Evolve Chip January Offer

[M5pilot]

Hi guys

We can do a group buy on the 318is and facelift 325i's. If we get 5 people we can do them for £50 and if we get 10 people we can do them for £40. Postage and packing will be £5. If there is interest we will start a new thread.

[tomstickland]

I fitted the chip whilst I was on holiday in Germany ('ring trip). General opinion amongst the E30 people I was with was that it'd make a difference at lower rpm, with maybe a few BHP of peak power.
Rev limit increased from 6.5K to over 7K, guess 7.2K.
Seems to go a bit better. In our 4 up test we were pretty impressed.
No major change to fuel consumptino, susepct it might even be a tad better for a constant 85mph cruise.

[M5pilot]

Thanks for the feedback Tom, glad your impressed with it.

[tomstickland]

After a bit more testing I can confirm that I'm very impressed with this.
The mpg has improved slightly on motorway runs (on like for like speeds).
I got a friend of mine to test it on his private runway and he found that it pulled well round to 140 indicated. It would pull to the 6.5K limiter previously with the std chip, but definitely a little bit more there.

[Speedtouch]

Very impressive for a 318is; I saw that out of my old 325iSE with Zone chip (on a private runway also as it goes).

[tomstickland]

I did 280 miles on 35 litres, at 80-85 the whole way, plus a few spurts and being stopped in traffic.
Works out as 36mpg.
Previously I found that a 70 cruise would give around 40mpg and 80-85 would be the low 30s.
So it's looking like a 3-4mpg improvement. That's an amazing 12% reduction. Let's call it 10%.

I'm so impressed I wish I'd fitted it earlier - it would have paid for itself pretty quickly.
32mpg is 14.2p/mile for £1/litre fuel
36mpg is 12.6p/mile ditto

so saving around 1.5p/mile. It would take only 2,500 miles to save £40.

My experience with vauxhall engines was that chipping was a complete waste of time.

[Speedtouch]

My experience with Vauxhall engines ('95 2.0iCDX Cavalier, Ecotec) was that its Siemens engine management kept abruptly cutting off the engine in the most dangerous locations, and it overheated severely

[Dave_M3]

That's a good little M42 you've got Tom!

Mine did an Indicated 150 testing on a private run-way last year with abit more to go, lol.
Only manages to get around 25mpg though

[tomstickland]

Well, it's very loose, burning quite a lot of oil, done 215K. Engines tend to go well when they're like this.

[ShepsEvo3]

That's a good little M42 you've got Tom!

Mine did an Indicated 150 testing on a private run-way last year with abit more to go, lol.
Only manages to get around 25mpg though

Yeah, for some reason the speedo on the 318is seems to be pretty wildly out. I tend to find at 4000RPM is neigh on 80MPH acording to the Tomtom gps speed, which also is confirmed on my dyno. At this speed, the speedo reads 90MPH. At 140MPH the speedo indicates just over 150MPH... all on my dyno ofcourse!

The problem is, the mileage is relative to the indicated speed So my 85k mile 318is has actually done a fair bit less mileage

I fitted this chip to my car and it did make a difference. The power increase wasn't what agreen saw with his, but was more like about 6BHP, but then mine before I did anything was already giving 141BHP! The fuel consumption was better too. Then I Unichipped it as I had a spare chip to use. My Lambda meter went up the shute so I mapped it "blind" while doing fueling. I just mapped it for max power everywhere. The car was much better but the fuel economy dropped to around 25MPG. When I got my lambda meter back, I found the mapping on my car to be all around 12.8:1. I reset the maps to zero and noted the AFR's with the Evolve chip, alot of the light load sites were on 18:1. Thats pretty lean to say the least, but the car was still smooth. With the Unichip, I set very light throttle loads to 15/15.5:1 making richer to 12.8:1 to full throttle.

"DONT TRY THIS AT HOME!" Before you all go out and buy FSE power valves to adjust your fueling, there were alot of sites which were over advanced at the lean areas, this is obviously done for economy. The car was not det'ing/pinking untill I added fuel, then I needed to retard the ignition on those load sites.

I managed to get another 2 or 3 BHP peak power and a little more than that on lower RPM's on full throttle. Even more increase on lighter throttle loads. Car is now 150bhp

Car is now driving VERY smoothly, feels very lively and is doing 34/35MPG with sirited driving. Its a good compromise between power and economy. But even more fuel consumption could be had if I mapped the fueling from say 16:1 but the car may start to feel a little hesitent and fluffy. Saying that, with the prices of fuel at the moment, I may well be mapping at 16:1 on full throttle and forgetting all about performance!

Conclusion... The Evolve chip swop is the best value for money chip out there, does pretty much what it says on the tin. At £40-£50 you'll be silly not to!

But the Unichip for me gave better results, but is it work paying another £400/£450? Well thats for you to decide, but atleast I can re-calibrate my speedo with the Unichip!

[tomstickland]

Very interesting info there.

[Huge]

Interesting stuff..

I put a Viper 'extreme' chip into my 318iS about 2 yrs ago and it definitely has more go in the upper rev range compared to the standard chip.
I do a long commute and get 40mpg if i'm careful, but usually 36-37mpg. Half my journey is country lanes, the other half is M40/M25, cruising at 80-85mph with 3-3.5K (I think) on tacho.

With the price of petrol, I was also wondering how I could lean out my car at this crucial 3-3.5K rpm range to get more mpg, but still keep the full power beyond that for when I want it.

If there's a way to do this with the standard ECU, I'd like to try it

Sal, what do you say? I reckon you're the man for the job!!!

cheers
Hugh

[ShepsEvo3]

With the price of petrol, I was also wondering how I could lean out my car at this crucial 3-3.5K rpm range to get more mpg, but still keep the full power beyond that for when I want it.

If there's a way to do this with the standard ECU, I'd like to try it

Sal, what do you say? I reckon you're the man for the job!!!

Only proper way is with the Unichip if you want to retain the original ECU which Sal also does now

See http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... sc&start=0

[Huge]

Only proper way is with the Unichip if you want to retain the original ECU

??

But surely the standard ECU chip can be repro'd to go leaner between 3000 and 3500 revs?
This must be possible by tweaking the standard map, rather than adding the Unichip.
Or am I missing something fundamental here?

[mccarthy]

ok well i'll put my name down first for a new group buy!! come on lads!!

1.mccarthy

[ShepsEvo3]

Only proper way is with the Unichip if you want to retain the original ECU

??

But surely the standard ECU chip can be repro'd to go leaner between 3000 and 3500 revs?
This must be possible by tweaking the standard map, rather than adding the Unichip.
Or am I missing something fundamental here?

It can be as you say... but its hit and miss and as you are leaning off the mixture getting the timing right to compensate is very hit and miss. Atleast the E30 ECU chips are not soldered in. The Unichip saves all this faffing about.

[M5pilot]

Thanks for the write up Paul!

The standard eprom can be reprogrammed but as Paul says it's hit and miss.

The best way to tune is to live map. You can do this with the Unichip-Q or an emulator.

The price is the same and uni-q offers far better value for money given that it can run the engine AFM'less and also be programmed for upto 5 switchable maps switchable by a switch or by bluetooth.

For cars with cams or other mods the uni-q is really the best option.

[ShepsEvo3]

Thanks for the write up Paul!

The standard eprom can be reprogrammed but as Paul says it's hit and miss.

The best way to tune is to live map. You can do this with the Unichip-Q or an emulator.

The price is the same and uni-q offers far better value for money given that it can run the engine AFM'less and also be programmed for upto 5 switchable maps switchable by a switch or by bluetooth.

For cars with cams or other mods the uni-q is really the best option.

I forgot about the bluetooth Don't get that with standalones!

[mccarthy]

no one fancy a cheap chip group buy then?

[Radish]

Just out of interest, do these chips undermine fuel economy at all, and anything for the m50?

[StefanAnghel]

I want one for M40
I already try to contact Ant and then evolve shop but no replays from them...
maybe someone will help me

[ShepsEvo3]

Just out of interest, do these chips undermine fuel economy at all, and anything for the m50?

It seems if anything, fuel economy is improved, but then what I find is the owners tend to drive their car harder after its been done to exploit thier new found power... in which case it can undermine the fuel economy lol.

I suspect Evolve can do a chip for the M50, but I know the Unichip Q works very well Both me and Evolve do them now.

[snoops]

are the 320i chips still for £40?

[bevanbrady]

I'll take one for my 318is if there still available at the 40 - 50 pounds. I'll get the chassis no and ring you tomorrow.

Thanks
Bevan