6A1 Interface for Link ECU – Mitsubishi Legnum / Galant VR-4

Description

Introduction

If you’ve got an 8th generation Mitsubishi Legnum / Galant VR-4 with the 6A13TT engine,  why not unlock its full potential by changing the original engine ECU to an aftermarket one?

Link ECU are one of the premier suppliers of aftermarket fully programmable ECU’s and working with them is a breeze compared to the factory ECU.

Although they (nor any other aftermarket ECU manufacturer) officially support these vehicles, this adaptor board permits you to add Link G4+ or G4X ECU’s to your Mitsubishi Legnum (EC5W) / Galant VR-4 (EC5A) with no modifications to the wiring harnesses, no butchering of circuit boards and no permanent changes to the car. Installing this product is 100% reversible.

How it works

Link had the brilliant idea with their plug-and-play ECU’s to separate mind from body. That is, have 2 separate circuit boards that docked together: One board with all the processing power (the top board), and one to interface that with the car (the base board). They could then reuse this top board with different base boards to support multiple cars whilst maintaining cost-effectiveness.

Sadly, they never made one for these cars, so aftermarket suppliers and garages would often permanently modify other Link ECU’s (voiding warranties!) for cars such as the Evo 1-3 and 4-8 series and sometimes miss non-critical functionality like Air Con and alternator control.

We were unhappy with these less-than-perfect solutions, so we leveraged our 15+ years experience in the industries of electronics and PCB design to produce something that would add support for our much-loved cars.

We borrowed Link’s mentality of having a dedicated base board for a vehicle and designed our own. You just need to source a donor Link G4+ / G4X plug-and-play ECU to take the top board from, move this top board across to ours, install it into your original ECU case (it fits both the metal and plastic cased ECUs!), make sure you have an MAP sensor installed (see Requirements section), upload the base tune* we supply and away you go…

_{* We strongly advise you get your car mapped shortly thereafter; every single car has its own subtleties after all!}

Functionality

So what does this product give you that the others do not? Let’s walk through the feature list:

• Provides a true plug-and-play solution with the 8th generation Mitsubishi Legnum / Galant VR-4, ready to drive away with an included base map¹
• All factory features of the car are correctly wired up and available in the Link ECU software (such as radiator fan control, air conditioning, power steering monitoring etc)
• Full two-way communication with stock Automatic Gearbox / Traction Control systems (if present on your vehicle)
• All the great features that a Link ECU affords, such as extensive logging, live tuning, wideband O2 sensor support, anti-lag, launch control, modelled fuelling and more

In addition to the above expected features, this product also supports the following optional extra features:

• Spare Link ECU inputs and outputs routed to both unused pins on the factory loom and dedicated connectors on the PCB (which we supply with every board!)
• Configuration switches on the board to change core functionality (enable E-Throttle, drive tachometer directly from ECU when bypassing IFS)
• A built-in web interface (accessible via WiFi) to configure and monitor your new installation – accessible via laptops, tablets and smartphones alike
• Fully sequential ignition – ditch the ageing OE Mitsubishi Coil packs and switch to a more robust individual coil-on-plug solution and then control each coil directly²
• Electronic Throttle control – advanced throttle control providing real motorsport anti-lag and / or cruise control support – made easy with our E-Throttle Wiring Kit
• Advanced oil pressure and temperature dashboard light (different illumination patterns to signify overheating as well as low pressure)²
• Direct Bosch LSU 4.9 sensor control when paired with a compatible wire-in ECU³
• CAN BUS integration with many third-party supporting products, including our upcoming VR-4 Link ECU clock gauge pod²

_{¹ Again, we strongly recommend you to get your car professionally tuned before driving it aggressively – we take no responsibility for any breakages, injuries or damage
² These features will require extra wiring and / or hardware and it is recommended this is done by a professional to avoid damaging anything
³ See the “Requirements” section below for a list of compatible top boards with these features}

Designed for Automatics

But perfect for manuals, too.

No other ECU is designed with the VR-4’s wonderful 5 speed tiptronic INVECS-II gearbox in mind. As part of the development for this product, we meticulously studied the inner workings of the stock ECU and how it communicates with the automatic gearbox and active stability control ECUs to ensure that the gearbox continues to work as designed and the car drives as it should.

But what if you have a manual VR-4? It’ll still work perfectly for you too! Even with manual cars fitted with the amazing Active Yaw Control (AYC) system.

<Oprah> Yours is supported! And yours is supported! Every 8th Gen Mitsubishi Legnum / Galant VR-4 with the 6A13TT engine is supported! </Oprah>

WiFi based Configuration

Some of our custom functionality may need configuration. To achieve this, we added a simple-to-use web interface accessible via WiFi and most devices capable of rendering a web page – iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows/Linux/Mac laptops, Chromebook, etc.

We also support the Generic Dash stream, so you can view live ECU data direct from this web page…

You could then, if desired, have something like a tablet installed in your car to monitor these values as you drive – although we highly recommend you keep your eyes on the road…

Please note: Whilst connected to the ECU WiFi, your device may temporarily lose any Internet connection – this cannot be helped and is due to the operating system on your device.

Requirements

This product requires the following to function:

• A compatible top board, or a wire-in ECU with our Wire-In ECU Interface Adapter kit
• A compatible MAP (manifold air pressure) sensor
• A compatible IAT (intake air temperature) sensor

And it is highly recommended you have the following too:

• Wideband O2 Lambda Sensor

A compatible top board or wire-in ECU

On all Link G4+ and G4X Plug-and-Play ECUs is a top board (the smaller PCB docked onto the main “base” board that interfaces with the car). This is the “brain” of the ECU, our product requires one of these to function and is not included.

We re-use this top board which then provides all necessary pin routing and essential components to interface with your 8th generation Mitsubishi Legnum / Galant VR-4. Got a wire-in? No problem, we also offer a Wire-In ECU Interface Adapter kit too.

Although any Link G4+ or G4X Plug-and-Play ECU should suffice, we have tested our product with the following Plug-and-Play ECU top boards (including Link’s own top board PCB revision in brackets):

• Link G4+ EVO3X for Mitsubishi Evo 1-3 (PCB v1.5)
• Link G4+ EVO8X for Mitsubishi Evo 4-8 (PCB v1.4)
• Link G4+ WRX104+ for Subaru Impreza / WRX (PCB v1.4)
• Link G4X EVO3X for Mitsubishi Evo 1-3 (PCB v3.1)
• Link G4X WRX5X for Subaru Impreza / WRX (PCB v3.1)
• Link G4X WRX6X for Subaru Impreza / WRX (PCB v3.1)
• Link G4X MX5Link for Mazda MX-5 (PCB v3.1)

We have also tested with the following wire-in Link ECUs:

• Link Fury G4X with our Wire-In ECU Interface Adapter kit

We recommend one of the following however:

• For basic / factory functionality, any G4+ or G4X top board will do but to better support you later, one of the above is recommended
• For E-Throttle, we have only tested those from the above list (PCB revisions v1.4 or later, v1.5 or later recommended)
• For direct Bosch LSU 4.9 sensor control, a Link Fury G4X wire-in is required with our Wire-In ECU Interface Adapter kit

MAP and IAT sensors

You will also require both a MAP (Manifold Air Pressure) sensor and an IAT (Intake Air Temperature) sensor for the Link ECU to function.

MAP sensor

A MAP sensor is not supplied by default nor present on the car from the factory and is the single most important sensor that affects fuelling with a Link ECU. As such, a good quality MAP sensor is recommended for this.

As an optional extra, we can either…

• Add a 4 Bar MAP sensor to the board at point of manufacture, however you will need to run a suitable air hose to the cabin from the intake plenum
• Or we can supply a VR-4 MAP Conversion Kit that lets you reuse the MAF connector to install a MAP sensor in the engine bay – which we offer customisation service on!

IAT sensor

Although our solution can make use of the factory IAT sensor in the factory MAF, it is highly recommended that an aftermarket IAT sensor is installed in the correct location to accurately compensate for air intake temperatures. Getting this wrong can skew fuelling results.

The factory IAT sensor is located in the MAF and measures air temperature pre-turbo, it’s not aware of the temperature entering the engine after the turbo’s have heated it up / intercooler has cooled it down. The best place for this sensor should be on the pipework between the intercooler and the throttle body to factor in what’s actually entering the cylinders.

Recommended Extras

Although this product supports the factory Narrowband O2 sensor, we strongly recommend the use of a Wideband O2 sensor to provide accurate feedback on the current fuelling state. This not only lets the Link ECU correct fuelling on-the-fly, it also benefits tuning as well.

A Wideband O2 Lambda sensor solution that utilises CANBUS (such as the highly accurate Link CAN Lambda sensor) is best, but any Wideband sensor solution that supports an analog 0-5v output will suffice. You can re-use the existing narrowband O2 sensor input and completely replace the narrowband sensor if desired.

If however you’ve purchased a Link Fury / Thunder wire-in ECU, this already has an in-built controller, so you just need the (Bosch LSU 4.9) sensor (and applicable plug).

Warranty

All our products are supplied with a 12 month warranty against manufacturing defects only. It is your responsibility to make sure this product is suitable for your requirements and used in accordance with guidelines and local law requirements.

Disclaimer and legal information

This product is designed in-house and is not endorsed by Link/Electronz whatsoever.
This product is not designed for road use and may be illegal in some territories for road use.
Removing the top board from an existing Link ECU may void the warranty.
Product images show optional on-board 4 bar MAP sensor.
Link ECU “top board” shown in product images not included.
ECU case shown in product images not included.
Although best effort has been made, the information on this page is not guaranteed to be correct.