ECU Chip Upgrade

[CV580]

The car: 2001 Boxster 2.7

I am considering upgrading the ECU chip. I have spoken to three sources 1) GIAC 2) Upsolute 3) Powerchip. I am looking for customer results, support, satisfaction, and most important - true resulting performance after the upgrade

They cost is more or less the same - within $100.

Upsolute ads and website claim the best gain of all. They have an installation facility within 150 miles from home. The others require pulling the ECU and sending it overnight (downtime - 3 days).

Is there anyone out there who had experience with these upgrades and is willing to share that experience?

Any comment or advise is welcome.

imo, there all bs

[steve00s]

The chip would be pretty far down my list of modifications after the last three years of "building" my car. I had the GIAC software loaded in my car a couple of month ago and have not been overly impressed. In both spirited street driving and a day at the track I really didn't notice much difference. While I have experienced huge improvements in other vehicles with chipping the Porsche engineers just didn't leave that much on the table.

[John Y]

From personal experience, I would urge you to go with GIAC out of those three.

As with all normally-aspirated engines, gains from chipping will never come close to the benefit a turbocharged car will see - it will be a modest gain, especially on an engine where the manufacturer has gone further down the road towards maximizing stock power than most mass-market manufacturers will. Lots of people seem to forget that, or haven't had previous chipped experience with either a turbo or normally-aspirated engine, which is why they are disappointed.

Whether such modest improvements are worth the price is up to you. The fact is that there is not alot of additional power to be squeezed out of these engines unless you are going to add a turbo- or supercharger.

[blinkwatt]

Oh boy not this again.....(hides under a rock)

[silvered]

i am biased - but i say Powerchip

[Boxtaboy]

I think if you are going to do this mod, you should do it last. What I mean is you are not going to get much gain from the chip alone. However, if you first alter your intake system, your headers, switch to sport cats or cat bypass, and add a freer flowing sports exhaust, then getting your ECU reflashed to take advantage of the differences would perhaps make sense. A chip alone or reflash alone, imo, does nothing but make you $1K poorer.

[myeboxsters]

Isn't the increased performance "feel" from chipping mostly the result of the chip simply reseting how the engine reads throttle position. In other words, the chipped car responds to half-throttle as if you were flooring it (or something like that). Very little performance gain from actually adjusting how the engine performs internally.

Or is that not right at all?

[porsche986spyder]

Chips usually just re-map the cars air-to-fuel ratio per gear at different RPMs. Basically changing the O.E.M. settings for more tourqe and horse power. Gains are usually very small.

[porsche986spyder]

Originally Posted by Boxtaboy

I think if you are going to do this mod, you should do it last. What I mean is you are not going to get much gain from the chip alone. However, if you first alter your intake system, your headers, switch to sport cats or cat bypass, and add a freer flowing sports exhaust, then getting your ECU reflashed to take advantage of the differences would perhaps make sense. A chip alone or reflash alone, imo, does nothing but make you $1K poorer.

From my past exp. with import tunning this is EXACTLY right. Best thing to do is get the car ready to breath better before you change the ECU. Then you will be taking advantage of all the bolt-on mods made. Could not have said it any better.

[jordan986]

http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?p=101690#post101690

similar thread only more positive responses in my opinion the chip was not a real good investment, after having it for awhile I now wish I had just save my money for something else like a sc

[edevlin]

Hi have mentioned before that my favorite mod, if I had only one to do would be to the suspension. A nice set of coilovers and lowering made my base 2000 boxster run like a slot car. That being said, I really like the responsiveness of the car with the Autothority chip that I am using.

It seems to have flattened the torque curve, and has made the car more responsive and fun to drive. If you have the funds, go for chipping, if I am not mistaken, most let you try them out. If you have the funds, go for it, but if you dont, beware of the slippery slope of modding the car. I speak from experience, its great fun, but ouch it costs.....


Ed

:dance: