wolfhammer
Well-Known Member
The $11.95 one?
Ok guys, lets talk ECU's
- Thread starter wolfhammer
- Start date
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Personally I stay with the older NOS/NORS stuff. I am into the ignition been doing it for a long time so I have the testers to check them with. Seems like the Knockoffs fail when they go through a few simulated hot/cold cycles. Just what I have experienced. The wife think I use the fridge just for testing! Keeps the beer cold silly!
wolfhammer
Well-Known Member
Yeah they quoted me $78.95 for that one
No the one for 45.00
wolfhammer
Well-Known Member
Getting hard to find the old stuff these days
Standard has really gone downhill in the last ten years. The older stuff is good, you can kind of thell when it was made by the boxes. I wount use the newly made standard had way to many issues. Got a bunch of new points and condensers in a lot I bought. Half the spring tension on the points was around 15 in lb at best should be 17-21 usually, all the condensers failed also.
I get it but I have been a buyer of that stuff Just Mopar, but for other makes Ford etc, but have friends that just do that stuff so we trade back and forth alot of parts. stuff for years doing the distributors so alot of it kind of falls into my lap through vendors talking. Just scored a bunch of LFRB of parts I have to go through, mostly 60-70's stuff, Filko, Guarenteed, Shurhit, Mopar etc, out there but you have to hunt for it. Then you have to figure out what it fits. Hell I have to have 50 old ignition catalogs. Then of course I get other makes in for Ford, GM etc. I trade them with guys that just specialize in that stuff.Getting hard to find the old stuff these days
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wolfhammer
Well-Known Member
There was a guy on facebook marketplace selling a barn full of old 40's through 60's Mopar stuff but who knows what is for what lol
I try to cherry pick. Just bought a restorers inventory that went out of business, mostly dual point stuff. Wife thought I was nuts! It is around.
Go through that alot. Some times just to much work. Stuff I just got in will take a few days to convert to Mopar numbers to make it easier to pick out when I use it.
I did find a made in china box that had really good heat sink setup inside for the chip but just checked and they are out of stock now.
One of the bad made in china ones I gutted looked like the potting material acted more like an oven than protection.
One of the bad made in china ones I gutted looked like the potting material acted more like an oven than protection.
Ironracer
Gearhead
I got 2 of them from jegs. Said made in USA
Since it's known that the early Hi Rev modules had a lot of issues, I wonder if it's possible they are now made in the USA? Just a thought. Who the hell knows?
I bought a master pro coil a few years ago because it was the only one in stock & I was away from home and mine went bad. Didn’t last. I took it back to Oreilly and asked for a Standard. They ordered one for me. When it came in I pulled it out of the box & it was the same exact coil!
I bought a more expensive chrome one & it has lasted good.
I bought a more expensive chrome one & it has lasted good.
Ironracer
Gearhead
I went to Napa, to buy a Standard volt reg ,for a much higher cost,( for 26 bucks, since I didn't want China) damn thing was China. Blew out in a few months. Ended up w/ the USA Mopar one after
A large number, if not the majority, of semiconductor devices are made in Taiwan. How reliable are your TV sets, PCs, Cell phones? Are they lasting more than a week?
And Korea. I have a Korean car, a Kia. In this country it has a 7 yr warranty, other companies such as Ford, GM, Chyrsler etc are playing catch up....
And Korea. I have a Korean car, a Kia. In this country it has a 7 yr warranty, other companies such as Ford, GM, Chyrsler etc are playing catch up....
Yes that's the one I cut open, sand inside.
Now though, OReilly carries the Standard Blue Streak line. It took a little while after they started carrying Standard, but they do now. That's what I put on Vixen. I am pretty sure even they're still made in China, but man, that's about all we got now. It's still rockin on and been several months.
Used to be Japan was king of the hill with electrical stuff. When it was marked MADE IN JAPAN, you had something. Now, not so much. I hope Taiwan and Korea stuff is good. Who the hell knows? I really think China is after the world's ***.....especially the US, so they're going to make the cheapest crap they can.
wolfhammer
Well-Known Member
Can you say Chinesium? It's all junk, nothing lasts anymore. I sold a 68 Charger to a guy 20 years ago and he's still running the same Mopar electronic ignition I installed with no issues ever.
Electronics in general are hit or miss, some fail immediately some last forever. Quality control is the key to it all.
Electronics has advanced a lot over the past 40-50 years since these original ECUs wrote made. Electronic devices are much smaller now. Remember bag phones? Now you can get one in your watch.
The problem isn’t that the new semiconductors are much smaller than the old ones. They can be smaller due to advances in technology.
Most of the heat generated in the power transistor in an ecu is generated during switching ( turning on and off). Resistance increases to turn off. More resistance means more power dissipation in the transistor. Power dissipation generates heat. The slower it switches, the more heat generated. So if the transistors are faster, they can be smaller and don’t generate as much heat. This is a little oversimplification, but is basically what is going on.
So, if the smaller parts aren’t the problem, what is? I think it is two things, some of which has been touched on before in this and other threads.
1. Bad design - The original ecu’s had the transistor on the outside and big metal heat sink exposed to the air where heat transfer could occur. The air carried away the heat. On the newer ones do not have a good heat transfer design. The transistor is buried inside the ecu. No good way to get the heat out. Some are full of sand or some other filler. The sand will act like a heat sink for awhile. When it warms up to the temperature of the transistor, it is no longer removing heat and the transistor burns up. If you only have your car running a few minutes at a time it might last.
2. Quality control - Cheap crappy parts. Shabby assembly. Bad solder joints. Some of the ones I have seen postmortems of didn’t even have the heat sink on the transistor attached to anything.
As Ray said, hit or miss. Maybe you get a good one, maybe you don’t. I bought an old one from him, but I also keep a spare in the trunk.
The problem isn’t that the new semiconductors are much smaller than the old ones. They can be smaller due to advances in technology.
Most of the heat generated in the power transistor in an ecu is generated during switching ( turning on and off). Resistance increases to turn off. More resistance means more power dissipation in the transistor. Power dissipation generates heat. The slower it switches, the more heat generated. So if the transistors are faster, they can be smaller and don’t generate as much heat. This is a little oversimplification, but is basically what is going on.
So, if the smaller parts aren’t the problem, what is? I think it is two things, some of which has been touched on before in this and other threads.
1. Bad design - The original ecu’s had the transistor on the outside and big metal heat sink exposed to the air where heat transfer could occur. The air carried away the heat. On the newer ones do not have a good heat transfer design. The transistor is buried inside the ecu. No good way to get the heat out. Some are full of sand or some other filler. The sand will act like a heat sink for awhile. When it warms up to the temperature of the transistor, it is no longer removing heat and the transistor burns up. If you only have your car running a few minutes at a time it might last.
2. Quality control - Cheap crappy parts. Shabby assembly. Bad solder joints. Some of the ones I have seen postmortems of didn’t even have the heat sink on the transistor attached to anything.
As Ray said, hit or miss. Maybe you get a good one, maybe you don’t. I bought an old one from him, but I also keep a spare in the trunk.
I have been testing a bunch of different ones on a mock up with the distributor machine. Scope, meters etc. Biggest issue with a bunch of them is they draw around 4 amps in the on position which is alot of heat and around 2 amps running, try not to turn the key on and not running.
bee1971
Well-Known Member
X2
At a car show no less when it failed
And of course was the last thing I replaced because it was only a few months old
Had a Standard UC12 in the trunk as a spare
The Standard LX 101 ECU I have as a spare is made in Poland
It’s about 12 years now since Standard Motor Products moved everything over seas
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