Ive done the deed and booked the car in for a Unichip Next Wednesday. Has anyone had any experience of these?

Yeah,
I've got one on mine, along with the 3D mapping module.

This would be my next mod, so let us know how it feels after. You getting it rollin roaded before and after?

had one (with 3d map) on old 200,, Duncan has it now..
I had the unichip fitted along with the zaust and n/a induction kit. wouldnt say it made a great difference.. and inhidsight i wouldnt have bothered and would have spent the 500 odd quid on somehting else. maybe on nos.
But where it defently helps is when combined with the 3d mapping module AND a supercharger.. then you can properly make use of the unichip..

defently worth it when combined with uprated zuast

Ive got a HKS Hiper and a Trust Ind Kit, Im hoping the chip makes the difference. Its costing me £450 incl VAT and Fitting. The process will take him near on a full day as he programmes it on a rolling road.

BHP gains are only 5bhp for the unichip alone, However you will have better fuel usage as the paramaters are all mapped correctly..

How much better fuel usage are we looking at?

better...lol not much definition is it.. but you will also notice the car 'feel' more responsive and run smoother..

I am toying with various ideas...........


Does supercharging affect fuel economy much? Anyone got before and after experience?

I'm only getting just over 20mpg so for that kind of consumption I want more go!!

Its either that or will a Starlet engine fit?

How the hell do I get my pic back on my signature anyone? Its loaded in the gallery but I must be doing something wrong?

s/c is only a 3% increase i fuel, so TTE say

i get more than 20mpg with s/c fitted to mine

about 14mpg in mine lead foot

They do work when mapped properly but it won't turn the car into supercharged or NoS'd performance.

We have seen quite few conversions that haven't been mapped very well, so it really comes down to how good the guy is and how much time he is prepared to spend if it is a fixed price.

The guy does alot of them. It takes him a full day to map the unit on a rolling road. My brother knows him very well through his business (BMW/Hartge) and he says he is very thorough. He does do alot of racing cars, which gives me confidence straight away.

Well, its in, and the printout shows approx 5hp gain. I can feel a little difference, but cant really put my finger on it. She feels slightly smoother, and throttle response is better. Im happy with it, especially as the chip can accommodate all future mods that I do

The timing was adjusted 4 degrees and the fueling was adjusted only very slightly as this was OK. Printout now shows 169 BHP.

According to the printout, BHP Gains occur between 2500 and 6000, and the torque line has defo improved, ironing out the flat spots I had at 3500 and 4500.

Whats next I wonder.......

169 !! Wow! Very nice!

Do you have the bhp at wheels figure Pete?

No I dont Col, I forgot to ask him I was too excited and just wanted to be off

I think there is a percentage calculation for this though isnt there, just as a rough idea?

The wheels figure should be accurate if the dyno is. The quoted engine power is a calculation that could be out.

169 = Unichip and what else?

HKS Hiper and Trust Induction kit i believe.....

Thats really good Pete! I think with this post you have answered a lot of questions that some people will have....people that want to keep their IS N/A but get some good power gains!!

If you had put the three mods in together, all at the same time, you would have really noticed the difference!!

Now if you were gonna keep it N/A...lightened flywheel, HKS spark plugs, remove the pre-cats...to name a few suggestions, and the car will be pretty sharp in the world of N/A me thinks.

Trouble is we don't have a figure for the car on that dyno when it was standard. The dyno could well give a 165bhp figure for a standard car.

This is true....didn't really think of that Colin!

But if the reading is pukka...then its rather good!!

So for £450 you get a 5 bhp gain???..... is that including the ind kit and zorst??

What i mean is, did you Unichip installation alone give 5 bhp??

Must admit, if the above is true, its a waste of money!

For that price i would either get NOS, or at least at set of headers ( Which is where a BIG difference can be gained!... Big being very noticable.)

Chips only make a big impact on a car with forced induction or a diesel...
I personally think its a big mis conception.

I regularly have customers asking if they can get their is200 "chipped" thinking that the chip alone ( Without an upgraded exhaust or induction ) will give them about 25 BHP.
I personally would be spending the £500 ish on something else. ( Maybe towards a S/C after all this is about a quarter to the price of a S/C at the moment.), or towards a bodykit... something more noticeable.

Any type of ecu upgrade can only work within the physical limitations of the specification of the car.

We undertook the r&d on this a couple of years ago and got around 6hp/15 lbs-ft by giving around 6 degress of advance and reducing the fueling by a large amount.

Modifications to improve airflow and combustion efficiency will allow more power to gained from ecu tuning.

The benefit/cost ratio depends on individual circumstances as some people will be at the point where ecu tuning is the next logical progression having done everything else, and some may either not like the idea of or be unable to get insured for nitrous.

Personaly I don't think it's fair to compare ecu tuning to nitrous, firstly because nitrous is short term solution and secondly because it will cost more than £500 to get a good system professionaly installed by a reputable firm. However, I do agree that a decent exhaust manifold should be done first, although I don't know of anything decent being available for £500................yet.

I agree that the ECU upgrade is wise and worthwhile..... ONCE quite a few mods have been carried out. ( FULL exhaust system, including headers and pre-cat removal. Forced induction is poss)
But all i was trying to say, is that ALOT of people think they will get as much of a gain as a forced induction car.

I have found that once you tell people that they will only get 5 BHP MAX from the ECU upgrade, they change there minds!

There is a fair amount ignorance surrounding this subject. A lot of people do assume that because some turbo cars yield over 30hp from a "chip", they assume that n/a cars also do the same.

I would be surprized if we didn't see 15hp or more from ecu tuning on the is200 when the head and exhaust manifold are improved.

I didnt have the chip fitting thinking there were massive gains to be had, I know what Im doing.

The unichip merely fine tunes the mods already in place, and should not be fitted to a standard car, its a waste of money.

As far as super-gains are concerned, I think it is too easy to buy bolt on power in the form of a SC. I am currently developing the spare engine and when finished it WILL produce power in the region of 230-240 BHP from it without any SC or Turbo or NOZ, for much less than the price of an SC installation.

SC is good as you keep the driveability, but its too easy ! Imagine what the SC engines can produce when installed onto a well developed and mechanically sound engine producing 240BHP as NA ?

I personally prefer good old fashioned dirty hands R&D based on sound tried and tested mechanical theories. For example, I built a 2.1 Pinto producing 210 Bhp with a fairly stock bottom end, only uprated big end bearings and high volume/high pressure oil pump, only loads of head work and some rather mean twin 45's on a bespoke manifold I built with semi-compressed ram-air, matched ports inlet and exhaust, massive valves and a monstor cam.

Back to basics me thinks.....We shall see chaps.

That sound really interesting Pete

I presume you realise that a 333cc per cylinder engine needs to rev to at least 8800rpm to get 230hp and to at least 9200rpm to make 240hp. The intake system will support that power and rpm but you have your work cut out on the exhaust and basic reliability methinks

What engine management and camshafts will you use?

a year and a half later................. did we ever get an answer?

The ECU gave up and died on its arse!!