Had Randy Hall in Atanta do the upsolute upgrade while working yesterday and he came and picked me up from work today. Drove the car home and it feels brand new (but i have only had it a month). Rountinely see 1.0 bar and a couple of times saw a flash of 1.1 bar at WOT.

I didn't do a pre/post dyno as numbers don't mean much to me - it's all about the butt dyno. Feel the boost come on slightly earlier but the big thing is that when you get on it, it just takes off! Even at mild throttle I see 0.6 bar (pre upgrade highest ever saw was 0.7)

Nice little surprise is that Rene Barber of Upsolute NA has issued a $50 rebate for the month of December (until the 26th) so my total was only $650.

And sorry - Ruiner. I know we had planned to do pre/post pull comparisons with your car but I made the decision last second as my schedule opened up.

Will keep all informed with any issues that arise but hoepfully the car will stay happy. Have new Diverter Valves sitting in the garage but Randy did recommend possibly "wrapping" the actuator hose as the turbos will get hotter now. Also suggested idling 2 minutes after a hard run to let the turbos cool down? I knew this was an issue on the older turbos but didn't think that mattered much anymore???

And Oh yeah - HOOK 'EM

Roses are Red
The Pacific is Blue
USC's streak
Will END at TWO!!!

 

A. Congrats, Frank. I need to drive it with the new chip.
B. Doh! I wanted to see how we did with stock vs stock w/ exhaust. We can still run 'em before I upgrade my ECU.
C. Yes, you should let the oil in your turbos cool down afer a hard run. Make it a practice and it will save you headaches in the future. I can explain in detail if you would like, but I'll just tell you that it isn't good to shut the car off with hot oil in the turbos/turbo oil lines.

How was the work? Easy? How long did it take? Cost?

 

I did mine shortly after I bought the car, and I love it! It's definitely the best bang for the buck out there. IMHO unless you plan on doing extensive upgrades later, there is no reason to buy anything but Upsolute. It may rub some of the other guys the wrong way, but the other chips are simply over priced! Stage1 vs satge 1, I got the same gains (maybe more) for a LOT less cash!
Ruiner, it's super easy to take the PCM out and reinstall it! 5-10 minutes max!

 

the guy did it overnight but i couldn't pick the car up for another day b/c of work. he said it's fairly simple but i wasn't there

had a scare tonight going to fill up -started smelling something like electrical smoke. i was PISSED but it turned out to be this rice rocket sitting in my blind spot

 

Oh, I wasn't concerned about removing the ECU. I do almost all of my own work on the car. I was more curious about the ease of work done on the actual ECU. How long does it take? How much soldering is done? Risks? Etc.

 

We really need to get together, Frank..........after I get my windshield replaced, of course (it has a rather large crack that appeared suddenly in this cold weather).

I'll get the details from you over the next few days.

 

Not sure how much work goes into it. They basically just slap the chip in and send it back to you. I overnighted mine to them, and got it back two mornings later. Not much risk involved.

 

actually all they do is remove the current chip, download the file, email it to Austria for it to be decoded, then code their own file in, replace the chip. so by physically looking at the ECU, everything looks perfectly stock - assuming you have a good solderer

 

I reeently had to have my upsolute reprogrammed because the dealer reflashed it back to stock when the MAF was being replaced. When I called Rene and explained the situation, he was very willing to offer to have my ECU checked out if it had been re-flashed to stock. I sent it to my original tuner Sonny Lowe in Williamsburg, and he sent it reprogrammed it back to me overnight. (usu there is a small fee if the problem is not from upsolute, but I got mine for free of charge!!)
I was very pleased with upsolute esp Rene and Sonny for their willingness to stand up to their work.

TC

 

So, you trust Randy enough to do it? I have his card, but was still iffy about letting him or shipping it to Rene. If you give him the nod, I'll go ahead and let Randy do my upgrade as well.

 

I'd send it to Rene. I don't know Randy at all, but my local guy was an idiot, and I ended up having to send it to Rene anyway.

 

ruiner - sent you PM

 

Answered.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Soldering is the only issue I had with the Upsolute. I watched Rene remove the chip, flash it and re-install. He uses some sort of hot air heating devise to heat up the solder and remove the chip. The hot air is directed only at the solder joints on the chip, not other soldered joints in the ECU. He then downloads the chip info and sends it to HQ in Europe. They develop a program based on your particular chip and email it back to Rene. He then loads that info into the chip. He hand solders the chip back into the ECU. Takes about two hours total. I am concerned that the re-install solder job could be half-assed resulting in a non-start issue with the car. I've not had that problem with mine, but others have.