Quick question ppl...just swapped a b18c5 in a ek...not looking to build, most likely just i/h/e..skunk mani..throttle body.. and chip the computer. Question is, for someone whos not really buidling, is it really necessary to upgrade the computer to a hondata or chrome type ecu setting??? Hence the title, would someone just chipping the computer for me be enough to make the car still run good??

God BLeSs..looking forward to replies

 

Your stock ECU can handle an I/H/E upgrade for the most part. If you want your parts to perform the way they were intended to you will need a tune. Street tune or dyno tune it will need a Hondata or Crome type setup to perform up to it's potential.

However I did the I/H/E upgrade and used a set of 255cc injectors in place of the stock 240s. Everything worked just great. 2 years of DD and no CEL codes, specially no O2 codes and my spark pugs always read good. if your not going to want to get a tunable ems then your going to have to learn to read your spark plugs.

Do not waste your money buying an "upgrade" chip. It will do nothing good for your car or it's performance.

 

yes please no ebay spoon or mugen chips... really you shouldnt need a tune unless you are going with more internal upgrades

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GhostAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Do not waste your money buying an "upgrade" chip. It will do nothing good for your car or it's performance.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Wrong. A well made chip WILL.

I only have i/h/e and a chip made a BIG difference.

http://www.phearable.net/testimonials.html

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kicked25th &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Wrong. A well made chip WILL.

I only have i/h/e and a chip made a BIG difference.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

OK.....who told you that? Your butt dyno? Show me a graph for this "BIG" difference. Explain to me what a "well made chip" is please.

What was your fuel consumption before and after? How about your AFRs? Do you have any idea what gains were made and where?

I guess if you want to spend a couple of bux for a "quality made" base map it wouldn't hurt. Just remember that you have to have a chipped ECU to put it into first.

 

OP: you're in FL, drop in a P73 and be done with it. If you're not going any further than simple bolt ons the stock ECU will run it very well. (stick to pre 00 USDM P73s or JDM P73s)

Chipping an OBD1 ECU and tuning may result in 5-8hp gain (max) and possibly better mileage, but it will require a few hours on the dyno and several hours street tuning to get it even close to the OEM ECU as far as driveability. Not to mention ambient temp variations, start up compensations and a slew of other things that need to be adjusted over time.

kicked25th - as much respect as I have for phearable.net, a basemap will never run better than an OEM ECU. By better I mean exactly what GhostAccord mentioned... fuel mileage, A/Fs, knock/det, dyno plots, driveability and startups.
With tuning and tweaking of the parameters inside the chip you can get the car to run better than the OEM ECU, but it takes a respectable amount of tuning time to get there. (not just 2 hours on the street like some people say is enough)

 

My car has NEVER seen a dyno.

Ive gained approx 2-3mph in the 1/8th mile as well as beating cars I previously lost to (all possible changes on this was accounted for. Runs were conducted back to back)

I also gained approx 8mpg on the highway and approx 4-5mpg by leaning out the cruising area and idle and adding a few deg. of timing across the map. (One tank I gained 9mpg driving FASTER than normal with 400lbs extra weight in the car)

I check my plugs religiously and they look great No signs of det at all. (My friends make fun of me I pull them so much)

The start up IS a bit shaky, as is my idle, but those are just kinks to be worked out.

The idle problem has already calmed down a lot and out of about 4 months of messing with my map, I have only had 1 startup problem and it ended being a blown coil.

John Vega will be the 1st to tell you his maps are ULTRA conservative, almost hurt in some areas, but there is no doubt that they often if not always gain hp over stock maps.

Judging from what ive seen from a p73 map previously, the timing is already pretty advanced, so maybe in THIS case it might not gain much, but to say its never the case is just plain wrong.

 

Nice numbers, but your still playing with it right. How is that a "well made chip"? The OP has no way to play with a map. He is looking for something that he can put in the car and "still run good" ie. not worry about running around for a month fine tuning idle and other stuff.....

It's great that you have seen gains! to you. but I highly doubt that your car ran as good as a stock ECU on the original base map you were given.

Hell, I drove around for a week street tuning a "well made chip" that came off a dyno.


Anywho,

To the OP,
In the end it's up to you. If you buy a chip off the internet. Make sure you find out what program they used as a ROM editor. (Crome, eCtune, Uberdata etc..etc..) That way if you want to fine tune it you can take it somewhere and know what's on the chip. And maybe try and find some sort of way to monitor it. This will ensure that you are getting what you paid for.

 

this is the whole reason why i do not provide basemaps for ecu's i chip unless they are getting tuned by me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GhostAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I highly doubt that your car ran as good as a stock ECU on the original base map you were given.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

It was a little faster and ran very similar to the stock ECU except that it got TERRIBLE gas mileage. I quickly clipped J1.

 

Well i retract my previous statement. My car has had some startup problems lately, and I thought it was a bad dizzy. Just as a joke hooked up my buddies stock p28 started up and idled perfect.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kicked25th &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Wrong. A well made chip WILL.

I only have i/h/e and a chip made a BIG difference.

http://www.phearable.net/testimonials.html </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ok for starters no chip from pherable comes with a well made tune for your car. They are base maps set up on the specs you provide. You didn't get any BIG gains I can promise you that.

Pherable is more of a chipping service that provides you with a good BASEMAP to drive to your tuner on.

The only way you will get a good tune is to have your specific car tuned in real time not by someone thousands of miles away guessing at what your car needs. Every engine is different.

ALL CHIPS OFF THE INTERNET ARE A WASTE OF TIME & MONEY. Get a tuner to do his job and be happy!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by neoc03 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Ok for starters no chip from pherable comes with a well made tune for your car. They are base maps set up on the specs you provide. You didn't get any BIG gains I can promise you that.

Pherable is more of a chipping service that provides you with a good BASEMAP to drive to your tuner on.

The only way you will get a good tune is to have your specific car tuned in real time not by someone thousands of miles away guessing at what your car needs. Every engine is different.

ALL CHIPS OFF THE INTERNET ARE A WASTE OF TIME & MONEY. Get a tuner to do his job and be happy!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Im sick of arguing with you close minded people on HondaTech. I know what I know and you know what you know so we should just agree to disagree.

 

Can do. I just don't want some newb thinking he should buy a SK2 or SPOON or RACING XTREME, ETC... chip off of the internet and expect gains. I've seen the maps from some of these chips, and they will do more harm then good.

 

i 100% agree there.

Dont buy Skank2 Moooogen or Jun-k chips off eBay unless you dont like your engine.

 

Appreciate all the responses guys...from what I see, Ill just wait and spend the extra money to have a tuner do it