G4+ to G4X upgrade experience so far

[Adturb]

Thought this may be of interest for anyone upgrading from the + Plus to X as I have recently done with my Evo 9 PNP board. Having had the + for 9 years I felt it was time for a change, primarily for the logging improvements in my application. The car feels like it runs smoother and the core fuel and timing maps were a straight swap (with one exception, below). So to get the car running it's fairly straightforward but time consuming to manually migrate each table as in my case most of the axis needed to be altered. 

First off I thought that this would be a lot easier than it was- and a large part of the difficulty is due to me having re-pinned the ECU plugs over this time. Fundamentally the pin outs remain the same with the exception of Aux 4 (pin 55) on the G4+, this is now Aux 12 on the G4X. Aux 4 is NOT available from the wiring info I have seen. 

The CAN and expansions remain the same if you had DBW version. If not only Expansion 2 is different, as it was in my case due to the lack of onboard DBW.

The X programming lead has a ferrite core are both ends, the + lead does not.

The aluminium end plate is the same on both ECUs. 

The digital inputs all appear to be correctly set in the base map ion the X, I recall a couple needing pull up resistors or polarity swapping on the + base map. I'm not aware of needing to do this with the X. 

Using the G5 software over the G4+ it's all very similar but it is NOT the same. For example, setting up sensors. In the X you now set the axis as the resistance/ voltage from the sender and then put the temperature/ pressure in the table. Keyboard shortcuts appear to be the same on both software platforms. The strangest part to get used to is not assigning the IO functions under the previous headings, instead they're all now under the named function (i.e. Oil Pressure) and you assign the Aux input. There is the Output Pin tab which lists ALL of them, double click on the one you want to change and it takes you to that menu. However, if the output pin is NOT already assigned you'll need to find the function (i.e. Purge). These are scattered all over the place and I find the easiest way is to type in the search box at the top of the menu tree.

Output testing. This is a big improvement and makes the first check of the outputs much faster with less chance of error- each menu has an explicit "test" that can be switched on/ off or PWM. 

Logging upload. This is the most notable improvement. The setup page is the same across both but the upload is totally different. Now you can select which log (I.e. you have the logging set to start/ stop on ignition, etc it is now saved under separate files) to upload and the transfer is significantly faster. 

Gear detection ratios are completely different; previously it showed the ration now it shows a much higher number. Using the calibrate function for this is the same on both and not hard if you have a clear road/ Dyno. 

VVT setup is easier as there is now a calibrate option. with the + you needed to adjust the offset manually and it wasn't super obvious this needed doing using the runtime window. 

Fan output. Turns out that the Evo fan controller needs a PWM output (on both platforms) to turn OFF once the controller gets above circa 50 deg C, only noticed this recently and always assumed the car was hot and the ECU was calling for the fan! Not rocket science to do on either platform. Oddly the required duty cycle to switch the controller off was different between them both.

Master Fuel. In the + I had a setting of 7ms (Traditional) and managed to trigger a warning for exceeding the max pulse width. I found I needed to increase this to 8ms in the X and then re-tune the fuel table. 

CAN setup appears to be same across both platforms. There are now more options for remote CAN I/O which makes it look like use of PDM or remote CAN input modules should be even easier. 

Idle control has more adjustment and the settings between the + and X are a straight copy- the only change being if you have DBW as the + needed the base position in the throttle table(s) whereas the X needs 0 in the throttle table(s) and base idle offset is done entirely in the idle setup tab.

Knock control is a big change now there are the normalised options as well as combined fuel and ignition options. Still working through this but the max threshold is now 20.00 on the X where it was 1000 on the G4+ so this will want retuning.

Trigger 1 offset. I have an 18-1 trigger and the previous setting was 131 degrees, when set 4+ years ago. With the X it is 130 degrees and the same 60uS delay. Essentially it is the same between them. 

 

In summary there is an improvement the way the car runs, it feels slightly smoother. The logging download (and capture resolution) improvements are significant too. Just be prepared to do a full tune as only around 80% can be directly copied across from the G4 Plus. In my application it was worthwhile as I use the logging a lot, if not then it's down to where you'd rather spend your money!  

I'll update as time moves on, hopefully it will help anyone looking to make the change in the meantime. 

 

 

 

[K4Tuning]

Hey nice write up for anyone needing some info on the switchover. I dont have any g4+ experience in my IX. But setting up the g4x from factory ecu was pretty straight forward. Im glad I didnt have to deal with the headache of switching over a tune from one to the other though.