Hondata S200 installed in my VTi-R

[Wazza]

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to have James from Hondata fly down to Tassie to install a S200 and tune my 1994 VTi-R. My previous mods include a Toda header, JDM ITR cat, Mugen Twin Loop cat back exhaust and an Injen RD-1450 CAI. As I wasn't keen to modify the internals of my engine, the obvious next step like for most people was to purchase an ECU. After weighing up options like an Apexi VAFC, Apexi Power FC, Uni Chip, Power Chip etc I decided on Hondata based on the great wrap Hondata receives on this forum, and basically because it is relatively inexpensive when compared to the other ECU's available.



Anyway, after picking up James from the airport, the S200 was installed in around an hour, leaving the whole day free for road and dyno tuning. On the only dyno dynamics dyno in Tassie, my car pulled 116kw in 4th gear, with the air temp being only 15 degrees, and the car running 95 RON fuel as Tassie doesn't have Optimax/BP Ultimate. As the dyno operator explained, cars in Tassie always seem to produce less power than mainland dynos because of the cold climate. So with decent fuel on a mainland dyno, the power output should have been even more... Although I was very pleased with the result, the major difference came after the car was road tuned.... At low rpm it feels so much more responsive, it actually pulls up hills now, while at high rpm I almost feel scared, its unbelievable.. As a bonus with the current fuel prices, it's also more fuel efficient. From filling up on Wednesday, with a fair amount of hard driving I got an extra 50km from the tank before having to fill up today. In this respect, the ECU over a year will basically pay for itself. Well that's what I am telling myself anyway as justification for spending that amount of money.







Overall I am very happy with the result, and very grateful to James for flying down just to tune my car. I wish there were more people willing to provide so much assistance as what James has provided for me. I must say I was sceptical at first, especially being from Tassie and not being able to experience different ECU's in different cars etc, but Hondata exceeded all expectations, and I totally recommend it. And I almost forgot, the launch control and full throttle shift on the S200 is absolutely awesome, unfortunately I havn't been able to try it out against any decent cars at the traffic lights yet.....



Waz

[locote]

NICE POWER
how much did it cost you over all.

[wynode]

Nice writeup!

Did you get a before dyno reading? How did it compare?

[fried]

be fore and after dyno reading? how many kms has ur engine travelled?

[Wazza]

NICE POWER
how much did it cost you over all.

Hondata S200 was $750 + GST + tuning

[Wazza]

be fore and after dyno reading? how many kms has ur engine travelled?

A before dyno reading wasn't able to be done unfortunately as the Hondata ECU had already been installed, time didn't allow it, and my wallet didn't allow it either. If I had my time again I would have dynoed it before I started any mods, but then again thats another cost. Engine has done 90,000kms.

[locote]

thats a good price, you had to pay for James plane ticket too???

[preludacris]

hmmm

this guys teg is a good example of how mods should be done. Very good intake, exhaust , header, and cat, and to top it off a great ecu... Thats all u need.

if u gonna do it, do it right .

anywayz, im following exactly u example with all high quality mods, no ****ing around and yeah definately leaning towards the hondata after hearing so many great reviews

[LAGOOT]

nice gain!
very clean ride mate

[HondaLva]

awesome work dude.....15 deg thats cheating...lol...lucky tassie so cooolld!!!

[Wazza]

awesome work dude.....15 deg thats cheating...lol...lucky tassie so cooolld!!!

Actually the cool intake/ambient temperature was a disadvantage in terms of recording power output on a dyno.
Higher intake temp = higher power output....

[BLKCRX]

Hey all thanks so much for all your kind comments it’s a pleasure to support the community and share my knowledge within a great community, welcome wazza to the world of Hondata.

That is correct with dyno dynamics dyno’s typically the colder the intake temperature on the dyno, the less power a car will make, move the intake probe to the engine bay or near the exhaust manifold and watch a car make more power without changing anything. Having said that there are 101 factors that effect power and when your talking about naturally aspired power differences and changes are very hard to compare against dyno’s let alone dyno’s in different parts of Australia. Having said that there’s once place that never lies, the race track go race and see how you fend, although this of course is driver and suspension driven… there’s always variations.
Enjoy your car and yeah good luck with launching at traffic lights trying to get to the speed limit faster than the car next to you !

Regards James