Aftermarket Chips

**Aussie** · 27th January 2010, 06:21 PM

I've been looking at purchasing afternarket chip, they seem very expensive. So I am curious to know from ppl who have them if they are worth the cash. They seem to give better fuel economy etc. also is there a preferred brand? Thanks in advance

**Junosi** · 27th January 2010, 06:29 PM

hah you must of been typing this question as I was adding to my previous thread on just this topic.

If you're going to go down this path the Mark Adams Tornado chipset seems to be most popular choice. The previous owner of my P38 bought the chipset I've got - he bought them through RPI engineering. Personally I'd try and go through Mark Adams directly. Mark was super helpful via email when I asked him for help - even though I wasn't the original customer.

As for value vs cost - that's a tough one to answer I think. As far as a power upgrade goes its probably good value considering how much money you can spend trying to get more power (cams, blower etc) Mine does seem to be more responsive to throttle now and economy is at least as good as it was - maybe better, haven't done enough k's to tell yet.

p.s. make sure you've got O2 sensors fitted prior to installing any chipset

**PaulP38a** · 27th January 2010, 11:09 PM

The PO of my P38A had a UniChip in it for a while. He said all was fine for the first year or so with marginal power and economy increases, then the EMS started to fight with the UniChip and the idle/response became unstable.

I have the UniChip in a box somewhere... reminds me that I promised Grimace I would send it to him to have a play... after I disconnect the wiring loom from the EMS.

So... verdict on UniChip based on PO experience... give it a miss.

Cheers, Paul.

**81stubee** · 29th January 2010, 07:46 AM

I think Aussie has a post 99 model, which means BOSCH injection????

I believe Mark Adams specialises on the GEMS engine management, but doesn't have much to do with the Bosch. Can only ask?

Maybe you could have a look on some of the BMW forums, as this engine management system was fitted to the 7 series. I have read somewhere that this system is very hard to modify, as it has several security strategies to prevent this, some settings can only be changed several times before the ECU locks up. Mind you with todays tech shouldn't be hard to overcome, The "uncrackable" Nissan GT-R was cracked in how many days???

I had heard that this EMS was so good at adapting you didn't really need a chip?

Stu

**Aussie** · 29th January 2010, 11:29 AM

Thanks 81stubee Yes I have Bosch Injection. Oh well seems its not as straight forward then as I thought. This Mysterious Mr Adams, does anyone know of how we can contact him?

**Hoges** · 29th January 2010, 11:41 AM

You're right on the money Stu!

For Bosch -equipped P38s the news is not promising wrt remapping the system. An excellent review is referenced below.

The P38 system is a derivative of the Bosch Motronic 5.2 family which was used in several BMW variants including the 318 series and is highly proprietary/protected.

Motronic 5.2 Reprogramming