Originally Posted by Syn

Even the "stock tuned" map (5600 vtec and 8400 or 8500 redline--can't remember which redline) makes the car a lot more enjoyable to drive. You won't drop out of vtec on the 1-2 shift anymore and you can be a little lazier with your shifts while staying in the power. As mentioned you can also datalog and pull error codes. Is it worth $700 just for that? Perhaps. I bought my Flashpro knowing full well I was going to get a testpipe and a tune eventually, so I was only on the "stock tuned" map for a few months.

If you are willing to consider spending $700 for the "stock tuned" map alone, I cannot fathom why you would not consider spending the other $290 it takes to buy a testpipe and a professional e-tune. You will absolutely feel the gains at that point because you can get vtec into the low 4000s once you install the testpipe and you'll gain well over 20 ft-lb of torque throughout the midrange. The car will be a night and day difference over stock or even the stock tuned map.

Now if you have some reason to not use a testpipe such as "hurting the environment" or your state does inspections, you can still get a high-flow cat and drop vtec down fairly low vs. with the stock cat. This again would be well worth it.

I just don't see the sense personally in spending $700 for a Flashpro but not willing to drop another few hundred to fully unlock its potential. I can't stress enough how much better, faster, and more fun the car is when you use this combination of parts and tuning.

Originally Posted by Joey2K

I'm a complete newb so sorry if this is a stupid question, but it seems like you didn't gain any power whatsoever, in fact you even lost one HP in the "red" reading, is this correct? I was thinking about getting the FlashPro but I was hoping that at least I would gain something like 20 HP or so, is this unrealistic?

Originally Posted by odb812

There's not much to be had in peak horsepower, Honda milked just about everything they could in this range. If you look at the hp and torque curves, you'll notice I have significantly more hp and torque below 6k rpm and thus more area under the curve. I'm skeptical when I see anyone gaining 20whp over peak without opening the motor up. That's not to say it's not possible to get 20hp more at a lower rpm. We don't drive our cars at a constant 8200 rpms, so it's about increasing power and torque at any rpm range you'll encounter during a run/lap.

You should also note that I have not touched the timing, which is where experienced tuners can make some power. I'd say an etune is worth it for just about everyone. I will spend significantly more in dyno time on my car than it would have cost me to do an etune from Gernby or Evans and I will not find as much power in my car as either of them will. I am going this route to learn more about tuning NA motors and because I have a thing about changing the way things on my car work without understanding how they work and how they are changed.

Originally Posted by b.r.i.a.n.

I completely disagree. There is plenty of power to be picked up over stock everywhere, even peak. With the proper parts and the proper tuning, there is a good chunk of power to gain over stock. Here is the graph of my car on the very same dyno as it stood bone stock versus bolt on modifications and ecu tuning:

I've documented all my findings on three seperate threads. This was the last thread where I discussed intake length tuning and its effects on the powerband:

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/909...tepped-intake/