Piggy Back or Flash?
Thread Starter
Evolving Member
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 454
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From: Warsaw, Indiana
Thanks team! I think for right now I'm going to go with the Flash and see what that does for me. When I get smarter with car, I think I may go with the Piggy back so I can adjust myself.
Thanks!
Thanks!
If your on a HUGE budget or don't mod often, the flash is right on! But If you mod regularly and tune regularly, piggyback is the way to go! since you just hook up the laptop and tune...but with flash, you have to constantly send your ECU out whenever you add a mod... unless you live close to a reflasher 
I had Dynoflash and the results were amazing. Later I added SAFC-II on top of Dynoflash to lean out some spots, and it made worse. The throttle response is slower and there's hardly any performance gain. Most of the local piggyback users also experienced a decrease in throttle response and engine revability.
Good results can be obtained with either method. Back in May of 2003 I ran the first ever 11 second pass in a Evo 8 with stock turbo, engine and cams with a Greddy Emanage.
In the right hands you can work wonders with any piggy back.
However, the fact is that all piggy backs have significant draw backs and limitations which must be overcome in order to properly tune the car.
For example a device like the SAFC which only alters the load reference has unitneded effects upon ignition timing when you trim the a/f curve as the ecu sees reduced load signal as partial bost condition. Running lower load results in overly advanced igintion timing.
By using a reflash as your base map you start with a much closer map which requires only slight adjustements which has nil effect on ignition timing.
Also - the flash is able to directly set the a/f and timing independantly which is a huge advantage - not to metion the on board ecu boost control, rev limiter and other improvements which the flash makes
Finally many people do not relialize that the ecu has two main maps - when you trim with a piggy back your a/f and timing will constantly shift in a drastic manner as the ecu moves between the two main fuel and ign maps.
With the flash BOTH maps are adjusted in tamdem so that you mainatin a safe low and high octane operation but you dont get a dramatic shifting in performance when the ecu moves between maps.
In the right hands you can work wonders with any piggy back.
However, the fact is that all piggy backs have significant draw backs and limitations which must be overcome in order to properly tune the car.
For example a device like the SAFC which only alters the load reference has unitneded effects upon ignition timing when you trim the a/f curve as the ecu sees reduced load signal as partial bost condition. Running lower load results in overly advanced igintion timing.
By using a reflash as your base map you start with a much closer map which requires only slight adjustements which has nil effect on ignition timing.
Also - the flash is able to directly set the a/f and timing independantly which is a huge advantage - not to metion the on board ecu boost control, rev limiter and other improvements which the flash makes
Finally many people do not relialize that the ecu has two main maps - when you trim with a piggy back your a/f and timing will constantly shift in a drastic manner as the ecu moves between the two main fuel and ign maps.
With the flash BOTH maps are adjusted in tamdem so that you mainatin a safe low and high octane operation but you dont get a dramatic shifting in performance when the ecu moves between maps.