Chip a Diesel Engine for better MPH

cyclonebri1

Red_Cat wrote: »

Ooh, nearly one of my favourite subjects.


But why don't manufacturers provide that from the start? Well for them they have many different targets to meet, such as fuel economy, power, engine emissions, longevity/reliability, cold starting, turbo performance etc.

The main reason they don't is to keep them away from the litigation zone, blown turbos, engines and resultant accidents etc

Cars are mass produced and as a result can vary significantly, an individual remap is the way to go but it puts the onus on you, nay problem;)

michaelro

Upping the power will obviously put strain on Clutches, Gearboxes and other area's you forget like Brakes etc

Also mapping can highlight or make worse a problem which existed but wasn't bad enough for you to notice.

You could easily find a few hundred pound map turns into several hundred pound repair bill.

AdrianHi

rev_henry wrote: »

Surely just a remap leaves no evidence of having been done, so an insurance company would never be able to tell? Only if you added a physical chip would there be a visible modification.

If an insurance company has reason to suspect they can have the car analysed and the remap discovered thought this costs them. That said a remap (done right) is the least traceable of all tuning techniques.... though a tuning box can be removed.... but then soem of the latest cars log things like maximum fuel pressure ever logged which also gives it away unless you have a really smart remap which just changes the timing and length of the fuel injection and not the pressure. I know of one that does this

Then there is that phrase I once heard a service technician note on a cars records "non-stock throttle response" :rotfl:

AdrianHi

ses6jwg wrote: »

no there is a counter on the ecu that shows they have been remapped.

Which one person I know who does remapping resets so this is not a realible way to detect a remap.

ahillsy

@rev_henry
This is something I've seen people asking a lot on other forums - how to tell if an engine's been remapped. Some people say it's undetectable, others say it is detectable. I personally wouldn't know as I've never strongly considered having it done.

But, I know what boat I'd rather be in - the boat where my insurance isn't void if they do find out the engine's been remapped and it hasn't been declared on the policy!! Better safe than sorry.

AdrianHi

ahillsy wrote: »

But, I know what boat I'd rather be in - the boat where my insurance isn't void if they do find out the engine's been remapped and it hasn't been declared on the policy!! Better safe than sorry.

I told my insurance company straight away and it added another £50-£70 to a roughly £500 premium. I'm a bit of a "boy scout" like that

ses6jwg

Another example of where the engine is deliberately de-tuned for marketing purposes is the first model "Bmw Mini"

Both the Mini One and the Mini Cooper had the same 1.6 petrol engine however the Cooper had around 15-20 more bhp I believe.

You could "bluefin" the One up to Cooper spec for around £350

AdrianHi

Bluefin lets you load a "remap" and then restore the original map again whenever you want. Sounds like the ideal stealth tuning method.
I am reliably informed that it is actually about the least stealthy method going. It results in the main ECU going offline when the car is powered while the maps are switched. Apparently all the other little computers on the car then log fault codes to say they cannot see the ECU. During a pro re-map these get cleared but not with a bluefin making it rather obvouis what has gone on next time your car is hooked up the the computers at the dealer.

Premier_2

PeoplesChampion wrote: »

...Why did not the engine designers do it in the first place? ...

That's a very good question.

The boy racers who dream up the new calibrations think they are so clever.

The truth is that the vehicle producers, at least the good ones, employ some of the very best calibrators around and they are fully aware of what could be done ... and know full well why they didn't include such calibration in the production vehicle. Usually it is because it is trade off with other requirements. e.g. if you want you diesel to warm up quickly on a winters morning, or even warm at all on cold days (and it doesn't have an additional fuel fired auxiliary heater that drinks fuel), then it's little wonder the production calibration is not the most efficient possible.

Likewise, it's great to boost the power output of the engine ... until you get torque steer, a stripped driveshaft, a bust gearbox or a blown engine. What testing experience exactly have these after market calibrators got on your particular mode and its associated components? None

Don't even think about recalibrating your engine if you want the protection of the manufacturers warranty.

Edit: essentially like what Red Cat has previously posted

AdrianHi

A remapper or tuning box designer who knows what they are doing puts a lot of effort in designing maps that don't push torque through the drive train greater than there design limit. That said when you use the extra power available you are putting more load on all those components so you may well be reducing life from say 300,000 miles to 250,000 miles.
If your using a tuning method that increases fuel injection pressure (most do) injectors will wear faster, using premium fuels or additives becomes more worthwhile. It's worth knowing that the physical different between a 318d and a 320d is just the fuel injectors, everything else is identical. Step up to a 325d and the drive train is beefed up and again the physical difference bwteen 325d and 330d is fuel injectors.

Saab were doing it at one time, I think BMW still do it now - they will sell you an approved tuning box (AC Schnitzer)) to increase power by 20% - at 3 times the cost of something else identical. You do keep your warranty intact this way.

In the end it's personal choice as to whether you feel right about doing this with the consequences that could come. I've been running one for 17 months and abotu 15,000 miles with no troubles.
Torque steer I can see being a problem on FWD cars tuned this way.