After owning a SPOON ECU for 12 months i decided to see what power my car was making, while i was at it and had the dyno booked for 2 hours i thought i may aswell compare it against my standard ecu.
Car Spec:
Car is a '99 Civic Type R EK9
92,000 Miles
B16B
SPOON ECU
Mugen Replica CAI
Mugen 4-1 Manifold
Hollow Standard Cat
Fujitsubo LegalisR Stainless exhaust system
Running on Shell Vpower 99 Ron fuel
The first runs were on the SPOON
Both runs made 191bhp and 190.9bhp
The two runs gave a good result and were above my expected result of circa 180bhp
Next up was the fuel/AFR run, the probe was attatched to the rear of the exhaust, power was expected to drop due to the restriction
The graph
I wasnt sure what this meant i knew a rough idea of where the curve needed to be, but after some examination by the tuner he seemed very pleased with the fueling, with only a minor blemish, BUT still within his accepted limits when tuning.
NEXT UP : STANDARD HONDA ECU
The challenger, weighing in at £400 less expensive than the SPOON and standard from factory was the OBD2B HONDA ECU with standard map produced by HONDAS finest. Expectations were high, hopefully seeing a drop in power to justify the SPOON ecu cost
THE RESULTS
190.6 BHP (ONLY 0.4BHP off peak power of the SPOON )
Another run was done with similar results, time for the fuel/afr run, as before power was expected to dip.
As you can see from the graph, the fueling is less smooth especially around 6000rpm , this would explain the "VTEC kick" . The tuner said he prefered the SPOON ecu fueling as it was smoother just like the power delivery.
SPOON vs STANDARD
As you can see the big gains come from having VTEC coming in at 5500, but by 6600 the ECU's run the same power, apart from the standard one limiting at 8500, compared to the spoon at 9200, although this isnt shown as he let off as power started decreasing at 9000rpm
All in all he was impressed with the SPOON ecu and liked the extra grunt midrange and smoother curves, the HONDA was a good map too.
The big question "Which would you run?"
His answer was infact opposite to what i expected, " SPOON", as explained above, he liked the idea of extra grunt between 5500 and 6600rpm, he said it more day to day driving as overtaking could be a bit lasier, plus having the extra torque would be beneficial.
Just shows that over butt dyno aint always the best!
Summary
SPOON has a wider power band
SPOON helps with gearchanges as if chnged earlier and you miss VTEC in the next gear you still have power
SPOON has a smoother delivery and less of a spike on the fueling map
SPOON has a higher limit, helping with track driving and avoiding a gearchange mid corner
HONDA has the impressive VTEC kick
HONDA has a limiter lower than the SPOON which helps stop engine damage (Valve spring damage etc)
HONDA is free with any EK9
These are my findings, they are completely un biased as i ran it for a whole year, what i do like is the vtec kick, i dont feel i have lost anything now i'm not running the SPOON, next up is a custom map in August and i will compare again.
Car Spec:
Car is a '99 Civic Type R EK9
92,000 Miles
B16B
SPOON ECU
Mugen Replica CAI
Mugen 4-1 Manifold
Hollow Standard Cat
Fujitsubo LegalisR Stainless exhaust system
Running on Shell Vpower 99 Ron fuel
The first runs were on the SPOON
Both runs made 191bhp and 190.9bhp
The two runs gave a good result and were above my expected result of circa 180bhp
Next up was the fuel/AFR run, the probe was attatched to the rear of the exhaust, power was expected to drop due to the restriction
The graph
I wasnt sure what this meant i knew a rough idea of where the curve needed to be, but after some examination by the tuner he seemed very pleased with the fueling, with only a minor blemish, BUT still within his accepted limits when tuning.
NEXT UP : STANDARD HONDA ECU
The challenger, weighing in at £400 less expensive than the SPOON and standard from factory was the OBD2B HONDA ECU with standard map produced by HONDAS finest. Expectations were high, hopefully seeing a drop in power to justify the SPOON ecu cost
THE RESULTS
190.6 BHP (ONLY 0.4BHP off peak power of the SPOON )
Another run was done with similar results, time for the fuel/afr run, as before power was expected to dip.
As you can see from the graph, the fueling is less smooth especially around 6000rpm , this would explain the "VTEC kick" . The tuner said he prefered the SPOON ecu fueling as it was smoother just like the power delivery.
SPOON vs STANDARD
As you can see the big gains come from having VTEC coming in at 5500, but by 6600 the ECU's run the same power, apart from the standard one limiting at 8500, compared to the spoon at 9200, although this isnt shown as he let off as power started decreasing at 9000rpm
All in all he was impressed with the SPOON ecu and liked the extra grunt midrange and smoother curves, the HONDA was a good map too.
The big question "Which would you run?"
His answer was infact opposite to what i expected, " SPOON", as explained above, he liked the idea of extra grunt between 5500 and 6600rpm, he said it more day to day driving as overtaking could be a bit lasier, plus having the extra torque would be beneficial.
Just shows that over butt dyno aint always the best!
Summary
SPOON has a wider power band
SPOON helps with gearchanges as if chnged earlier and you miss VTEC in the next gear you still have power
SPOON has a smoother delivery and less of a spike on the fueling map
SPOON has a higher limit, helping with track driving and avoiding a gearchange mid corner
HONDA has the impressive VTEC kick
HONDA has a limiter lower than the SPOON which helps stop engine damage (Valve spring damage etc)
HONDA is free with any EK9
These are my findings, they are completely un biased as i ran it for a whole year, what i do like is the vtec kick, i dont feel i have lost anything now i'm not running the SPOON, next up is a custom map in August and i will compare again.
should help a couple of folks out
no worries 
