Guys

Am looking to purchase a power fc for my 97 fd, the car is bone stock and im going to leave it that way, stock exhuast etc was wondering what kinda power i would expect at the rears with just a tune???

 

The Power FC will act as a boost controller. It will let you vary the maximum boost levels and the boost level for a given RPM. More boost will give more power but more power creates more heat. Without opening up the exhaust (eg downpipe, catback, high flow cat etc) the engine's ability to vent the heat will be compromised. The excess heat will cause your catalyst beds to deteriorate prematurely and cause clogging which reduces power and accelerates heat related problems. Also, without opening up the intake, the turbos will have a more difficult time sucking in the extra air to meet the higher boost settings.

Frankly, I don't think a power fc is useful without doing other mods. You might want to consider a boost controller instead, but IMO you really should open the intake and exhaust if you want to increase boost/horsepower.

 

PowerFCs improve the low-load response and driveability a lot over a stock ECU. They also allow you to read (with the commander or datalogit) various things from the stock sensors and adjust some things like boost control. Finally, you can get it tuned to maximize power with your current setup and get better highway fuel economy.

While $750USD is pretty salty for these rather generic benefits, the people I know who've installed one on a stock car are more than happy with it. Just because there aren't many of them doing this does not make it a bad idea.

This is my next mod (and radiator, if next year's autocross rules allow it) and my car is very close to stock in terms of power mods.

Dave

 

You can set the boost in the PFC, default is .80 kg/cm^2 which is about 11.5 psi, but you could turn it down if you wanted to, just set it to something like .70 in the Commander and you may have to fiddle with a couple other settings to. But you won't have to worry about boost creep with stock exhaust.

The current base map on the PFC is pretty conservative (designed for more modified vehicles), probably more conservative than stock. It would definitely have to be tuned, and you would have to be 100% certain you don't have any of the common boost leaks or sequential turbo system problems.