core-rider]

Squam, have you looked into a http://www.tweecer.com/ It's a PC based software that will allow you tweak pretty much any parameter in the EEC you can think of. Not sure how well it would work with a marine application but worth a look into.

[SquamInboards]

I have checked that out, thanks though. The problem is that the programming for a boat is significantly different than that of a car and it would take someone with strong knowledge of this to use something like tweecer to generate ECM maps. It is not only the programing that must be done, but the board itself is significantly different and would require taking a PCM unit to an engineer and having it copied or designing your own, which financially just doesn't make sense. The fact that even ford and PCM couldn't get it right the first time doen't exude much confidence either. So you're looking at both a hardware and software problem and in the end I think your best bet is going stand alone like VEMS, Megasuirt, or 034motorsport.