TwoMix9900

I keep hearing that resetting the ecu and getting a turboback exhaust/cat exhaust is the cheapest way to boost the performance for your buck...like u can boost the car's performance by about 10-20% spending around 2 grand...true?

Señor Info

The cheapest way to boost your EVO's performance is by upping its turbocharger's boost with a manual boost controller. Coincidentally, this is also the cheapest way to trash your engine.

absinthe

10-20% would be a close approximation for a N/A motor expect much much more out of this motor for that.

A Flash/piggy back Ecu 500$

Turbo Back exhaust 1000$

expect 17-25% gains near 350 crank hp for about 1500$



An MBC (manual boost controler) can be had under 100$ but its generally a bad idea if you know as little about this as one would sumise from your question.

silverEVO8

iTrader: (12)

A mail order Dynoflash with the Bushur intake for around $225 (please excuse if I'm wrong on the price, I can't remember...) would seem to be the best bang for the buck. The MBC is also very cheap and effective, but you definitely need an accurate boost gauge to set it so there goes another $50 to $150 plus a lot more work and hassle..... Oh yeah, a misused MBC will kill your motor

silverEVO8

iTrader: (12)

I dont want to argue with you, but 350 crank HP with those mods is not guaranteed..... Some cars will make that, but many others will not. A flash or piggyback with off-the-shelf maps will not necessarily help if the car is prone to knocking......

The turbo back exhaust can yield more top end power, but will cost low end grunt.... It's all about compromises and how much money you want to spend.....

absinthe

Yeah I know I was rounding off on the power numbers, a good ecu tune should help compensate for some lost low end grunt though. Also you can help to compensate for this by including mods that will help speed up turbo spool. smoother intake and turbo pipes, drop-in filters come to mind but their effectiveness is highly disputed.

Speedlimit

If you are on a budget, then Buschur is a very good choice. He has a package designed to get you into the 12's economically. Visit his website and take a look at the staged upgrades and the costs. Dave was the 2002 IDRC Pro Class National Champion and had the first Diamond Star in the 12's, 11's, 10's 9's and 8's.

Speedlimit .....

silverEVO8

iTrader: (12)

I can tell you from first hand experience that the drop-in filter did not seem to do anything for the power. You are right about a good ecu tune, that's the only way you can assure that some gains will be realized. IMHO (and from my experience) the best bang for the buck is Al's Dynoflash. The other ones might work out well in the end, but they'll cost alot more. I tried SAFC-2 with AMS settings first. That was not a good solution for me I spent over $600 on the SAFC2, the MBC and drop-in filter from AMS plus the Fields harness from Z1.... I sold the SAFC & Harness for a $100+ dollar loss. The MBC worked out well but the instructions were not clear and I had a hell of a time setting it up (by looking at the pictures it's very easy to install it backwards). The K&N seems to be a placebo type of thing. The $600 custom dynoflash will really improve the performance *and* safely too (very important) The other piggy-backs would not have worked at all without expert tuning..... So much for the economy of piggy backs (or effectiveness) .....

DynoKing

My xede works well, and you can change it with new maps for free and if you want to you can sell it later on. With a flash you can not do any of these. If you change things with a dynoflash you have to send it back and pay more money. I would say spend the extra $300 and get a xede over the dynoflash if you plan on doing other stuff to your car down the road, if you never want to do anything else the dynoflash or Vishnu's flash maybe the way to go. The only problem I have with flashes if you can not remove them if you ever need to.

rebelzx

iTrader: (4)

Manual boost controller, downpipe, fuel pump, and dynoflash or tuned afc- should yield atleast 300 whp for $1000. Add another $650 for high flow cat and catback exhaust, and you can hit 315-320. That's getting close to 400 at the crank

silverEVO8

iTrader: (12)

The dynoflash can be removed anytime you want to and the stock map will be reloaded into the ECU. As far as doing more adjustments to the ECU, the reflash works just as well as long as you are within driving distance from Al. He wont charge you any more money to custom retune your ECU (most likely less) than any tuner will charge you to dyno tune or street tune the XEDE. If you want to go with Shiv, that's OK, but there is no need to say false, negative things about other products, they all have plenty of true negative points. Stick to the facts please.

DynoKing

What if you are in Atlanta and want it flashed back to stock? You have to send your ECU right? I can unplug the xede and you can not change any values once it's flashed. All I am saying is I have a switch for 93 and 104 gas and I can turn a switch to change it. As well as sell this xede if I want to down the road. A flash you can not do that with. I am not here to get into a pissing match with what is better I am just teling you the xede can do more and if you want you can sell it.

silverEVO8

iTrader: (12)

Sure you can sell the XEDE, but you pay more for it in the front. You still have to tune the thing and you cannot sell that because it's done specifically for your car. Basically, when I pay for the Dynoflash, I pay for the tuning. Sure, it's a little more problematic to send the ECU back to Al for a reflash, but that's the nature of this method. I know that Works as well as others sell the same product as Al's basic of-the-shelf reflash for a good bit more $$. I believe that Shiv is also working on a reflash product as well, and it will have the same drawbacks as the Dynoflash. It's all about choices and personal decisions. BTW, I don't see where you get the idea that I want to participate in any pissing contest or any other type of competition with you. I just wanted to share my knowledge and experience with TwoMix9900

-Peace

absinthe

He is a shiv diciple, and loves the fact you can tune it your self, frankly I had plug and play with the WRX and do with the 911, and probably will with the evo. I hate the hassel of piggy back and regulators like the greddy profec or afc.

The only real upside for me is that you can download a valet map. WHat would be really sweet is if they made all of this palm compatible and you could carry all of the maps as well as make adjustments to them to safegaurd against detonation on track days that set up would be worth the $750 Exede came to market at.

shiv@vishnu

iTrader: (20)

Ahem... the vast majority of our XEDE customers do not tune it themselves. They rely on the baseline maps which come pre-programmed into the XEDE (if necessary). What the are paying for is:

1) Upgradeability (we are constantly adding for function to it in the form up user-updateable firmware revisions. Expect to see wideband and other more useful tuning aids built in, in the near future)
2) User-tunability (kinda helpful if/when they ever go the dyno and want to extract the extra hp that we leave on the table in our baseline maps or to account for car-to-car variance.)
3) Ignition timing resolution (it improves the stock timing resolution by a factor of 10 which improves output smoothness, repeatability and tuning flexibility.
4) Map switching on the fly (toggle between maps of your choice depending on conditions/needs).
5) Ability to map beyond the 1.6bar of boost limit imposed by the factory fuel/timing maps.

There is a place in the market for every engine control offering. It's just important for people to know what the full present (and future) potential of each option and to pick the product which best suits their needs.

Regars,
shiv

PS. absinthe-- The XEDE is nothing like the plug-n-play unit I suspect you had in your WRX. Neither in form nor function.