Re-Mapping ECU

[vinny]

Hi All,
Is there any mileage in re-mapping the ECU (1600 mkb)?
I am thinking of doing this when I've rebuilt the car. Is it worth it for the extra power?

cheers
vinny

[jimi]

You can't.............well you could if your name was Jeremy Ross

[Tony jinxy froude]

Uni -chip is probably the best way as it can be transfered from car to car, Uni-chips are fairly cheap but the mapping is the expensive part. Jinxy

[Lunarmatic]

Only person I know of that had a Unichip was Alan Head. I think it maybe gave an extra 15bhp at most though? So I guess it depends on what you are expecting by "extra power".

Jeremy Ross has certainly done a lot of work investigating and playing with the ECU. It's worth doing a search on here as he posted up a lot of his findings (including fuel maps etc.). I don't know if he modifies ECUs for people but I see stock ECUs come up on eBay quite frequently (and cheaply) so you could pick one up for some experimentation...

[Tony jinxy froude]

I have a Daztek uni-chip on my mk1 & i think it adds another 15 - 20 bhp thats all, but you really need to take it to a couple of different places to see what the real gains are. As for the ECU's well im impressed by the complexity of the things considering they were designed in the late 70's - early 80's when electronics were in their infancy . Jinxy

[firstmk1]

You could look in the Parts for sale section.

[jrleech]

I seem to remember Alan's car getting ~15bhp gain, but that also included the exhaust and intake. You'll struggle to make much more than that without other work (cams, porting, throttle bodies).

Where the chips do tend to help is that they tend to sort out dips in the torque curve, so while your max bhp figure might not go up that much, the 'area under the graph' on your torque curve usually goes up quite a bit, resulting in a car that's quite a bit quicker than it was before.

I'm still trying to decide between slightly modified engine with a unichip or heavily modified engine on throttle bodies off a standalone ECU....

From what I've heard, the pre-programmed superchips that Fensport sell make quite a difference for not much money. Unless you're doing more than an exhaust and filter, they're probably value than a Unichip.

[vinny]

Thanks guys,
The reason I asked is cus I know a guy who re-maps his off road vehicles for racing and thought of asking him to alter mine.
Going of what you've said I'm inclined to go ahead, The cars twenty years young in june and thats when I intend to get it back on the road I'm just currently finishing the interior & then i'll tackle the rear arches prior to re-spraying.
+new exhaust & air filter etc etc.

cheers
vinny

[kevin..in]

Thanks guys,
The reason I asked is cus I know a guy who re-maps his off road vehicles for racing and thought of asking him to alter mine.
Going of what you've said I'm inclined to go ahead, The cars twenty years young in june and thats when I intend to get it back on the road I'm just currently finishing the interior & then i'll tackle the rear arches prior to re-spraying.
+new exhaust & air filter etc etc.

cheers
vinny

if you friend knows his "game" then he will tell you its not possable without the addition of a piggy back chip unit, unichip- superchip etc

[4age]

Iv got the Dastek unichip fitted to my mk1 b as well with a full re-map, also had a set of hks 256 cams fitted, induction kit and magnex stainless steel exhaust.
Took it to a rolling road about a month ago it it was producing 139bhp at the flywheel so not bad, but a lot of money spent for a 18bhp gain.
I guess its not just about max bhp, but torque as well which has smoothed out and increased quite nicely!!