Wait till you waste a few weekends chasing wiring harness issues and report back. We lost many $$ on aborted events due to harness issues and I know we're not alone. Ultimately we rewired the car at the track with some harnesses sourced from ebay. That was fun. Luckily the ebay harnesses had no issues.
Harness issues are a reality. Multiple failures on my cars over the years and others that I know personally
I/we take from 2 to 6 various customer cars racing to the NASA schedule, and travel, and crossover to WRL enduros. SOMEONE under our tent has had harness isues at every event for 2 years running. RACERS HAVE QUIT SM over this. period. it is serious. (and every solution has been tried no less the 4x, and I am now building a few complete "refurb" harnesses)...
One of the many problems is that the same SYMPTOMS are coming from a myriad of causes within the system. But that is a whole other topic.
Someone mentioned mazda harnesses were expensive. It is my understanding they are discontinued (don't know about 01 to 05). They were about $1400 last I knew. Mazda does not service any connectors. Alternate connectors are close but not perfect. Alternate CAS btw have slightly different pins...
The fear of change and lack of vision is spectacular in this thread. The logic is just crystal clear to me. Maybe its just me.
The entry level racers coming in wouldn't be required in my view, to change to the alternate spec ecm. If we really are talking a 1/1 difference, I don't see the problem. It solves about a dozen other class specific issues for the more serious racer, including reliability, snubbing the arms race, availability, and fresh wiring, and tech shed legal perceptions.
I would not allow BTW eliminating the stock MAF on any car. Even though MS can handle either way and speed density is the simple way to go, I would require the stock maf to keep the airflow the same, even if not using the signals.
I guess the status quo is ok for me, I own a dyno and bill alot of hours doing the swap-o-rama tune method, play with air door springs, FPR levels and combos, tuning for tq sacrificing top end, tuning for top end sacrificing torque next time, etc. etc. etc. I also tune IT/PT cars and autox cars, and know that those guys save money time and frustration.
It is shouting at the rain at this point, but here is the solution I would advocate. Available on an appropriate scale btw.
NEW ECM - $445
https://www.diyautot...-assembled-ecu/
ENGINE MANAGEMENT HARNESS - $79
https://www.diyautot...-ms2-ms3-ready/ (starting point)
VVT add on $199
https://www.diyautot...unit-assembled/
But, guess we keep doing what we're doing and hoping for different outcomes. New guys that haven't experienced these issues will replace those chased off is the plan.
Back to work,
Kyle