i asked this question over at the utec section but not much ppl viewing it, i did some of my research but havent found much about this soo heres my question, i know it can be very biased and hard to judge.. but i been trying to figure out the pros and cons of both of this. i do like the ability to fine tune and check for knock and everything. but mostly i wanted to know the difference in power gain with the same mods..
i have the usual tbe, boost controller, hot/cold ic pipes.. basiclly the usual and wanted to know how much extra power could be made by the utec as opposed to say al tunning the stock ecu. and this is both tunned by a professional. and if i actually wanted to get into the program and adjust maps i would need to buy the tuner pro also correct?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by utec vs dyno tune. Do you think a dyno is a tuning device? A UTEC can be tuned on a dyno...anything can be tuned on a dyno...so those 2 terms are not mutually exclusive. You won't make any extra power from a UTEC - it also uses the stock ECU. It actually has less abilities than a flash, because it's a piggyback that modifies the ECU signals, whereas the flash reprograms the ECU itself, so it has access to every parameter.

Plus, MalibuJack and other big UTEC users have already switched to EcuFlash, because the main thing UTEC gave was the multiple map capability, but that is now available with the free EcuFlash software, which can be leveraged through Dynoflash. You can also tune yourself with EcuFlash. There is no use for UTEC now, imo.

 

While I haven't played with ECUFlash yet, I hear good things and am strongly considering making the leap to it.

Positives on the UTEC? Well, you can still plug in a UTEC, load up the stock map, and make conservative power gains immediately if you desire, without the potential to botch up your stock ECU. If you don't like it, you yank it, and your ECU runs stock. Full OBDII compatibility unlike a standalone AEM EMS, obviously.

YMMV.

Good luck,
Adam

 

Like warr said the only Plus to the utec is the ease of switching between maps. At one point it seemed everyone had them on wrx's, and it was nice to have a little scroll wheel and ou can have 5 differenat maps, 1 possibly being valet, 1 for race gas, 1 for 93, ect. WIth the ease of switching maps now with a laptop, cable and a couple of minutes there is no point to this 1000 dollar device. Have a custom map made from one of the great tuners, and you will be very happy, and have saved yourself money.

 

Yes, and you can flash back to stock in seconds, but that's inherently more dangerous than switching maps on a piggyback.