I have just booked in to Z tech to have the aggressor chip put on my Z. I was so overly excited by the price after what other companies had quoted (some were £650 for a piggy back and mapping)that I didnt really understand what I was being told about it as I was jumping round the room! :hyper: I know Z tech are a good company and I wont have problems but what gains have others seen from this upgrade?

Depends which chip they are fitting. I dont think Ryan supplies his own chips, just a reseller of the main Brands. JWT, Mines ...etc

 

If its the aggresive version, then I expect its the Mines Chip. Do a search for Mines Chip on forum.

I have just booked in to Z tech to have the aggressor chip put on my Z. I was so overly excited by the price after what other companies had quoted (some were £650 for a piggy back and mapping)that I didnt really understand what I was being told about it as I was jumping round the room! :hyper: I know Z tech are a good company and I wont have problems but what gains have others seen from this upgrade?

 

 

yep there not ryans own brand of chips,maybe in the pipeline ;)

 

its a similar map as the mines and is setup for uk fuel,we first have to make sure your car is in perfect health,and setup safely,see you soon

Mines will make a big difference mate,

the power ;) and the fuel economy :(

Always use optimax though, or tesco99 ron

Sounds good, pretty sure there are no probs except fuelling which I am hoping the chip will sort. More power from anywhere is good!!

Only problem is that after the chip I cant think of anything I have not already done to get a bit more power that does not cost big bucks, so I have to start saving.

Sounds good, pretty sure there are no probs except fuelling which I am hoping the chip will sort.

If your on stock ECU now and have fuelling problems, then that should be rectified before fitting. Is it Running Rich or lean ?

Ryan sorted me out with a Mines based chip some time ago. It was setup for running decat exhaust, increased boost, and AIVs removed. I always use Optimax now ;) Very happy with the performance :D

 

Steve :)

If your on stock ECU now and have fuelling problems, then that should be rectified before fitting. Is it Running Rich or lean ?

 

that WILL be checked before hand ;)

Which mines ecu is it based on, as I have a few here.

I'd really like to give this Mines chip ago as i'm currently running a JWT one... Any idea if I can purchase the chip alone direct from Ryan and how much it would cost????!!

 

Thanks, Jon ;)

I'd really like to give this Mines chip ago as i'm currently running a JWT one... Any idea if I can purchase the chip alone direct from Ryan and how much it would cost????!!

 

Thanks, Jon ;)

 

tel 07968166640 ;)

 

best to phone jon

 

all the best

I've got a JWT chip which I altered slightly then burnt a custom EPROM. Still happy with it as it has the extended fuel map which is all you really need if running up to 14.5 psi with stock injectors of course.

tel 07968166640 ;)

 

best to phone jon

 

all the best

 

 

Thanks for that Greg, i'll phone up about it tomorrow on my day off!!! :hyper:

im gonna get my chip looked at soon as i have no idea what its set up for.

I think it is time for the chips debate to start producing some good data for us all.

What we do know is there are many chips out there Good and bad. However most of the knowledge burnt into them is quite old with the bulk of the R & D done many years ago and i would suggest the bulk of the money made back by the respective tuning houses getting a good return on their investment. This has all been and gone during the (at the risk of being controversial) 300zx's hey day.

 

In Japan for example it is claimed that the Mine's :bow: 'Light tune' chip (actually sold within a sealed 're-manufactured' stock ECU complete with a Mine's :bow: plaque on an exchange basis) was the best seller for the 300zx.

 

They used to list three a) Stock engine VXROM b) light tune VXROM and c)Full Tune VXROM which was only fitted to the exchange engine that you bought as a Mine's Full Tune package.

 

Technically these are still available but when you call Mine's or their UK importer and say 300zx they mumble away about nothing left in stock and hard to get stuff nowadays. That tells me that it is a product listed but no longer available. Interestingly stuff like the HKS autobox upgrade is the same, listed but no longer available.

The Jim Wolf Technology (JWT) chip is another highly regarded chip whose quality probably reflects the fact that JWT :bow: is the number one tuner for zedz in the US and their chip was the number 1 there. So in true american style you can assume it is the number one selling 300zx chip in the world. (probably may even be true given the number of zedz sold there) Stillen is another well known US name also.

There are also some dodgy chips that are very crudely mapped that get 'results' but maybe not to the same quality. e.g. As a former race engine tuner myself it is very easy to get higher horsepower than stock at some point in the rev range but just as easy to do that at the expense of lower down power. You can then claim "our chip does 60hp over stock and gives 10hp over say the JWT chip" but when you look at the data (e.g. a dyno curve) and being 100% honest you may then have to add "also drives worse throughout the rev range gives crappy fuel economy and detonates on all but the best fuel you can find once in every 4 fuel stations."

 

Some people who know all the various chips will tell you which ones they are.

 

Others like me who only know a few of the chips can only tell you what they know and therefore may mis-lead.

 

If you see chips on flea-bay for example claiming this kind of 70 bhp stuff be very wary.

 

I personally would never buy a chip without seeing the dyno curve and I do that realising from my tuning days that truly no two engines are the same so even putting the same chip in different cars may not get the exact same results. :headvswal. Add to that mix your own driving style and preferences, the road and fuel environment of your country and you then have further factors that may make one chip more suitable for you than another. You have to be very careful also driving a car with a chip before you purchase your own because the seat-of-the-pants dyno is often wrong especially in inexperienced drivers. A peaky power curve often 'feels' faster because of the rush you get with a good 'powerband' but in the real world of fast road driving or circuit lap times often lower horse powered cars with good power delivery and torque can beat much higher powered opposition. Perhaps the best known example of this is the legendary Mine's :bow: GTR that holds the lap record at Tsubka complete with its road going interior trim! I only carry a torch for Mine's because IMO they are a REAL tuning house not a publicity shop selling more T shirts than product. Sure the Max power boys will always beat a path to Top Secret because their GTR has 1,000BHP and Mine's only has 585.....So Top Secret's car must be better right???? That is treating cars like a game of Top Trumps and thinking like a school kid. Get that 1,000bhp laggy dyno wonder out of the dyno shop and into the real world and see which car wins. Think about how we all use our cars and which one would really suit us to drive every day or weekend?

 

Now lets consider the moral side of the next section:-

As the zed is getting old and the top tuners turn their attentions to newer cars to make their money they are less likely to care about their previous work. As zeds hit the breakers all over the world these chips are turning up everywhere. We could therefore liberate some of these chips and see what is their secret sauce and the data will show us. Most Z specialists will have seen most of the chips by now and if they have the kit can have copied the maps. Some are now 'adding their own value' by slightly modifying these chips for our market. e.g. the JWT chip was mapped for a crap fuel market (the US has generally lower RON fuels than the UK). Although I think the morality of this is dubious (piggybacking someone elses hard gained R&D without permission) I think Z specialists may have earned the right by continuing to hold the torch for the 300zx and adding some value to the blagged source maps in some way.

 

In God we trust all others bring data:-

Meanwhile we (the wider 300zx community) are missing the data we need i.e. all the comparitive dyno curves and some lap time data so that we can all make informed choices about chips. I would say we need this urgently to help us all from potential heartache and worse wasted cash.

 

We need at minimum to run a dyno day where each of the main chips are fitted to a single car and back-to-back tests are done. I will propose my car as one of the guninea pigs and I will pay for my cars tests as long as the charts are posted here for the club members viewing. My car is a 92 auto in 'light-tune' state (intake, boost up, intercooler upgrade, aftermarket exhaust) so probably is reflective of a lot of members cars. It has just had new 360degree bearing (but stock size) turbo's and the gearbox re-conditioned / upgraded. The engine is according to ryan at Z-tech "In A1 condition" so it should be a good stable test subject.

 

I have a stock ECU and also the Mine's Light tune ECU. We would need the rest of the main chips and a similar manual box car. I suggest also completely stock auto and manual cars. Making 4 test cars.

The really high powered cars really need their own individual mapping anyway so this data would not interest them. For most of the people in the club running stock or mildy tuned cars knowing the data would help alot.

 

Can any of the specialists bring the rest of the chips and suggest a venue / date? We could get one of the mags Jtuner perhaps? to cover the session.

 

If anyone has the data already can we get it posted for everyone's use

 

Chris

Very well put Chris.

You make an excellent point.

 

The only downside I can see is that if the people who know the inards of these chips are still making money from that info then thay are still unlikely to want to share that knowledge with the rest of the community, even if they did aquire it from someone else's chip in the first place.

Agree there are lots of chips about. Mine is a Central 20 racing chip, but i know nothing about it. Its was installed in my car seprate to any other tuning and since my car has been further modified, so im not sure if the chip is really doing anything good.

Think you have a very valid point...and I would be very interested in the results, as am yet to have the Ecu chipped and mapped accordingly, but feel strongly that although you can seriously modify the ZX its how well your ECU works for you and through good tuning that is an important factor on enhancing performance, and a serious test with dyno charts available would really help in making a choice of the selection of ECU chips available :D

guys i think the money question is a red herring as the only way anyone would lose money is if every owner started burning their own chips. Most do not have the equipment and would prefer to get their chip installed by a specialist anyway. Most of our cars are such an age that you would and should want a clean bill of health for your car before you chipped it anyway.

 

Dyno charts would not give anything away about how the mapping achieved things. All it would show is how 'good' a chip is vs another. Individuals would anyway choose a variety of chips because most people have different needs. Sure the crappy chips will lose all credibility and probably only then be able to be sold to un-informed owners and there may also be a rush to a clear 'best' chip.

 

Nevertheless what do we need to do to get the cars and the chips on the dyno's in a scientific way - baseline car then chips dyno'd one-by-one

 

Chris