Hello everyone again

I have been quiet for a few months, not done much on the locost, but I've moved it to my new house now so work will resume! going to get the welder and remaining bits this weekend.

The main point of this post though is to happily tell you (anyone who remembers me!) that I have a new job, pretty much a dream job, working at superchips (www.superchips.co.uk), the performance engine chipping people. So amongst other things I now have access to a dyno and various engine / EFI tuning equipment

I haven't learned all that much yet, but hopefully I can make myself useful to locostbuilders before long, answering questions on ignition timing and EFI in general.

Hope to be on here more now.. see you all

Ok, I have a question. How do superchips work? I have been told that they just trick the engine into thinking there is more fuel or air in the engine or something using resistors, but I have no idea.

Adam

adam, i think you're thinking of the poop thats often for sale on ebay. superchips afaik are either replacement or piggyback ecu chips that reprogram the fuel /ignition maps of an efi based engine.

Ned.

Ey up Blueshift,

Good to see you back on the forum again. If Mackie hasn't moved house aswell there's no excuse for the car not to have progressed somewhat!

Hope the new job's good. Do you fit the Revo mod there? My mate had it done to his Cupra R- absolutely fantastic!

Cheers,
James

Mackie's pretty much lost interest in building the car, so it's kind of down to me now...

we don't do revo mods here, they're a competitor so I better not talk much about them, heh. suffice to say they seem to do pretty similar stuff for volkswagen-audi-group cars that we do (and we do other cars, like ford with the bluefin).

superchips mostly reprogram the ECU maps, either by plug in reprogramming or a manual chip change. they do stuff like change various maps affecting ignition timing, fuelling, boost limit, rev limit etc etc. strange but true, you can actually have more performance AND better economy. I should be a salesman

we also do some other bits, mostly for cars that can't be reprogrammed or have other electronic limitations; like the ICON for add-on programmable ignition timing changes, or ABC unit to change the boost limit by fiddling with sensor signals (not as crude as a resistor).

generally we do standard mods but we can customise maps for people who have problem engines (smoky, pinking, etc) or who have tuned them with exhausts, etc.

You'd better become an expert in Megasquirt (and jolt) pretty soon then... you'll be needed around here a lot!

I'm sure Mackie's interest will be re-juvenated the day you pass the SVA test!

James

this is gonna sound like a silly question...but, how much does it cost, and is it worth it?

Ford 2.0 DOHC EFI

Your new friend at Superchips


CHAVTASTIC lol

[Edited on 30-7-05 by mangogrooveworkshop]

Scubastu, naturally aspirated standard retail price is £293.75 inc vat, fitted. Not sure what the gains would be for that engine exactly, going in a locost with a custom exhaust may change the engine's power curve, lar de dar, but it looks like you could get improvements in the 5-15bhp kind of range. Fuel economy would also be improved, don't know by how much really (only been there a week). If you're interested you could email me a picture of the serial numbers and things on the ECU and I'll see if we have any dyno curves on file.

As for whether it's worth it, that's for you to decide in terms of stuff you can buy to improve the performance of your car it gives you pretty good bang for your buck I think, compared to the gains from a free flowing exhaust, head work, expensive carbs, air filters, etc.

However in a more locost mindset, you can probably get some improvement in power and economy by making rough adjustments to the ignition timing on your engine for no cost, doing things involving rotating the crank angle sensor or distributor or whatever you have. You will probably need a strobe gun to do it, just watch out for pinking.

quote:

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Originally posted by mangogrooveworkshop
Your new friend at Superchips

CHAVTASTIC lol

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quote:

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Originally posted by blueshift
strange but true, you can actually have more performance AND better economy.

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quote:

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Originally posted by blueshift

to be honest I thought of superchips as a bit boy racery, I've been surprised; most chips go into flash exec cars, company cars etc; beemers, mercs, audis and so on. we also do some racing stuff, BRDC single seaters at silverstone and Volkswagen Racing UK, and we chips bikes, lorries and tractors. I even chipped a (full size!) train the other day. don't ask

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Improved fuel econamy and increased power is (relativerly) easy. Improving fuel econamy, increasing power, whalst maintaining emissions is a different matter. Most manufcatures tune down power and econamy to achive required emissions.

afaik emissions are not a problem. I'll ask at work. If one were unscrupulous one could always revert to standard mapping for, say, an MOT and go back to the chipped version after.

hmmmmm, that might be a bit naughty, almost as bad as the day after an SVA

on a vaguely similar theme, the other day my mate showed me the software he uses to reprogram his subaru chip. He had a whole load of different things, too much to remember, but it all looked very interesting! He's building a drag car, also made replacement fibreglass bonnet, wings and boot. I was well impressed!

Do you know what the torque / economy increase and price of a chip for a (2002) Volvo V70 D5 is? We're gonna be doing a lot of towing with it so the extra torque is very useful.

Adam

any questions about superchips:

1) see if you can find the answer on www.superchips.co.uk

2) email me at work. I'm going to fudge the email address so it won't get trawled so readily by evil people. my name is Jon Povey, and email addresses at work are of the form firstname.lastname@superchips.co.uk

For the volvo there are very noticable gains:

power curves

road test feature

basically there are two prices, inc vat fitted, one for turbo cars (£511.13) and one for naturally aspirated (£293.75). some dealers may vary slightly.

If you are interested, drop me an email, might be able to do something on the price

[Edited on 30/7/05 by blueshift]

Thanks blueshift.

Adam

biggest problem with chipping is that it knackers your warranty and if you get found out and havnt declared on your insurance, you dont have cover.

Perhaps you could clarify:

I have been told by a friend that superchips have a warranty that if your car gets shagged by the mods, they pay out.

secondly, he recons there is a sequence that can be used (throttle blipping at start up or summat) that can switch in or out the chip maps so the car looks to be normal at start up unless you do the sequence. True or false?

atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by steve_gus
biggest problem with chipping is that it knackers your warranty

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quote:

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Originally posted by steve_gus
biggest problem with chipping is that it knackers your warranty and if you get found out and havnt declared on your insurance, you dont have cover.

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quote:

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Perhaps you could clarify:

I have been told by a friend that superchips have a warranty that if your car gets shagged by the mods, they pay out.

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quote:

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secondly, he recons there is a sequence that can be used (throttle blipping at start up or summat) that can switch in or out the chip maps so the car looks to be normal at start up unless you do the sequence. True or false?

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can you offer trade terms on all volvo related chips , might be interested in some custom stuff .