Superchips for the VR6

[dan 0]

Last week I called into a garage who supply & fit the 'Superchips'. I didn't have the c with me but he said that it would be no problem & that he had fitted a few chips to some Golf Vr6's with good results. He told me that I could expect as much as a 10% increase.

 

He told me to remove the ECU box & give him the number on the outside of the box, it started with 0126... or something.

 

The reason he wanted to know the number was to determin the number of pins on the chip. Turns out my 94 VR6 has 28 pins which was good as my garage man had these in stock & could fit it the following evening for me. He expected the whole job to take about an hour.

 

I took the car to him on Monday evening & he removed the chip from the car. He had to melt the solder on the back of each of the 28 pins, remove the chip ensuring the little holes on the board were nice & clean so as he could plug in (as he described it as a) receiver chip. Basicially by fitting this little receiver I can now plug in & remove any future chips without having to solder them in place.

 

He then went to the 'Superchips' web site to look for the VR6 programme to burn onto the new blank chip he had sitting in a little chip burner/writer attached to his PC. As usual the only one he could get was the Golf VR6 programme but he said that they were the same.(????)

 

Anyway, we made the new chip & fitted all back into the car, at this point I must admit the little butterflies started in my stomach as I anticipatred a fun drive home. So, put the chip in, turned over the ignition & guess what... it wouldn't start :roll:

 

We then removed the chip again & he checked the soldering etc. then he told me that the programme he downloaded would not write onto his blank chips so I'd have to call back on Thursday evening. We then put the original chip back in & I headed for home (35 miles btw)

 

To make matters worse when I got into the C yesterday morning it started a clicking & wouldn't start. I phoned my Superchip man & he assured me that it was just a bad connection from the original chip as he didn't clean it properly.

 

Any suggestions or questions that I should ask him tomorow when I call back. I'm not sure about the Golf VR6 programme on the C, anyone know for sure?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

You should really be taking it to Stealth for a Piggy back or Geoff Everett (ex AMD) remap. And the emphaisis is on the word 'remap'. You don't want an 'off the shelf' chip burnt because no two engines are the same and how can a 2.8 Golf engine be the same as a 2.9 engine? I can't believe the guy said they were. More air and fuel required on the 2.9 for starters..... :roll:

 

The car needs a dyno plot *first* to examine the peaks and troughs and then a remap applied afterwards with a second dyno to check the chip hasn't given you a worse torque curve than before.

 

Pay him for the chip holder work on the ECU board (cause that's handy!) and then go elsewhere mate.

 

K

[Robbo149 0]

Been looking at a chip (possibly with one of Alpina's BB throttle bodies) as my next mod & wondering about where to get a remap done. I've used AmD before & they were great, but Oxford is light years away from me! Where is Geoff based now Kev, is he still in Oxford?

 

cheers,

Robbo

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Hi Rob

 

I think Geoff does freelance work now and he comes out to Stealth's premises to do rolling road remaps. Stealth are in Warwickshire, which isn't far from Oxford. That really is the best option, or a Stealth supplied and fitted piggy-back module. A Geoff remap will cost you £350+VAT and the Piggy-back is about £400+VAT I think.

 

Schrick group buyers get £50 off those prices, which is just aswell as I've got a pair of 268s to go in at some point, so I'll need another remap too, but my ECU has already been modded in the past, so less work second time round :lol:

 

Superchips might be OK on a new engine, but an older one will need more specific tuning done to get the most out of it.

 

K

[Robbo149 0]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with an "off the shelf" chip. As you say all engines are different & need a custom remap (especially with a BB TB).

 

Robbo

[dan 0]

Cheers guys... my 'superchip' man has got a new rolling road in place, thats why I went with him. Although he has yet to fit the 'tie downs' for it so I can't run my car 'before & after' on it.

 

My problem is that living in N Ireland makes a trip to AmD hardly worth while. When I contacted AmD before regarding a chip for the C they told me they would send me out one for £250 off the shelf... you see my predicament!

 

So, now that I'm better versed on the subject I can talk to my 'Superchips' man & tell him that 'I want a before & after run on his rollers'. If there is even a 5% increase in my cars output then I'd be happy to pay him.

 

How much should the work he has carried out so far be worth? (i.e. fitted the little piggy back thing)

[PhatVR6 0]

have you had a word with designa dubs? I bet he can do you a chip cheaper than that.

[dan 0]

have you had a word with designa dubs? I bet he can do you a chip cheaper than that.

 

No m8... never heard of them... any contact details?

[PhatVR6 0]

http://www.designadubs.com/

[dan 0]

Cheers Phat,

 

I've sent them an e-mail asking for they're advice, so, we'll see what they respond with

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Ah, I should have looked at your Avatar and realised you're in Ireland!

 

In that case a Superchips chip will be fine, so long as he can apply parameters you're happy with, as opposed to using a generic map which by the sounds of it is for a Golf only, which won't give you the optimum results.