ECU questions and advice.

Hi.
I'm currently looking into an ecu for my car.  I'm looking to be running about the 400bhp mark when complete.
I was going to go with nistune, but after reading a few things about people having issues with it and it not being the best to tune I'm thinking of going down a different path.  Please let me know if you think that last statement is wrong about nistune.

So im going to look at stand alone ecus. Can someone answer a few questions for me.

Firstly is going standalone a much better option than a daughter board like nistune. Or is there not much difference.

Next about apexi power fc. Is this the only pulsar specific stand alone ecu. Meaning that it just plugs directly into the pulsars loom without any loom modifications. If there are others please list them for me. But obviously I need ones to run the power above.  

Also I was hoping to run a R35 GTR maf sensor with nistune. Which I was informed was possible. Would I be able to do this with apexi power fc or other stand alone ecus.

Basically guys I'm after an ecu that is plug and play and at a reasonable price.   I dont really want to be pulling the loom out or hacking it to bits at this stage.  Unless there are massive advantages to it.  I also dont really want spend thousands on an ecu..... again, unless there are massive advantages to it.

Please let me know what my options are or any advice you can give me on this subject.
Thanks tom

LINK do a Gti-r board that fits in the stock case. Uses a internal Map sensor so no need for a R35 MAF. Would highly recommend a CAN based wide-band. That way your not having to worry about offsets.

You can spend big dollars on expensive ECU's and still get shit results from a tuner that tells you he knows his stuff. More to it than the highest figure. HP figure has nothing to do with which ECU is best, You need to know what features you want or may require and what ECU the local tuner is happy to play with. If you plan to be hands on with it just download the various software's and have a play around.

Hope that helps.

It helps a lot. Thanks.

I will speak with the tuner and see what there recommendation would be and what they are confident on getting the best out of.

When you say a CAN based wide band. What does CAN based mean. I have a wide band already you see. Pro sport one.

Thanks tom.

Normally a wideband controller sends a 0-5v signal back to the ECU. What happens is this voltage can drift due to ground offset, these widebands should be tested against another for comparisons. Normally the dyno operators. With aftermarket ECU's it is possible to adjust the calibration to correct this offset to make the readings the same. CAN widebands don't have this issue and also have sensor diagnostics that is sent to the ECU. When using closes loop lambda and a sensor faults the sensor diagnostics lock out closed loop.

Here is an example of a cheap CAN wideband.
https://www.14point7.com/products/spartan-3-adv

Have look at ecumasters emu classic or black. I've got classic in my car for over a year now couldn't be happier. They come with wide band controller built in. It is wire in ecu but you can get pnp adaptor. I actually sell fit and map them. Done quite few of them on pulsar (full loom with cop and pnp).

Talking about can lambda... Ecumasters are bringing their own one as well...