So, after a couple weeks of deliberation, I bit the bullet and went ahead and ordered the Madness Autoworks Maxpower ECU (with Bluetooth). It came a day early, so today I suddenly started feeling "sick" and needed to leave work immediately.
Installation was surprisingly easy. A LOT easier than our Abarth brethren. The only thing that needed to be removed was the plastic engine cover (to get to all the sensors), and the battery (to get to the cam sensor). It literally took me less than an hour. Here are a few pics of where the harness connects:
Overview
MAF Sensor
Boost Sensor
Cam Sensor (Must remove battery to get to. A bit of a PITA)
Brain location
And here's the bluetooth app. Nothing fancy, very straightforward. You can adjust from 3 levels, Eco, Sport and Sport+. You can also set the timer that keeps you stock until the vehicle has had time to warm up. (Im using an old iPhone, but it works fine with my Android Moto X phone as well)
Now, how much difference does it make you might ask?? A FRIGGIN LOT. I only had a chance to do about a 30 minute test run, but I'm absolutely sold. The Jeep is MUCH more responsive through all gears and pulls a lot harder vs stock. (And this was just in normal Sport mode) In fact during a couple WOT runs in first gear, once the snail spooled, I had a hard time maintaining traction. TCS intervened one time. I used to have an Eclipse with exhaust, intake and a few smaller mods, running 15psi on a 14G and this I'd say this pulls 90% as hard. So much fun.
Also no CEL, no adverse effects (other than it gulping a bar of gas while I was romping on it ). It did smell a bit hotter once I got done, but that's to be expected. Temps never left midway on the temp gauge.
Now take this with a grain of salt, but here's a quick shot of the Ultragauge during a 3rd gear, 3/4 throttle run:
Note the HP1 and TRQ numbers. That's 194hp and 194ft/lb of torque. On earlier runs, I saw the HP hit 201 and the tq hit 204. Again, this is just an estimate from the Ultragauge's brain and shouldn't be taken as a full on accurate representation. But it sure FEELS like it's flirting with 200hp.
And here's just a quick shot of where I decided to mount the Ultragauge
All-in-all, (as you can tell), I am QUITE pleased with this ECU. I was on the fence about which ECU to buy (Madness or the RRE) and after doing a little research, I decided on the Madness for the features it offered. Plus Eric (And later John when I ordered the DV+) was amazing. He answered my 500,000 questions and was very patient with me. If I had it to do all over again, would I have bought the same one? Not sure I'd have sprung for the Bluetooth version, as it's pretty spartan. But I in no way have buyers remorse.
I also ordered a GFB DV+ Diverter Valve which should be here tomorrow. Can't wait to see what THIS adds to the equation.
If anyone has ANY questions, feel free to ask.
Installation was surprisingly easy. A LOT easier than our Abarth brethren. The only thing that needed to be removed was the plastic engine cover (to get to all the sensors), and the battery (to get to the cam sensor). It literally took me less than an hour. Here are a few pics of where the harness connects:
Overview
MAF Sensor
Boost Sensor
Cam Sensor (Must remove battery to get to. A bit of a PITA)
Brain location
And here's the bluetooth app. Nothing fancy, very straightforward. You can adjust from 3 levels, Eco, Sport and Sport+. You can also set the timer that keeps you stock until the vehicle has had time to warm up. (Im using an old iPhone, but it works fine with my Android Moto X phone as well)
Now, how much difference does it make you might ask?? A FRIGGIN LOT. I only had a chance to do about a 30 minute test run, but I'm absolutely sold. The Jeep is MUCH more responsive through all gears and pulls a lot harder vs stock. (And this was just in normal Sport mode) In fact during a couple WOT runs in first gear, once the snail spooled, I had a hard time maintaining traction. TCS intervened one time. I used to have an Eclipse with exhaust, intake and a few smaller mods, running 15psi on a 14G and this I'd say this pulls 90% as hard. So much fun.
Also no CEL, no adverse effects (other than it gulping a bar of gas while I was romping on it ). It did smell a bit hotter once I got done, but that's to be expected. Temps never left midway on the temp gauge.
Now take this with a grain of salt, but here's a quick shot of the Ultragauge during a 3rd gear, 3/4 throttle run:
Note the HP1 and TRQ numbers. That's 194hp and 194ft/lb of torque. On earlier runs, I saw the HP hit 201 and the tq hit 204. Again, this is just an estimate from the Ultragauge's brain and shouldn't be taken as a full on accurate representation. But it sure FEELS like it's flirting with 200hp.
And here's just a quick shot of where I decided to mount the Ultragauge
All-in-all, (as you can tell), I am QUITE pleased with this ECU. I was on the fence about which ECU to buy (Madness or the RRE) and after doing a little research, I decided on the Madness for the features it offered. Plus Eric (And later John when I ordered the DV+) was amazing. He answered my 500,000 questions and was very patient with me. If I had it to do all over again, would I have bought the same one? Not sure I'd have sprung for the Bluetooth version, as it's pretty spartan. But I in no way have buyers remorse.
I also ordered a GFB DV+ Diverter Valve which should be here tomorrow. Can't wait to see what THIS adds to the equation.
If anyone has ANY questions, feel free to ask.