Has any one here got a Powerchip. I have just had a look at the site and the improvments seem pretty good to me for the money.

just wondering what others thought

Powerchip = pfft... Some say they have made a difference but the majority have indicated they are a waste of money (use the search button).

Why don't you so some mods and install a Unichip or Greddy eManage? Much better alternative.

Dont get a powerchip it's tested on 1 car then mass produced for everyone else. As everyone knows every engine is different. It's a hit and miss thing, but $700 for a Powerchip gold 98 it's risky.

Just get ummmmmm a Unichip, $1200 installed and tuned.

piggy back ecu's are for commodores

if you want to do it properly, with much better results, get a fully programable ecu.

Why bother with a full ecu? Your never gonna use all the function in a mildy modded car. Plug-in's are much cheaper and will do the task wanted.

I had a powerchip on my TJ Sports. I dyno'd it with and without the chip. I gained 1kw from the powerchip...

1kw for $800.... stuff that

did you use optimax?
from what i can tell thats all they do, take advantage of higher octane fuel.

powerchips do nothing to a stock car, the best they can do retell the car the correct fuel air mixture, and the stock chip pretty much alreayd has it down to pat

Why bother with a full ecu? Your never gonna use all the function in a mildy modded car. Plug-in's are much cheaper and will do the task wanted.

Disregarding emission laws will yield you a very easy 5%, not to mention the torque curve will peak higher and spread wider.

plug ins are for people wanting to maximise their high clone mods, or if your just too cheap to fork out the best 1500-2000 you will spend.

If you wire it in correctly then its a simple plug in/unplug for the EMS unit and your original factory unit for when you sell the car, almost like an investment.

Sooooo, what ECU do you have?

I wouldn't waste my money on a aftermarket ecu. At least not until you have some serious mods under the bonnet. Get NOS. At least you are guaranteed HP.

did you use optimax?
from what i can tell thats all they do, take advantage of higher octane fuel.
yes i did

waste of time..

AND

they have a money back gaurentee... i faxed them my dyno sheets... they didnt return my calls for ages... EVENTUALLY they agreed to take it back... oh, minus the $250 re-stocking fee that is..

steer clear of them for your own sake

Sooooo, what ECU do you have?
.... that is beside the point :bowrofl:

But im actualy in the process making my own ecu, after just finnishing building my own electronic distributor. Ive also installed looms for close to a dozen various units, some on stocko cars, some bad boys like This! (http://turbocharade.kicks-ass.org/images/torry/). Given I haven't tune all of them to their final tune, my best being a mates RB20DET with a stock ecu and a eprom reader, I still think some experienced input to the thread is needed. None of this my mates mate got a piggy back on his CIVIC yo and can now beat a car which beats a mates 13 second rex. I have also tuned SAFC's.

wow, at what level are you building this ECU. starting from scratch? if so, what kind of proccessor etc are you using. i would have thought it would be difficult to buy all the required hardware for the price that you can pick up an nice, stable, tested ECU from unichip. those parts are all pretty expensive when buying in small volumes.

MS V3.0, fuel and spark stand alone EMS. (http://msefi.com)

More for a challange than anything, I could surely pick up a e6k or the likes for sub 1000 on ebay, but the MS unit is a better ECU.

TC ... the reflashable ECU u were posting about ... do u think u gonna make it into a reality ?

Yep, with some overnight parts from japa... oh i mean austria :D

My motor came NA EFI over there, so the gear pretty much bolts on. few hungy for that, fabricate up a mount for my 55mm TB, sling in some spare rb20 injectors i have and its a goer. ill document it well because there is a few people on my forums interested in what ive been working on.

Its not reflashable, its just like a normal EMS unit. plug it into the serial port and your on your way to tune town.

not like the stinking RB which needed the ecu out to remap it. last tune made 300hp, from a std ecu, 550's, ITS 520hp turbo and a Z32 airflow meter as the RB ran out of scale at 270hp roughly. running 19psi.

The megasquirt looks very interesting... Have to look furthur into this.

Cheers
Heath Young

piggy back ecu's are for commodores

if you want to do it properly, with much better results, get a fully programable ecu.
so why isnt mine working then :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

An ecu is only as good as the tuner remember. Whats not working with it?

well firstly on topic, i looked into one of these power chips and yeh waste of money rather pay the extra for a unichip..


An ecu is only as good as the tuner remember. Whats not working with it?injector driver at the moment, mate its been drama's since day one haha,
the tuner is great, the car just seems to be a little different to the rest :nuts:

thats unfortunate, what sort of ecu is it?

check my old thread in magna mods u noob

piggy back is the way to go with a magna... way too difficult to replace the ECU in all 3rd gens! (just ask booya!) i agree, older cars that dont have much stuff electronically controlled (eg mazda's with EFI rotor swaps) are much easier coz you only have to go to the ignition inside the car... apparently booya had problems with wierd things like wiper blades, tail lights etc etc...

piggy back is the way to go with a magna... way too difficult to replace the ECU in all 3rd gens! (just ask booya!) i agree, older cars that dont have much stuff electronically controlled (eg mazda's with EFI rotor swaps) are much easier coz you only have to go to the ignition inside the car... apparently booya had problems with wierd things like wiper blades, tail lights etc etc...
yeh i feel his pain....

but in the end once it's all set up its gonna be awsome :D

yeh i feel his pain....

but in the end once it's all set up its gonna be awsome :D

Yeah or you could just leave the ecu in thinking its working but not actualy plugged into the items...

Powerchip's are simple- they are uber ghey with a capital gh, therefore GHEY!!

I've heard about these megasquirt units...they sound very interesting.

I've heard about these megasquirt units...they sound very interesting.




:stoopid:

I have never built one, but I have installed and basic tuned one. Im looking forward to the challange, ive got a boring job and plenty of spare time durring the day because of it(sif you couldn't tell) so I have spent a lot of time researching my options. Megasquirt EMS looks the goods for my application.