Hi

I recently bought what I thought was a completely standard MY96 4 door from a local dealer. Now I've had time to look more closely at the engine it looks like some sort of modifications have been made, and I'd like to know what they are and if possible who did them.

The visible signs are:

1/ A matchbox sized black box with four wires (red/black/green/yelloy) patched into the feed to the ECU. The red/black wires look as though they are power/ground, and one of the other ECU wires has been cut and connected to the green and yellow wires.

There is no writing at all on the box, and the only feature that may help to identify it is that there is what looks like a translucent panel on one side with some blacker bars visible through it

2/ There is an extra rubber pipe from the turbo area (sorry not to be more specific but one end of it is hidden under the connection from the air filter), that terminates in a Numatics flow control valve which has been cable tied to an existing pipe just above the brake servo.

My guess is that the flow control valve is providing some sort of controlled pressure bleed to allow for higher boost levels, but I haven't a clue about the black box.

So any ideas?

Thanks
Matt

 

Both parts sound as if they belong to a Superchip conversion.
Attach a boost gauge to the spare outlet on the inlet manifold below the coil plugs, and see what kind of pressure your set at.
17/18/19psi is the kind of range a Superchip is usually set at. 13 or so is what a standard car would be at.

 

The matchbox sounds exactly like a superchips overboost chip aka "The Dodgy One" !

I was shown one the other day by a subaru tuner who says "The first thing I do is look for one of these and throw it away.."