johnwiz

iTrader: (26)

Apologies if this has been covered before, I'm after opinions on the PE Phase 1 conversion as this does seem a cheaper alternative to the Link ECU route.Anyone got opinions/experience of either conversion? Cheers John.

chuckster

Firstly, is the PEP1 still available? Give PE a call to check.
My opinions/views:
BRD link = very popular and very safe with great results.
Powerstation Unichip also v popular and safe and fine results.
Random link or unichip supplier? I don't know, not much feedback here..apart from a few self-mappers - I know I'd not have a clue how to do it myself.
PE - a vocal few who have had problems, and a few less vocal have had none and got fine results...still never 'caught on'(in scoobynetland) the way link or unichip did.
There are a few other solutions beginning to appear here...TDI in Barking (HKS products), GEMS (not sure who offers this), Motec (PS or BRD but not common as expensive) Pectel (Mad brother Pat - self mapped with fine results).
Basically you have to choose who you trust to map your car, which is a hard decision as there are so many different opinions.
My personal opinion (btw I still run a standard ecu) is a Bob Rawle (BRD) mapped product(Link or Motec). And it's based on knowing alot of people who went this route and are very happy.
It's very hard to get an unbiased view - anyone who has spent the £1000 plus is going to want to defend his decision. On top of that impreza's tend to blow up, especially ones that are used hard. Most of the remapped are used hard..did they die due to the mapping? Or were they going to die anyway?
Regards
Chuck

mega_stream

Who's had a car blow up that had a remap then?

johnwiz

iTrader: (26)

Chuckster, tks for confirming what I thought! BTW how's the hand?
I'm thinking about a second hand Aprilia RSV if I can sell my Bandit & NSR 250.Hopefully see you at the next Halfway House?
(if I can repair my alarm in time,some little wa**ers tried to nick my Scoob at 3am Saturday morning but the alarm beat them this time.) John

Adam M

anders 22b blew up after a phase 1, but not enough evidence to say it was pe's fault.

stuarts knights car has been fine with several pe phase 1 remaps.

bob rawles car had a phase one and when knocklink was installed it was found to be detting like buggery.

Moray mackenzies car blew up after going to pe for a phase 1. Not because of phase one but because they forgot to reconnect the manifold pipe on the fuel pressure regulator.

they accepted blame and paid for rebuild, but used standard forged cast pistons not the lighter forged sti ones that an sti with an 8000 rpm redline is supposed to have.

Needless to say the engine recently snapped a conrod as a result of it not being able to handle the extra mass of a cast piston at >7k rpm.

Have never known a brd tuned car to blow up.

Am sure some must have failed due to statistics, but would very much doubt it would be anything to do with mapping whatsoever.

bob is a very sensible guy and would never take risks with someone elses car.

In subaru circles, unless playing around with v expensive ecus on engine dynos, I would only go with a brd link or motec.

saying that steve simpson, of townend garage affiliation is supposed to be good with the gems which is a great ecu. I have no personal experience of his work, btu have heard good hings.

Then again, I had heard good things about DPower until all the ead stuff happened.

mutant_matt

Perhaps there is a little confusion here. The PE Phase 1 was an old "chip" mod which I think was withdrawn. There is rumour that they will shortly be offering the ability to "tweak" or re-program your existing ECU and pehaps this is what you've heard about?

Give them a call to find out...???

Matt

MorayMackenzie

mega_stream,

As Adam correctly states, my engine has "blown up" twice after having a phase one conversion. Rebuilding the STI engine with cast pistons rather than forged pistons is not a simple oversight in the way that failing to resecure a line they had disturbed was.

Moray
bbs.22b.com

chuckster

"I'm thinking about a second hand Aprilia RSV " - I hate you John!
Thumbs cool now thanks. Still stuck on a train though
C

Adam M

matt, the technology exists to remap the standard ecu


http://www.techtom.co.jp/NFproduct.html

but again, the map is only as good as the mapper.

I think I would trust Merv at pe with my car, he is a great bloke and seems to understand them. I dont know that he does the mapping though.

certainly on previous mapping of phase 1s (which I reckon is more difficult since it is difficult to know what changes you are making) I would not use power engineering for any of my cars.

Stuart Knight

iTrader: (2)

The PE Phase 1 is a piggy back chip put inside the standard ECU, which allows a full remap of ignition, fuelling etc. It is not simply a "chip" as it demands a lot more setting up than adding a "Superchip" which is basically a fuel cut defeater with a bleed valve! My car has been remapped by Mervyn several times now to accomodate my ever growing list of mods (its going in again this week for more tweaks) and the last map was giving 336 bhp on NORMAL unleaded with no det.

ozzy

Can I ask what the difference is between a Prodrive ECU and a ECU that has been re-mapped ?? Is there more to just applying the Prodrive re-maps to any current ECU?

Sorry if it sounds dumb, but I don't know any better

Stefan

Sheepsplitter

I concur with Stuart Knight.
My STI4 has been modded like crazy and has a PE Phase 1 on it, Merv's remapped it about 4 times now for different configs.
It's done 64K miles now and apart from rebalancing the turbo 2 weeks ago it's been as good as gold.
Last dyno run it was 348 at the wheels, but since the new turbo it seems a little more responsive so I might have even cracked the elusive 350 figure.
I have nothing but good things to say about PE, they've never messed me around and Merv is a star.

mega_stream

Blimey Stuart Those Dunlops are gonna fry

LoL

Adam M

sheepsplitter,

Are you sure you mean 348 at the wheels? Because that means you have about 450 bhp, giving you one of the most powerful imprezas in the country.

Stuart, what are these extra mods you are talking about?

As I said above, have a lot of time for merv and am very confident in his ability. I didnt know he was mapping the cars. I must admit in the past when all the controversy occured re pe, I am certain it was the boss doing the mapping. Perhaps he doesnt anymore.

Sheepsplitter

Oops sorry all.
Did I really say wheels ?
Of course I meant flywheel.

StephenDone

>matt, the technology exists to remap the standard ecu
>
Yes it does.
But 99/00MY has only just begun.
This MY can't take external ROMs and must be reprogrammed.

>but again, the map is only as good as the mapper.
>
>I think I would trust Merv at pe with my car, he is a great
>bloke and seems to understand them. I dont know that he does
>the mapping though.
>
Mervyn does all the Subaru mapping at PE.

Mervyn remapped my 99MY yesterday with excellent results.
I must admit to having a vested interest, since I wrote all the diagnostic and reprogramming software used.
Having said that, after a couple of hours on the dyno, Mervyn had an excellent map on my car with no detonation and a significant increase in torque.

Steve

BugEyed

There is a guy in Canada who is advertising "re-flashes" of the standard MY01 chips to give maps more suitable for different usage types.

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthr...hreadid=154448
http://www.japanese-auto.com/special.html

I don't know the guy, but am very unhappy with the idea of mapping a car "by post" as I can't see how you can get it correct for all of the different combinations of modifications - each car is essentially unique.

Duncan

WREXY

Stephen,

Does this mean that with the PE stock ECU re tune, the car retains it's stock, cold start, warm start and aircon idling characteristics?

Cheers,

Wrexy.


[Edited by WREXY - 3/6/2002 9:56:37 AM]

StephenDone

>Does this mean that with the PE stock ECU re tune, the
>car retains it's stock, cold start, warm start and aircon
>idling characteristics?
>
You bet ! So if you book dyno time, you spend it _only_ doing performance work. Why re-invent what already works perfectly.

Steve

john banks

Duncan, that is what the old PPP is a one size fits all map. The Unichip scene in the States seems to have a library of hundreds of combinations of mods that can be put on your Unichip by post. The maps are conservative anyway, and the customers seem to rate them highly. Not a perfect solution, but I went for PPP rather than Link or Unichip partly because I didn't want to have to drive my car 300 miles each way for every little tweak - and I gather the initial map can often be improved upon after an interval.

ChrisG

StephenDone,
How much does toe remap cost?

StephenDone

625+VAT from PE including before and after dyno runs and diagnostic logs of boost pressure, knock, injector duty etc, so you know it's running well.

Cheers

Steve