I got a 2000 si with mods and a good ecu. i just got into cars recently. im doing all motor set up. now when i asked people what to do next they said tune the car. what does that exactly mean? thanks

 

get a tunable ecu and take it to a tuner and let them make the most power with what set up u have.

 

Through the addition of some sort of aftermarket ECU or chipping of your stock ECU you can obtain more power.

Essentially, you make subtle alterations to the engines stock spark timing, fuel administration, and other aspects which in turn allows you to eek out every ounce of performance that the car is capable of making.

Just adding a new exhaust, cold air intake, and header isn't all you can do. Those things by themselves add some power. But if you allow a professional to alter every aspect of the cars computerized control you can turn simple bolt-on modifications into even more power because they have been "TUNED" for your specific car.

Every car is unique. It is based on a factory default. However, that default leaves a great percentage of power untapped.

So, knowing that the factory sets a baseline for what every car they produce should do is the start of true "tuning." If you take your individual car and allow someone to tweak it in every way possible to make up for its uniqueness you will ultimately make more power than stock. The factories' current car is setup for 99% of drivers out there. It must act appropriate under 99% of circumstances. If you adjust the car to make as much power as possible given your driving style, fuel selection, spark plug choices, and so on you are choosing to be in the 1% of drivers that acknowledge that cars can perform well above the factory settings.

 

exactly what i was about to say. lol

just make sure you know the difference between a tune and an eBay chip. Do NOT buy any tuning equipment or parts from eBay unless they are from a reputable tuning company's ebay account. "Mugen" and "JUN" (etc.) chips on ebay are fake.

get a chipped P28 from someone like phearable.net, and an OBD2b to OBD1 conversion harness. Then get it tuned.

 

its japan spec obd1 p28 for a b16

 

p28 chipped skunk2 the best for me

 

i know someone selling a p28 ecu for 100$ its not chipped or anything, is it worth getting? or just stick with the p61

 

can you state what "mods" you have?

if you just have i/h/e I wouldn't tune on a dyno yet it isn't cost efficient for the power you'll get

you can however get your ecu chipped from phearable.net for like $75 talk to MTBER here on ht

if you have wild cams, high compression pistons, itb's, or turbo you'll not only save your motors life but you'll get a lot of extra power from tuning

 

if your talkin bout me.....got type r cams, type r throttle body, type r header, straight pipe, greddy exhaust, high compression, port and polished head, intake

 

High compression what? Pistons, different headgasket, etc.?

 

I would at least go to phearable they'll burn you a chip from a car with similair mods it's pretty cheap

as opposed to a dyno that can cost $500 an hour

nice setup by the way

 

i agree with using phearable. i already had a chipped p30. told them my setup with mods and have been running their chip for over 2years daily driven. its actually a pretty good tune. power is there

 

Factory tunes are very conservative to keep the vehicle reliable and prevent the average moron from screwing up their car. Running retarded ignition (literal and figuratively) timings and rich fuel mixes makes it where it takes a lot to hurt your engine, and it should start easily in whatever weather, any altitude, etc.

Tuning will get more power and better fuel economy by running leaner (closer to stoichiometric; 14.7:1) and more aggressive parameters, but having a wide band O2 sensor and monitoring engine temperatures closer isn't a bad idea. Remember what that one dude said to Superman "With great power comes great responsibility".