Suppose I were to swap in a new engine... what ECU options are there? (pic unrelated, more info below)

22 Dec 2019

For quite a while now, I’ve had the “great” idea of swapping a 5-cylinder Volvo engine into my MX5 and I’ve been thinking about how I can do this as cheaply and reliably as possible. So I wonder; if I were to put in that engine, could I take the ECU out of that same Volvo and put it in my MX5? If not, what ECUs are no as expensive as ME221s but can do the job reliably?

Thanks in advance

Comments

Hi, i dont have an answer, but I do have questions. I am a Miata owner myself, so im wondering why you’d do that small of an upgrade, especially on a budget, unless you plan on turboing it, Volvo’s love that.
But i think you should be able to get away with the engines oem ECU, there’s not really any electronics in the NA MX5, the only problem i see, would be the guage cluster, and ABS if you have it.

One of them is the same reason Alex went for the V6 (considering it makes about the same power as a turboed 1.6 MX5), which is sound, 5 cylinder engines just sound amazing. But also, there is much more room for improvement, as well as the fact that the 5 cylinder is made for a much bigger car which is why it won’t have to work as hard in an MX5. There’s a guy (Finnish or Swedish, don’t remember) who’s done this to their NA and it has 600hp. If you can get that out of a B6ZE (the engine I have) and still be able to use it reliably… you have my kudos.

Well right off the bat you can 100% use the OEM ECM from the Volvo. But the cluster wont work. If u can live with that then its simpel plug and play. U could then install all aftermarket gauges to read all the info u need. There are even OBD2 plug ins u can get that read off all sorts of stats for you. Get a manual trans tho less complicated to swap

If u wanted to go after market u can use the aftermarket ECMs called mega squirt. Iv herd good things about them and they are really cheap. Just need a basic understanding of wireing and how a schematic works.

Then trying to get an ECM that will make the original cluster work with a one off swaped engine. Well thats just going to cost big bucks as far as i know. Or be a wireing expert and know how to bypass all thelat. one off swaps like that i know of just run aftermarket gauges.