Nice car Nathan. Diesel economy could be the way we all head given the financial climate.
name='Silentsnake' said:
are these hard to install?
Legal?
effect your insurance?
How much does a chip cost?
Is their a disadvantage such as overheating etc
No any muppet can do it.
As long as they do not adversely effect emissions under MOT conditions they are perfectly legal.
Yes it will be adjusted by the power gained. 25% extra for a turbo to a non-turbo car so this will be less.
Cost depends on make £150-500 are common prices but these really are the pits for tuning so it is NOT worth it.
Disadvantage is slight heat increase due to the way it works but its still well within normal operating standards. The reliability after fitting will fall simply because of the nature of these horrid little things but as its a diesel it means slightly more smoke and maybe 200k out of the engine for petrol they are the devils sperm.
Before I go and explain these little blighters I'd like to say they have their place in tuning but they are WAY too expensive and a big risk for petrol engines.
Engines for the most part are controlled by the engine management system (EMS) this can be just an engine control unit (ECU) or ECU with sensory units for on-the fly adjustments and such. The engine like anything needs instructions to function, if you take the detail of instruction to be map resolution then you will already realise better resolution means better engine control. Here in lies the problem, OEM ECUs are low resolution (unless you get ferrari - which in house ECUs - or another high price car -which mostly use MoTeC) this means your car functions to the lowest possible standard. The standard is reliability and this is fine. A chip is known as a piggy-back really and hi-jacks the sensor signals and modifies them so the engine recieves different information. This produces more power because that is what it is tuned for (ie as close to 14.7AFR without knock and high IGN). The information still comes out at the same rate as the OEM and as such is still pretty bad. Its just better tuned for power not reliability. This is the inherent danger for petrol engines as they suffer far less tolerence in burning fuel than diesels and as such even changing petrol type (eg 97 to 95).
True piggy-back ECUs such as the eManage Blue (EMB) use more sensors (and upgradable ones too) as well as increase the resolution and so produce more power with better reliability. EMBs can be had off eBay for £150 and are FAR in advance of even Bluefin's attempts at mass chipping. Why? because they can truely be tuned not just dial set with rough accuracy.
The ONLY way to gain reliable power by doing such a modification is changing out to a standalone EMS or ECU. There are many out there MoTeC, Hydra, Emerald, eManage Ultimate, Megasquirt (a DIY option which costs £300 all in but you solder it together). The trouble with having this is once they are in you must tune them and to do that you need knock detection and wideband oxygen sensor setup. Once these are begged/borrowed you can setup and do it properly and truely feel comfort in your new power knowing that every second you hammer through the gears its perfectly safe.
Oh and this is coming from fitting most of the aforementioned things over many years. My little car has Emerald K3, knocklite and XD-16 wideband system all controlled and mapped via the in-car PC. Don't go with the mob true knowledge will always save you money and harm (to you, your pride and your investment).
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i love em i been doing my driving lessons in them and i find them comfortable!
