Unichip on my rally car...worth it?

[Zak33]

Frankly?....nah feel a bit robbed as it goes.

Have had the car down at Millway Coachworks in Andover since Monday, and the car was ready to collect, so off we toddled today. Its a long trek, and weirdly there is a Uni Chip dealer in my home town, BUT Dastec UK (Unichip distributor) suggested Millway for the best service.

My instructions to them: Its a rally car, MOT's aren't a problem, nor is fuel consumption. I want reliable power please....and the rev limiter to go up a bit.

Important note before we go further: Rolling roads are notorious for all reading differently.

I have had my car on 2 roads, onin Aylesbury, and one old one, owned by a trusted classic rally car bloke, in Huntingdonshire. Both said 108bhp. My firiend with the Nova GTE has been to the Aylesbury rollers and was gutted to find the other place he uses (Slough, Novatech) had been over reading by comparison....so I imagined my two reading were consistent and conservatively trustable. Besides, a standard one of these engines was 100bhp.

Also had both other roads do a speedo test, cos I know it over reads..both came back the same, 87mph in 5th at 6000

Imagine my suprise when Millway told me I had under 100bhp on it before modifications by them, and it topped out at 81mph!!!

Oh well...a bit of string can ONLY be compared to another bit of string on the same ruler, so disregard that . I wanna know what their road tells them before AND after.

OK, on that presumption, and lets not irritate them by a stranger telling them their road is miles out.....let them get on with it.

SO what did I get back. Well, the rev limiter is sorted, and goes plenty higher now...not that it manages it with much aplomb above 7000, BUT I knew that already...I just wanted a fraction more for emergencies, when a gear change is a waste.

Sorted. New ECU chip to up the limit and then use Uni Chip to limit it. Cleverly, the limiter is NORMAL under part load, SO if you sit still with your foot on 70% throttle in neutral, it will cut at 6400. It only revs higher with full throttle, when fuel is in there, keeping the pistons safer. Pleased with that.

So what am I less pleased about? Well it all RELEVANT. The roof of my house is high, but not RELEVANT to a 747 flight path.

And a gain ON PAPER of 5 or 6 bhp, representing about 8% increase is ok I guess.....and it IS sharper..but not what I hoped.

I DIDN'T hope for flames, I didnt hope for neck muscle strain, but I DID hope it would'nt miss fire on the way home!!!!

And it does.....and it only did it 3 miles from home....2 hours from Millway.

I think its a plug...so new will be in by Monday, and as I discussed with Jiff (my Moral Support Officer, who keeps my Car Feet frimly on the ground) I will do a fuel pump too I think, to be sure its up to the job....

but I had HOPED, maybe, with all the money I spent, they would have put new plugs in for the final test. After all, they DO fiddle with mixture A LOT, and must kill plugs daily.

How much was it? Well for me, thats the crunch...and it crunches like a filling coming loose in a cake you have just bitten deep into, and it hurt a bit

Unichip is: £255 plus vat
Rev limit Module: £50 plus vat
Supply, fit and configure Unichip: £80 plus vat
Full Mapping session on dyno : £95 plus vat
Wire in Rev de-limiter, set fuel pressure and cam timing : £76 plus vat

Total.......£618.05

So...in essence...you can get other stuff for that dough.

Live and learn hey?

[[GSV]Trig]

Get some cams in there, mod your throttle body, check your throttle is openeing all the way, new injectors, new pump...

Oh and on the pump thing check the voltage its getting...

And I'm still waiting for u to tell me what bloody engione code it is....

[Zak33]

Cams been in all year, you numpty Kent NV061..the only cam in Kents range that has a LOWER number than the slower one (NV062)

Throttle body not just opening, but manipulated by removal of the low end torque ramp on the butter fly valve....

Injectors are staying at the mo....not spending any more money on alleged power increases....

Fuel pump will be sorted but the rolling road blokes said it was pretty much ok, and the voltage to it is fine, strong and consitent.

[Jiff Lemon]

New fuel pump would be my first port of call - you sure it's not just the relay going flakey again?. Then perhaps a trip back to "your" rolling roads, lets get it strapped on and make sure they've not made £600 worth of cock ups - (NOT that I'm a skeptic or anything!).

Tis a bit of a bummer - £600 would have got you some nice lightweight perspex windows and a weekend at the healthfarm for you both to loose some weight!

[Zak33]

/\ you said it

[Moby-Dick]

adjustable FPR ? different plug grade ?

or am I just thinking turbo tuning ?

[[GSV]Trig]

Throttle body not just opening, but manipulated by removal of the low end torque ramp on the butter fly valve....

Injectors are staying at the mo....not spending any more money on alleged power increases.....

Thats what I meant by the TB mod

As for injectors, I mean swap them from a they'll be clogged up POV not a they'll give u more power POV, many cars will be down on power if basic things like wrong plugs, crap leads, blocked injectors, knackered dizzy/rotor stuff like that, dont mean to be teachin u to suck eggs like but loads of people miss simple stuff...
I'm guessing you've got a nice cold air feed for the airbox n stuff...

Maybe ur engine just aint got owt more to give ya...

[gobbo]

I'd say fuel pumps next too.

Dosen't sound like you're too pelased with this unichip, but any increase is worthy. Maybe after you've uprated fuel pump etc it'll feel a bit different? Just guessing really, as my knowledge is next to nothing

[[GSV]Trig]

It's a longterm investment IMHO, any time u get the engine tweaked or whatever u can then have it remapped...

[Richie]

What engine we talking about here ??

[Lowe]

It's a longterm investment IMHO, any time u get the engine tweaked or whatever u can then have it remapped...

Agreed - chip is always the last thing you do to an engine. It's the final tuning to sort everything else out. Since you can remap the Unichip you'll not have to keep forking out for a rechip everytime you add to the engine.

In the current case it looks like the VX ECU wasn't doing too bad a job, but then every bhp will count Zak, and n/a tuning was never particularly cheap...

I felt the same when I had my carb fettled. Felt like a waste of money.

[[GSV]Trig]

What engine we talking about here ??

I've been asking him for ages, its a 1600 16v I think, cant remember, prolly a C16XE/XEl or somethin

[Russ]

i warned you didnt i mate

like trig said, tb's will sort you out proper.

and its the 8v i think trig

[Zak33]

Its a 1.6 8v Multi Point.

I realise what you guys are all saying is right....but what I fot was a bad sour taste because THEY didnt put new plugs in.......they told me on the phone that the cars often needed new ones, and I said fine. I was paying anyway.....a set of new plugs seems sensible anyway.....but the point of going out of your way to pay good money for a top class service is that THEY DO THE THINKING FOR YA......you dont have to immediately swap stuff afterwards. Its done..dusted...ready.

IMAGINE if I had trailered it down...then home...then been rallying this weekend I'd have not known about "whatever" it is until the first stage

AAAAAANyway.......you live and learn. What you guys didnt get is the full picture, and thats my fault for not explaining it. The first thing the bloke said, when I returned to pick up my prized possesion was:

"Cor, I'd get that diff changed it revs much too high, and you're not gonna get much use from it at those revs"

Its got a multi point cage and harness, competition everything, white door squares, and I told them its my rally car....and the first thing he complained about is my choice of gear kit!!!! Funny old world.

AAANYWAY....I shall get plugs, get pump and get invogorated, cos it IS sharper, it is defo louder (dunno why, must be bigger bangs going on ) and I refuse to feel down about it until I am toe to toe with a VTEC

Cheers guys

[Zak33]

As for injectors, I mean swap them from a they'll be clogged up POV not a they'll give u more power POV,


I'm guessing you've got a nice cold air feed for the airbox n stuff...

Maybe ur engine just aint got owt more to give ya...

What does POV mean? I just cant understand the first sentence

Cold feed...oh yeah baby Sorted day one.

I think she has more to give me yet...I just gotta sort her , fettle her, and maybe give her some more luvvin

Seriously tho....what do you mean....you just p$$ed when you typed that or what?

[[GSV]Trig]

POV, point of view m8