I'm new to this forum and had a question about flash and tuning. what's a "mail in flash"? also i know with my bimmer, u could do types of software, power chip, shark injector etc. Are they're different options for the evo as well or just different companies providing the same thing? any enlightenment would be appreciated.

 

Before anyone jumps on you, I would suggest a search on the topic. Dynoflash and Ecutek flashes seem to be the most popular around here. A mail-in flash is where you basically take the ECU out of the car and mail it in to be flashed and then returned to you. Basically I think they kinda match a flash to the mods on your car. The best flash I guess is when it's done in car with testing.

 

+1 to what Spudlus said and you can get other types of programming units such as the Greddy E-Manage and the AEM EMS. These though, you really need to know what you are doing and you need to spend a lot of personal time getting used to programming these. This is if you are doing it yourself, if not then get ready to pay big bucks to get it professionally tuned and dynoed.

 

+1 for the guys above.

however, you have to have a goal on what you want your car to do. do you want to mod it for the street or make it a track terror?? are you going to take it to the road course or the drag strip?? there are compramises you have with each. if this is going to be a daily driver, then i would do the BPU( basic power upgrades) such as a drop in airfilter( the stock air box is great up to 400hp), intercooler pipes, downpipe, exhaust, blow off valve( the MR valve is a great value and works well), and a boost controller. then and only then would you get a flash for the ECU. once you have all the mods done, then send in your ECU with a list of mods to your vendor of choice and it will be flashed accordingly. with all the listings i just stated, you will be looking in excess of a 50+hp upgrade (flash-20+hp, downpipe-12+hp, exhaust-15+hp, boost controller {depending on desired setting} 10/15+hp)

anyone of a number of tuners can give you what you want-
WORKS
Dynoflash
AMS
TurboTrix
Vishnu Tuning
just to name a few.

they all seem to be great vendors, but chose wisely for your goal

you can also tune your car yourself by installing a Apex-i SAFC-II. a fuel computer, but you have to tinker with it to get the best results. another tuning solution is to get the AEM-EMS but you reeeaally have to know what your doing, have a laptop to tune, and other parameters just to tune it OR go to a shop/vendor that can tune it. make sure you chose a reputable vendor though to tune the AEM as some members on here have had bad luck with the tune on the AEM.

basically it comes down to this, what do you want your car to do for you?? track, road race, auto cross, or just a street racer that is a daily driver??

....good luck young Jedi

 

badhabit good job on explaining this, even I can use that info.

 

your welcome.

i think everyone here on this board has a passion for cars. we all want the most hp/tq and to have the baddest car, but reality strikes and strikes hard when they open their wallets. it takes time and money to make a car fast and reliable, but its not cheap. you can only do so much to the car before reliability/driveablility comes into play.

 

+1