What is a brain "flash" and why do all of WORKS engine products come with it?

HP Dyno before and after Brain flash
Torque Dyno before and after Brain flash

WORKS was the first Evo tuning company with the ability to reprogram the factory ECU in the U.S. (April '03) for the Mitsubishi Evo VIII. This amount of experience and time has allowed our software engineers to disassemble more code and gain a better understanding of the ECU architecture than anyone in the industry. This is all done without ever physically adding or removing anything from the factory ECU or its related components like "piggybacks."

The ECU's ability to understand how an engine has been modified is critical to extracting the maximum performance and reliability from all engine related enhancements. WORKS offers its entire range of engine performance products from exhausts to cams and throttle body upgrades bundled with a flash of the factory ECU.

What this means to the end user is that the car runs safer and stronger than it otherwise would by just haphazardly bolting on performance parts. A good way to think of this is how your home computer optimizes itself every time you add new hardware. Just like your desktop computer, a car's performance and reliability are directly related to the ECU's ability to account for changed operating parameters like better airflow, a cooler intake charge, or less exhaust backpressure.

Some tuners may take the ham-fisted approach of bolting on parts without compensating for the changed parameters in the software programming, essentially treating the EVO as if it were a carbureted 1960's muscle car instead of a sophisticated piece of modern technology, WORKS understands that effective ECU tuning is what being a "tuner" is all about, and as such, serves as the backbone for any safe and effective modification path.

Can my WORKS Brain be brought back to stock?

Yes, our ECU programming can easily and safely be reversed back to stock with the factory defaults.

What's wrong with using Piggyback units?

EVO Enthusiasts may wonder whether add-on piggyback units such as air fuel or ignition timing controllers and other interceptor boxes are "good enough." WORKS believes that these are not the optimal path for effectively controlling what is going on inside your EVO's engine. Each of these add-ons essentially intercepts the signals that your car's ECU relies on and then alters them before sending them on to the ECU. By lying to the ECU, your car's brain has no way of understanding what is really going on. This in turn can cause the ECU to make dangerous and erratic adjustments based on a false premise, and, over a wide range of operating conditions, can cause more harm than good -- even potentially damaging your engine. This is especially true on ECUs that feature self-learning and adaptive memory like the EVO's.

In addition, "interceptor boxes" can compromise the communication speed between the ECU and its related components which presents a serious risk to a very dynamic, rapidly changing high-output motor like the EVO's where milliseconds count.

The EVO presents state-of-the-art performance and has a very sophisticated ECU which, like a flash based digital camera or music storage device, can re-save maps each time one makes changes to what is going on under the hood. WORKS believes that the only safe, reliable and effective way to tune your Evo is use this new technology to cleanly reprogram the car's ECU. Don't rely on 1980's black box technology. WORKS spends countless hours on the road and the dyno determining exactly what is going on and what correction factors the factory brain relies on in doing everything from setting how your car idles when cold, to how it responds during full throttle rips.

What if I'm interested in purchasing several WORKS products?

All of the WORKS tuning products are designed to compliment one another and the addition of each product will make more power than the existing aggregate. If you order multiple products at the same time, WORKS will program the ECU to extract the maximum performance out of the entire group of upgrades. If, on the other hand, you wish to add products from the WORKS' product line one at a time, WORKS will flash your ECU with each new engine performance product you purchase. Whether you add WORKS products all at once or one at a time, you can buy with confidence knowing that the entire WORKS product line is designed to be fully integrated and that each performance product compliments the others perfectly.

Will the WORKS Brain upgrade work with other brand products?

Maybe it will, maybe it won't. It's anybody's guess. WORKS cannot offer ECU tuning for our competitors' products since each company has different designs and performance characteristics. We integrate our own tuning with our own designs. Each of our products have been thoroughly tuned and tested on the dyno, the track, and the real world to ensure that when you order from WORKS, you are receiving the best performance and reliability possible out of each and every product that we have to offer.

We drive what we sell. When it comes to tuning your EVO, do it right or don't do it at all.