Well guys, just a quick update. We installed the LAP3 chip on the Stinger with the JUN BL Race Cat-Back (same car that ran 12.6 in the 1/4), things went well at first but we did have some problems later on.
To start, we ordered directly from LAP3 in Korea. The package arrived and did not have any diagrams or instructions, not even how to set it to the desired fuel type etc. Anyways thanks to K5optimastore.com video and other videos online I was able to figure out how to install it. Installation is very simple, literally 2 minutes.
We run our Stingers on the best pump fuel we have which is 98ron octane, this is the equivalent to 93pon "pon = Pump Octane Number" in the US. The default setting the chip came in was "6-6-6" which is the highest setting for 93pon fuel, to be safe we ran it on the lowest setting on the chip setting "7-4-4" which is for 89pon octane and ran the car on the dyno. Power went up from ~353whp to 386whp, to say the least we were quite happy.
While on the dyno we put it back to the highest setting "6-6-6" and the car pulled 410whp, the gain in torque was nuts also 463wtq.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdgAVqrHHXF/?taken-by=brc973
However it did hesitate on the top end of the powerband and threw some little pops of smoke, it sounded to me like some minor detonation. We thought it might be that the factory ECU still didn't adapt to the new setting and couldn't adapt quick enough to the additional boost, so we took it for a test drive. The car was considerably faster, but the hesitation kept getting worse.
We returned it to the lowest setting and the hesitation remained, however the more we drove it the worse it became. decided to remove the chip and the problem remained, at this stage we knew something is wrong with the car now, so we reset the ECU and no change. We checked the spark plugs and plug number 3 which is the hardest one to get to was bad, we replaced it and things are back to good now.
I was thinking if we should go with a colder plug, I know they recommend doing so when installing the chip on other KIA platforms but we didn't get any advice from LAP3 Korea.
Let me know what you guys think.