Unichip tuning results

[NJR 34GTT]

Just got my car re-tuned and dynoed and thought some people might be interested in the results, particularly the tuning of the unichip. Its a bit unfortunate that I don't have a pre-unichip dyno but I didn't own the car when it was fitted.

R34 GT-T tiptronic

Current mods are:

3.5" unknown japanese brand exhaust

3.5" unknown japanese brand dump pipe

Greddy Profec B boost controller

Blitz LM intercooler

Apexi Super Intake

Oil cooler

Unichip

The reason I got it re-tuned was because I felt the car was running too much boost and that it was running rich. The first run confirmed this with a very jumpy power curve although the AFR was ok at a very consistent 11.4. Peak power was 196rwkw. This was at 13psi.

Boost was then lowered to 10psi to see the effect which resulted in a very substantial drop in power. Down to almost 150rwkw.

A few more runs were made and then boost was set to 12psi because I feel that 12psi is safe enough for the street and am happy to risk it. This resulted in a similar power level to the first run but much smoother with a few dips here and there. The tuner then adjusted the ignition timing a few degrees here and there and got a very nice smooth curve. There is still one dip near the top of the range but couldn't seem to get rid of it. Final result using a peak of 12psi was 197rwkw and a very smooth curve.

I am more than pleased with this result and noticed the much smoother power delivery on my way home from the tuner.

[SS8_Gohan]

3.5" exhaust? loud car?

That's an impressive rwkw figure cos those are relatively minimal mods... nice job.

I heard that the stock R34 turbo's don't like being boosted over 12psi? And that 12 is kinda the max for them?

[NJR 34GTT]

Car is very very quiet. The intake is noisier than the exhaust.

12psi is considered by most to be the absolute max and the previous tune was done before I owned the car, and 13psi was far too high imo. However the car has been running this for almost 2 years now with no turbo problems.

[Jay95R33]

Good results there. You gotta be happy with that.

Pete is a good tuner and loves playing with cars. He was good with mine on the dyno.

J

[Abo Bob]

I realise that this was a while ago but what's with the squigly power line? It's all over the shop.

[R31Nismoid]

Yeah, not being rude but that is a very bad looking tune with the amount of movement there is.

It should be smooth indeed

[Robo's]

Looks like its on a rollercoaster

[satanic]

Just out of curiosity... Unichip mod and tune for the R34 will cost how much

[Abo Bob]

Probably $1800-$2k I would guess.

[NJR 34GTT]

That's a before and after.

The first red line was the shit tune that was done previously and was at 14psi. Far too much for the stock turbo and was causing surging resulting in the horrible curve. This was why I got it retuned in the first place.

The blue line which is much smoother is with lower boost as I mentioned in the original post. There is still a dip at ~5000rpm which we couldn't seem to get rid of.

[satanic]

Thanks Bob... do you think it's worth the money? Or better to stick with actual ECUs

Do you think that dips and flat spots on the graph is due to the difference between a chip and a ECU? Maybe this is a trade off between the two?

[NJR 34GTT]

The reason it has a unichip is because it's a tiptronic. You can't go aftermarket ECU because none can control the shift logic. And yes an aftermarket ECU will usually give a smoother curve than a plugin.

[satanic]

I've got a R34GTT in tiptronic as well... currently using the SAFCII (tuned on Monday). Attached are my dyno graphs (sorry about quality). Peaked at 194.6kw which is less than yours (probably due to absence of full exhaust)... Also only running 10psi of boost

Power curve is smooth, AFR curve is quite roller-coaster-ish

Edited September 21, 2005 by satanic

[NJR 34GTT]

Yeah I was just looking at your post.

Tempted to photoshop away the red curve to illustrate that the blue curve is much smoother but couldn't be bothered.

At the end of the day a unichip really is just a glorified SAFC that can do ignition timing. So you would expect similar results, and as dyno results read different, who knows, yours may have more power.

[satanic]

That's where I think your unichip will have the advantage... the timing! Unlike yours, the SAFCII is limited to AFRs but the chip can have a lot more stuff put in provided that the tuner knows what he/she is doing...

Worth a thought.

[R31Nismoid]

The blue line which is much smoother is with lower boost as I mentioned in the original post. There is still a dip at ~5000rpm which we couldn't seem to get rid of.

its a reasonable but that hole in the mid-top end shouldnt be there at all.

That would be quite noticeable id imagine

[ed]

maybe it's the auto tranny slipping?

2k for a tuned unichip?

might as well get the emanage then!

They have a special ignition harness for the 34's now.

[Andi]

Hmm does anybody know how many load points or what the map setup of the Unichip is? i.e. The SAFC only has 12 points which are set via RPM, while the E-Manage has a 16x16 map of RPM vs. TPS.

None the less thats still an awesome power figure for such little mods! How come your boost isn't even though? It seems to be at around 12 or just under for abit and then drops to 10psi as you go up in RPM/Speed. What boost controller are you using?

[Abo Bob]

Sorry for not reading your first post properly NJR.

Ongsta - Greddy Profec B boost controller (taken from first post also)

R31Nismoid - it's still a piggyback when it comes down to it. I think it's a good result.

NJR - does the ECU still drop the timing at gear changes at high rpm WOT? Or does it sort of slide into gear?

This thread certainly livened up!

[NJR 34GTT]

The flat spot isn't really noticable to me, but it could be to others. We actually tried changing the timing around that load point to make it better but could not make any change to it.

As for the boost tapering off, I suspect I have a leak in my turbo-exhaust gasket which is making that worse.

I'm not sure how I'd describe the gear changes as they all feel slow to me as all my previous cars have been manual and don't really have anything to compare it to. I think though I'd lean more towards the glide into gear, the tranny had issues with the previous owner and had many parts replaced so who knows.