Different ECU upgrades
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Joined: Oct 2004
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From: Clarkesville, GA
05 C230 SS Brilliant Silver
Different ECU upgrades
I have been looking into purchasing a ECU upgrade for my C230. My local dealer is also a Renntech dealer. I have been debating going with the Renntech chip or the Powerchip. I have been discussing this with the representative from the dealer about the Renntech chip and yesterday he said something about having to send my factory ECU to powerchip for the upgrade. Is the renntech chip and powechip the same thing? If so I can go directly to powechip and save about 200.00 bucks. I was under the impressions they were two different tuners. 
Member
Joined: Sep 2004
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From: los angeles
2006 s2000
Before you do that you should look into these guys.
http://www.upsolute.com/eng/index.html
I just got my slk 230 chiped and at a good price.
http://www.upsolute.com/eng/index.html
I just got my slk 230 chiped and at a good price.
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Joined: May 2004
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From: Australia
Originally Posted by 05 KOMP SS
I have been looking into purchasing a ECU upgrade for my C230. My local dealer is also a Renntech dealer. I have been debating going with the Renntech chip or the Powerchip. I have been discussing this with the representative from the dealer about the Renntech chip and yesterday he said something about having to send my factory ECU to powerchip for the upgrade. Is the renntech chip and powechip the same thing? If so I can go directly to powechip and save about 200.00 bucks. I was under the impressions they were two different tuners.
Have you considered changing the headers + camshaft ?
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Joined: Oct 2002
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From: Atlanta, GA
SLK32
Originally Posted by miroj
These chips are new air/fuel maps for your engine - but they only work in a sweet spot. When the air / humidity mixture is wrong then I have heard that chip enhancement can give you less power than stock.
Have you considered changing the headers + camshaft ?
Have you considered changing the headers + camshaft ?
A well designed program, e.g. RENNtech or Evo, will not generate less power than stock. They use the stock maps as a basis, adjust the programming to richen or lean out the mixture as needed, make the timing maps more agressive. They operate on the assumption that only Premium Fuel will be used and take some of the 'float' out of the stock programs.
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From: South Florida
Fast Cars!
Originally Posted by 05 KOMP SS
I have been looking into purchasing a ECU upgrade for my C230. My local dealer is also a Renntech dealer. I have been debating going with the Renntech chip or the Powerchip. I have been discussing this with the representative from the dealer about the Renntech chip and yesterday he said something about having to send my factory ECU to powerchip for the upgrade. Is the renntech chip and powechip the same thing? If so I can go directly to powechip and save about 200.00 bucks. I was under the impressions they were two different tuners.
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From: South Florida
Fast Cars!
Originally Posted by blackbenzz
I have a renntech intake and eisenmann race exhaust on my clk430. What chip do you guys think I should get? I also plan on getting evo plugs and pulleys.
My personal experience with the Renntech ECU is great. Proven gains, top speed limiter removed, and depending on the car, if yours does not let you rev past 4k in neutral the renntech ECU lets u redline it if you wish.
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Joined: Jun 2004
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From: Ashburn, VA
2004 C32, 2006 Honda CBR1000RR, 2007 Harley NightRod, 2013 Harley Road Glide Custom
Originally Posted by blackbenzz
I have a renntech intake and eisenmann race exhaust on my clk430. What chip do you guys think I should get? I also plan on getting evo plugs and pulleys.
I'm happy with just doing that and the EvoSport pullies.
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From: West Toluca Lake, CA.
2004 SL55 AMG
I love the speedtuningUSA for the price and performance on my SL55 AMG. Upsolute is awesome for Porsches and European vehicles as I had it done on a 2002 996TT, 6sp. Both have great turn around times, best value and you won't be disappointed with the VMAX removal, better driveability/idle, responsiveness and additional power/tq throughout the entire rev range, even a little better gas mileage of +1-2MPG. Afterall, ECU upgrades are just optimizing fuel/air ratios, timing, etc. for 91/93 Octane through a reflash of the the ECU.
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 337
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From: Taiwan, ROC
FX35 plus
I've the experience with MKB ECU.
1. Totally remove the speed limiter (no 2nd limiter,188 mph)
2. Redline lift up 400 more rpm in all gears.
3. Adapt to the S/C, Hi-cam & full exhaust upgrade.
4. a very unique timing map leads to zero detonation.
while other performance chips knocking a little.(though it's acceptable)
5. the MKB ECU is self adaptive whatever further mods are done, some other hard coding chip tuning may suffer those mismatch conditions.
1. Totally remove the speed limiter (no 2nd limiter,188 mph)
2. Redline lift up 400 more rpm in all gears.
3. Adapt to the S/C, Hi-cam & full exhaust upgrade.
4. a very unique timing map leads to zero detonation.
while other performance chips knocking a little.(though it's acceptable)
5. the MKB ECU is self adaptive whatever further mods are done, some other hard coding chip tuning may suffer those mismatch conditions.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 271
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From: West Toluca Lake, CA.
2004 SL55 AMG
I've read impressive results and engineering about MKB which I believe is based in England. There's actually an in-depth article on MKB stage I,II, & III on the SL55 in the current month's "Mercedes Auto Enthusiasts?" magazine out on the stands right now. They have tuned an SL55 AMG to 610 HP/690 ft-lbs TQ if I recall correctly, and the HP/TQ curves follow nearly the same plotting curvature as STOCK but producing much greater area under the curve (much stronger at every RPM). This means that driveability and surges of power/tq is nearly identical to STOCK but on a higher level. I just wonder how expensive their ECU upgrading.
Last edited by RU_MATRX; Nov 4, 2004 at 01:14 PM.
Out Of Control!!
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haters crazy
Thanks for all the advice, I have a couple questions though. Why does renntech only claim 10hp from their chip and yet all these other companies claim 21-24hp? I like speedtuningUSA but MKB sounds like the best option to me so far (depending on price), do they have a website?
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From: South Florida
Fast Cars!
Originally Posted by blackbenzz
Thanks for all the advice, I have a couple questions though. Why does renntech only claim 10hp from their chip and yet all these other companies claim 21-24hp? I like speedtuningUSA but MKB sounds like the best option to me so far (depending on price), do they have a website?
Senior Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 271
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From: West Toluca Lake, CA.
2004 SL55 AMG
blackbenzz:
SpeedtuningUSA also removes all speed limiters (no secondary level) which IngenereAMG can attest to since he's had his SL55 up to top speed a few times 202-203MPH. You can do a search on the SL55/SL65 section for peoples' inputs.
It looks like MKB is in Germany not England (my mistake). I found this site using Google though have not heard of a US distributor.
http://www.mkb-power.de/pages_en/index_e.html
I have to say that for the price and quality, speedtuningUSA is great from my experience. For a stock/nearly-stock Mercedes there isn't that much R&D for optimizing the ECU to justify $3K vs. say $500. If you saw how a tuner optimizes fuel/air ratio, shift points and timing advance/retard (eg. Vishnu performance for the EVO VIII) on a laptop you'd see that the price is mostly mark-up for a file with non-OEM parameters/data points. There are major discussions on the Porsche enthusiast forums and the $500 Upsolute upgrade is just as flexible and produces better overall power/tq vs. the Porsche specific tuners on modified 996TTs (dyno-proven throughout whole RPM range). I had Upsolute on my 2002 996TT, 6sp that saw 1.1 bar boost consistently. Afterall, it's just a firmware/software ECU flash.
Great Luck!
SpeedtuningUSA also removes all speed limiters (no secondary level) which IngenereAMG can attest to since he's had his SL55 up to top speed a few times 202-203MPH. You can do a search on the SL55/SL65 section for peoples' inputs.
It looks like MKB is in Germany not England (my mistake). I found this site using Google though have not heard of a US distributor.
http://www.mkb-power.de/pages_en/index_e.html
I have to say that for the price and quality, speedtuningUSA is great from my experience. For a stock/nearly-stock Mercedes there isn't that much R&D for optimizing the ECU to justify $3K vs. say $500. If you saw how a tuner optimizes fuel/air ratio, shift points and timing advance/retard (eg. Vishnu performance for the EVO VIII) on a laptop you'd see that the price is mostly mark-up for a file with non-OEM parameters/data points. There are major discussions on the Porsche enthusiast forums and the $500 Upsolute upgrade is just as flexible and produces better overall power/tq vs. the Porsche specific tuners on modified 996TTs (dyno-proven throughout whole RPM range). I had Upsolute on my 2002 996TT, 6sp that saw 1.1 bar boost consistently. Afterall, it's just a firmware/software ECU flash.
Great Luck!
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 337
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From: Taiwan, ROC
FX35 plus
MKB is one Top tuner of Mercedes/AMG cars.
They don't do the ecu work alone,that's pity !
Once you mod a lot and wanna a capable tuner to take
care of the ecu, tcu...all software adaption to give your
investment a healthy & complete tuned.
MKB is very knowledgeable for such combination.
throw your crazy ideas to them, they justify & help.
They're a dream builder rather than a 20+ps chip retailer.
They don't do the ecu work alone,that's pity !
Once you mod a lot and wanna a capable tuner to take
care of the ecu, tcu...all software adaption to give your
investment a healthy & complete tuned.
MKB is very knowledgeable for such combination.
throw your crazy ideas to them, they justify & help.
They're a dream builder rather than a 20+ps chip retailer.
Super Member
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 828
Likes: 0
From: Atlanta, GA
SLK32
Originally Posted by RU_MATRX
blackbenzz:
SpeedtuningUSA also removes all speed limiters (no secondary level) which IngenereAMG can attest to since he's had his SL55 up to top speed a few times 202-203MPH. You can do a search on the SL55/SL65 section for peoples' inputs.
It looks like MKB is in Germany not England (my mistake). I found this site using Google though have not heard of a US distributor.
http://www.mkb-power.de/pages_en/index_e.html
I have to say that for the price and quality, speedtuningUSA is great from my experience. For a stock/nearly-stock Mercedes there isn't that much R&D for optimizing the ECU to justify $3K vs. say $500. If you saw how a tuner optimizes fuel/air ratio, shift points and timing advance/retard (eg. Vishnu performance for the EVO VIII) on a laptop you'd see that the price is mostly mark-up for a file with non-OEM parameters/data points. There are major discussions on the Porsche enthusiast forums and the $500 Upsolute upgrade is just as flexible and produces better overall power/tq vs. the Porsche specific tuners on modified 996TTs (dyno-proven throughout whole RPM range). I had Upsolute on my 2002 996TT, 6sp that saw 1.1 bar boost consistently. Afterall, it's just a firmware/software ECU flash.
Great Luck!
SpeedtuningUSA also removes all speed limiters (no secondary level) which IngenereAMG can attest to since he's had his SL55 up to top speed a few times 202-203MPH. You can do a search on the SL55/SL65 section for peoples' inputs.
It looks like MKB is in Germany not England (my mistake). I found this site using Google though have not heard of a US distributor.
http://www.mkb-power.de/pages_en/index_e.html
I have to say that for the price and quality, speedtuningUSA is great from my experience. For a stock/nearly-stock Mercedes there isn't that much R&D for optimizing the ECU to justify $3K vs. say $500. If you saw how a tuner optimizes fuel/air ratio, shift points and timing advance/retard (eg. Vishnu performance for the EVO VIII) on a laptop you'd see that the price is mostly mark-up for a file with non-OEM parameters/data points. There are major discussions on the Porsche enthusiast forums and the $500 Upsolute upgrade is just as flexible and produces better overall power/tq vs. the Porsche specific tuners on modified 996TTs (dyno-proven throughout whole RPM range). I had Upsolute on my 2002 996TT, 6sp that saw 1.1 bar boost consistently. Afterall, it's just a firmware/software ECU flash.
Great Luck!
Out Of Control!!
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 13,489
Likes: 96
haters crazy
I talked to speedtuningUSA last week. They said they do custom chips for around 400 (If I decided to go with a supercharger). They are located very close to my house and I think I am just going to buy their chip by the end of the calendar year. I am ordering pulleys and ignition wires right now. Finally got my Carlsson RS replica bumper to fit (well almost) and it looks awesome!
