It is actually only $200 more than the TS. I am fortunate enough to have a shop near me that can tune the chip (I am still hoping so, anyway). It would cost me more than $200 to drive down to LA to have my ECU reprogrammed each time I install a mod.

Yes, end user programmable would be best. But, at least with the unichip there are more locations where you can have it programmed, than TS.

 

Unfortunately thats a case by case basis

I have to drive 5.5 hours to have knowledgable person tune my car. That means taking two to three days off of work, AND driving 10 hours. I can leave for work Monday morning, ship the ECU, and by the time I get home from work on Friday my ECU is on my doorstop (soaked of course because it rained, but oh well).

Like I said, its a case by case basis, I am fortunate to have two other modes of transportation other then my G and I travel M-F almost every week.

 

Gumbee:

I heard from Unichip that you actually gained 20HP. Was there some sort of mix-up with the dyno printouts. 20HP is exactly what I am looking for. Anything less, I will be disappointed. Granted, I will take more but I feel that I got my money's worth if I walk away with 20hp...

 

I DID NOT see 20hp increase from the Unichip. I saw 13hp gain with Unichip AND Plenum. Most people here, myself included, feel the gain I made was by the plenum install. You can see my dyno here .

I got a call from Bret at Modacar yesterday. I think Josh might have called Bret and let him know I am not too thrilled (although, he said he was following up with all of the G's they did on Saturday). Since they are the ones that convinced me of the install, they want to have some more time with it. Admittidly, I am the first G/Z install of this product they have done. I am going back in on April 4th to isolate my gains, and see where it actually came from (they forgot to do separate dyno runs when originally installing). I have faith in Modacar, and however this turns out I am sure they will treat me right.

I'll keep everyone posted as to how it goes!

 

I see. Unichip is under the impression that your gains were 20HP. Apparently, they misunderstood what Bret said. That is a bummer. I was really happy for you.

So, I guess the key is running a few rounds on the dyno with the Unichip enabled and a few rounds on the dyno with the Unichip disabled. I assume this would be the easiest method.

If everything works according to plan this weekend, I expect to be doing the same on a Mustang dyno. I really hope this works out. This additional testing, etc is going to set me back another $400 bucks. I should have ordered an M3!

Jesus, if my wife only knew...

BTW, I was told that you and I are the only current G35 owners running the Unichip. Is that true?

 

My Unichip is on the way.

But, unfortunately I am forced to go that route, I did not choose it.

 

LoL. My mods have been installed via "stealth mode". Problem now with the Unichip, is trying to come up with reasons to keep leaving my car at the shop.

KP, have you looked into Xede ? It's even end user tuneable.

 

I finally made it back down to ModaCar to get the dynos. I went back down there on April 4 to run seperate dynos so that we could tell the difference in gain between just the plenum and the Unichip. To my surprise, Josh (from UniChip) himself was at ModaCar, and he personally did the tuning on my car.

The dyno to see the total gain (plenum+unichip) is here.

The Dyno to show each seperate is here. (blue is plenum, red is plenum+custom mapped unichip).

Some people will complain about only 6HP peak gain with the Unichip. Since my car is a 5AT, I am more concerned about torque, especially at the lower end. There is a decent bump in torque here, especially after Josh did some programming.

When I take into account that UniChip personally invested the time to make sure I was happy, and the ability to reprogram it easily later when I make additional mods, I am happy with the investment. I know that they are willing to do what it takes to make sure their customers are satisfied.

 

Thanks for the info Gumbee. I was curious to hear what the Unichip on it's own would net for power. I was just hoping for better torque throughout the powerband. After seeing two almost identical cars at the first NorCal dyno day put 10hp difference with just the Technosquare ECU, I figured the Unichip would get similar results.

I know, I know. "Different cars react differently" yada yada... "Two cars can pull significantly different numbers even when both are identical" blah blah blah...

I'll have to wait for Casey at Modacar to give me his review after their next Unichip install, sometime soon I'm told. My car is running significantly richer than every other car G I've seen on that dyno, so maybe this product could help me normalize it and get me some additional power too. I'm just not keen with the semi-generic Technosquare flash and would rather have the ECU tweeked to my car specifically.

 

Well, the time and money invested in modifying the maps and dyno time is the kicker. That is, one spends so much more time and money on the Unichip, that the issue of removing/returning it becomes moot. For this being the case, my reason for leaving it in. The Unichip is a disappointment, period. You will be hard pressed to find anyone who feels otherwise. The disappointment is not expressly in the diminutive gains, but the representation of said gains. Unichip’s website certainly does one hell of a good job misleading its readers with regard to expected performance gains. Only after ignoring the customer testimonials and BHP graphs and actually doing a little arithmetic, shows a different story. For the cost and installation of a set of cams, you can get twice the gains (13 rwhp) then what the Unichip offers. I purchased a set of JWT cams on eBay brand new, for $750. The installation will be about $550. The total cost ($1,300) is almost identical to the total amount I spent on the Unichip. I did some rough math (read my Unichip thread) and the AVERAGE RWHP gained across the entire RPM band was 4 RWHP. Maximum was 9 RWHP.

My experience with Josh was a mixed bag. Though a cordial fellow, we had on occasion a couple of spirited conversations. For example, their representation of horsepower and torque. Both Unichip’s G35 graphs illustrate 17.3-19.0 Gain BHP and 17.3-18.7 Gain Torque. Sadly, Unichip’s ambitious BHP results translate to a real world 6-9 RWHP. Only after a few pressing calls, I was able to ascertain to expect around 10 RWHP at redline. Again, this information is not available on Unichip’s website.

Unless you have a hell of a sense of urgency to blow $1,000, there is no reason whatsoever to recommend this product. Take that $1,000+ and dump it into a set of high flow cats, spacer, and intake.

https://g35driver.com/forums/showthr...t=47955&page=2

 

Sorry to sound like buzz kill, but that torque your seeing down low is probably just the torque converter slipping on the dyno. This happens on all 5AT's and unfortunately it slips differently on all runs. I've seen it where one car will dyno 3 times with the same mods. The first pull the slip is subtile, the second pull the slip is drastic and the person thinks they got +30 tq around 3-4K rpm's and then the third pull is subtile again. I think with the 5AT's, measuring gains down low is all but impossible on anything other than a butt dyno. YMMV

 

In total, we did something like 15 runs throught the day. I only wanted 2 displayed on my final chart, as it would be very difficult to read so many. I hear what you're saying about the torque converter. The runs were all pretty consistent, though.

I agree with Real as the bottom line.......the money spent for the Unichip would yield a better return on other mods. I was fortunate that UniChip and ModaCar did all the final runs and programming at their expense. Otherwise a full day of tuning like this would easily cost $300-$400 on top of the price for the Unichip and the original programming.