(was) T.A.P.'s a pleasure to deal with (is) More power NA I5

[MSV96@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-03-06 02:24:08 EST, you write:

<< then why do they (and other vendors) even offer such chips for sale? >>
Valid question...the answer is to make money! My understanding (nerdier types
feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm wrong-please!) is that all that
can be done on the older NA I5 with a chip is to advance the timing and
(perhaps) modify the advance curve. This is what was implied by TAP and was
specificaly told to me by a researcher at Dinan (a well known bummer tuner
who is branching out into other cars including Audi BTW...). Now, I have
heard other listers tell of advancing the timing by mearly re-adjusting the
distributer-but this doesn't change the advance curve (don't know if they
change that map in the chip either do we?). TAP told me that I should buy the
K&N filter from them at the same time as the chip to even notice it...hmmm.
Also they indicated that I must first inspect my ECU as beyond a certain age
in the '85 model year there is no mod available. By the sounds of recent
threads it seems that a (modified) cam may be of help. Having owned 5 NA I5
cars over the past 10 years I have always wanted to extract more power from
all of them...and have always been told that anything beyond minute increases
are very costly-turbo transplant is a far better option...but not as easy as
one might think. I end this with a question...I know (from my book on
quattro's) that the European spec 80q (old ones...same as 4kq) had 136hp vs.
115hp in the US models. How is that achieved? Is it because the European spec
cars had no cat? Is that all???

Mike Veglia
85 4ksq (seeking more power, but waiting for the right solution which may be
none)