1990 Tsi AWD ECU in 92 NT

Just realized my donor car is a 1990 when I originally thought it was a 1991 tsi awd. I did some reading as far as I can gather there maybe be 2 pin outs switched around. Just not sure about the harness plugs etc on my nt. Any Information to clear up the confusion would be great.

Thanks
Adam

try michael hamilton's website


but as far as I know you need to swap two pins on the ECU.

search google for DSM ECU Hamilton

Thanks Amin, In my search I found this great page which tells you clearly the difference in the 2 pins. This is a relief as I really didnt feel like hunting down a 91-94 ecu. Also maybe I have an eeprom 90 ecu which would be sweet.

Here's that link for reference

http://www.ecanfix.com/~mdhamilton/ecuschematics.html

P.S. I just realized that is the site you were talking aboout by the name "hamilton" in the link lol

Thanks

uhm..you're putting a turbo ECU on an NT car?

Don't think thats going to work unless you are doing a turbo swap as well.

edit : NM...just read that you are doing the turbo swap on your sig.

Hmm I realized that my specifics were lacking detail in my post, but glad you picked up on my signature.

cheers

Adam

The harness will definately give you a problem. Especially around the coil pack area. What you will probably want to do is sell your 90 turbo ECU, pick up a 91-94 turbo ECU and use all the ignition parts off of your 92 non-turbo engine. Do the '91-94' conversion that Mike Hamilton did on his engine.

Trust me, it will be the easiest and safest route. Parts are plentiful for 91-94 electronics compared to 90 and you won't have to swap wires. Not to mention 90 ECUs are more expensive then 91-94 ECUs because of their rarity.

Unless the NTs are different, to run a 90 ECU in a 91-94 you don't need to touch the coils.

Swap pins 6 and 14 on the ECU, and you're good to go.

But to run a 91-94 ECU in a 90 car, your tach will be extremely off. Either way, I just think it would be easier to do things the way I suggested and you should be able to get money on top of it.

Actually, I don't think the tach will work at all. However, putting a 91-94 ECU in a 90 model year isn't what he's trying to do.

Maybe it's just me, but I think swapping two pins is easier than selling an ECU and buying another one.. [shrug].

He also has to deal with the wiring harnesses from the 91-94 body, matching up with the ignition components from the 90 engine. So it's not just swapping two wires.

But what he could do is swap the ignition components from his 91-94 engine onto his 90 engine... then swap the two pins... and then use the 90 style ECU.

Hopefully we have that sorted out now.

So, Adam is putting a '90 Engine in a '91-'94 car? Or. just putting a '90 ECU in it?

(I was under the impression he was only concerned with the ECU...)

I sense a light-bulb about to flick on above my head here..

Ahhh. I thought he was turboing his NT engine.

He should be fine if he swaps coilpacks/ignitors and swaps the two pins then, no?

ie: he won't have to rewire the harness for the 90 coil. Just put the 91 coil on the 90 engine.

Is Adam still with us here, or are we running in circles for nothing?

I'm quite certain that the 90s have a different plug for the ignitor and coil. Not sure if the difference is just the plug or there might be a difference in the pinouts/harness.

They do have different plugs. That's why I'm suggesting to keep the original coil/ignitor with the original harness.

If all he does is swap the longblock, but uses all the original ignition compnents, etc. Simply swapping the pins in the ECU should work fine.

There may be other problems involved with doing this though (ie: knock sensor? ) that I'm not aware of.

No other problems. I swapped 93 ignition components onto my 90 engine for my turbo conversion. Only difference is I'm running a 91 turbo ECU. He'll be fine if he reads past all of our mis-collaboration of thoughts and understand what we meant in the end.

Yup I understand, the coil packs and all that other stuff you guys mentioned is being put on the 90 engine from the 92. Car should be ready very soon I'll let you all know how it works out.

Thanks
Adam