hi i am writing from greece . i have a 97 black barchetta with 60 000 km
16 rims and red leather....as my previous car was a crx with 200 ps i wana be a litle faster ....i have a bmc already from another car i own so i am looking for exaust and programing. i will go for custom exaust with no cat and only back box for less restriction any sugestions ? some guys here can reprogram the ecu is it safe for this engine ? any other mod or trick ?
i have also 205 50 16 tyres and wana go for 195 45 16 or 205 40 16 for better acceleration......

i found already 2 chip and a ecu programer with gains from 9 to 12 ps and prices from 300 to 500 e so to chip or not to chip ? this is the question

Very expensive cost for such a little gain. I would recommend an exhaust and induction kit 1st.

I've not seen the word TURBO anywhere on this thread....

Alex you offer some chuckles. LOL.

Yeah a turbo can be fitted as this engine is the punto turbo engine with out the turbo. 50bhp added! kick arse.

I did see a Barchetta with Nitro once, ouch!!!! 346bhp.

A web site to look at is:-
http://barchetta-shop.com/
http://s71010332.einsundeinsshop.de/

nitro and turbo is out of mind as barchetta is my 9 th car and i have bad impretions on high tuned and turbo cars .....i just want to know if chip tuning the 97 engine is ok ...as the engine has self learning ecu and vvti ....
at first i will put a decat and a pipe in the center box and a bmc filter. next week i will go for the chip ....300 e for 10 ps is ok for me ...and the engine is not same as turbo but as punto 2 1800 .punto turbo is 1300cc

I have asked around and most people say NO to the chip idea. It's an old chip and should not be touched.

thanks nino this is what i wanted to know .....ecu reprograming is the same if do not touch the chip? has anybody airfilter? i give the car for servise 60 000 km and they told me not to touch anything ,.no chip, no filter, no spark plugs iridioum etc ,,,,....the air filter can damage the air flow sensor as they told me......

is this true, what he said about filter...I have sport filter almost 2 years now, and works everything fine...

mozart said:

thanks nino this is what i wanted to know .....ecu reprograming is the same if do not touch the chip? has anybody airfilter? i give the car for servise 60 000 km and they told me not to touch anything ,.no chip, no filter, no spark plugs iridioum etc ,,,,....the air filter can damage the air flow sensor as they told me......

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Your engine hasn't got an air flow meter/sensor.

Induction kits are fine.

Better spark plugs are fine.

If you want to re-map your ECU ask the person doing the work if they garentee there work will not damage your engine. If you want more power look at the Exhaust, take out the KAT and get a stright through.

Remember your car at factory standard is built to be realible, any mods could, I stress could damage the car anyway. But things like inductin kits and spark plugs are just better replacements.

Nino_1975 said:

If you want to re-map your ECU ask the person doing the work if they garentee there work will not damage your engine.

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I can understand why you say that however it is impossible for a tuning company to do so.

If you brought your car to us for instance, we do not know that you haven’t thrashed it to within an inch of its life for the previous 40k without changing the oil. Then afterwards, how can a tuning company guarantee your engine life if you then bounce the revs off the limiter at every opportunity and skip the cambelt service, run it low on oil etc. If you find a company that will give a warranty on an engine that they have remapped please read the paperwork very carefully. It is of course a different story if you are having mechanical work done, such as an engine rebuild or new cams, then I would expect a level of aftercare service and warranty.

A tuning company doing ECU tuning can only really guarantee that the work they are doing will not cause the ECU to malfunction. Anything else is pish.

We take full responsibility of the ECU during the tuning process and for the car starting afterwards. Once the data is on the ECU it is only changed by intentionally being changed therefore no guarantee can be made on data. Its not like in the old days when you could get a warranty on a chip.

Hope that is worded with enough clarity, no doubt someone will have a field day with my words as it would be rude to have a forum thread without that happening lol!

I'm not trying to pick an argument her. But surely if you wanted to give such warranty you'd want to atleast see some documentation for the service of the engine to offer some protection (easily forged I realise). You'd also get a gut feeling about how somebody looks after their car from the general condition and speaking to the person, these things can be decided on a case by case basis, I'm sure you'd rather turn people away if you thing the mod would encourage angine damahe.

However surely there has to be some warranty of the effects on the ECU after a remap, since incorrect settings may cause internal dammage. but just to clarify... I know nothing about the operation of an ECU (other than how I would go about designing its function), nor the testing procedures of non-standard fuel and timing maps.

Alex said:

I'm not trying to pick an argument her. But surely if you wanted to give such warranty you'd want to atleast see some documentation for the service of the engine to offer some protection (easily forged I realise). You'd also get a gut feeling about how somebody looks after their car from the general condition and speaking to the person, these things can be decided on a case by case basis, I'm sure you'd rather turn people away if you thing the mod would encourage angine damahe.

However surely there has to be some warranty of the effects on the ECU after a remap, since incorrect settings may cause internal dammage. but just to clarify... I know nothing about the operation of an ECU (other than how I would go about designing its function), nor the testing procedures of non-standard fuel and timing maps.

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Yes, fair comments Alex, but we do not offer a warranty on data - simple as that and people do not ask for it. We do 80-100 cars a month, most of them either brand new or still under manufacturers warranty. We have though turned down the odd car as its simply dangerous though!

The only time data will affect the ECU is during the process to write to it. Its a bit like having data on your hard drive - the data will not cause the PC to fail.

alfanige said:

Its a bit like having data on your hard drive - the data will not cause the PC to fail.

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Interesting analogy, I'm not sure I agree with you there, but a) thats neither here nor there and b) I understand exactly what you meant...

You don't have any jobs going for a computer science graduate with an A'level in electronics do you?

Alex said:

Interesting analogy, I'm not sure I agree with you there, but a) thats neither here nor there and b) I understand exactly what you meant...

You don't have any jobs going for a computer science graduate with an A'level in electronics do you?

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If Alex is short for Alexandra and you are a not bothered about what jobs you do......... ONLY JOKING!!!!!!

alfanige said:

If Alex is short for Alexandra and you are a not bothered about what jobs you do......... ONLY JOKING!!!!!!

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LMFAO

Erm... it doesn't, and I'd prefer to use my head rather than give it

alfanige said:

If Alex is short for Alexandra and you are a not bothered about what jobs you do......... ONLY JOKING!!!!!!

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CONFUSED??????

hi there i pay 730e for the 60 000 km service and i did not install the bmc filter ....i do not want to be afraid for 2 or 3 ps only ....i will gor for a replacement unit from kn which go into the airfilterbox....chip is on the way as the exaust.....problem 2 ...my rims is 16 with 205 50 16 ...better go 195 50 15? or 205 45 16 ? i want to short the radius ..........with ultra light superleggiera oz .....15s.......does anybody know hp gains for 1 chip 2 air filters 3 de cat 4 exaust? 5 plug wires like nology ?

mozart said:

a decat

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what about our poor environment then?

Often the exhaust is changed, some people decat, but most leave the cat.
There is some extra gain in repacing the cat.
The average cat's have a flow of 45-65% [400-600cfm types]
One can fit a sports cat with 100-200cfm flow 85%