Big Bear

Interpro are based in Thornbury near Bristol tel 01454 412777
(edited cos I got number wrong first time round)

[Edited by Big Bear - 6/4/2002 11:31:21 PM]

Tim Taylor

Does anyone here have details on the new Unichip for the MY01's. Does it now have boost controll as well?

Cheers

Tim

Deep Singh

Tim as far as I know Unichips always use an external boost controller.

Tim Taylor

Deep

They did on the classic shape but I understand that the new one for the MY01 has boost control as well. Just trying to find out more about it.

Tim

Dave T-S

Tim

Talk to Dirk at Powerstation - they have fitted them to STi7's.....

Razor2001

bttt

Tim Taylor

Dave - Was planning to speak to Powerstation but was hoping to find someone closer first. Anyway, you remember what these old MY01 are like - too slow

Tim

Dave T-S

Tim

What about a PPP then - you'll get a discount on one

Deep Singh

Tim I could be talking ****e but I think the Unichip still needs an external boost controller even though the Unichip will command it.On the Sti7 Powerstation are using a Dawes Device to help control boost.IMHO if you've spent 20k + on a car,something more sophisticated should be used.Piggyback systems always have limitations.The previous generation one was useless at controlling boost( learnt from bitter experience!) unless you bought an expensive boost controller(circa£450) add this to the price of the Unichip and mapping and you are near to the price of a fully mappable unit.So to me it makes no sense no matter how you look at it.Pete Croney has recently had the Link fitted for his MY01 why d'ont you ask him what he thinks of the results.

dfullerton

Very true

WRBlue

I am seeing 275bhp and 247lbs/ft with unichip and full decat. Spool-up is eager from 2750rpm and the car pulls strongly and smoothly to full revs. In summary, standard car was pants, full decat noisy and disappointing, unichip fantastic. I am thoroughly delighted. Boost is held at 15psi until 5750rpm where it is dropped to 14psi. At 3000rpm I now get 27lbs/ft more.

Deep Singh

WR Blue,I'm glad thats its worked well for you.Unfortunately this experience does not seem to be repeated that often.Out of interest which boost controller are you using and how do you monitor det.

DT

I've got a Unichip & full decat on my 01 WRX. Due to an experimental FMIC, Interpro advised to go cautious with the mapping until we knew how the intercooler performs in hot weather. As a result I'm getting 265 bhp and 265 lbs torque.

Once we have had a few hot days and induction temps can be proven to be low, Dave has agreed to remap for more, including mapping for Optimax only, which will give more.

Recommended?? I was one of the first to have it fitted, and the first at Interpro. As a consequence it took longer than normal to map and had to go back as I had a boost cut. Ok now. If I had my time (and money) again I would get the APS kit which has a Unichip pre-mapped. The total package would cost about the same, but has been proven on umpteen cars.

PPP with decat up-pipe and down pipe gives about 285 bhp and 265.
torque, but you can't do anything else without messing up the PPP map, so VERY costly to go beyond that.

Incidently the Unichip for the 01 comes with a boost control module.

Jamie Whitfield

Deep, it would be great to hear about the cars you feel the Unichip hasn't worked so well on amd why you say not to go for one on a £27K car.

One of the bonuses for me is that it optimizes the standard ECU which has been in development for years and is now a very advanced units indeed. I have heard a lot of other reports of other engine managments systems throwing all sorts of problems out, such as irregular idling etc.

The reason I ask is that I am at the moment considering all options but the Unichip is very high up the list.

Thanks.

Jamie

www.j-w-racing.com

dfullerton

DT who are Interpro.. where are they based.. got a contact number? how would you rate the service

Deep Singh

Jamie,maybe I'm just scarred from my experience with the Unichip which was nothing less than a nightmare.

DT

Big bear beat me to it. Power engineering have also got the equipment, not sure if they deal in them anymore, they may just do ECUtek.

Interpro are good, although very busy so expect a 3 week + wait. I had to go back twice as mine was the first they'd done, which is a pain when its a big round trip. I would bear this in mind when making your decision. Reputation is very important but you also need to factor in that you may have to go back a couple of times.

Adam M

I agree with deep.

and the fact is he is right that you need a dedicated external boost controller to stand a chance in hell at controlling boost.

Jamie, I dont know how much experience you have of ecus, btu I am guessing very little.

Any competant mapper can achieve an idle that you could not distinguish from standard. You are thinking of rumours associated with very early links, and I will say they have come a long way.

Personally I would be leaning much closer to the ecutek than the unichip, but the thing people seem to be forgetting with all of this, is that it comes down to the ability of the mapper. Dont assume for one second that if a company is selling a product, that they must be good at mapping, in this market it simply isnt the case. Truly trust worthy mappers are few and far between.

I would be very concerned if a person chooses one option based on the hardware, as in the case of ecus, the man putting in the numbers nearly all the difference.

The key is to research the mapper more than the hardware.

EvilBevel

>>and the fact is he is right that you need a dedicated external boost controller to stand a chance in hell at controlling boost.

Adam, don't want to get in a yes/no situation, but my car (and 5 others I know with the same setup) is living proof that is not a correct statement. This is with the Dastek solenoid driver.

Agree though that the Ecutek makes the Unichip a redundant option on a MY99/00 (at the moment).

I am ready to give up on the Unichip, but for a totally different reason (MAFs).

fmimpreza

Hi

I have a Unichip on my MY01 with APS TMIC and APS-Exhaust system.
Power has increased to 269PS and and torque to 343Nm.
Maximum boost is around 1,15bar.
The Mapping was done by Boemanns Motorsport at the Nuerburgring who is the only location in Germany who is able to tune the Unichip the right way.
I am totally satisfied with the car now, after we could solve the boost peak problem.

He has also done a lot of STI's now. At 1,25bar 315PS,400Nm were archieved.


Best regards
Frank :-)




[Edited by fmimpreza - 6/6/2002 2:39:58 PM]

Deep Singh

It always seems to me that our continental cousins have had a lot more success than us with the Unichip.Maybe you guys are better at mapping them than the people here.I know Theo(Evil) has had a good run from his and is changing for other reasons.Its just that with Ecutek/Link/GEMS etc there is so much choice and good people to map them that the Unichip seems a little redundant.

JamesS

Have to reply here....

00MY lots of toys, approx 320PS with Unichip.

As said above; its the map and the person mapping that counts. But a huge plus, IMHO, is the fact that all underlying control still lies with the OEM ECU. The industry does not spend 3+ years developing the code for no reason.......

Deep Singh

James first of all congratulations on such a good result.You must however quantify the extra toys and tell us how you have measured the 320BHP you state.Also I d'ont really see the advantage of retaining the stock ECU and then fooling it with piggyback systems.Good quality ECUs like Link/Motec/GEMS/?Ecutek2 can now do all the standard stuff the JECs does plus be fully mappable and have datalogging facilities.What do you perceive as the great advantage of retaining the JECs and then using a seperate fuel/ignition computer and then another seperate boost controller?

DT

Well some appear to have a real downer on the Unichip. I and others have got results comparable with PPP for far less money, and offering greater flexibility.

Link & Motec may be better but they also cost at least twice as much. IMO that extra flexibility that they provide only really comes into its own if you are really serious about your mods, have lots of dosh, and want to go beyond the usual exhaust, induction, chip stuff.

I can highly recommend Dave Griffiths at Interpro as an experienced mapper.

Nezz10

The new version of the Unichip has an FCD and a boost controllers built on. The guys at power station were showing it to me when I got my suspension done there about a month back.

Now wether this new unichip was for the STI7b i do not know.

Simple solution - Phone Powerstation.

JamesS

I`ll simply re-state the case...you keep all underlying OEM control!

Why add a piggy back module? In order to tune the only variables required to increased power - spark & fuel. I have an EBC, but had that before the chip. I`ve done everything in stages, a bit at the time. If anything it showed the benefit of purely the mapping. Most people get a link/unichip/superchip/whatever and get a map of apparently varying quality AND increased boost. Therefore a huge increase comes simply from raising boost levels. When I increased boost with the EBC, on the std ECU it was a lot `faster`. After re-map, a couple of months later, it was quicker again and felt much `nicer` with it.

A unichip plus EBC still comes out a bit cheaper than link, not much in it. I don`t know first hand but I have `heard` of issues with link boost control. Not a real `problem` but maybe not optimal.....

As for the ECUTEK thingy - yes probably the best solution for 99/00MY cars. I probably would have gone this route but I`ve had the unichip for some time now.

Deep Singh

Firstly please d'ont misunderstand me I'm not having a dig at guys running Unichips.I'm genuinely happy for anybody who gets a good result for their money.James a few points:
1)you did'nt tell us how you measured the 320 BHP on your car.Can I take it you have estimated it yourself? If so then it casts a little bit if uncertainity about the results you claim.
2)It would be interesting to know how much boost you are running to achieve the 'estimated' 320 BHP as its easy to do this with whopping amounts of boost.
3)As far as I know there are no major issues with boost control and the Link.Far more problems with the Unichip and boost control
4)If using a decent boost controller ie Blitz etc there is virtually no difference in price.Do not include the Knock and Lamda modules BRD recommend as they are not essential.
5)I'm teetering at the edge of my little knowledge here but do EBC have the safety feaures like closed loop boost etc that fully mappable ECUs have?

Deep Singh

Sorry one last point.You said 'you'll put it simply you keep full OEM control that is the major advantage'.Its only a major advantage if you c'ant replicate those functions at a reasonable price.The point is you can at the same price of Unichip and decent EBC.

Tim Taylor

oh what have I started

Tim