Hi,

After searching for a second hand Prodrive ECU for my 98 UK turbo and having no luck, I was considering the PE Phase 1. After searching on here it seems there were a few problems with this a while back so was wondering could anyone help with any of the following questions I have...

1. Has anyone had this done recently and had a good/bad experience?
2. Would this be ok on a 70000 mile uk car with full de cat exhaust and induction kit?
3. If you have this on your car how much did it improve power/driveability?
4. Would it be mapped by the tuner who also does the ECUTEK stuff?
5. Should I just hang on and wait for a prodrive ECU to come along in the for sale section?

Many thanks


George

 

Maybe drop this guy an email. He's got a MY98 Turbo for sale with the PE remap so he sounds like a good person to speak too.

Here!

 

Have had this done on my 93 wrx, basically a varient of the ecutek software written by merv at PE. Uses a later Scooby ECU, think mine is an 802, with remapped software in it, and is fully remapable for the future.

had mine done initially becasue it has a super chip that was stupidly over boosting, must say that power delivery is really smooth and constant. Not massive i.e. 240ps wrx went up to 265 with exhaust and filter, since added decat and up pipe and am seeing 280 on subsequant rr session with no need for adjustments.

big advantage is that it is totally remappable by PE so if you do other mods such as injectors, FMIC etc they can remap for you.

with regards to safety, if either Merv of Chris at PE dont like the look of it they wont do it!!

Rich

 

I also have the phase one on my 93WRX, made 317bhp/290lbft last time i was on the rollers..
Must agree, if they dont feel that it should be done they wont do it...

Only thing that i must say is that i am unsure if there is any difference to what the 'scoobyecu' guys are offering for a considerable less price...

Rob

 

I think the hardware for the 97/98 cars is different as the connection of external eproms is altogether more complex.

Andrew...

 

Rob, what other mods are you running to get 317bhp, what boost level is that at ???

dont know too much about the ScoobyEcu, although from what i've heard it does sound pretty good for the money, is it mappable though ??

R.

 

A ScoobyEcu is NOT mappable.
it is just an tweaked standard map, to give more power, bit more
boost and better fueling & boost control.

Steve
(p.s. AndrewC - what'd'yah mean, YOU THINK ! )

 

A ScoobyECU is mappable, it uses EPROMs so anyone with the right tools and knowledge could remap it.

Andrew...

 

For the average guy, ScoobyECU is NOT mapable.

If you have an eprom programmer, all the map locations and what they mean, select monitor (minimum, logging software is better but none exists really), AFR meter (preferably a wideband), knocklink and/or det cans, you can map it. Better still add a eprom emulator.

Not for the faint hearted.

If you want to tinker freely, then I would have to recommend either a Link or PowerFC ecu, both plug in solutions, both around the £1200 mark depending on what you buy.

Paul

 

Right...

Scoobyecu... as in www.scoobyecu.co.uk

is not provided with a custom mapping service... we dont map cars.. this is not a business.. just supply (or try to when I get some boards) and cover our costs.. Hence DIY Ecu remap thread.

This can be remapped if you have an eprom programmer.. and know the offsets.. (can be provided on request)

The board uses two eproms as you cant purchase the 27c1028's anymore.. so this board splits the bytes across to eeproms, (odd and even)

And we use eeproms.

PE Phase 1.. 92 - 96

Very similar in the way it works.. however they use a eprom emulator and have a rolling road so can map your car on the road.. being a custom map..

PE Phase 2. 97 - 98

Same as above however the work involved is not as easy... some people are currently working on remapping the 97 - 98..

I dont have one so I'm not.

Ecutek

Need I say more?

so if you want to attempt to blow your car up by mapping it yourself go with ours..

Eitherway... we offer no warranty... But Buy a knocklink.. and I refused to do one when someone brought one to my house so I could check it the other week as the intercooler didnt have one straight fin.. so check your car is up to running std boost before modifing...

Remap boards also contain the speed limit settings Im sure mine is set about 190mph..

Just need a steep hill!

David

 

Hello,

Thanks everyone for the replies, just a few things i'm still confused about.

How do they map it for your individual car if they dont use the rolling road, have they got a number of pre programmed chips that they then plug in to the adaptor board and then fit to your ECU?

Do you tell them what power increase you would like? The website says around +30 bhp and 35-45 lbs/ft, that would be nice. What maximum boost would you use with this setup with regards to reliability?
Would around 275 bhp sound a bit optimistic?

Another list of questions!
Trying to gather as much info as I can before making a decision

Cheers


George

 

I'm a bit confused as well, the conversion for car MY97/98 is a solder in board, not a plugin board as used by earlier ECU's I have an MY97WRX that has the PE Phase 1, so has a similar ECU to your MY98, Merv downloaded the original map from my ECU, fitted the solder in board, and then downloaded the new map to it. I was told that if I went down the bigger injectors/FMIC route that the map could be altered to suit. After the install my car produced 306 bhp and 270lbs/ft, but did start with a 276bhp base being an import. I'd give Merv a call to get questions answered.

 

thats what I ment guys not mappable for Mr Average

nor did i want to imply that Paul / David / Scott do a mapping service either!

but as you rightly point out - anyone who knows what to adjust & can blow a few eproms can map the ScoobyEcu adapter board.
the type3/4 (MY97/98's) are a bit harder, as the board is totally different & had to be soldered in etc etc .. but once that's all done, swapping eproms over in the same way would make the difference.

I always thought that the Phase1 was a custom map - but there you go !

oh well - will just have to stick with my 1.35bar overboost & wavey hold @ 0.9bar for now

Steve

 

all getting a bit hairy here by the sound of it

agree that mappable doesnt mean something you can do yourself, wouldnt even attempt it, however if you are looking for upgrades at a later date then you ideally need some type of chip upgrade that will allow for new maps taking into account these mods,

My understanding when i had my phase one done at PE was that it was "re-programable" in Mervs words, meaning that it can be altered to take into account later changes, this was backed up when i took it back on the RR and talked to Merv about bigger injectors which woulds allow him to raise the boost target and fueling. I would personally call this mappable but do stand to be corrected !! I know that Merv said he has a number of different maps that he can put into this custom set up to start with, so would guess that he has different ones for the later spec my97/98 cars.

From the sound of it I woulds say that the PE phase 1 and Scooby ECU are basically acheiving the same things in pretty much the same way. Scooby ECU wasnt around when i had my phase 1 done, but would think that if you are gonna spend the money then you may get more for you pennies buying a knock link, lambda (or AFR), monitor, Boost guage and a scooby ecu, you can then take it on a power run on a rr for £40 odd to see what the power is at.

R.

 

The PE phase one is not mappable either..
Merv told me that if i wanted any other changes/maps he would program some more eproms and he would plug a different one onto my ecu..
Although they have the Rolling Road, it is only used for making sure that the Map has been programmed correctly..

He said that he would program 4 chips for me and try each one to see how they went.. IMHO no different to what the SCOOBYECU guys can do???

Rob

oh.. forgot to add.. Boost was 1.1bar on my blitz and HKS Displays

[Edited by tweenierob - 3/11/2003 4:01:07 PM]