Well, went to the dyno today and dynoed the car. First it was 85 degress outside so numbers are going to be low. I'm running the car on 94 octane. We strapped the car in, put on the fans and cooled her down for 15+ minutes. Then did 2 back to back runs with the unichip. Then while we cooled her down again for 10-15 minutes I swapped over the connectors and removed the unichip. The results are NOT encouraging and I'm starting to wonder what I just paid $1000 for. A/F is certainly better but that doesn't seem to be buying me anything.

Car: JCW with Nology wires, Pilo coil, unichip and madness intake.


Larger pic: http://www.somc.on.ca/albums/paulmon/unichip_dyno.jpg

I've posted this on Randy's site for his feedback but know some here don't read his site.

Paul

 

Paul, You need to let the ecu readapt after you disconnect the Unichip. Randy told me that it can take as many as 7 - 10 runs to get the ecu readapted before you will have any kind of repeatability in the numbers.

Cheers,

MeanGRN

 

Hrm, interesting. I can't see how that can be the case. After all the Unichip "tricks" the ECU into thinking it's operating under cirtain conditions that it isn't. If the Unichip at 3000 rpm tells the stock ECU that it's getting "1 unit" of air so the stock ECU then provides fuel according to that amount of air. If I then unplug the unichip and get upto 3000 rpm the stock ECU now knows the "real" amount of air is "1.5 unit" and will look up the fuel map for what to do.

I can't see how the learning of the ECU will mix this up...

Paul

 

I don't understand the ECU learning thing very well. Can someone point me to a good thread on this? Thanks.:smile:

 

Paul, If you look at this thread http://www.webbmotorsports.com/forum...?t=283&start=0, Randy goes into an indepth discussion of the Unichip and what it does and what happens to the ecu adaptive features.

Cheers,

MeanGRN

 

Besides, who cares about the numbers if the difference in feel you get justifies the $1000 or however much you paid for it. If it makes everything very smooth and it just accelerates better on the butt-dyno, why get so pissed at a dynosheet?

Oh I know, I guess it doesn't smoothen or make acceleration all that much better. Well, at least not $1000 worth.

 

I have a customer who has bought one as well, he was not to happy with it as well, but he want me to assist him in doing some dyno runs maybe this week, and see what he comes up with. (this is not my opinion, but a customers of mine, before to many people get in a uproar)He claims he noticed no differance by via butt dyno, but i forwarned him as Randy did as well(i think) with a 19% Ecu tuning is almost not needed, and does relativly nothing for peak hp, and MAY smooth under the curve, but with out testing myself i dont know if it will or not.....ill let the dyno show before i pass judgement.....

 

Paul-

What did you think of the Unichip before you did the dyno?

 

I thought I had more "pow!" (aka torque) at 3000rpm. The HP curve seemed to feel better. That being said that might be because my butt dyno is directly connected to my wallet.

Paul

 

From what I've read, as Caddman mentioned, ecu tuning doesn't always give you a huge boost in hp/torque, but really smooths out throttle response.

I have a 15% pulley, and the throttle response is a little 'choppey' as compared to stock. I figure that if I got a chip, it would smooth that out across the rpm spectrum.

However, is that worth 1000 clams? Not to me...

 

That's how I felt after having the Unichip installed. Paul, which ECU mapping do you have on the Unichip?

After adding a few mods to the JCW, I had the car custom tuned at the Unichip facility in Hillsboro, OR (Unichip's US headquarter). The before and after dyno numbers showed a healthy gain of both hp and torque, which was reflected in the car's performance on the road.

 

There're other ECU units available that can smooth out the roughness in the throttle response at a lower price. :smile:

 

Since the Unichip intercepts and "alters" the readings and adjustments of the stock ECU, I can't imagine why the ECU would have to adapt! Maybe it just takes 7-10 runs to show an increase in power? Beats me.

 

I honestly couldn't tell much difference between the stock ECU and the Unichip when using the "A" map. But when using the "B" map it's noticeably stronger. It pulls better in the midrange which is where I spend most of my time when driving. It's not the cheapest HP you can buy but what sold me was how easy you can remove it before a dealer visit. I have a standard map for CAI, 15% and Milltek exhaust, (no exhaust yet due to the cost ). After the intake and pulley, all performance mods start getting very expensive for the gain.

 

The above pic was posted by paulmon here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=25365

Judging by the shape of the A/F curves, it looks like removing the Unichip INSTANTLY reverts back to the A/F behavior of the Stock JCW program. I don't think there is any WOT adaptation going on ... even if there is, why are runs BETTER without the Unichip?

 

Agreed Andy, the stock A/F maps instantly go back to stock when I removed the Unichip. I'm not convinced the learning of the stock ECU comes into play here as the A/F plots show.

I'm considering a few options. First, I'm going to go back and do some more dyno comparisons, this time with my buddy's datalogger that we used last time. He wasn't available for this dyno session so we didn't have data logging ability. I'm going to run with no unichip first then with the unichip. I've noticed with dynos on this car that the car actually gets better (up to a point). THis was the case when I dynoed a couple months back and seems to be the case this time. So I'm going to see if I dyno without the Unichip first if the latter runs with Unichip get better. I'm also going to try the B map. Once I have this I'm then going to consider a tuning session on the local Unichip dealer's dyno.

I'll keep y'all posted...

Paul

 

from what I have read on randy's site, the uni should be showing 10 ft lbs higher at 3000 rpm and at least 10 hp higher max then with stock ecu; this was with an equally modded car. these are very obvious changes.

from webbsport' news flash: "This is the Alta intake, the Milltek cat-back, and the 15% pulley. Note the delta at about 3000 RPM that represents a whopping 10 ft/lbs of torque! The hp gains are mostly at the top end, as you can see, but there is a gain over the entire RPM range. The average gain for this map is 4%, with the peak gains on the hp and torque being 10 +/- 2."


my guess is yours is a funky unit.

 

hummmmmmm.... I was selling my Unichip for a few days while
I was thinking that I'll just concentrate on the suspension, but I noticed
a drop in perf consistency over 5K RPM without the Unichip so I decided
to keep the unit.

All I have on my car is a Pilo intake and a Milltek catback.

 

10lbs of torque difference at 3k RPMs in THIS car is night and day. I mean that's a bigger difference than the 15% and 19% and that change is night and day!

 

Well Randy gave me a buzz. Seems someone called him about this thread so he called me up to help out, he's Internetless while he gets the new shop up and running. He hasn't seen the dyno plots but suggest that I run the car for 3 runs (without Unichip) then plug the Unichip back in and drive around for 15-20 minutes then dyno again (with Unichip). Also he suggested I try the B map as I do run 94 octane (not 100) to see what happens with that map. So I'm going to make another appointment and go back. I've got to datalog this time to compare IAT and coolant temps.

So I'm going to try this again. If this still shows an issue he suggests sending the unit back to check the program. If that still doesn't turn anything up he knows a bunch of us Canuks are looking to do a road trip down to Denver (ya we're nuts) and has offered to custom tune the unit at his new shop.

I'll keep everyone posted on my next dyno sessions. I have faith that the unichip will show me some gains so please don't (yet) take this as a slag against the product.

Cheers,

Paul

 

Thats cool, very respectable of Randy, but my problem is for my customer, he cant drive for a custom tune, Charleston,SC to Denver, CO, so im not sure how to resolve his issue, after we send back for map check and such, if there is still an issue, i guess we will have to wait and see....how the dyno comes out and what he will want to do from there.....

 

There are Unichip authorized tuning shops all over the US. He wouldn't have to go back to Randy. In my case there is one in Toronto and that's still an option.

Regards,

Paul

 

I got this backwards. Dyno 3 runs with Unichip then unplug, drive around for 15-20 mins then dyno 3 runs.

Paul

 

Yes i know this, but it is up to the customer, i didnt buy this for him or any of that type of situation, im just trying to help out, i dont think he would want to pay my labor rate to go on a road trip with him, obviously i would help him out some, but i think this is one he will have to resolve on his own.....

 

Paul,

These are great, helpful posts. Thanks for the info and I know we're eagerly awaiting the new results. Hope the new dyno runs don't cost you too much money.

Cheers.