Piggyback ECU

[Alex]

Copied from the Supraforums....

http://www.supraforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23173

 

 

The Unichip is a piggy back ECU, and used to be called the PROgram, it was used largely by Porsche owners...but is adaptable to nearly any car, including the MKIV Supra. I'd never heard of anyone using it with a MKIV until now. One of our local Seattle area Supra owners was talked into being a "guinea pig" for the installation and tuning of the Unichip, and the results are very good so far. The bang for the buck of the Unichip looks unbeatable at this point, but I'm waiting patiently for them to explore the possibilities and limitations of it. Here is what I know so far:

 

The car that it was installed on is a 1997 6 speed with about 50k miles and standard BPU mods (no FMIC) except for ported turbos. He has an HKS downpipe with catalytic converter still on the car and it made 385 rwhp/403 rwtq on pure 92 octane pump gas. The dyno graph (which I do not have) is very smooth...much smoother than I've come to expect from running pump gas. Not sure what boost he ran at for that, but I can tell you that he is using the Unichip for fuel control (instead of the HKS VPC/GCC).

 

The Unichip may prove to be the best bang for the buck solution for the MKIV, as it will effectively replace a Greddy BCC, HKS VPC, HKS GCC, and GForce upgraded ECU...all for about $600 (uninstalled). This compares favorably to the AEM, which is set to retail for $1999 or so, but I won't tell you that it can do things the AEM cannot because I have a feeling the AEM is more capable overall. The Unichip is not a direct replacement for the factory ECU, but plugs into it and is tuned by a laptop computer interface.

 

Judging from what I saw so far, I may personally be getting a Unichip instead of the upcoming AEM ECU...but I'll wait and see. Here is more information on the Unichip if you're interested:

 

http://www.theracersgroup.com/theprogram_unichip.html

 

By the way, I hope this doesn't come across as a "AEM bashing post"...that is by no means my intention. The AEM unit is going to rock, but I am so happy to learn of another option when it comes to ECU upgrades for the MKIV...and for substantially less money. Don't bother asking me any technical questions as I am sure I cannot answer them...I'm presenting all I know for now.