Unichip?

O

OUTRNNR

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I was thinking about trying out the Unichip for the 2005+ 4.7L V8. They offer an option to have it tuned for catback exhaust and cold air intake. Since I already have catback and plan to get a CAI in the future, this is the one I would get.

Its $700, so what I want to do is call up martel brothers and ask them what their return policy is, because basically what I want to do is try this thing out and see if I see any improvement in power or fuel economy and if I don't see significant enough gains I want to send it back and get my money back. Does anyone think they'll do that?

Does anyone here think that I'll see significant power gains (15+ HP) from this thing? I'm kind of skeptical because its hard for me to believe that Toyota would leave power under the table. Would it just make it run richer? Would I need to use premium fuel? I guess these are questions I should ask them, but I wanted to run it by everyone here first. Unichips testimonials look promising on their website....(obviously)

I don't mind being the guinea pig here so if no one knows I might just give this thing a shot as long as I am able to return it for a full refund. :D

Check it out...

http://www.martelbrothers.com/product.php?productid=14985&cat=0&page=
 
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Get it dynoed before and after (don't go by your butt-o-meter) and make them guarantee the 15 wheel horsepower since most of that HP was already gained with the CAI and the exhaust.
Turbo cars can see that gain easily from a computer tweak since they are forced induction and they can just tell the wastegate to delay when it opens but on a naturally aspirated motor can only advance the timing a bit but not much and it's just more of a scam to separate your from your money and $700 is alot.

Your $700 will get you a little better throttle response and maybe a little horspepower higher in the RPM band than you'd normally run at but is it worth it.
 
RonMAIDEN said:
Get it dynoed before and after (don't go by your butt-o-meter) and make them guarantee the 15 wheel horsepower since most of that HP was already gained with the CAI and the exhaust.
Turbo cars can see that gain easily from a computer tweak since they are forced induction and they can just tell the wastegate to delay when it opens but on a naturally aspirated motor can only advance the timing a bit but not much and it's just more of a scam to separate your from your money and $700 is alot.

Your $700 will get you a little better throttle response and maybe a little horspepower higher in the RPM band than you'd normally run at but is it worth it.
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Fair enough. That's pretty much what I was thinking anyways. The way I see it, if I can return it, why not?

And my butt-o-meter happens to be very fine tuned thank you very much (+/- 1hp) This is due to being able to feel the differences in HP using Throttle Body Spacers :D ;): :bonk:
 
Out

I do not know alot about unichip but i am well aware that they do make chips for some of the higher end cars such as Audi and Porsche.

As for would there be power availible. Absolutly. Manufactuerers always error WAY on the side of caution and generally run too much fuel. I have seen it time and time again in chevys all the way up to porsche and BMW.

I would suspect that 15hp would be possible with a chip as BMW's with much higher tuned engines are able to make about that amount of power. The issue that comes into play is what does uni chip do? How are they adjusting things for an intake and exhaust? Do they just adjust throttle mapping or do they adjust fuel curves and injector pulse width...
really what is it?

700 is certainly alot but i have paid that and more for BMW software, which provided less power. I know for most of the guys here on the board its alot for not much which is true but for those of us that are always searching for the last little bit of power, its about on par with a set of headers. If i were you, i would also check out JBA's headers for the 4.7L. While they are made for the tundra, it may be possible to use the headers. by doing so you would have to run some after market catalytic converters down stream but that again would net more power especially in a larger v8 application.

Im not telling you how to spend your money at all. As for the dyno...if it feels more powerful, generally it is. I have been blessed to be sponsored by many BMW tuners and everytime I have been asked to field test something that had a power increase, I have been within 2hp/trq of the actual dyno'd numbers. The thing with dynos is that they too have a skewablility factor. Especially for an AWD dyno.

If you do this chip before I do, please let me know first out of anyone on this board. I am as interested in power out of the 2uz engine as anyone else on this board.
 
I miss OBDI computers that didn't care what you did to the car but still enabled you to control it through a few electronics which made tuning my '93 Eclipse quite simple.

I installed a 3" turbo back exhaust,manual boost controller set at 17psi,filter,fuel pump and an air flow convertor along with some software and a Palm pilot to monitor things and still kept everything under $800 and while I never had it dynoed it did drop nearly 2 seconds off my 1/4 mile time so roughly 100hp was gained.
Ok,then I needed $600 for a stronger clutch with install. :mad:

OBDII still allows for tuners to control some parameters but the car industry doesn't want you to do anything under the hood once OBDIII gets here.
I've seen alot of gizmos promising hp gains but some seem slight of hand in a way and most big numbers are posted by factory forced induction cars while the NA cars get what amounts to a little spark advance to go along with the better airflow that you already took care of thus your small HP gain.
 
Ron im completely with you..thats why i would ask UNICHIP to (in a general sense) what they really tune.

I have no doubt that 10-15 hp could be picked up, especially when paired with free flowing intake and exhaust tracts. In addition upgrading plugs and coils to make the most of the advanced spark timing would also help the cause. But when high performance coil on plug coils are availible, they are just as much as a set of headers or the chip itself. (800 bucks or so dealer cost)
 
Casper said:
Ron im completely with you..thats why i would ask UNICHIP to (in a general sense) what they really tune.

I have no doubt that 10-15 hp could be picked up, especially when paired with free flowing intake and exhaust tracts. In addition upgrading plugs and coils to make the most of the advanced spark timing would also help the cause. But when high performance coil on plug coils are availible, they are just as much as a set of headers or the chip itself. (800 bucks or so dealer cost)
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I plan on sending Unichip an email or giving them a call in the near future asking them the questions we have. A little busy right now, got a presentation to the big cheese tomorrow. I'll post the email when I hear from them.
 
I would personally work with Split Sec. I can't remember the unit they have but you can use it to control the timing as well as the A/F. I know it is specifically made for the S/C but I'm sure they have a model that would work for you.

The Unichip for it's price has not yielded significant gains on the dynos over the other piggybacks/chips that the corolla and matrixes have been using in our clubs here in socal. With the AIC1 alone on the S/C'd engines in the corolla clubs the gains match the Unichip tuned S/C'd corolla/matrixes for 1/3 rd of the price.

Anyway I would reseach the following chip companies as at least one of them has worked it out so the VVT-i as well as the VVTi-L is taken into account.

e-manage
camcon
split sec
 
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