While learning to tune my Talon using the Evo 8 ECU, I found I didn’t like the log viewing in Evoscan. Don’t get me wrong, Evoscan is super powerful and other than needing to update/change their icon (winxp connected world icon), I think it’s a great piece of software. I found that I liked using Logworks to view my logs recorded with Evoscan.
After some Googling, I found a number of projects that would do the conversion.
The first was an online implementation. You upload your log, it would do the conversion, then give you a download link to the converted file. It did work, but I found that it would fail sometimes and you had to have an internet connection which isn’t optimal for huge logs.
The second was a project on Google Code called evoscan2logworks. It uses some vbscript and html to do the conversion process in Internet Explorer. This was also very buggy and complicated and required Windows and Internet Explorer which is definitely not an optimal situation. I’m not a fan of any software that requires Internet Explorer…
So after trying out all of the available solutions, I decided that it was necessary to roll my own. I just wanted a basic C code CLI. Evoscan logs go in, Logworks logs come out. So after a few nights of coding and testing on various log files, evoscan_logworks_conv was born. You can also find the source on Github here.
The installation process was relatively simple. The ECU wiring harness needed to be re-pinned so that the proper sensor/trigger wire wen’t to the correct pin on the Evo ECU. This was a PITA, but not rocket science. I also had to wire in a flash port for the tatrix cable to the empty flash pin on the harness. The flash port is an older style Mitsubishi diagnostic port. I obtained mine from a Mitsubishi 3000gt I found at the local pick n’ pull.
Since I was doing this to my 95 7-bolt Talon TSI (which has an inverted cam angle sensor), I would need to either re-pin the injector wires and swap my spark plugs, or install a cam angle sensor with the proper signal. I decided to go with a 1G cam angle sensor because it is adjustable. I picked up my 1G to 2G conversion cable from RTM Racing and installed the cam angle sensor.
Once everything was installed, I dumped a copy of the stock Evo 8 rom for backup. Before I could start the car for the first time, I needed to flash a rom with the immobilizer disabled. An Evo 8 has an immobilizer system which my Talon does not have, therefore, the ECU would never receive the code signal it was patiently waiting for before enabling ignition. The immobilizer was easily disabled through the periphery bits in ECU Flash.
I also needed to change my MAF Scaling and Injector Scaling/Latency to match my injector size and 2G MAF size before attempting to start the car. I was able to get the MAF Scaling from a 2g DSM 98-99 ECU rom dump and found the proper Injector Scaling and Latency for my 650cc’s on a dsmtuner thread. These scalings are by no means cut and dry, they are just a good starting point. You have to dial them in by flashing them, driving and logging, adjusting, then flashing again, repeat, until the logs are indicating the proper values.
After making the necessary changes to a TephraMod v7 rom, I flashed it to the ECU and started the car. I needed to adjust the idle, but other than that, it seems to run just fine. Once I had the car running, I disabled a bunch of check engine light codes relating to my EGR (which is deleted) and rear O2 sensor (no cat). I also enabled the TephraMod “Flash Check Engine Light on Knock” feature and the Rear O2 sensor simulator.
Still waiting for my AEM UEGO wideband O2 sensor to come in the mail before I do any real tuning.