Yeah Lachlan at Chiptorque bought up quite a few considerations (like the injectors) during our communications that I hadn't thought of prior to starting the process.
In the end, my wants came down to:
As everyone knows with the SE, as power upgrades are made, the ecu just gets more and more cantankerous and driving enjoyment suffers. Mine only had the BPV, TBI, CAI and FMIC upgrades. While I wouldn't say the few mods I'd made had created a monster tune to drive, and it certainly didn't feel as bad as some mention their car becomes, it certainly had facets that annoyed the crap out of me and were affecting my enjoyment of the car. The idle had become uneven and inconsistent both cold and warm. The car would not run smoothly on any steady speed, it would constantly baulk and surge - 25kph zones especially became stressful! Backing off the throttle at any revs - but got worse as revs rose - it would give a jerk on backoff as if I'd hit the brakes. Acceleration was uneven on light throttle but would become much worse as harder throttle applied, and hesitations through the rev range was awful. The way the turbo would come on was at first fun (this is my first turbo car ever) but that novelty soon wore off as I started to "use" the car's power more and realised how sudden and short lived that boost was.
Having mucked around on and off with the mbc, I always ended up happier just removing it and sticking with the factory boost. Adding any extra boost to the above issues just magnifies the negatives.
Main use and future goals. My personal view on the SE is that I really don't think it's a bad car in completely stock form, and when I first purchased this car, my aim was to just enjoy it for what it is. I need it to be easy to drive and in stock form it ticked that. I like good fuel economy and the SE certainly ticks that. I enjoy sufficient power to suit my (pretty placid these days) driving style and the SE ticks that. It must be reliable and it ticks that. We want it capable of enjoyable weekends away or extended holidays and it certainly ticks that. So prior to the upgrades all was good. However, I was being completely delusional
in thinking I was ever going to leave it alone in factory form with so much information available on how easy it is to implement "simple" upgrades for what is a more than reasonable power increase. Having then upgrading those, it inevitably leads to the well publicised issues and so I had to do something to get back the "easy to drive" aspect.
Why not the "better" way - ecu and tune? Well, there it is, the $64K question ... and tbh I don't think I can fully answer that, or let's say not in a way that everyone will/may understand. I'll do my best. To begin, let's just quickly answer Lokiel's 150rwkw comment - yup! I'm happy with that - very happy! As I mentioned, it's already tuned ready for the exhaust and that is the last of the upgrades I want as far as power goes. It wasn't a massive outlay - around the cost of my CAI - so I am not going to stress about that aspect. The new chip can be reprogrammed down the track for further mods at very reasonable cost so not all is lost there anyway. I have had many cars in my past that had so much more useable power than could ever possibly be used (legally) on speed limited roads, and I always ended up frustrated with them to the point I'd invariably sell them purely due to that frustration and then regret it later. Mexie completely changed my thinking on power. Having to really drive that car to get the best from it (well at my very limited level anyway
) was a revelation. But despite this, I'd still started sliding down these upgrades to the SE. I'd unfortunately forgotten the lesson I'd learned and was heading down my old path and into Lokiel's "MOAR POWA"
and it wasn't until I received some very good advice and constructive and relevant comparisons, that I was saved from myself and what would undoubtedly have been a big mistake for the way my confusing brain works and what I would have accepted long term and been able to live with. In the final analysis and after a great deal of research, consultation and thinking, the Chiptorque upgrade suits me perfectly and has (thank goodness!) proven itself right for me.
I am not interested in hp numbers, dyno sheets, traffic light drags etc etc - been there done that over it. As I mentioned earlier, if after I finally fit the DP/exhaust and raise boost to 11psi I have around 150rwkw, I'm already happy now below that, so power wise then I'll be ecstatic
I want an enjoyable car that I can live with every day, that does what I want reliably and economically and that I don't second guess myself with every time I want to drive it. I had that in factory form, I didn't have that with the upgrades, I have it back in spades with the upgrades and this chip - BUT not so much that it has lost that turbo fun feel and that "have to drive it to get the best from it" relationship.
So may as well give a review of my ideas of the chip upgrade. Remember, at the moment it's still running factory DP/Exhaust and factory boost/ebc ... The difference was noticeable immediately on the very first startup after I'd re-fitted the ecu. Instantly on cold start the idle was smooth and constant! Engine cold running it is let's say 99% smooth, there's a sort of an old fashioned but extremely minor carby choke type hesitation, but it's so minimal it's insignificant and not a concern - I'm being harshly critical to pick on it at all as a fault. I can't recall if the car had that when stock or not so maybe. Once warm, it feels much more responsive to the throttle than before and it cruises at any speed beautifully smoothly and holds speeds better. Put the foot down even slightly and there's better response and more power immediately than before and there's noticeably more power right through the rev range through to the 7000rpm soft cut. There's no hesitations, bogs or cuts anywhere in any gear at either soft or hard throttle input. The fun turbo kick remains, but it is much smoother and more controllable than the harsh crazy kick it was before, even in factory form. There is no longer the mass black residue on the exhaust outlet I was getting after every drive due to the bigger injectors (in hindsight fitting those at that stage was a mistake). I stayed with these as I may very well remain factory boost and even on 11psi are sufficient and economical.
I will add that had I been doing this say 5-10 years ago, I would no doubt have gone a completely different way. If I still had my enthusiasm for learning new computer programmes and skills, I would have devoured the chance to fit an ecu with a decent tuning program and learned how to tune the car. But I just don't have that enthusiasm anymore. This chip is fit and forget. It affects nothing apart from the tune. It's worry free and I like that.
So I hope that sort of explains my decision.
Oh ... and the $$$ I've saved?? ... well, there's the DP/exhaust .... if I could just find some 15's I like ... hmmm, did someone mention MCA's ....
Sent him a quick query and should be ordering them soon.
