Currently been looking at old posts from here regarding tuning your car for highest performance. I was watching a great episode of Wheeler dealer on Velocity Channel as they took a 1989 Porsche 944 Turbo and had it tuned going from 233 hp to 266 hp when done. My question is this a wise investment for a person like myself that has only added a couple mods? K&N intake, test pipe and a nice set of muffler bearings. jk on the last

Cheers,

 

Would I go full standalone with your mods? no. Would I look into a piggyback option? yes. Tuning with a standalone, on our cars, calls for something that can replace the whole OEM ecu. Usually stroker kits, itbs, some nitrous kits, and tc/sc kits require a standalones level of control. My opinion, a standalone on a bolt-on S is overkill.

 

OK, great to hear. And after finding the prices, makes sense after a major mod like turbo or super charger but not with a few bolt on's like mine. The piggyback if I understand, is one of those plug and play small boxes that has a couple dials on it allowing you to pitch out the fuel/air mixtures when you want? That sounds like fun.

Cheers,

 

i completely disagree. a flash based option for the 00-05 model years would've been nice but it doesn't exist. your next best option is a standalone. you have a plethora of options with a standalone.

what you're referring to is an afc. if you had to pick between an afc and something along the lines of a greddy e-manage, i would go with the e-manage because it allows you to independently alter fuel and ignition timing. all the afc does is pull fuel. it does that by targeting fuel from other load columns on the oem ecu. by doing the ecu will also follow the corresponding ignition timing from the same load and rpm point. you have no control over ignition timing on the afc.

 

But why waste standalone capabilities on a bolt on setup... for 15hp? You benefit more from a standalone going other routes than with bolt ons.

 

Just like the show "Wheeler Dealers" I was watching taking a 89 944 turbo all stock, putting on a dyno finding a baseline 233hp next took the ECU out put a different chip in following the torque curves to match timing and fuel, then back on the dyno for a increase of 33hp to 266hp. Yes this was a turbo and not naturally aspirated however couldn't this be done to best match all the US elements for best hp gain without adding lots of bling bolt on's to the engine? And really I did was allowing the car to breathe better simple. If a dyno tuning could be done for a few hundred dollars, would be worth an increase of 15-30hp and dialed in with throttle, fuel, air, timing on the US market. And I'm sure that could hurt the engine in the long run.

Cheers,

 

The thing is the S comes tuned well in factory form, so you're not going to get much more HP out of it unless you increase displacement or forced induction

 

if you're trying to squeeze every hp out of a naturally aspirated setup you're going to need a standalone to achieve that.

yes it is but the dyno tuning can cost you between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars depending on which route you go. like i said, me personally i would always suggest a full standalone for a 00-05 s2k. i was able to gain 38 whp peak on my car with bolt on's and a tune. even more hp was gained in the mid range.

like i said in the previous post, i was able to gain 38 whp peak as opposed to stock. from my own testing on the s2k, i can tell you that the stock header performs great. even in stock form, an ap1 would break the 200 whp barrier but the stock ecu on the ap1 runs piss rich at high rpm. a good chunk of the gains are going to come from running a test pipe, a larger single exit exhaust and a tune.

 

Hey guys, this is great information you are providing me, a newbie to the S's but understand engines in general. I seriously hate to ask this question of which will reveal my ignorance, but could you explain to me what is a "standalone"? I'm assuming that is when you take car into a shop and they put on a dyno, versus a piggyback that plugs into your ECU and you can adjust yourself in your car?

Anyways, thanks again for both your choices on whats best for car and drive.

Cheers,

 

by saying 'take car into a shop and they put on a dyno' i assume you're referring to a flash based system. flashing a stock ecu an option offered on a lot of cars but unfortunately that is not a tuning option for the 00-05 s2k. it is an option for the 06-09 s2k. for the 00-05 s2k you're limited to piggy backing the stock ecu with an afc or a greddy emanage or a full standalone.

a standalone is a ecu that completely replace the stock ecu. it takes complete control of the engine.