I was wondering are there any ECU chip upgrades for my 98 Tiburon, if there is where and how much do they cost?

 

HDK is offering them, but the only person I know who ordered it got the wrong chip, and they still have not sent him the right chip 2 months later...

There is the "unichip". It will run you about $1000 installed and tuned.

 

Can you tell me exactly what this chip does. I've heard of chips you can get to add horsepower but im not sure of that.

 

For "other" cars, there are chips that can alter performance, but there are currently not any available for North American Spec Beta engines.

The UniChip is used to 100% optimize fuel and timing. It is most often used on cars after a few modifications.

Find out about it here. http://www.airpowersystems.com.au/wrx/unichip.htm

There's a link from the company that makes it around here somewhere....I'll try to dig it out.

 

I thought Alpine was offering one...am I wrong?

 

Alpine installs the UNICHIP with their turbo and superchip applications, but they are not offering the chip for sale by itself.

 

Ahhh...thanx for clearing that up.

 

There is also another option...

I picked up my aftermarket ECU from PowerChip Australia. They offer a few different "levels", and supposedly the "Gold" version is the best. When I bought mine, the Gold version was on special and was the same price as the regular version, so I opted for the fancy version.

They supposedly modify the fuel and ignition tables for the mods that you tell them about. However, mine loves to eat gasoline (wayyyy to rich) and will ping at the mere thought of anything lower than 91 octane -- in fact, it often pings even when you're running 92 and above.

For the money I spent on the PowerChip upgrade ($440 or thereabouts with shipping and tariffs/duties) I would have rather bought both Apexi S-AFC and ITC units. I already have the S-AFC to get the fuel to behave itself, I still wish I had the ITC to get the damn pinging under control.

I wouldn't worry about a "chip" on these cars, it seems to be an expensive upgrade that yields little results. If you want something for more ignition timing and fuel control, either buy the Apexi units, or you can do a full Haltec install for a few hundred more bones than the UniChip setup (in which the Haltec will royally kick ass)

-Red-

 

Red-

I thought the Powerchip only worked on "a-spec" and non USA model Betas....

 

They'll do it for any of the BETA's, but if your ECU isn't already in their file, you have to send your stock computer to them FIRST so they can scan it.

That's why my car was out of comission for about two weeks when I had it done -- stock computer had to be scanned by the gurus there and then a new chip built. The cool thing is, they build a socket right on the stock PCB so you can swap out the stock computer and the "new" computer anytime you want to. Of course you cannot sell the "new" computer without selling your entire ECU assembly, because nobody else will have that socket there.

Even after doing myself, I wouldn't recommend it. Too much hassle, time and money for not enough performance.

-Red-