I've heard that superchips are too harsh on the engine. Anyone had experiences of this and what does everyone reckon the best chip is?? What is the region of bhp increase??

Welcome to the board. John Banks will no doubt give you a fuller explination but basically speaking the superchip bypasses the safeties. If it all goes tits up the boost will go through the roof followed by the big bang! Are you willing to take that risk with your pride and joy?

Kenny has said it there is not fuel cut at all if a hose comes off or another gets blocked. Primitive, ridiculously overpriced, dangerous and underperforming. I would say that because I charge less than a Superchip for a full custom remap with Ecutek - MY99/00 only though, but if you look back I was saying the same before I started mapping commercially. Other options that are good include Link, Unichip, Dawes boost valve. All depends on what model year car you have. A Superchip is the worst possible choice.

How does a medical student afford a Scooby? I was an senior house officer before I got one ;)

[Edited by john banks - 6/3/2002 10:29:21 PM]

[Edited by john banks - 6/3/2002 10:29:34 PM]

I nearly became a housing officer john, went for planning instead :rolleyes:

Another way to look at the superchips issue: It's a company that will make big claims of +40bhp for most turbo cars and will chip pretty much anything that can be chipped. In short, do they really have the individual expertise knowledge of just a few cars or are they going for the mass market? Seems to me they take a car,see what gains they can get out of it and then it hits the market. They chipped my uncles A4 2.5TDI (when it first came out) and the torque was murdering the box so they had to de-tune it. Surely a little bit of testing would have revealed this well before it got to the customer!!

Consider John's remaps, I think based on his posts of the last few months that this man actually thinks in ECU code :D ;)

Some of the Superchips are OK when they are full remaps, but most Jap turbos are just fuel cut defenders. I see from another post you have an STi 2 so I can't offer you anything, and advise against a manual or electronic boost controller - the ignition mapping is on the edge already on UK fuel, even SUL, and really you need a good octane booster too just in standard form. A Superchip on an STi really is a route to disaster. If you want it quicker focus on exhaust mods if you haven't already then consider a Link ECU - ££££ but probably the best for the money. www.brdevelopments.com

What about the Apexi Power FC then?

Cheers John. Ever heard of professional studies load :) i had a moment of insanity and took and 10k. My V2 has got a full scoobysport exhaust with a hks filter, are they a particularly bad version to start messing around with the ECU?? know anyone good who could carry out the work?

Yes I gave you a link above. My loan bought a Fiat Punto :eek: when I were a medical student.

The Superchip kit on the Impreza seems very expensive for what you get. Apart from the bleed valve all it consists of is a small black box spliced into the wiring loom that clamps the boost signal before it enters the ECU.

I opened one up and it only had 5 components - a voltage regulator, an op-amp, a resistor, a pot (for setting the level?) and what looked like some sort of diode. At a guess the total component cost would be about £10

Taking a look at the superchips site this could be yours for just £511.13!

I haven't tried any of the replacement ECUs so couldn't recommend one, but as John says the Link is worth looking at.

I have a chip fitted to my 92 Legacy which came from a chap in Aus who worked for Motec, i have had the chip in the car for about 15K miles now without any problems.

I have no idea what figures it is pushing out but on the last Subaru pre meet run that i went on, a 1997 WRXR had trouble keeping up with it :D :D