Mugen (無限) N1 ECU !

I had an appointment with the guys at SEEKER this morning to increase the camber on my front wheels. This is mainly in preparation for the new RAYS wheels which are yet to arrive. but also because I have two Tsukuba circuit sessions coming up next week.

As I was talking with the manager Ryo, somehow we started talking about a Mugen N1 ECU which is available for sale (for a DC5) only if your car meets the HOA (Honda One-Make-Race Association) regulations or you're able to buy it second-hand from someone else (keep checking those yahoo auctions!). Anyway Ryo happened to have the ECU in his shop as one of his race cars is a DC5 and so we ended up having an interesting chat !

Why am I writing about this ? Well, I've seen hundreds of posts around different DC5 forums talking about people wanting to buy and install these ECUs for street use and it really boggles my mind how un-educated and down right wasteful such attempts are. People concentrate on the plug-n-play aspect of this ECU but don't try to think about what it really is they're getting by running such an ECU.

Let me explain ...

First of all, it is a RACE only ECU ! It is such by design and by regulations here in Japan where it comes from. Secondly, this ECU is meant for N1 production races therefore there are certain regulations regarding modifications needed to supplement such an ECU. This means this ECU is effective ONLY when you have the following modifications in place :

a) Upgraded cooling system
(yes you need to be able to cool your engine beyond what the stock radiator is capable of otherwise the higher air/fuel mixture characteristics will go to waste and the engine overheats and causes unwanted side-effects like pinging/knocking)

b) Upgraded spark plugs
(you heard it right ! With the increase in air/fuel mixture ratio comes greater heat and therefore your spark plugs need to be able to handle higher temperatures and be able to dissipate that heat well! Try NGK spark plugs with 8, 9 or 10 heat characteristics)

c) Upgraded exhaust system
(Preferably Mugen's N1 catback system but others will do)

d) Upgraded valve springs
(As recommended by Mugen themselves for longivity and durability. Don't ignore this point!)

e) Run on 100 octane fuel
(which as far as I known is not available outside of Japan. Yes you can use lower octane with a booster or otherwise expect pinging or knocking)

This ECU will lower the VTEC engagement point, it will rev higher and give you more power but it will also consume more fuel, idle higher and disable your air-conditioner. It is a purpose built ECU and should be consumed as such, but it makes your car POWERFUL and it is definitely NOTICABLE (I am talking from experience here :) )!

So if you're thinking of getting one, think about what I wrote and make sure you have a clear purpose which is not STREET driving ! If you do buy it, make sure you keep your stock ECU and use it whenever you're not on a track or circuit or doing any competition. When you're about to go to a track or circuit, simply unplug the stock ECU and plug-in the Mugen ECU (go back and read this last sentence again !).

As always feel free to email me if you have question or reach out to the guys at SEEKER who are more than happy to assist with any Honda related queries