abf re map/chip

[wooders]

not too clued up on mapping. mk1 gti owner all my years. only mapping i had to do was finding my way to blyton and curborough. doing an abf conversion in the mk1 with a 4 branch and air filter. thinking about doing the throttle too. is a chip/re map a worthwile exercise and what sort of prices are we looking at?

[dennis10]

It's not really worth it with an otherwise standard ABF in my opinion.

If you were uprating the cams, then you would probably look in the area of a custom remap, but with the mods you described an ebay chip would do the trick to be honest.  Mine made 172hp with a Jetex exhaust, a chip of unknown make (probably ebay) and some airbox mods (pipercross air filter, modded airbox and a cold air feed going down to the small grill in the front bumper)

[Wayne]

Steer clear of ebay chips, will and can do more harm than good.

[dennis10]

Any chance of elaborating on that one Wayne?  - I'm pretty sure all the current ebay chips for the ABF are copies of previous known good chips, such as the Blitz chip back in the day.  Never heard of anyone doing any damage from an ebay chip before, noone I know has ever had a problem and I havent either.

[Wayne]

Any chance of elaborating on that one Wayne?  - I'm pretty sure all the current ebay chips for the ABF are copies of previous known good chips, such as the Blitz chip back in the day.  Never heard of anyone doing any damage from an ebay chip before, noone I know has ever had a problem and I havent either.

I know of lots of people with ebay chips and problems, one base map is no good for all cars, a proper remap is a much better bet.

[dennis10]

I'd agree if we were talking uprated cams and other headwork (then definitely a custom remap) -  but on a nearly standard car with just a little modding, a base map is perfectly fine to complement the little things that have been done.

[Wayne]

I'd agree if we were talking uprated cams and other headwork (then definitely a custom remap) -  but on a nearly standard car with just a little modding, a base map is perfectly fine to complement the little things that have been done.

A proper remap is still a better bet, most ebay chips tend to fool the car into running the cold start map all the time.

[Len]

Depends on the quality of chip! The Rtech guys will tell you all about cheap chips! (pun intended)

[RTechUK]

A chip is not going to give huge peak gains, a well setup map will offer a sharper crisper throttle respose, smoother mid range from added ignition advance and a rich burn,  You will maybe gain 4-5bhp across most of the midrange power band, and this is muc better than having 15bhp just on the peak around 5700rpm.


Cams cannot be fully setup via the mapping, you will need veriner pulleys to allow the vavle lift and over laps to be dialed in,  just by getting the cam setup correct on a rolling road can easy give you and extra 4-5lbft and 4-5bhp, get it wrong and you can be left with a massive off cam flat spot, and sweet cam duration comming in to late and the rpm band.  And when the valve timing  and ignition advance is spot on the car will sound sweet across the whole rpm range.

For a morning tuning session, valve timing setup and software remap on the rolling road using the load will be around £250 all inc