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Posted by The Max (92 J30 Maxima (turbo project underway)) on August 24, 2002 at 08:53:29:
In Reply to: Taking Maxima tuning to the next step. posted by Matt on August 23, 2002 at 14:00:00:
What you need to do is sit yourself down and ask yourself, "For all the work I'm about to perform, how much hp will I get? Is it worth all that effort or should I put the same effort but a few more bucks into it and get even more hp?" I was originally saying that I was going to aim for 300hp at the crank as that should be plenty. Then after doing all the homework, I figured I was going to spend shitloads slapping up all the piping, only a LITTLE less on the turbocharger itself and probably half the cost on the injectors. I was still going to need a decent ECU and JWT would be of no help given my geographical location. You can't just tell an ECU tuner, I'm throwing all this stuff in, xyz, making b^3 horsepower, come up with a program for me. Thanks! It doesn't work that way, so as a result, a good engine management system is required and I've gone straight to the MoTeC in the interests of fuel economy and reliable engine control. But that's mucho $$$ and a little more on the dyno. So in the end, I figured, fuck it ... I'll be paying another 20% into what I've budgeted and I'll get 100% more out of it - which is what brought me to my current goal of 500hp. Regardless of whether I was going for a little more horsepower or a lot, the engine management has to be half decent. The Unichip is a good concept, but for the amount of money you'll pay for the unit, install it AND dyno tune it, you'd be better off saving up a little more and getting a MoTeC to do the job significantly better and your dyno tuning guy will love you for it too. Either way though, the engine management alone is not the way to gain hp, not in my books.
You take it to the limits of your budget but with reasonable expectations of that.