An un-biased Unichip review!

So guys I finally have a much needed upgrade to my car. I have Unichip installed and have been running it now for around 10 days. For those of you who don?t know my setup, I have 3sgte third Gen with forged internals and fully built running a Precision turbo. The car is a Toyota Corolla AE100 recently featured on Precision Turbo and Engine?s website as boosted ride of the month of May.
174http://www.precisionturbo.net/news/Boosted-Ride-of-the-Month--May---Samad-Khan-s-2001-Toyota-Corolla/250174
Im going to write this unbiased review based on my experience with unichip for the 10 or so days that I have had it installed in my car. I will make some conclusions that you may or may not agree with and will try to be as objective as possible.

Because my engine is fully built and running large cams (272/272) the stock ECU was really struggling to keep the engine at optimal performance. Just to give a reference I was getting horrible pinging bad idle at start-up. My AFRs were extremely rich at 11 and the engine was running very rough. I was getting good performance at high rpms of course and the car was definitely making great power but with such rich AFR the engine was losing power throughout the rpm range. I kept running low boost (10 psi) after the turbo upgrade and tried upto 1 bar as well. The rich fuel ratio meant that my fuel economy was dismal and my engine was smoking like a chimney. It was all very safe but very unsatisfying. I could not unleash the full potential of my power build and it was high time for a EMU upgrade.

I would ideally have gone the standalone route but three things stopped me:

1. Very expensive to buy (primary reason) be it AEM EMS, Haltech, Megasquirt or whatever
2. No tuners in Pakistan to do a satisfactory job of tuning it right
3. No personal experience or knowledge of tuning myself

Second option is to go for piggyback fuel controllers such as AEM FIC or SAFC II. Wasn?t ever really impressed with the when I read about them on a internet forums etc. The success rate of these was 50/50 about the same as the failure rate. Really was unsatisfied with what I read. Plus they are also not exactly cheap either.
Third and final option was to go to a piggyback EMU such as Greddy EManage or Unichip. Now Emanage ultra is a great EMU but again due to my own lack of tuning expertise and lack general support for Emanage tuning in Pakistan, I decided to go with Unichip in the end. Don?t get me wrong; Unichip has its own set of drawbacks that I will get into later but we have a authorized dealer of Uncihip in Pakistan and a certified tuner as well so I started doing my research on Unichip and found it to be quiet capable with tons of features. The decision was also helped by the fact that Yasir @maxtorque is an old and good friend of mine. We discussed all the things beforehand and finally I was ready to take the leap of faith.

In short: Fairly simple. Once you have the right ECU pin-out diagram all you need is just a few wires connected to interface with the factory ECU and Unichip takes all readings from all concerned sensors on the engine. Sure there is some wire splicing involved because there were no plug and play Unichip harnesses readily available for the MR2 variant 3sgte that I was running. I already had a wideband O2 sensor and gauge so that was also a time saving. Serial interface with a small laptop running the Unichip tuning software and that?s that.

The plan was to have two custom maps one for low boost economy mode and one for high boost performance mode. Unichip allows upto 5 maps running on a single computer!!!! That?s an amazing feature!
Now came the hard part. We did a diagnostic of the engine and found that the TPS sensor was not functioning properly, a few wire changes and we finally got some response from the TPS sensor although the signal was still not perfect. We had to change the TPS sensor which was ofcourse a delay of a full day. But we were in a position to tune the part throttle map. Yasir was impressive with his tuning skills and with some adjustments voila! The idle AFRs reached 14.5-7. The engine became smooth but was still pinging a lot. We got the car out for some part throttle runs around the block and he was able to adjust the AFRs perfectly. The engine now became smooth with very little pinging. It simply sounded stronger and better.
Im sure there were many inputs involved in tuning the map and I am not going to waste time discussing those here. At the end of the day we took the car out to tune the wide open throttle (WOT) areas of the map and improve the efficiency of the engine. We worked till late in the night doing street tunes until I was satisfied with the map. Again many things were checked and changed which are beyond the scope of this review.
The next day I changed the engine oil and got new 8 heat range spark plugs an as the old plugs were worn out from our previous tune. We also replaced the TPS sensor so now we were good to go with the tuning of the second high performance map. However, here is where things went haywire. The changing of the plugs had disrupted the first map and we had to do that bit all over again. The main aim of the performance map was to run around 18 psi boost with automatic boost control from the switchable ecu map. We installed the Unichip boost control module to replace the manual boost controller I had in my car. The boost control module is a solenoid that takes readings from Unichip and can alter boost automatically. The high psi map was actually a pain to do mainly because of the reasons I will mention later. Anyway we worked till 1:30 am in the morning to finally create a map that was satisfactory.

THE RESULT
Overall I am quiet happy with the results of the Unichip so far. I am finally able to enjoy my car without worrying about rough idles and engine stalls.

1. My idle is smooth and there is very little pinging. It can never be perfect because of the very high lift cams
2. My fuel economy has almost doubled. For those who know the difference running 10.7-11 AFRs on idle and part throttle really messes up your fuel economy. The best average I used to get in city was 5-6kms per liter which has now doubled with (upto) to 10 kms. For a high performance boosted engine I cant be happier.
3. My engine sounds stronger than ever. The rush from the turbo spool is addictive (was always addictive) but the engine feels and sounds like its happier and smoother.
4. My high boost map is still not perfect to be honest. There is some lag in the mid-range that needs to be remapped and at full boost the AFRs get a little rich that rob me of some power. We could have gone further with the tuning but frankly both me and the car got tired after 12 or so full throttle consecutive high speed runs. We decided to call it a day. These kinks will be removed on the next tune.
5. Also some low boost part throttle AFRs need adjustment and my highway fuel economy would also get better.

So in summary I am a happy and satisfied customer. Yasir is a gem of a person and is always very accommodating. I can personally vouch for him and he is always willing to help.

Now on to some Pros and Cons of Unichip in my opinion:

• Cheap! Yes compared to other solutions in the market, Unchip is cheap. And for the features it offers, I personally think it?s a bargain.
• Very versatile. Tons of options to cater to your needs. Whether you are boosting or running NA. Unichip can help you out with a lot of tuning issues. Almost as good as a stand alone.
• Keeps the factory ECU safety parameters intact so there is little risk of damaging your engine. You can over-ride some important things such boost cuts and speed cuts but otherwise your engine is running very safe
• Very robust built quality. Slab of aluminum that works as a heat sink and feels the part. Impressive to behold as well.
• Multiple maps! Probably the best feature around. You can have as many as 5 switchable maps on a single ecu.
• 3 years replaceable warranty!
• Many other pros and features that you can read about on the Unichip website.

• Closed system. I think this is one of the greatest cons of the Unichip. Its very tuner dependent and unlike the Greddy Emanage or other programmable ecus you cannot tune it yourself. The tuners are also known to be secretive and there are no internet forums with custom maps for your applications by other users unlike AEM or Haltech for example. This also means that there are very few forums discussing Unichip altogether.
• It?s a piggyback! Yes its not a standalone system so of-course you lose some freedom in your tuning. This coupled with the closed system nature makes it a bit of sick dog in the tuning world.

These 2 cons may mean a make or break decision for some as far as tuning is concerned. For most people who do not want to get thier hands dirty with engine tuning, Unichip will do the job just fine.

Here are a few other things to consider that are specific to tuning in Pakistan and with Unichip.

1. I know Yasir may not like this but in Islamabad he doesn?t have a workshop. That may be good for newer cars with everything running perfectly but with older setups like mine, it may create problems during tuning. For example something might break that may require immediate visit to a workshop. With no such facility at Unichip this is a slight drawback.
2. The second consideration is not a limitation on the part of Unichip or its tuner. Its about street tuning in Islamabad or in Pakistan in general. WOT tuning on street has become impossible on any road in Islamabad for example because of the police and stuff. We tuned my car on Bahria in a remote phase but we still kept running into the Bahria security and that?s why could tune the car comfortably. Dyno tuning is an option but beware. HPRs dyno does not have good air ventilation for exhaust gases. So your engine may be good on the first run but it will basically be breathing in your exhaust fumes (no oxygen there) after a few runs. Plus be prepared to spend Rs. 8000 per hour for dyno tuning. Please point me out if I am wrong in saying this. And this is not to discredit HPR and its facility.

SHOULD YOU INSTALL IT??

The choice is yours. Here is a few important things to consider before you go the Unichip route:

1. If you have a Vigo D4D or a Fortuner. It?s a no brainier. For a small price you will get huge gains in power. Unichip claims upto 65 horsepower gained. A claim they back by guarantees so you can get your money back if your D4D doesn't smoke the tires.
2. If you are running a full stock NA car such as a Corolla or a City but expect high gains in performance and miracles in fuel economy, I don?t think its worth it. The price/performance ratio just isn?t up there. Save your money and change your driving style if you want fuel economy. Who doesn't dream of very high power with very high fuel economy? Its just not gonna happen. I personally don?t think its worth investing for a 10 or 15 Hp gain with a couple of kms of fuel saving. All claimed ?huge? gains in performance on a factory stock econo-car are nothing but hot air.
3. If you are running a very high performance setup. Sure. Unichip will help considerably but do your research and chose the solution that you understand and that suites your setup/needs.

To conclude. I highly recommend Unichip and Yasir as a tuner. If you are unsatisfied with your car's performance do give Unichip a long hard look. Its not expensive compared to other solutions and the gains are real!