SilverBullitt

I was browsing driverfx website by model and found this information:

PERFORMANCE CHIP UPGRADE MANUFACTURER: UnichipPART NUMBER: 1320013COLOR: N/A SHIPPING SURCHARGE: NONEMakeModelYearBodyEngineOther InfoMAZDARX-82004 - 2005MANUAL TRANSMISSIONSo, i went to visit that company website (http://www.unichip.us)

and founf this:


Anyone ever heard of them??

251.9 BHP (B = what?)
Torque 172.4

I did a quick search on this board and founf nothing... yes quick search!!! don't blast me.

Or this is CRAP !!!

guy321

I've heard of the company before.. I just went and checked out that "dyno" chart.. Catback and CAI will not get the rx8 EXACTly 238 to the wheels.. so the 250 hp number is highly unlikley. People are getting those numbers with the greddy turbo kit..


This is a faked chart.. who knows how the chip will perform.

chrism

with my last car (toyota matrix xrs) they actually performed pretty well and there are tons of people that swear by them.....they have applications for several cars and have been around for a while

xdrian

if you read the fine print on their image on the site it says, DATA CORRECTED TO FLYWHEEL Power. Thats why numbers look so high

238HP x 9% = 21.42HP

21.42HP +238HP = 259.42 HP

zoom44

why would they correct to flywheel instead of just poutting the engine on an engine dyno and testing that way? this way makes their numbers appear to be BS.

zoom44

im not knocking the produt at all so dont misunderstand. i just think the last sentence of this testimonial is funny -

My wife just drove the XRS without knowing about the Unichip install. She came home and asked if I had done something to the car because it drove differently! She said the car just seemed to drive smoother and accelerate better! She drives a Porsche Boxster S so she knows about torque and power and I was surprised that she would notice this mod?????????

- 2003 Toyota Matrix XRS Owner, Long Beach, CA

bold added by me

zoom44

looking into it furhtur it seems that since they have a dyno available it means they havea plug n play harness to go with the piggy back. the piggy back itself would come with a map optimized on an 8 with the typhoon and a cat back. or you could get it installed by a factory trained tech who will help to tune it specifically for your car on a dyno. very interesting . looks like a decent alternative to the emanage and is custom programmable to grow with your mods. it looks like Rob Golden/ Pineapple Racing are dealers in my area. havent talked to him since 7stock. might be time to take a drive over there.....

zoom44

nice statement here
part of that is going in my sig

MadDog

Doesn't this have to be BS? I don't see how it could work. The Unichip would need to adjust over all of 0-9k RPM to get a graph like that showing improvement across the board. To get gains in the lower RPM means that it would be adjusting the signals while the factory ECU is still in closed-loop mode. Which means that the factory ECU would be correcting those adjustments. THe net result would be the two ECU's wrestling for control with probably no gain and a very erratic performance below 6250 RPM in 1st gear, 5500 RPM in second, 4750 in 3rd + (I think those are the cutoffs for closed-loop).

I just don't see it working as advertised. If I'm wrong, educate me...

zoom44

its a WOT graph . wot is all open loop yes?

guy321

He drives a Matrix so the bumper sticker could read:

My other car is a Porsche.

MadDog

I think the closed/open-loop transition point is a combination of throttle position and RPM. The open-loop part kicks in when throttle > 70% throttle AND RPM > X.

This is from CZ:

I don't know, but from the sound of this, BOTH the throttle AND RPM conditions have to be met. So even with the WOT assumption, I don't think its open-loop until you reach the transition RPM for that gear.

I could verywell be wrong, but that's my interpretation...

zoom44

lol guy-

i was just about to email them for more info when i see that they are here in oregon about 10 miles from me. now i have to make 2 trips- one to them and one to pineapple

guy321

I have heard of them, and thought them reputable.. However, makes you wonder why they wouldn't post "real" dyno numbers.

Gomez

Taka's RX-8 is Unichipped.....

zoom44

taka's review https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...hlight=unichip

guitarjunkie28

they probably measured their gains on whatever their test car was, then translated it...

if their test car got 160 to the wheels, then got 175 when they were done, it would be about a 15hp gain....

so, they probably said ok, IF the car started with 238, it would probably end up with low 150's, so let's super-impose the dyno chart that way.

also, the power graph doesn't show any signs of leveling out anytime soon. if power were still on its way up, why wouldn't they continue with the graph? they may be able to give you gains, but the way it's advertised makes me think of all those ebay ads that say crap like *WOW* +20hp

lol

r0tor

iTrader: (1)

your are correct in your understanding...


however (and someone should consult CZ on this), I was reading on the MSprotege board the other day about their ventures into the piggyback computer tuning ring and it appears that there is hardware available to flip your car from closed loop to open loop control

cretinx

Unichip is a pretty reputable company

They adjust everything, fuel curve, injectors, cam timing - anything you can adjust.

They make pretty good gains on turbo cars, don't know about ours but bringing it from 238 - 250 bhp doesn't seem insane.

MadDog

To make matters worse, even the open-loop maps used by the stock ECU seem to change with ambient conditions (i.e. air temp, coolant temp, etc.) I tuned my CZ while the coolant was X degrees. If I run WOT and the coolant is somewhat different than X degrees, then I get some really bad results. I think this is because the damn stock ECU is using different open loop maps. This thing is almost self-aware... makes me almost want to give-up on tuning it with a piggyback...

zoom44

yes thats true to a point.

cretinx

so when the hell is the PowerFC gonna come out for us? It did wonders on the FD

therm8

well the FD was factory turbo'd, plenty of power available for the tuning (fuel/air, boost limit raising, etc). not so much for the 8. FWIW I gained 40 hp on a factory turbo'd volvo, with a simple $400 ecu retune. It took closer to $1000-1200 to get that with my NA Camaro (and alot more parts :D ). And there was alot more power in the Camaro than is available in the 8 (ie crappy intake and exhaust to choke it down below Corvette numbers)

zoom44

ive got some more info on this ill post up tomorrow. some email contact i have had with them.

tuj

I don't agree. I don't think it makes sense for the ECU to be in closed loop below certain RPM values. One of the major differences between the closed and open loop programs is the A/F values. The closed loop program in a normal car would go to as lean as possible to maximize fuel efficiency and minimize emissions. But acceleration is a different matter, in that the ECU must be slightly more conservative in that it will not get confirmation of the A/F values its actually achieving until the O2 sensor value is available, which may not respond fast enough to prevent a critically lean condition. Essentially, our MAF signal is never very exact, or consistent, so we need to constantly vary our fuel value for a particular MAF/RPM cell. In closed loop, we can wait for a true A/F indicator from the O2 sensor since we are not changing the engine parameters dramatically. Once parameters change drastically in their position, we go to closed loop, and a slightly rich condition to try to anticipate the changes occuring in the engine.

Basically, a ping could still happen at 4k in first gear, which an above post says is before the ECU will cut to open loop even at WOT. I disagree that the ECU will do this because the risk of ping when engine parameters are changing quickly is much higher at a stochimetric A/F than it is slightly rich, and loan is not necessarily required for damage to occur. If our computers could react fast enough, we could run stochimetric all the time, even at WOT. Some people try to tune this way (mainly race since risk is so high).

But another important factor in the 8 is emissions and cat life. Some have suggested that the engine purposely runs rich to decrease egt's encountered by the cat and conserve the cat's life. But even so, I do not think there is any reason that switching to open-loop should be constrained by rpm. I believe it is driven primarily on large deltas in crucial inputs, namely throttle-pedal-position. If you mash the throttle at any RPM, you are in open-loop.