Hello, new here and hope to get input on a purchase I’ve been saving up for. I have an LS turbo car running Fueltech’s FT600. I have the ECUMaster battery isolator (radlok) and I’m ready to order the PMU-16 DL.. I follow a fellow drag racer Devin Vanderhoof and he has a YT Channel where he goes out of his way to bash this battery isolator and in speaking with him directly he says to stay clear of this isolator. I was going to buy the MSEL isolator but because I was going to order the PMU-16 DL I thought it be best to stay in the same family. I know this forum is run by ECU but thought I’d ask.. These purchases are a big deal to me and my sponsors wallet (aka: my back pocket). My intention is nothing crazy and I’d say very basic set up.
Thank you for any help..
Kevin
There’s no particular advantage to staying all ECUMaster vs mixing brands, because all the ECUMaster stuff is so open.
There have been some battery isolator failures. I had one on a customer car fail closed circuit (so the car couldn’t be turned off). I sent it back to the factory and it was replaced free of charge without them checking warranty details. I have heard of a couple of other failures, but don’t want to do too much with second hand information.
Conjecture and possible misinformation warning…
The isolators went out of stock for a few months around this time. I have no information regarding this and I’ve not seen any public statements, but reading between the lines I suspect an issue was identified and rectified in the revised version that’s now on sale.
Battery Isolators may have a bad reputation because of some problem in the past. This device now has some improvements which, we believe, should solve the known issues. The latest revision was developed a few months ago.
When did you purchase your Battery Isolator? Did you encounter any problems with it?
From what I’ve seen, Devin Vanderhoof sells his rebranded relays (nothing wrong with it), which is just a classical solution for disconnecting the battery mechanically. Battery Isolator is a pure electronic device with some additional features.
To purchase the PMU it is best to contact the local distributor. If you are located in the USA, check the https://ecumasterusa.com/ website.
@noon.engineering The production was suspended some time ago because we don’t want to sell the unreliable devices if there are some known problems. Upgraded Battery Isolators are available again.
Thank you all for the reply..
I understand Devin has his own company and sells his products.. I also remember that when he was running a sb ford he called it “god’s motor” and then switched to a bb Chevy, he’s also basically Holley only.. I take 95% of his posts as just fun and he points out things I’ve ether never had access to or never seen.. example way back he pointed out Maven Performance and they have been a great find.
But when he bashed ECU’s battery isolator specifically I got a bit nervous.. I’m only recently switching from leash performance relay boards.. the post is in a comment on YouTube as a reply to my asking him about it.. he said he gave it a try and had so many issues getting it to work he gave up.. as I’m a nub he can’t figure it out there was no way I’m gonna.
As to why I’m leaning to the DL version as it will fit exactly where I want it and I’ve tried to build the whole harness enclosed..
“Basically Holley only” - Theres your sign to everything. Brand H cranks out some of the absolute worst products on the planet but has the marketing dollars to cover it up. Its amazing how much free crap product they throw at the industry just to get people on the brand. They care nothing for the technical customer or end customer and have almost no way to support customers with actual knowledge. This is first hand experience when we get asked by brand H engineering to do a build and then they pull all support because “thats not what they do”.
On the other hand, we have had plenty of the OG isolators that had to be warrantied. All were fixed or replaced with zero headache or issue by Ecu Master. With the updated design we have not had a failure.
In the end stick with the company or distributor that will suit your need beyond just product. Guys with “look at me marketing” are more than likely going to blame a product rather than their own skill set.
Just so we stay on point… I invested heavy into a company who that guy Devin doesn’t like. I’m into drag racing and I went with them for there data logging and drag specific features. At this point I feel all companies in this market have sorted out their products.
I feel the outputs of the 16-DL fit my needs, I really like the motorsport connections (mostly because it’s a challenge to me to step up my game) and the size/packaging would work out perfect.
I asked about compatibility between these platforms because I also have a street car running the FT550 and I want to run a Dakota Digital dash.. Dakota makes a (BIM) can communication that will work with almost anything including a toaster oven but not FuelTech..
As long as I don’t have any major issues with the PMU-16 ima pull the trigger and open up a whole new subject asking all kinds of NUb help..
thank you all again
With Dakota we will usually buy a haltech bim and then replicate the data in the can stream. You could do the same, send FT to PMU, then send haltech format out PMU to bim.
Wow, look at that.. I didn’t even really ask a question and the forum is trying to help.
That was cool, thank you.
I think I’m going to post (need to find the best place)
To do an introduction and maybe list what I got going on and see what pointers I’ll get.
Thank you all again
Kevin
