Read many, many posts from lot's of people who all have their ECU preferences. Had a hard time tracking down some pricing. Guessing the flash is somewhere around a grand.

What's your opinion on:

GIAC
Protomotive
UMW
Vivid Racing (Softronic)

From what I could find, GIAC is the most user friendly, UMW is very popular, and others with turbos prefer Protomotive. Vivid seems a bit more cumbersome dragging your laptop out to the car, then waiting 20 minutes for a file to upload.

Can't imagine gaining more than 20 horses between any of the above ECU software flashes. Running a stock 3.6L.

Which ECU flash offers the smoothest power increase, upgradability (cats & headers later) and handheld installation?

Thanks!

 

From what i read softronics seems to be the one everyone is using now and they dyno it and it did increase the power.Look up the tread it was pretty detailed.I plan on putting it in my 3.6 very soon.

 

You missed APR and Revo, as well as a few more.

 

My Ques is this: If you have modded the engine, ie intake, exhaust etc, how can any pre set flash based on stock motor be an improvement? Or must you go w a custom, dynobased, ecu upgrade that would have to be redone with any further engine mod? Gerry

 

Softronic would be my vote as well. We also carry Softronic so if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me.

 

how about my question directly above?

 

I've been using softronic..what I like is that i still have the original ecu flash file so I can flash it back anytime I want..http://www.softronic.us/ Scott is a great guy and can answer and help with any issues

 

Singh AutoHaus in Fremont has done some very good work at very realistic pricing.

Don't know about it's buyer install capability but it's worth a try.

I just found the site address: http://www.singhautosport.com/

 

I had softronic loved it.

 

An exhaust and intake are basic modifications that don't really make a big difference. The ECU will adapt to any basic set-up you have.

 

Very good points. Improving breathing by better air intakes and exhaust enhance the engine performance that the ECU will recognize.

Flash the ECU and these enhancements become more functionally integrated.

I have been told by software writers that the most noticeable flash improvement is more uniform fuel burn for optomizing to the octance of your locally available fuel. This in turn will equate to better performance.

The down side is that many writers do not do double blind dyno tests of their products so the actual advantages may be more imagined.

I would like to think that is not the case but who knows?

 

Not that this matters a whole lot, LOL, but how much worse is the gas mileage after an ECU flash?

 

Depends how heavy your foot is.

In all honestly, most of the time the ECU reflash keeps gas mileage the same or is even better in some cases! This however is offset by your foot slamming the accelerator due to the nice increase in horsepower therefore decreasing your gas mileage.

 

Singh told me the most noticeable effect of the Ferrari ECU upgrade is increased fuel mileage by 2-4 mpg's.

Now as stated that too depends upon how much one puts his foot into it.

However, the upgrade optomizes the burn for CA's 91 octane and, therefore, it's a cleaner burn because the ECU then knows exactly the burn rate..

 

I feel like all programs from different tuners give same power if not just slight difference that you can't even feel. It's all about what you like. A lot of people like the SOFTRONIC for the ability to put the car back to factory mode plus you can do it by yourself. What's interesting is a lot in the board has SOFTRONIC in their 997 ( 2, 2s, 4 and 4S) but rarely for the turbo. Does that mean softronic didn't do a good job for the turbo of course not but it became more popular for nonturbo 997 same deal with GIAC and 997TT.