Hilltopper

Bingo! Steve's supplied '97 ECU was an absolute drop-in, plug-n-play for my '96 and worth every penny.

DiegoR

Slightly O/T but just installed Steve Weiner chip in my 95' RoW and all what I can say is WOW! Big difference in response and more agressive specially after 4k RPM

Kika

the number of pennies is gong to increase though!!!

Been wanting to do this for some time now, and finally have an ECU procured, but as I understand it, 97 ECUs are NLA from Porsche. (heard last 2 were purchased last week)

Only available on an exchange basis, AND Porsche has increased the price as well.

The used market continues to be very scarce.

From here on out, this upgrade is going to be very expensive for 96 owners unless someone can replicate a suitable aftermarket alternative. (Tore?)

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Indeed, thats true. Porsche now gets $4401 exchange, for a re-man '97 DME. The one good part is that you can turn in a '96 one for a '97, but its simply no longer cheap to do so.

I buy each & every used one I can find, but they are VERY difficult to source anymore.

Aftermarket ones generally mean Motec EMS, however none of these will be OBD-II compliant and thats a problem where smog compliance is mandatory. While I am a big Motec fan, this also affects re-sale values since the car cannot be sold into certain states so thats something to consider.

TheBen

I got Steve to tune my '97 Ecu and take out the immobilizer. Still loving it! Highly recomended.

Btw over 4K for an exchange Ecu. Yikes!

IainM

I just installed one of Steve Weiner's chips in my '95 non-varioram C2. He tuned it for the crap 91 on generally available gas we get in California but alerted me to the benefits of running 96-98.
I've had my car for almost 4 years now and have been working through the plugs, wires, dizzy cap, sensor connectors, fuel pump and DME error codes typical of a 20year old car with almost 100k miles. I can say that each of these has yielded a performance improvement with perhaps the distributor-wires-plugs work giving the best bang for the buck. But still the car was jeckll & Hyde transforming from a gentle, granny cruiser to death seeking monster at around 4K revs. Fine for track days and scaring the wife but not so useful for autocross where I've been getting most of my kicks (attempting to.)
After getting my car to the best that stock can provide, I installed Steve's chip and I can say the improvement is amazing. the car has a sense of urgency that I hadn't felt before and at no point on the course did I feel underpowered. The car has the ability to get into trouble in corners much more easily than before so now I have a new learning curve, I'm finding I need to relearn the cars capabilities and limits.
Thanks Steve

AZ Targa

+1 for Steve Wong's chip, I have one on my early 95', can't speak to its power bump due to RS cams being replaced at same time, but certainly no negatives.

pp000830

The rarely discussed upside to a chip swap is that you can put it back to stock with an allen wrench and a screwdriver and the original chip. A re-flash back to stock, if even available involves some level of support by others. The stock chip also contains proprietary static information specific to your car that read at resale may influence selling price. From a diagnostic perspective I have not seen any information on the compatibility of a re-flashed chip with the comprehensive Dealer Bosch OBDC tool.There are lots of things one can do to improve performance incrementally over stock. Simply making sure your vacuum system has no leaks can increase throttle response in the mid range and by now all 993 likely have leaks if not serviced specifically for them. For me if we are speaking of a 15% torque improvement on some part of the RPM scale is messing with the DME really worth it?

Ed Hughes

Yes.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Welll,...not really. One cannot read anything in the chip with ANY scan tool; factory or otherwise. All you can do is communicate with the various modules. A chipped car may or may not appeal to a potential buyer, but thats entirely subjective.

As above. Properly done, there is no effect in communications with a Hammer, PST-2 or PIWIS.

Now, thats very true! I see many cars with deferred maintenance needing a complete tuneup and such things should ALWAYS be addressed before doing a chip or reflash. Performance-enhancing software will not aid an engine needing plugs, plug wires, caps, rotors, filters, & plugs.

I'd kindly suggest driving someone's car who has done this before forming a value opinion. There really is no downside.

Lorenfb

Actually, the VIN can be read and changed on the '97/'98 993 DME ECMs.
That data are stored in the flash memory ("chip").

Hilltopper

Yup, yup and many more yups!!

Ed Hughes

Indeed! It's not just +HP or Tq-it's overall drivability too.

sander97C2

I'm going to echo what Diego said. Ive driven my car with Steve's ecu tune since last Friday and immediately noticed a difference in driveability in the torque curve. Its just better now. A little fine tuning goes a long way. The stock tune has some dead spots that drove me a little crazy and now there gone.

With varioram the car already produces a nice low rpm shove, however, with the tune the engine is now much more eager and "awake". Also note that when varioram kicks in the car pulls noticeably stronger to redline. I can go on and on but for anyone thinking about it just go for it. I really am surprised at the performance bump. Many thanks Steve.
No joke, I've put nearly 300 miles on the car since Friday. I love this thing.

Kika

Add RS Cams and LWFW, and the car really wants to go! I'm itching to mix in half a tank of 100 Octane and verify another of Professor Weiner's statements.