Unichipped Evo2

Hi all,

Just got back from Fife (400 miles). Reason for going was to create a way of being able to live map the fuelling AND timing of the E30 M3, also to be able to remove the AFM in the process.

Many Thanks to Gerry at Dastek for all his help and hard work creating diagrams and finally mapping the car even though it was a very late - or early hour!

Results are as follows:

My dyno figures taken a couple of months ago were 176.8BHP @ roadwheels with me calculating that to be approx 221BHP @ flywheel @ 7000RPM. Bear in mind, this was done on a 20 year old Bosch dyno, and the power run is done in such a way that it takes an age to keep all things cool and keeping the engine at its optimum.

Gerry's dyno allows the run to be completed in 1 go with no heat issues whatsoever.....ask Toby

The first run was carried out as the car turned up (Standard Evo2 with just a Bexleys chipped ECU and a different rear silencer which probably does nothing to any power increase?) 183BHP @ R/W, 223.6BHP @ F/W @ 7000RPM, Torque was 164 ft.lb @ 5250RPM. Fuelling looked not too far away, and as Gerry said, not much would be gained from re-mapping the fuel alone.

We fitted the unichip to the car and had to do a couple of small modificatons to the ECU to allow mapping of the ignition timing. This was carried out on a standard Evo2 ECU which had only been modified to raise the rev limiter to 7750RPM ish. This was a spare ECU I had. Also at this stage we fitted a new TPS sensor which would allow removal of the AFM. It has the same switching as the original TPS sensor, but also has a potetiometer inside for throttle angles. All this work has no effect to the 2nd Power run with this ECU at this time, and the 2nd power run was carried out with the AFM still fitted and working, the new TPS was just used for switching, as the original would have done.

Results of 2nd Power run... 221.9BHP@ F/W @ 7000 RPM, Torque 159.7 ft.lb @ 7000 RPM too.

We removed the AFM, and replaced it with a tube bodified to fit in place of the AFM exactly, so round one end, and square the other. The original air filter and housings were retained. Also some small simple wiring modifications were carried out to allow the throttle pot to work.

Results of the final power run after mapping Unichip.... 226.4BHP @ 7000 RPM, Torque 171 ft.lb @ 5750 RPM, although 170 ft.lb is also available at 4600RPM too  

Gerrys opinions, and I agree, are that the Unichip could have made the same gains without removing the AFM. The AFM as such doesn't in itself cause a restriction, as there was still the same depression measured in the inlet manifold with or without the AFM fitted on full throttle. This could be because the dimentions of the tube intake is exactly the same as the AFM itself. So further development is needed in this area. We decided to stop there (12.25 am!!!)

Conclusions.... This has opened up a whole new world for ease of remapping the E30 M3, and acts just like a Motec would with much less costs, and also alpha N with the exception that the timing too can be live mapped as well. As the AFM can now be removed too, a nice carbon airbox can be fitted too, also with the capabilities of the new Unichip thats been fitted to my Evo2, Supercharging/Turbo'ing, Nitrous control, etc, etc, etc are now much more affordable possibilities.

Also, the car drives much, much smoother now. The engine's vibrations and low rev's, high gear drive train shuddering have all virtually dissappeared. The engine is much more eager on lighter throttle positions, and also on full throttle although the outright power isn't a great deal higher than the Bexleys remapped ECU, it is 10-12 BHP up on the standard ECU at certain sites, and it feels much, much stronger too.

Fuel consumption is much better too....I brimmed the tank in Bristol, drove there steadily to get the best economy as poss, and it all but used all the tank by the time I goto Fife. Needle on red, but light not yet on. Today, I filled up as much as I could....didn't wait to brim it, gave the car a much harder time on the way back (quietly), and I still have a full quater of a tank left.

People up North who want this done to thier E30 M3's should talk to Gerry at Dastek about it. I think it is a worthwile conversion, and is the only real way of knowing you have FULLY optimised the mapping.

I wasn't expecting much when I got to drive the car after mapping as the outright figures were not much higher than the Bexleys chip, but I am very suprised with how much more eager the car is now especially on part throttle loads. The better fuel consumption and much smoother idling is a much appreciated bonus! Many, many thanks goto Gerry at Dastek (0845 3454045)

 

Edited by SHEPSM3

Thanks Dave, nearly 1000 miles for 3/4BHP & 5/7ft.lb at max points didn't seem worthwhile, but the car is transformed.

Costs....still TBA at the moment. But the TPS used is a BMW and Bosch part, so too are the connectors and pins used for it. Allow close to £100 for this alone. The Unichip used on my car is the new Uni-Q. Awesome bit of kit. The Unichip sells for approx £265 retail + VAT. I am unsure how much the new Uni-Q will be, but when it is officially out (to the Unichip dealers) I suspect it will not cost much more than the original Unichip. It is set to replace all versions of the Unichip.

The rest of the costs is labour to make up a loom for the new TPS, mods to the ECU and mapping. Ofcourse the time is all down to how quick and competent the technician is and what dyno its being mapped on.

A kit maybe made up by Gerry at Dastek, this is something I mentioned to him when I initially decided to go this route, but its something I will have to chat about further.

The point being, this allows you to LIVE remap the fuelling as you can with Alpha N AND be able to LIVE re-map the timing as with the Motec with less costs.

I will be able to carry out this work too in the not too distant future if anyone is interested down here in the SW.

Thanks Uwe!

Its Gerry who is owed all the praise. He's a top man who doesn't give up!

I dont think the Uni-Q as used on mine has been officially released to the Unichip dealers? But it would have to be a Unichip dealer who will have to access your chip and re-map. Although this is the case, I am sure there are dealers who will allow you to some extent to have input on how you want the car mapped.

You have PM by the way.

How much are these carbon airboxes?

EDIT: Or should we remove the original metal airbox and just fit socks over the trumpets?

Edited by SHEPSM3

Paul,

I may well be interested in this...I'm tempted to put full a full EMS on mine, but it's been suggested that it's probably more trouble than it's worth (i.e. more complex than I need for what I want to do).

Bristol is not exactly close to me, but it's a lot closer than fife!

Just to clarify, is this a piggyback system like the MAXX, or just a fully programmable chip?

Cheers.

Darren, Yes you can use any air box with the Uni-Q, as you can fit a different TPS (doesn't have to be the BMW item) with a throttle potentiometer snd this will allow the AFM to be removed (as with my Evo2).

Jpboost, Yes it is a piggy back ECU, Gerry says he will be working on a new harness to plug straight into the original ECU loom and ECU itself, so no more looms will have to be made up. The TPS Gerry suggests will also have the same connector as the original, so this will also plug straight into the original loom, but this TPS will be a potentiometer, not a switch as the original is. To overcome this, the Uni-Q can send a signal to the ECU as the original TPS did. Good bit of kit. This is not "just" a reprogrammable chip, its virtually another stand alone ECU. Incidently, you can run it with a different crank sensor and wheel if you want to as well.

Matt, you are right! But the old special version of the Unichip for this car had faults as in it would pick up interferrance. I guess electrical interferance. That Uni-chip has long ago been discontinued.

Here are the power and torque graphs for my Evo2, all three runs explained in my original post. Please note, the RPM is approx 500 RPM too fast due to the rev counter reading incorrect. Was just used for referrence. All RPM settings were left as the first run was set.

Red is 1st run with Bexleys chipped ECU, Blue is 2nd run with standard ECU with raised limiter, Green is remapped standard ECU with Uni-Q.

Any comments would be greatly recieved.

Edited by SHEPSM3

Appears to be a great cheap alternative to motec etc... Will bear it in mind if i ever get to the carbon airbox stage 

Paul, a few pics of what I did to get a bit more air in
there. Note these are a bit old, but its all still there.
All very cheap and chearful, was ment to be a 'stop
gap' but its still there a year later... although its now
alot more tidy and neater.

4 inch pipe and rubber seal from B&Q... 100mm 45*
elbow.



Lip of lower airbox cut off and 100mm duct fitted
which leads too...



Intake in the front bumper with a collector behind to
direct the air into the duct.





Edited by 215DMX

In the end i bought a billet Weber Alpha one at 4.3
bar.   Same price as the bosch ones. And its 1:1 as
well, but an external fitting. The 3.5 bar porshe 944
one should work fine as it has push on fittings.

Did i give you the number for that?

I think 13:1 is slighty too lean, 12.5-12.8 above
5000rpm WOT seems to be the concensus for
maximum power on the S14.

There is also the option of injectors from a Peugoet
505 ( I think) which are around 330cc.

No I haven't fitted a vacuum guage to the inlet, but I
would be inclined to think that the std pleunum has
something to do with the depression, probibly how
the reversion pulses react within it, not too sure.

All would be solved with a carbon airbox though!!!

I have plotted your numbers over a run i did in my Evo2 last August. Apologies for the inaccuracies in plotting as I obviously joined the dots by hand.

The graph only extends to 7191 rpm where mine maxxed out on power, yours produced max at around 7500, amazing for a standard engine.

The bold red (torque)and black (power) lines are for a standard engine, produced by BMW in their marketing brochure.

You car produced way more below 4500 than mine, before the chip, but less after and more all round with the chip.

I wonder whats going on with mine to be so down below 4500? Anyone any ideas or would you concur about clogged injectors? Surely clogged injectors would cause loss of power all the way up the rev range?

We are still way below the factory torque curve though. I wouldn't mind the extra.
Kevin