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Posts Tagged ‘Torque’

Hey, look under the hood!

It’s a bird!

It’s a plane!

It’s SUPERCHIP!

With apologies to Superman, performance computer chips or superchips are quickly becoming a popular way for auto enthusiasts to squeeze out more power from their cars. Basically what a superchip mod does is to store a new engine management program in your car’s computer. Noticeable increases in horsepower and torque as well as improvements in driveability are the chief benefits of this type of chip. Installation is easy and the price is right…we’ll examine just how easy and cost effective a superchip is below.

Depending on the make/model of your car or truck, a superchip can help your vehicle crank out from 9 to 60 more horsepower. Not too shabby when you consider some compact cars barely make it to 115 horses. Yeah, you could have elected for the more powerful engine with some cars but the $1000 or better mark up in price dwarfs the price of a superchip. Better to go with the superchip and pocket the savings.

So, how hard is it to install a superchip? Actually, it is really a simple procedure:

1. Locate your car’s computer chip [usually found in your dashboard].

2. Remove the factory installed chip and replace it with the superchip…one chip slides out and the other slides in.

3. Place a cover over the chip to keep it in place and to keep dirt and dust out.

That’s it! The hardest part will be to remove the dash, but even that job isn’t all that difficult.

As I said previously, the price of installing a superchip can be done for a lot less than an engine upgrade. Prices start below $300, so it ends up being one the cheaper performance enhancing mods out there.

You can also find other types of performance computer chips that will work well including Jet Chips and the Hypertech performance chip. With either chip you stand to wring out additional performance from your car for a reasonably priced mod. Hey, if it is increased performance you want then one of these chips is for you!

Engine Tuning (ECU Modifications)

The ECU (also known as the Engine Control Unit) is basically the brain of your vehicle. It controls amongst many other things all the ignition timing and fueling settings and would have been setup by the manufacturer in the factory with economy, reliability and drivability being the main priority.

By re-programming it (better known as remapping), the settings can be altered to produce more power from the engine it controls.

Chip Upgrades and Remapping

Modern uprated ECU chips, from the many reputable aftermarket tuning companies can improve the drivability and torque curve all the way through the revs. It should not effect the fuel economy or reliability in a major way and due to the way they are setup, but they are pre-programmed and are therefore wont give the optimum gain.

One of the main issues with the standard chip, is that the parameters and settings it controls are designed to be used on all of the engines that a manufacturer produces, and therefore has to have built in safety margins in mind, as all engines, even if of the same design, will be slightly different.

With after market performance chips this problem is not cured, as yet again, these chips, designed more for performance than fuel economy, are intended to fit in any ECU of any particular model. Again, they are not designed specifically for the one particular engine in your car and therefore must cater for the slight differences between the different engines.

On a positive note, one of the best things about chips is the ability to raise the rev limiter to a more powerful level. On some cars the rev limiter has been set to come in quite low in the rev range, e.g. : 6000 revs/min, so by raising this to a slightly higher, yet not dangerous, level, e.g. : 7200 revs/min, then more power can be reached and performance will therefore be increased.

It is widely recognised that the only way you can get the absolute optimum performance from any engine is to have the ECU completely remapped for that particular engine.

ECU Replacements

To obtain the optimum performance from your cars engine it would really need to be on a rolling road and have the ignition and fueling setup perfectly to match the other components of the engine, but as the standard systems are not programmable, a new system must be installed to store the new settings.

There are 3 options here.

Firstly is the ECU chipping method as described above, however these are usually not remappable, although remappable chips are available which will do the job.

Secondly there are piggy-back units which are basically plugged in line in order to override some of the settings of the standard ECU. However, because the complete original ECU system is still in place, there may be some controls, such as the rev limit, that will be fixed at the manufacturers setting.

Lastly, and the most effective solution, is to install a complete new programmable ECU, which once fitted, will offer complete control over the engine and all the settings that control it.

On modified cars, ECU remapping can give excellent results, making the car more driveable and refined, while maximising the benefits from all the other modifications, giving the absolute optimum performance for the specification available.