I was lucky enough to meet Tom at T&G Autos / TGMsport in Fleet on Saturday. What a top chap! He was kind enough to lend me a Mugen N1 ECU to test drive while I was there. I ripped off the glove box and footwell trim within minutes, pulled out my Honda mapped ECU and popped-in the Mugen.
I cranked the motor and it started first time. Out on the road I immediated noticed the it seemed to have slightly less torque than the Hondata map at low speed 2nd or 3rd gear. The thing that really impressed was the smooth VTEC transition (starting at 5250 rpm). It's completely smooth with no bog-down what so ever. My Hondata map has always suffered a power drop between 5k (VTEC point) which recovers by 6k. This has always really annoyed me and I was told by Doug that this is due to me needing a decent CAI. I've previously ran with a stock airbox with a Spoon drop-in and bored TB and this had no real change on the bog-down problem from when I just ran a stock intake and TB. I've recently added a GruppeM so combined with the bored TB it doesn't get much better than that. The problem remains. I can only assume I've got an early Hondata map and hope that there is a new map out there that solves this problem. Roll on K Pro purchase.
The other notable thing about driving with the Mugen is the fast rev build-up post VTEC kick-in. This translates to a slight harder high rev pull, but this is not significantly better than the Hondata.
The experience left me thinking I would like this ECU because I know a lot of time has gone in to it and it drives faultlessly. I don't know about it's fuel economy but otherwise I like it. If I could have the Hondata low-end torque, the Mugen smooth VTEC cross-over and top-end power I'd be very happy. I guess the K Pro will give me this eventually, but the Mugen is already pretty sorted now.
Franz came out with me as a passenger on both Mugen and Hondata runs so he might want to add his view to the experience too.
Thanks again to Tom for the loan.
Jon
I cranked the motor and it started first time. Out on the road I immediated noticed the it seemed to have slightly less torque than the Hondata map at low speed 2nd or 3rd gear. The thing that really impressed was the smooth VTEC transition (starting at 5250 rpm). It's completely smooth with no bog-down what so ever. My Hondata map has always suffered a power drop between 5k (VTEC point) which recovers by 6k. This has always really annoyed me and I was told by Doug that this is due to me needing a decent CAI. I've previously ran with a stock airbox with a Spoon drop-in and bored TB and this had no real change on the bog-down problem from when I just ran a stock intake and TB. I've recently added a GruppeM so combined with the bored TB it doesn't get much better than that. The problem remains. I can only assume I've got an early Hondata map and hope that there is a new map out there that solves this problem. Roll on K Pro purchase.
The other notable thing about driving with the Mugen is the fast rev build-up post VTEC kick-in. This translates to a slight harder high rev pull, but this is not significantly better than the Hondata.
The experience left me thinking I would like this ECU because I know a lot of time has gone in to it and it drives faultlessly. I don't know about it's fuel economy but otherwise I like it. If I could have the Hondata low-end torque, the Mugen smooth VTEC cross-over and top-end power I'd be very happy. I guess the K Pro will give me this eventually, but the Mugen is already pretty sorted now.
Franz came out with me as a passenger on both Mugen and Hondata runs so he might want to add his view to the experience too.
Thanks again to Tom for the loan.
Jon
