Evo 8 ECU Swap Into a 2g

Today I will be covering how to swap an EVO 8 ECU into your 2g DSM. You can use this as an alternate, cheaper and a little bit harder route for tuning compared to ECMLink. This was attempted on a 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T with a manual transmission.

Please note the following....

THIS ARTICLE IS BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. YOUR SITUATIONS MAY OR MAY NOT BE DIFFERENT. IF YOU DO ANY HARM TO YOUR CAR, I AM NOT HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE WHATSOEVER. ATTEMPT THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.



You will need the following :
EVO 8 ECU
Openport/Tactrix 1.3 or 2.0 cable
A spool of 18 gauge wire

You will need these tools :
Wire cutters and wire strippers
Soldering iron plus solder (electrical tape works too if you don't have one. Just be sure you get the wires connected good.)
Miniature flat head screw driver
Medium sized paperclip

Step 1: Disconnect your negative cable on your battery. If you have a manual boost controller, either remove it or put it at a safe PSI like 5 PSI.

Step 2: Remove your kick panels concealing where your ECU is.

Step 3: Unplug the 4 wire harnesses connected to your ECU. The harness's color is yellow.

Step 4: Remove your ECU.

Step 5: You're going to want to know what wire to remove and where to place them. Take note on these pictures and then I will go over what you will be doing. Either print out the following diagram or write down what you have to do.



Here is a table of what pins do what and what do to with them

http://www.dsm-addiction.com/attachments/tech-article-write-ups/1186d1280178716-evo-8-ecu-swap-into-2g-ecu_swap_pins_3-jpg

Here is the diagrams of the pinouts plus wire colors







Step 6:
Let's swap some pins.

95/96 ECU harness's will have tabs on the side. You will need to pull them back from the harness to move another tab that helps hold the pins in place. Use the flat head screwdriver to move these tabs.

97-99 ECU harness's will have a white bar lock. Use your screwdriver to pry up this lock.

Locate pin 8 (white/red) and 22 (green). Removing these pins can be a pain in the ass, so here's what you do.

There is a tab in the harness that keeps them from falling out. When removing pins, push the wire into the harness and use the paperclip on the opposite end to push in and down on the pin. This is the easiest and quickest way to remove the pins.



Step 7:
Swap pins 8 and 22.

Remove pin 20 (green/orange) and put in slot 32

Remove pin 21 (green/black) and put in slot 34

Remove pin 16 (red/black)

Remove pin 39

Remove pin 42

Remove pin 43 (Automatic Transmission only)

Remove pin 48 (Automatic Transmission on stock ECU but on EVO 8 ECU, it's fuel level. No use on a DSM so remove it.)

Remove pin 58 (white)

Remove pin 87 (yellow/red)

Remove pin 91 (Automatic Transmission only) (black)

Step 8:
This is where your cable and soldering, or electrical tape if you're a cheap ass, comes into play. My Openport 1.3 cable came with a semi-clear harness that had only one pin in it. That is your flash pin. Remove that pin the same way you removed the others.

Cut off the end of the flash cable off about 4 inches up from the pin. Now you're going to want to get an extra 2 feet of 18 gauge wire and solder that on the cable where you cut off the pin.

On the end of the wire that you just soldered, get a small pin from the pins you removed and are not using. I used pin 58 (white). Cut it 2 inches up from the pin. Solder the pin wire to the wire on your cable.

Now add your new long flash pin to pin hole 79. It will be empty on the harness.

Step 9:
Put the harness's back into the ECU and put the ECU back in the cubby hole.

Step 10:
Connect your negative cable to your battery.

Step 11:
Swap spark plug wires of 1&3 then 2&4.

You're all set! You have just installed an EVO 8 ECU in your 2g. There are other things that need to be done before you can even start your car and they will be covered the more I dive into this. If you are not able to log/flash your EVO ECU, don't freak out. Check all your wiring and connections first.



Credit of pictures goes to knochgoon24 from DSM Tuners.