wally

Any body used the piggyback computer from UNICHIP, I wanna hear some comments because a friend of me has one for sale, he says that its fully programmable and give a great result on a turbo car,like the Impreza ...

what would scooby do

the mapper is more important than the chip - but I would personally go for something better such as the Link. I was going to go for unichip meself last year, but am now going down link route, getting whole lot including knocklink,lambda link etc.

Deep Singh

Had one,ditched it for a Link.With the choices these days I think crude piggybacks are outdated

EvilBevel

Hi Deep []

Deep Singh

Whoooops!

parso_rex

Very Brave comparing a Link with the standard ECU (with inputs modified by the Unichip) for every day drivability....I would actually call the Link item crude myself. Depends what you are after, maximum power at the expense of reduced off boost performance/economy or a happy medium of the two. Thats the real question. Not sure how far you can go with a Unichip powerwise ??

In defense of the Unichip it works very well and apart from offering the ability to allow easily attainable moderate power increases it also provides increased fuel economy just through simple fueling changes.You still have all the features of the OEM ECU which is pretty good. With the new loom available you don't even have to cut your wiring anymore to insert the Unichip.
All this relies on the fact that you have someone around to tune the setup of course. They are very common over here in OZ

Mark

JamesS

Link = complete comtrol of all the various functions in the engine.

UNICHIP = OEM control of all the various functions EXCEPT fuel and spark which is where the performance gain comes from.

R19KET

Hmmmm, If you have a "re-mappable" ECU, and you're losing off boost performance, and fuel economy, I would suggest it's more likely to be due to the map, than the ECU.

Mark.

Deep Singh

Parso,simple fact is that over here we have someone who has been mapping the Link for over 4 years and has done over 100 cars.Alot of his cars have proven to produce good safe big power(with other mods of course) with everyday reliablity.Now we have a few other guys who are also extremely good aswell.As for the Unichip dealers(in UK,lol Theo!)I would'nt trust them to walk my dog

JamesS

Powerstation, Clive Athowe tuning or Owen developments for UNICHIP......amongst others.....

TBMeech

Hmmmm,

I dont quite understand this personally:

Its fully mappable, unlike Unichip so what does that make Unichip then?

I've had the Unichip and have currently got the Link setup in my MY99 STI-V.

The Unichip is far better in the idle area of the car, mapped by Powerstation, I didnt think the car felt any better than a friends STI-V.

However after a bit of homework and some help from a few peeps on here, PTHolt & Andy Tang I went for the Link (Cheers Tango ), i've had the Link mapped by Bob Rawle and the car is far stronger than before, acceleration, spool up time, peak boost, boost held etc, the car is a completely different animal to when I had the Unichip installed, I personally wouldnt go back to a Piggyback ECU, for not much more money i'd always go for a fully mappable ecu nowdays.

But there are others who swear by Unichips, so they are not imo pants, different people have different needs I guess

EvilBevel

There must be a clue in there somewhere []

Anyway, for a MY99/00 car I'd say (IMHO etc) the Unichip is no longer a good option compared to EcuTek, and same goes for the WRX now.

dowser

Any piece of hardware has optimal operational parameters. 99% of replacement ecu or piggy back devices are capable of getting pretty close to these parameters. Would that the same were true of all mappers Everything I read above is related to the mapper, not what was mapped....

Richard

dominicm

I am interested in the Link set up...what performance gains have you seen with the link set up? Is there less lag? How much boost are you know running, safely? Can you remap the link easily when you do further modifications?

Cheers
Dom.

Deep Singh

Toby,why WI and not fmic?

dominicm

TBMeech,

Sounds exactly what I'm looking for, I work round the corner from BRD so I've better give them a call. Also am I right in thinking that 15psi = 1 bar?

Cheers
Dom.

TBMeech

Hi Deep

Budget really, am meant to be moving out lol, but I keep spanking too much wedge into the car, basically I got the WI at such a good price it was very hard to turn it down, At the end of the day I wish I could afford £1000 for a FMIC but I cant at the mo, tho I will be getting one this year sometime, I know when I put a fmic on the wi will compliment it very nicely.

Dom,

Not sure on the psi > bar conversion, If you can speak to Bob, he's a top bloke, most would agree

Deep Singh

Thanks Toby.Dominic,I think its 14.7psi = 1bar=760MM/Hg =101kPa

john banks

14.5 PSI.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I've got an MY97 and a friends just offered me his Unichip and EVC4 at a price I can't turn down. I've read all these comments I'm now a little nervous

He had it on an MY99 company car (changed jobs - car went, mods came off etc). Made a big difference from a standard set up on his car so I'm hoping to notice the same on mine.

From all the comments made here and on the threads I've managed to find in the search I've come to the conclusion that it's not that the Unichip is bad, it's just there's better out there. Is that right?

EvilBevel

Just to be clear: I think most people are trying to say that it's not so much about the hardware: it's the experience of the mapper.

I had some very good results with the Unichip, others have had nightmares.

You may want to check if the MY99 Unichip fits a MY97 model, I'm not sure it does. If it does, *please* have it remapped for your car, your mods etc, or you are really asking for trouble. This is a must.

So you have to recalculate the price of the "deal" adding the mapping session.

You also may want to check if it comes with the auxiliary boost solenoid driver. If not, add the price of a Dawes to the package.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the concern Evil. I should have said that I knew I was going to need it remapped for mine. I've already spoken to Power Station who've quoted me 300+vat to fit & map it.
It's also coming with one of those auxiliary boost solenoid controllers as well.

Rich Curtis

Neandethal,
I've had a unichip on my UK97 for almost a year now with no problems.

I bought mine secondhand and had it fitted by powerstation together with a Dawes set to around 18PSI.

With a full decat I got 240PSI & 240 ft/lbs of torque, just over what most PPP conversions do at powerstation (checkout their dyno link for examples of what mods give what power on what cars).

If your getting one for a good price go for it - unless your going for major power boost which will need other costly mods(e.g. turbo, FMIC) IMHO I doubt you would get much benefit from a link setup for the additional cost.

Rich

hrubago

I have Unichip on STi 3 and power 308 bhp before PE Exhaust manifold installed. Sounds like 321 bhp from LINK :-)

Deep Singh

JB yes I meant 14.5,mistype.

Deep Singh

Neanderthal.I have had a Link,a Unichip and an Ecutek.IMHO I'd steer clear of the Unichip because there is so much better out there in terms of hardware.The best Scoobymappers out there ie Bob Rawle etc use Link and Ecutek but would'nt touch a Unichip.I think that says something.D'ont do it just to save a few hundred quid its not worth it.I been there,seen it and have a whole wardrobe of T-shirts.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Deep, too late mate already brought it. Hindsight's a beautiful thing. I understand what your on about though. All I can say is it performed really well on his car (262bhp & 276 torque) so I snapped it up before someone else did.

dowser

The fact does remain that I'd also expect to see better results running circa 1.2bar, but that maybe the rolling road. However, boost tailing off to .7 bar after 5k is more conservative than Subaru which wont help your torque curve.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it - it sounds safe, which is good. And you can always remap later

Richard

johnfelstead

cut that crap out guys! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] You know what i mean!

OK, onwards with the thread.

johnfelstead

good way to take a corner, i'll have to remember that one

In Case your confused, i just deleted about 10 posts from this thread. Lets keep it civil in here please.