944MAX Chip Review (dyno soon)

Brando · Brando's Garage

As some of you may have noticed, Rberry has posted recently about his 944S2MAX chip for the S2. I believe he has also released a few chips for the turbo but I'm not 100% sure.

Yesterday I received the 944MAX chip for 1988 and on 944s (10.2:1 compression, non S, non S2, non turbo) and installed it. First I would like to point out that Russell has been nothing but helpful in this endeavor and informative to as much detail as possible.

So here are my first impressions of this chip:

- Fixes the NA shudder.
- Much better acceleration from a dead stop. I could roll on to the clutch at 1200 rpms without the engine hesitating.
- MUCH better acceleration from idle to 3000, instead of the power suddenly "starting" at or around 3000 rpms it's constant from idle to redline.
- Throttle response is improved, no hesitation so far when going from a high gear to a lower gear (or next lower gear) and punching the throttle.
- Fuel economy... No idea, I just filled up and I'll have a mileage count by next wednesday or friday.
- Constant power up to redline (I stopped at 6k).

Now, the best improvement IMHO:

4th and 5th gears used to be a real bear before, having to downshift into 3rd from 4th, or 4th from 5th to get some useable power for passing on the freeway or getting up to speed. I can put the car in 4th at 2000 and still have the car pick up speed and not slouch nearly as much as it did before. in 4th or 5th, if I were below 3000 rpms I couldn't go up a hill, I would have to downshift. Now the car will maintain speed and/or accelerate from lower in the rpm range, instead of leveling off or dropping on slight inclines. This chip brings a lot "oomph" into the lower RPMs, and gives you useable power right off the line.

These are just my driver's seat perceptions. Overall this is a VERY good improvement over what the stock mapping does. I bet I could beat a well-tuned 911SC from a dead start, now. Before I'd have to keep the RPMs high so I'd have useable power to keep up. Now I can probably upshift sooner rather than later.

I'm going to do three dyno runs two weeks from tomorrow (weds.) to quantify what the overall improvements are in HP/TQ. But so far, this is a very worthy investment for $175-$200.

Eldorado · 10-31-2006, 07:55 PM

i wonder how this compares to wilk's chip... that'd be a great dyno to see... wonder if it'd be an improvement at all...

rberry951 · 10-31-2006, 08:41 PM

Thank you Brando for the informative write-up.

Keep in mind this is the V1 chip, first beta to be tested. Hopefully some other independent testers will contrinute as well. If somebody has a wilk chip to dyno the final production 944MAX chip against I'll be happy to send them one for the comparison.

We're also developing the S2 chip right now. The first dyno run on that V1 beta chip too place Monday and the chip made 4.8HP and 6.8TQ over stock. This was just 'smoothing' as the first chip always is. We weren't trying to make more power yet. I've sent the S2 testers a V2 chip already based on that dyno information and their input. The S2 tester also sent me a dyno of an Authority chip he had. Our first V1 chip made .1HP less and 1.2TQ more than the Authority. I expect the final version of the S2 chip will make 10-12HP over stock. But more importantly will be the drivability and overall torque curve MUCH better than stock or any other aftermarket chip. We don't shoot for peak numbers, but we guarantee maximum performance.

Stay tuned...

Regards,
Russell

AA_Ezra · 10-31-2006, 09:10 PM

Any chips for the early style in the future?

rberry951 · 10-31-2006, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by AA_Ezra
Any chips for the early style in the future?

Yes, I just have to figure out a way to get a socket on the board with some sort of adapter people can install themselves. Keep an eye on the forums for updates...

Regards,
Russell

JimboDean · 10-31-2006, 11:47 PM

I'm interested in the chip you're offering for the 944. I was curious to see when you'd release one for us 8 valve guys.

rberry951 · 10-31-2006, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JimboDean
I'm interested in the chip you're offering for the 944. I was curious to see when you'd release one for us 8 valve guys.

The first chip I did was the 944 Turbo, the S chip followed that. Now I'm working on the NA and S2 chips at the same time. Eventually I'll have a chip for every Porsche with a Bosch motronic computer.

Regards,
Russell

J1NX3D · J1NX3D's Garage

do the RoW '89 944 2.7's have the same computers as the US spec ones?

MrDude · 11-01-2006, 03:22 PM

Hello, this is my first post and I am not an expert at Porsches by any means, but I have some questions.

Will this chip work on a 87 944 with an automatic transmission?

If so what kind of results could I expect using this chip?

rberry951 · 11-01-2006, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrDude
Hello, this is my first post and I am not an expert at Porsches by any means, but I have some questions.

Will this chip work on a 87 944 with an automatic transmission?

If so what kind of results could I expect using this chip?

Yes, you will get the same performance characteristics from the chips that the manual shift guys do.

Regards,
Russell

pozican · 11-01-2006, 03:35 PM

Hey Russell -- I'm local in your area, and I have a 944 -- Need another tester? Let me know -- I may be contacting you regarding a 951MAX chip here soon... My 951 told me she wants it...

rberry951 · 11-01-2006, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pozican
Hey Russell -- I'm local in your area, and I have a 944 -- Need another tester? Let me know -- I may be contacting you regarding a 951MAX chip here soon... My 951 told me she wants it...

I think I'm set on testers right now, cept I need a '89 2.7L tester...

Feel free to give me a yell sometime, 877-558-9507

MrDude · 11-01-2006, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rberry951
Yes, you will get the same performance characteristics from the chips that the manual shift guys do.

Regards,
Russell

Ok, thank you

AA_Ezra · 11-01-2006, 06:20 PM

Good to hear that there maybe a setup for the earlies. Untill then the 87 DME and AFM upgrade for the early 944's would enable the use of the chip

Brando · Brando's Garage

Finally! Got a dyno sheet. I was hoping for 140hp but... it's a N|A

No turboner hp ratings for me yet...

My mistake, the green is STOCK, the blue is the 944 MAX chip V1.

rberry951 · 11-15-2006, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Brando
My mistake, the green is STOCK, the blue is the 944 MAX chip V1.

Whew....

TNT25169 · 11-15-2006, 09:15 PM

I can't wait until this cheap is released!!!!

rberry951 · 11-15-2006, 09:21 PM

I was hoping for a Dec 1st release, but we may be pushed to mid Dec unless I can kick some royal butt in two weeks. I'll have a V2 ready tomorrow to get to Brando and another fellow, the other fellow has access to a dyno and should dyno it right away, then we'll do V3. Actually, that reminds me I should have the 944S2 V3 dyno data in this week. I'm pretty sure that one is a go for Dec 1st. But the guy at the dyno shop Brando went to did NOTHING I told him to do. So for V3 he's going to try to find a different shop.

But anyway, indeed the torque curve looks very nice, especially for the V1 first shot chip. I didn't expect to see that much of a gain across the RPM range right off the bat. So this is a good thing.

We'll keep ya posted!

Eldorado · 11-15-2006, 09:49 PM

the curve is straighter, i'll give ya that.. but a whole 0.2hp increase... i dont know..

just to compare, i'd love to see side to side dyno's, of the same car.. one running wilk's chip, and one running yours.. not saying wilk's is better, i'm just curious what the numbers would be like.

rberry951 · 11:05 PM

This chip accomplished what I wanted it to, a little more overall actually. You must understand that what we're doing here is developing a chip and this is the very first stage. Each stage I'm working on different areas of the chip and the initial stage is always partial throttle maps, which the dyno doesn't see. You have to just read what people have to say about that. So if I make more power on the initial version of the beta chip it's a side effect of smoother overall running. As I have done nothing in the wide open throttle maps to make more power. It has happened with every chip. I don't post everything every where but full timelines of documented testing is available on the maxhpkit.com forums. You can see similar results with the released 944S chip and the S2 chip is in it's final stage now. These dyno sheets are what I use to tune, along with other feedback. They aren't meant as a comparison to anything on the market, just to illustrate the phases of tuning. I like people to see exactly what they are getting from the ground up.

Regards,
Russell