i am quite genuinly confused. as far as i understand, a car's ECU comes from the factory with a preset fuel map, correct? well after that, the ECU is sposed to learn new tricks isn't it? say, for example, in hot weather, the ECU will find a more ideal fuel map within a few hours of driving. or, when you buy an intake, it will realize it can get more air and accomodate that.

Well, from what i have read in the past threads, my mom's 99 protege 1.6 comes with an ECU that will not learn. Meaning, it will always run the factory preset fuel map, and 94 octane gas plus a k&n air filter will only slow me down.

Can anyone give me more information on this? I dont think the past threads stated this info correctly.

 

Your ECU will always learn. As far as normal driving goes. It goes to open loop operation at WOT which uses preset look up tables for A/F ratio at a given RPM.

As far as octane, if your engine doesn't need it, using higher octane will cost you a little power. This is because higher octane fuel burns slower (a little).