Wow. My experience with CIS is like your friend's--30-40 year-old German cars. I'd like to know what he's done so far,because there are quite a few things to check out once you start down this road,and it's hard to know where to start when I don't know what he's already checked. It could indeed be the ECU,but good luck finding another to test/swap on this side of the Atlantic. How long does it run before it begins to shut down? Can he keep it running with the throttle pedal,or does it just starve and die no matter what?Has he checked that there's sufficient fuel pressure to open the 6 main injectors? He knows to check the warm-up regulator,too. The engine can start and run on the cold-start injector,but if the main injectors don't open,the engine will peter out and die once the cold-start injector drops offline. I'm sure he knows the fuel pump relay trick,too--jumping two terminals at the fuse box so that the fuel pump runs continuously. The relay can sometimes cut out when hot--bridging the terminals is an easy way to check the relay is good or not. Don't drive the car with the relay jumped,just use it for testing. I have no idea what the TVR fusebox looks like,but there is another relay,sometimes called the control relay--this can directly affect the ECU. On cars I've worked on,there's always a non-essential relay that is identical to the control relay--like the horn relay.So if the horn(or whatever non-essential circuit you find shares the same type of relay) works,swap that relay with the control relay and see if that's the problem. It may not be labelled "control relay" in the TVR,so you may have to use your powers of deduction to find it. If your friend wants a sounding board,he can write me directly and I'll give him my phone number--I already sent you my email address via PM. Oh yeah,there's probably also a wire running from the coil negative terminal to the CIS control relay--if that is corroded or has a break,the ECU won't send a signal to the freq valve--something else to consider. Check any grounds for the ECU. Check continuity of the wiring from the ECU to the freq valve--always check the simple stuff first,right? The freq valve not getting a signal is the one identified problem so far,so I'd make ****ed sure everything in those interconnected circuits is operating properly first,before looking elsewhere. I'll have to find my old CIS shop manual and take a good look at those circuits again;it's been a while,and so far I'm going off memory,so there's probably a few things I haven't thought of. Good luck to you both;CIS is simple,but I know it can still be really frustrating;if I can help at all,I'd be happy to,because I've been where you guys are,and it can drive you nuts!