Dyno Tuning vs ecu remap / chip tuning

[tryingavw]

3P

A chip or a flash (or is that what you mean by "chip"?), or whatever poison you choose, can both (dependent on the car, the technician and the device) get you similar results. With modern ECUs however a "tune" can be very hard to achieve anything with, as they are so locked down. It usually takes either a reflash or a piggyback chip to overcome the factory ECU's built-in parameters to any noticeable extent.
?

swallowtail, i have been told by my bmw specialist he has used tuning boxes with really good results. (mainly for turbo diesels eg x5 3.od engine) which can be plugged in and unplugged at will ( ie when you send the car back for service) and give performance and economy improvements - or are these inferior to the proper flash?

i gather from the above comments you would be sceptical?

[Swallowtail]

swallowtail, i have been told by my bmw specialist he has used tuning boxes with really good results. (mainly for turbo diesels eg x5 3.od engine) which can be plugged in and unplugged at will ( ie when you send the car back for service) and give performance and economy improvements - or are these inferior to the proper flash?

i gather from the above comments you would be sceptical?

Not at all - I had a piggyback on my Mazda with brilliant results. Handy to be able to remove at will... My comment was that you either need one of those OR a flash - there is usually very little that you can do to a modern ECU without one of them.

[Martin Donnon]

Spot on!! is this the real MD that used to write for Ben Ellis??

Got it in one

[tryingavw]

Not at all - I had a piggyback on my Mazda with brilliant results. Handy to be able to remove at will... My comment was that you either need one of those OR a flash - there is usually very little that you can do to a modern ECU without one of them.

thanks for the feedback - as a matter of interest was it a turbo? and in what respect did you get the improvements

[Swallowtail]

thanks for the feedback - as a matter of interest was it a turbo? and in what respect did you get the improvements

2.3T petrol. 190KW standard, about 150 at the wheels (all four). After piggyback and tune I was getting about 180 atw.

[tryingavw]

2.3T petrol. 190KW standard, about 150 at the wheels (all four). After piggyback and tune I was getting about 180 atw.

very handy increase no doubt..

[Swallowtail]

very handy increase no doubt..

Oh yes, it was feral with the extra power. With awd grip planting an estimated 230+ KW and 430NM torque 1st gear was breakneck stuff, but the real pickup was just in sheer tractability in-gear. It was well worth it.

[tryingavw]

Oh yes, it was feral with the extra power. With awd grip planting an estimated 230+ KW and 430NM torque 1st gear was breakneck stuff, but the real pickup was just in sheer tractability in-gear. It was well worth it.

how about economy with regular driving? or couldnt you resist planting the foot ?

[Swallowtail]

how about economy with regular driving? or couldnt you resist planting the foot ?

Made no difference to economy actually. The 2.3T mazda engine is not particularly economical at the best of times, but I averaged 11 - 12 pretty consistently both before and after. I think maybe the leaned out tune maybe offset the foot-planting bit! LOL...

[apom]

Oh yes, it was feral with the extra power. With awd grip planting an estimated 230+ KW and 430NM torque 1st gear was breakneck stuff, but the real pickup was just in sheer tractability in-gear. It was well worth it.

So are you going to do the same thing with R36? How would you compare the standard R36 with the MPS upgraded?