[KirkComer]

Hi All,

I have a 2002 zx2 5-speed.

The car recently would cut off going down the road. No check engine light and at first I could restart the car quickly. I put on a new coil, plugs, wires and fuel filter. None of that helped and as months went on... my car did not want to start for several turns. Finally (which I think is a good thing) the car wouldn't start in my driveway. The check engine light came on but when I hook my code reader to it... the code reader will not link up to the car (it has in the past many times with no problem)... sooo I'm now thinking the ecu has been the problem all along and maybe it finally just died.

I have a used ecu(NGPO) that I have been keeping on the shelf for a while and I bought it with no chip. I went to put it in today and noticed my current ecu(LXQ2) has a "superchips" which is pretty neat. My question to you is will the superchips work with the eu that I want to put in my car(NGPO)?

I didn't want to install it before I find out if it is safe to put in my car so any thoughts you can offer are most appreciated.

Thanks,
Kirk

 

[4cylinder]

some people claim this is possible. I would not feel comfortable with trying this theory on the 99 s/r ecu

 

[KirkComer]

Gotcha. I'm very unfamiliar with the zx2 ecu so trying to figure out what to do next. I'm guessing I cant run without a chip. Can I just grab a chip out of any ecu in the junkyard or do I need a specific ecu chip for the NGP0?

 

[4cylinder]

ngp0 is excellent as is, would not modify or desire to modify.

i have a superchip installed onto one of my ngp0 but that was included as part of the gude head package i have for that car

in your case you may be better off getting sct for tuning. This way you can use a non-s/r ecu to play with and tweak it to match the s/r ecu performance. I mention this option because even if you find a superchip to install onto the ngp0 then you will have the issue of finding someone to put the superchips ngp0 s/r tune onto it

 

[KirkComer]

Thanks for the reply 4cylinder! So... are you saying I can run my ngp0 exactly like this? No chip of any kind? Seems like I would have to plug something into that slot... but maybe not?

 

[madmatt2024]

There is a rubber or plastic plug that covers the slot from the factory, nothing else. I just hope that the NGPO hasn't had the emissions update flashed by Ford, it basically turns the best ECU into the worse ECU.

 

[KirkComer]

Sweet. I'll cover up the hole and give it a try. Thanks!

 

[KirkComer]

I put a piece of flex tape over the hole and installed the ngp0. Car started right up and seems to be running like a champ. I think I need to run premium gas with the ngp0 but no worries. I've been getting about 32 mpg lately so I don't mind paying a little more at the pump. Hopefully the car does not cut off anymore... time will tell.

 

[Defunct SR Owner]

My 2001 MTX runs a straight NGPO...love it!

 

[KirkComer]

I'm not a huge leadfoot but I can definitely hear a difference if that makes sense. The LXQ2 with Superchip ran good too so I cant tell a huge difference. The main thing is my car now starts up and runs. Been running it for a couple weeks and it's running great again so all is well in my ZX2 world again... now on to replacing front sway bar bushings. lol