[Alan S]

I have a BSR chip which I'm slightly disappointed in because there's no punch - Boost guage goes only just into red. I bought a boost controller recently and after fitting it, couldn't adjust low enough i.e it kept on overboosting. Have spoken to Saab workshop, and they say I need another chip e.g abbott, but I'm not convinced as my local saab mechanic says the ECU will compensate for a little extra boost. I could get a bleed valve and rig it between the boost controller and the wastgate which might control it, but again I'm not sure.
I also wish I knew properly how the vacuum plumbing is hooked up and how it works. There seem to be 3 pipes coming from the boost relay -one to the wastegate, one to the inlet manifold and one directly onto the turbo. At the moment I have connected the boost controller to the wastgate and the inlet manifold, but maybe I should be connecting to the turbo and wastegate.

I'm sure there is a work around to all of this. It was certainly nice to see (and feel) the boost pressure go right up into the red, although I don't want it to go that far. There was a strange and unhealthy screeching sound coming from the engine when it reached around half way through the red on the boost guage!

So, gents, after all that waffle, can anyone of you more knowledgable chaps educate me, and tell me what I can do/try to my car.
Cheers

 

[Kermit]

Take out the MBC. T7 will see it as a leak in the system and retard the boost.

 

[Alan S]

Thanks Kermit. I take it MBC is manual boost controller. If I do that , then I'm back to square one? I have returned it for now, because I was p"£$d off with the overboost, but it wasn't retarding the boost, it was giving me a great big wallop of power then hitting factory cut-out. Would a bleed valve not fix this? Where does dash guage gets it boost pressure reading from?

 

[Kermit]

Dash boost gauge is controlled by the ecu. Its more of a "torque request meter" that bears only a passing semblence of whats actually going on. The T7 engine management doesn't obey normal tuning criteria about fitting an MBC and starts to throw a sh!t fit. You won't get such a wallop of power with the stage 1 upgrade on an Aero, approx 25bhp from memory. The lpt models have a much more pronounced wallop with a hike from 150 to 220bhp. Tuning mods proven to help the Aero are a better intercooler to prevent premature heatsoak and a 3" downpipe for a faster spool up time.

 

[Alan S]

OK. All sounds a bit depressing really, like the T7 is pretty hard to fool unless you spend good money to reprogram - something BSR don't do, maybe stage 3? If I wind out the wastegate will it give me faster spool-up? And any recs for intercoolers/downpipes? Thx. Ps, is the 3-way boost controller relay where the ECU gets its info, and what's the small adjustable dial on top all about?

 

[Chris 9-5]

There is no cheap tuning for our cars, the engine management system is far too sophisticated to allow us to turn up boost or play with wategates effectively and reliably.

The answer is proper software and hardware.

I wasnt pleased with stage 1 either - nor stage 2 actually (in my case Maptun packages)

You can stay with BSR they are well respected and have many happy customers, but maybe you need to move up the stages.

 

[r14l21]

moving up the stages for example with maptun, i know they have 7 of them, but while they stages get larger all they seem to be doing is adding hardware. so say everytime u upgrade a stage and just put more hardware into the car do you have to send the staged ecu back tht u have to be remapped or does it adjust to the hardware changes..im kind of confused.. thanks

 

[Chris 9-5]

Hardware upgrades should be accompanied by software upgrades to get the best gains

 

[r14l21]

oh i understand that. i guess im asking iff for example i had all the hardware used for the stage 3 nordic for example but a stage one ecu be the same as buying the stage three..or is the ecu tuned higher then stage one bc of the upgrades..im wondering if i bought the stage one upgrade then on my own did all of the hardware upgrades equivelent to stage 3 wud the software perfrom at the level of stage3 or wud it have to be updated..

 

[B~P]

stage 3 hardware will not make a stage 1 ecu perfrom like a stage 3 ecu.

even though you might have the hardware for stage 3, the computer must be programmed to take advantage of it and increase output accordingly.

 

[r14l21]

thats what i thought..thanks youu !