Hi all,

can I expect any hp increase in getting this chipped P28 ECU on a stock engine: Chipped OBD1 P28 VTEC ECU with Custom Basemap Chip Package?

The car is stock, except for a cold air filter, decat and modified exhaust. The plan is to turbo the car in a couple of months when I save some more cash on the side, but would love to pick up this chipped ECU right now if it will give me some more power on a stock engine. I asked around and a friend said that the F-Series engines are factory made really good that chipping/tuning would not increase the HP at all almost, then another friend that says it can get me some decent power...

The engine is F18B2 which I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with but it's a european SOHC Accord F-series really similar to F23A or such.. just 1.8 liter.
Seen couple of turbo-ed F18B2s with chipped P28 ECU so this is the direction I'm aiming towards.

 

I would be shocked if you could actually find a F18B2 base map that could be burned to a chip for a chipped P28... you are going to need a proper tuning solution like a Hondata S300.

 

I have contacted them and told them the car and engine I have, they said it should not be a problem to create a base map for it just to leave all the engine info before making an order... there is a Hondata option as well a bit more expensive, the chip I linked goes through CROME tuning.

Is the extra money for Hondata S300 worth it?

 

Yes, every penny.

 

Ok, I'll make sure to get Hondata then... so a tune on a stock engine - will I get any significant power to make my ride more fun until turbo? Or will it not be a big diff in power and rather wait for tubro kit + hondata all at once?

 

The Hondata S300 will allow you to make MAXIMUM power with the engine set-up that you have... the burned chip/basemap will be "Close to Adequate" at best... and likely average instead. I can't tell you how much different in HP this is... but do you want "Perfect" or "Just Alright" ???

 

Hondata and HTS will achieve the same thing. Get with the new tech.

Personally Hondata is a waste of money. If you are going to drop $4-600 get a stand alone like a Haltech!

'Getting' basemaps are unnecessary especially off the internet. Find a tuner or learn to tune yourself. If you have a wideband in your car and you were competent enough to assemble the car you can learn to adjust air fuel ratio at the least. Pretty much any honda ignition maps will run any honda motor just fine to get it started.

Its not that hard like everyone makes it seem!

 

Misinformation or lack of experience here.

You can certainly tune HTS or BMTune to make same power the same way with boost by gear and all the same protections as Hondata or Neptune.

Do you think the tables refuse to allow ignition adjustments past a certain range? Fuel tables only go so far? What is your reasoning? They have the same adjustments.

Did you know you could tune your car with the Hondata software and then load the save file into HTS or BMTune and it will convert it? Same tune.

Remember what they all do; hack the same stock computer!

 

If you actually tune it, you might make a couple more horsepower. Simply attaching a tuning system and uploading someone elses blind guess (aka a basemap) probably won't help anything.

If you change fuel to e85 and tune the af correctly, you should be able to add 2+ degrees of timing at full throttle and you WILL notice that in the seat of your pants.

 

I've got a friend who tuned his boosted car and it runs perfect. I know the basemap doesn't do ****, its just temporary to make the car run - I am aware of that. The plan was to try and tune it together with my friend.

So basically if I don't have extra money, going for Hondata is not that great... then I think I will stick with my original plan and get the chipped CROME ECU I linked. My friend is experienced in tuning and I've watched a lot of resources online so I think we will stick with CROME, we can always go to a tuner if something doesn't feel right, but worth a shot to try and learn by myself.

Since this is my first project car, I wanted to hear experiences and options from other people online so I really appreciate all the info from you, helps a lot. Thanks.

 

Nice plan. Good to hear.

One suggestion still would be don't bother with crome, give HTS or BMTune a try. It is actually better:

• Changes to parameters actually affect things
• Tables with missing documentation don't exist
• More adjustability to more parameters crome never had
• Ability to do boost by gear

 

Stop being a TROLL and help the OP... then, go and create your own "What is the BEST tuning system available" thread and we can hash it out there.

 

I read this as you could never make as much power with a burned chip vs an s300.

My apologies if you simply meant basemap only.

I have helped the OP by giving him more options to weigh other than simply hondata s300 or bust.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/all-motor-naturally-aspirated-44/93-octane-vs-e85-dyno-results-naturally-aspirated-engine-2351459/

Show me I am wrong.

Welcome to the internet, no one cares about your resume. I have been tuning for a long time too.

You will make more power on e85 and it can take more timing. A stock motor won't need as much as Mikey's 12.5:1 motor, but from my experience you will need to add some timing at wot.

 

Alright so the chip I linked supports BMTune? It doesn't need anything special, I just download and use BMTune on the chipped ECU?

If so, then great I'll make sure to use HTS or BMTune, the guys from HA Motorsport told me about CROME when I contacted them so for some reason I thought it's a CROME-only chip

I'll dive into some tutorials and stuff before ordering and probs next week I'll take it and see what's up. I'll update with results if you are interested. Thanks for help once again.

 

Why do you think he is trolling? He is helping me with the information he is giving me, looked at his profile and website and he is not lying - seems like a really experienced tuner, so don't know why you think he is trolling/not helping me?

 

What you linked to says it includes an SST27SF512 which is the right chip to get. Its actually a chip capable of holding 2 tunes, selectable with the Moates 2timer or similar (a few other people make similar).

Yes that will work with hts or bmtune. A moates demon or ostrich will too.

Tuning with a chip alone will be tiresome, as you won't be able to make real time updates. I think the Moates Ostrich 2.0 is discontinued, tho you can find them on FB marketplace. A Moates Demon would be better since it does chip emulation and datalogging on 1 board thru 1 usb cable. Just cleaner.

Moates.net has most hardware on the cheap

 

You speak in absolutes... and that is just plain mechanically and technically wrong. A stock Honda/Acura engine with 9-10:1 compression and mild to moderate cams will NOT benefit from using E85 at all over 93 octane pump gas. Your example in the link you provided is a fully built 12.5:1 compression engine with big cams... and the extra octane found in E85 over 93 pump gas will certainly allow that engine to reach maximum power before the detonation threshold. The OP has a STOCK engine, so there is no benefit in using E85... all he/she will get are the negatives. Fuel system damage... poor fuel economy... corrosion...

Maybe "Troll" is the wrong word, but picking a fight with me in the middle of your thread isn't helpful or productive for you... and I was merely attempting to bring him back on topic for you, not suggest he wasn't helping at all.

So, just to be clear here for the OP... would you rather tune with a chip/burner/emulator or a Demon (or dare I say it... S300) ??? How much money would the OP save by buying a couple SST chips, a chip burner and a used Ostrich or ROMulator (and maybe some patch cables or serial converters if necessary) compared to buying a Demon ??? Is the convenience worth the savings ??? It certainly appears by your own statement above that a single USB cable between laptop and ECU is a cleaner, more convenient (and more efficient) way to tune. If the OP decided to tune on a dyno, wouldn't this also provide the possibility of a shorter, and thus LESS expensive, tuning session ???

Lastly, lets not forget that it has been said over and over again here, as well as nearly every other forum... it is always a good idea to choose a tuning solution that the tuner at the dyno that you intend to use is familiar with... not just whatever YOU think is best or just happened to be a good deal. If however, one is simply going to "Street Tune" in a DIY fashion, it doesn't matter what the local tuner thinks and all options are on the table... but this doesn't mean that when you want to turn the wick up on that project that you have, and you want to make sure it is safe by placing it on a dyno, that the tuner will be agreeable then.

 

I'm not going to quote all that so this thread doesn't get outrageously long.

Have you ever tuned a stock motor on e85? I have. Many of them. They are all faster than their 93/87 octane brethren. The lower the static compression the lower the gain. I live in the middle of the midwest where e85 pumps are everywhere and the folks in my town test the stations fuel quality like a religion. All my friends run E. So I have a decent amount of experience with it.

There's another myth I will bust for you. I've been running e85 for the last 2 years on one of my track cars completely stock fuel system minus rc550 injectors (from ~2003). The stock fuel pump and lines are fine. I don't have black rubber particles in my fuel tank and my return lines are fine. I have read bad things, but I experimented on my own stuff for fun. So far so good. Shoot it sat with a half tank of E all winter. Fired up like a champ. Never had issues with E corroding stuff or gumming things up.

I have 'resurrected' tuning using a moates ostrich and a hulog and bmtune as of this year. I did avoid them for years, avoiding crome. But those days are over. Spreading awareness that hondata and neptune are an expense you can avoid. Yeah you still have to buy hardware, either way, but you don't need to spend money for a license for software!

1 cable is cleaner but its functionally no different than single cable/board designs. No it won't affect dyno tuning speed thats funny.

 

​​​​​​Ethanol blends make more power even on a non-knock limited NA motor than 91 octane, proof for the future googlers

My hatch is still running 100% oem fuel lines and still running e85 after all these years. No issues! Myth still busted!