watching red heat last night (itv2) there was a good line that went along the lines of:
arnie "you know how they dealt with the drug problem in china?" belushi "no" arnie "the lined up all the dealers and addicts, put them in the town square, and then put a bulliet in the back of their heads" belushi "a bit harsh" arnie "but they got the message"
also the type of person who is going to be using the car and putting crappy fuel into it or not servicing it or anything else that could lead it to have problems
the chip just optimising the fuelling so you get more power and more mpg (perhaps not necessarily at the same time though) people who have had them fitted have come back with the general "used lots more juice in the first few weeks and then settled down to give much better results" the argument used here is that, if you had more power at your disposal you would be using it more until you got into the habit of not needing to use it anymore so you used more fuel when you where hooning it round the local shopping centre car park but once you got used to the power you went back to normal driving and saw the better results in fuel economy
The downside to Superchips is that they're a complete waste of time and money.
They do almost nothing on 99.9% of normally-aspirated engines.
There is some gain to be had on 99.9% of forced-induction engines, but only cos the Superchip raises the boost level *very* expensively.
On some cars (like the Rover Turbos) it doesn't even do that - the "Superchip" is merely 50p of Xener-Diode and Resister soldered into the ECU to remove the factory 1Bar boost-cut (ie, A BAD THING) - they then fit a 50p bleed-valve to raise the boost level (complete with engine-damaging spiking - the removal of the factory boost-cut is to stop the engine cutting out during the spiking !!!!). All that for £500. Excellent !
If you want more power from your forced-induction engine, then go to a tuner specialising in your particular car. They'll know what NOT to do (ie, remove the boost-cut on a Rover Turbo). If it's a Diesel, then speak to a Diesel specialist like
I know on the Celica GT4's all a superchip does is remove the fuel cut, but doesn't include any maps for higher boost, so it just encourages you work it harder and takes away the safety net.
speaking of chips and stuff, looks like a group by might start soon on apexi power FC's, looks like cost for them will be about the £400-500 mark, shame i'm skint as i could ditch the AFM and fit a dump valve with one of them on the car hehe :)
I have fitted a few E manage piggy back ECUs now (if your interested on on a near 500bhp GTIR :), I really really like these, they are very powerfull bits of kit and amazinly cheap too (around £350) they lend themselfs more to JAP cars though. They are really underestimated things.
Why specifically do you want a power FC? What are you trying to achieve. You can ditch the airflow meter I think (cant remember for sure) with E manage. (god thats 3 plugs in a row - no I dont sell these)
It is truly amazing when you consider can get very good piggyback ecus and do so much more with them than a superchip. Do any superchips allow the rev limiter to be increased? Thats the only thing you cannot change with a piggyback.
The plan is, eventually, if I can get it confirmed that the Rev2 MR2 turbo settings and "Special" P'n'P harness you can get from Japan works fine in the ST185 (should be same engine), to bung one of these in. Should do loads to sort out the standard overfueling.
Hmm, so you just want rudeboy features? You map is using a laptop. You will need a precision AFR meter, and idealy a way to monitor knock. Its core porpose is a fuel and ignition unit. I.e. it doesnt have anti-lag launch control or other mostly unnecessary off road stuff. It allows you to upgrade your MAF to larger ones, or you can install a 3 bar map sensor and use that to map from once the default airflow meter has hit its limit. Or indeed you can upgrade MAF and also use MAP sensor (this is what I did with the GTIR) It allows you to install large injectors quickly and also you are able to map for extra duty cycle where the stock ECU would limit (usually around 80% duty) You can also add additional injetors, if you still need to.
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