Blitz Access ECUs - What are the Facts?

Now I don’t know much about these ECUs..virtually nothing in fact so I thought I`d ask a few questions and see what comes of it.

“Why?” I hear you ask……

Well its like this…..every now and then someone pops up and asks for info on a cheap aftermarket ECU and you can bet your bottom dollar that this will be one of the first things mentioned to fit, and to be honest it sends a shudder down my spine each & every time.

Again “Why?”

Well I was always under the impression that once upon a time in a land far far away, these ECUs were in fact mapped to the car they were first fitted to and its only the luck of the draw that if you buy one for your car and it has similar mods to the original that it will do any good….could it be otherwise catastrophic????

Is this true?

If you look at the period when these ECUs were produced, then perhaps there were not that many mods available for the GT4s and the cars they were fitted to were near standard…this would be of some comfort as the folks that fit these now are probably in a similar situation…a few easy mods that wouldn’t require a serious remap, also IIRC the laws in Japan are quite restrictive to how you can mod a car.


Is it a serious piece of kit? Or is it just a half step up from a bog standard ECU with a standard all encompassing Map and half intelligent software that will learn/adapt a bit????

In which case why are they so damn expensive?

Would I buy a blitz access or similar…personally no not in a million years, I`d run away from one at a great rate of knots to escape its pull.

Nosher (remember him? Left the GT4 fold and headed off to Ford doom) fitted a Blitz Access to his ST205 and said it felt better…That was until he put the standard ECU back on and realised that the car ran much better on the standard ECU….faster too!!!

Is fitting a Blitz Access just a giant placebo for the automotive mind?

Does it do any good?

Are they worth the money?

Can they do any harm?

Anyone any proof of improvement??

Anyone know of the origins of the Maps?

Should people be so eager to fit them??

Can I come home now..Taiwan is hot & humid.??

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ST205

My thoughts...

The very fact that amongst te collective gt-four knowledge base nobody has a definitive answer to all these questions is a worry.
My own suspicion is that they are not mappable but have knobs and dials inside that can be twiddled to suit by soomeone in the know

This would explain why there's variation in the results.Some people do well with them. Others, like Nosher, don't

My view roughly matches yours. I think of them as a 1/3 way house to a real ECU, with PowerFC as a 2/3 way house

Would I buy one? Well maybe
If it was cheap (and I didn't have 3 real mappable ECUs sitting at home ) I would consider it. I'd certainly wat back to back dyno runs with afr and knock detection (so not a dyno day shootout) but if you figure say 100 snots for that it would be tempting at say 2-300 for the ecu. If it all goes wahoonie shaped chances are you can punt it on to the next mug and get the purchase price back


At the crazy 700 note level they sometimes trade at I'd buy a decent solution like powerfc, link, dta etc etc all of which are well in budget if you have patience

I am with steve on this one. However I think the main plus point and down point is that the Blitz doesn't need mapping. For steve & I who can have a bash at mapping it is poor choice of product. For people who will have to pay for mapping a PFC or other ECU it adds a substantial amount to the cost.

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

Does it though? does anyone know 100% that they dont need mapping? If there is any form of adjustability within the ECU if it dosnt suit your car then its a risk?

Thats why I`d like to know the origins of the map. standard ECU map tweeked a bit or switched and dials to adjust fueling or what ever??

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ST205

IMO I think there's a case for keeping the safeties of a standard ECU such as knock retard, and I think the decision to go standalone shouldn't be taken lightly. Classic example is my 185 which has now blown ringlands 3 times on a link G3 running what appears a very safe map, while my standard 205 is still going strong and gets mistreated rotten including running low on petrol regularly.

IF the blitz access is a standard ECU tweaked a bit weaker then I think there's a place for it. The biggest problem is that no one actually seems to know.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

Ooops - I slipped in to repetitive mode.

When I looked in to them as far as I could make out they use a reprogrammed eprom which is mapped to the car it is originally installed in. Very much like the TechTom boards. The chips are normally removable so there is some potential for chip copying if your mates tune runs better than yours!

As far as I could find out there is no commercially available software to allow reprogramming for these type of ECUs. Even Techtom who still have agents in USA such as ATS racing want you to return the ECU from who you bought it from for a change of chip that may suit your needs better. ATS racing will do custom tune on an ECU they have supplied with Techtom daughter board. As far as I understand it requires the map to be established with a fully reprogammable ECU to get live changes whilst when mapping and then subsequently the map is burnt to a chip for installation in to your ecu.

So the simple answer from my reading indicates that 1) in theory yes they are reprogrammable with a new chip.
2) in practice no-one can/will unless you take your car to Access or know how to burn chips.

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R