Looks like Unichip has some dynos available for both the 350z and G35. Just go to www.unichip.us and do a vehicle search for 2003 models. Here's a sample:

 

did i mention i hate. or rather dislike the Unichip?

o wait, im sorry. i didnt give the reasoning behind that. i had it installed on two of my cars. my 97' TT Supra and and 01' S2000.

prior to my experience with the Unichip installed on my car, the piggyback work well with porsche applications. the Unichip does what it is suppose to do, except that i would notice time from time certain ECUs would actually "fight" the piggyback. as if the Ecu actually reconized the piggyback, i know it may sound weird, but listen to this. to work with my S2000, there was actually different variations of how to tune the Unichip and how to install it. meaning which wires to splice where ect. this led me to beleive that Unichip (Dastek, i think.) was still in the R/D phases.

well after driving my supra or s2000 for extended periods of time, a week concidering i drive them rarely, the Unichip would actually begin to "detune" itself. in actualality the Unichip was losing its saved data because of the continuing "fighting" between it and the ECU. whether the data was being replaced or simply erased, i don't know.

it came to the point where my Supra would have boost spikes everywhere. depending on throttle position the Unichip would be caught in between modes and would actually simulate a "bucking affect". what i came to realize was that the trottle position determined which mode to run. if you weren't all the way in the right position, the Unichip would almost freeze and i would notice such a substantial hesitation that between 3 and 4k rpms the car was virtually unresponsive to throttle imputs (and if the car were let to stay in between or at those RPMS for an extended period of time, she would stall), whereas thats suppose to be where most of my boost kicks it. therefore the driveability of my car went down substantionally. infact it got to the point where i began questioning whether as to drive the car or not. finally i replaced it with a AEM EMS unit and havent been happier.

i did the same to my s2000. even tho the problems i encountered with the s2000 were far less discouraging it too came to the point that the Unichip would lose its saved data and change the A/R on my s2000. this is where it became a huge problem concerning reliability. my s2000 is still running stock internals with 6psi of boost. that given the already high redline and high compression, i cant risk the fact that the Unichip might one day change the saved data. with this car i have far less room for error, in fact, if an error were to occur, it would most certainly lead to the demise of my first s2000 motor.

in the end, with some consulting, i made the switch to AEM as well. can;t really compare the two there; Unichip VS AEM EMS as both are totally different. as for a piggyback, i wouldnt recommend it. although i haven't tested any other piggybacks prior to the Unichip or after, so i can't say that what i experienced was completely abnormal. who knows maybe all piggy backs, given the same mods on my two other cars, acts accordingly. but then again, ill let you take that risk, while i enjoy my AEMs.

john

 

Hi John,

For some reason, these concerns sound familiar to me since I had heard about cold start and boost spike problems with the unichip in the WRXs. However, I do believe that the "new" unichip that is now advertized for the Z (I guess the same as what APS uses in their twinturbo kit) is updated and much better than before. I am not an expert in the area but I do hope that the new revised unichip overcomes all of these problems. I think we all need a good affordable alternative to AEM EMS since a lot of us are driving our Zs daily. For race applications, there is no doubt in my mind full standalone is the way to go anyway.

I think the Greddy e-manage is a good start, I'm hoping that Unichip will only build up on that.

 

i hope too that the Unichip overcomes the problems i encountered. as for price compared with the AEM EMS, with a Unichip running around 600, and AEM running about double that (even more if you have the wideband too), its a no brainer that the Unichip is more affordable. however, with the AEM EMS you can adjust much more, whereas mixture and timing is all you able to change with the Unichip. dont forget that like the AEM the Unichip also requires dyno tuning. so i guess my point here is that for an additional 600-800 plus you are able to control every aspect of your engine/car including being able to add boost controls to non boosted cars and being able to run nitrous.

maybe its me, but i just think that the extra dough is worth it with my experience. not to mention that you dont have to question the reliability of AEM's EMS.

john

 

Oh yes you do have a point there..People seem to forget that there really is no way of controlling the boost from the ECU since the car does not have boost in its stock form!! Being able to control boost directly from the engine management is a huge advantage in my opinion since you can link all of your modification to the maps to the amount of boost and vice versa all from the same ecu.

 

i dunno but other reasons i perfered the AEM EMS over the Unichip or rather any EMS over ANY Piggyback is mainly becuase i dont like having the added part(s). i mean look at it from my point of veiw. in the S2000 the ECU is located just west of my left leg, behind a nice plastic peice. well, when i added the Unichip i had to literally tap that peice of plastic down. evertually that didnt work and it would fall off while i was driving (Distraction #1). after that i just left the peice off all together. now im left with just the bare surface of the ECU and Unichip. now remember the unichip has no way of mounting to anything other than using some zip ties, which is what i used. so now you can see everything including the impressive zip ties (sarcasim haha) anyhow, it looked cheap, and as i predicted the Unichip came lose one day while i was driving and began to dangle in the wind pretty much. i hated that. with the EMS, it looks stock, therefore it looks good or at LEAST it looks clean and not cheap.

oh and my supra, (go to right side of car) forget about putting the plastic peice that once covered the ECU over the Unichip. simply wouldn't fit even it i tried. well you prob. see where im coming from now. id rather have total control of my engine and have less gadgets to deal with. the laptop that is in the Sup and S2000 doesnt bother me, unless of course i have that special someone in the pass. seat. then for some reason my other brain kicks on and i kick out the laptop!! haha...

well i can always play with it later, whereas she.....well lets just say her when she is in a good mood, it might be wise to take advantage of it.

john

 

I think the biggest problem with your comparsion Losing Grip II is that there is not AEM EMS for 350z or anything like it for that matter.

 

APS uses the Unichip currently with it's TT 350Z kit with no problems to date. Maybe they got the bugs worked out??

 

how right you are. but dont fret, AEM is working to change that.

john

 

APS makes high quality kits that usually bring in around 7k, i would hardly think that everything but the piggy were up to par. i think APS choose it for a specific reason and found it works well. or maybe thats what we want to think....

john

 

Again, the Factory ECU shows it's limits. No piggyback works that great on our cars, there are always issues that come up. Some people have them, some don't, it's an oddity. It makes our jobs here a living hell knowing that there are so many versions of the ecu out there. Just know that messing with our ecu's really is a toss up as to weather or not it works.

 

There are other Unichip dyno results in the Australian section of this site.

Here is one thread with different dynos, scroll down for an example.

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....p&pagenumber=3

 

I have something called a PowerCommander on my FJR1300 and it is a EFI piggyback. The thing works fantastic and has optimized that bike to my exhaust and intake mods by using their TuningLink system on the dyno. 134 RWHP on a 550 lb. bike is sick. But the big difference is that on the FJR, Dynojet requires that the O2 sensor be disconnected. If the O2 sensor is left active, the ECU will "fight against" any fuel map changes the piggyback makes to maintain the EPA-mandated 14.7:1 stochiometric closed-loop ratio. So, in order for any piggyback to work properly, the O2 sensor to ECU signal must be dealt with to be effective under all load conditions. Maybe that is what Unichip has done on recent revisions, but I would certainly ask before installing one of these on my G. The dyno-tuned ratio mapping concept totally works if the ECU can be tricked into leaving things the hell alone. On a bike, it is easy because the ECU's are not very sophisticated, but on a CARB compliant car, very tricky indeed.

 

i have no idea, but i can see why that would make sense.

either way, last time i dealt with Unichip was more than two years ago. back then they seemed to work fine with german cars i.e. bmw, porsche, audi, ect. however when it came to the jap cars they never seem to be anything more than a hassle. on two occasions i can recall two seperate problems similiar to mine and one which ended in a blown engine.

like i said, that was more than two years ago. seeing how computer hardware is obselete in about six months i cant see why this would be in different in its evolution.

john

 

I called and spoke to a rep about this. I'm a little paronoid about something made in south africa. what does south africa know about performance?

 

Ever heard of a Noble M12 GTO-3R? Look it up and that can answer some of your question.

 

Still don't trust it. The frame is built there but the engine, trans and electronics are american, Ford based. The cars engineering is Britished based using American parts. My question is what does south africa know about electronics or japanese cars.

 

What does the fact that it's from South Africa have to do with it? There can't be any engineers there or something? That's a silly comment!

Now on a more practical note, I did email them with some questions about the Z offering and it's been a week and no responses. That to me is more troubling than where an item is from.