![]() Fit a chip or re-map the engine computer and you’re on your own. We couldn’t find any such ‘enlightened’ engine makers. Some chip makers and re-mappers claim that ‘enlightened’ engine makers quietly endorse their procedures. Understandably, the engine maker won’t be interested in helping either. If your engine blows up or suffers serious wear after being chipped it’s your responsibility to prove that the chip caused the failure. Most chip buyers believe that’s protection for them in the event of an engine failure. There is certainly some truth in this claim, but how do the chip designers know what the engine maker’s exact operational parameters are? There is obviously some conservatism in the factory fuel injection mapping, but how much?Īnother assurance from chip makers is that their products are warranted against failure. One even confessed that he found towing at 90km/h produced the best economy, so we wonder why did he bother with an expensive performance-increasing chip in the first place?Ĭhip makers and re-mappers claim that their add-ons are well within engine design tolerances and can’t do any harm. Yep, we have some mates with ‘chipped’ diesels who swear that their economy has improved, but we suspect that has more to do with a change in driving patterns – to produce the claimed result – rather than an inherent benefit of the chip installation. ![]() We’ve tested some chipped 4WDs and there’s no doubt that their performance was excellent.įuel consumption improvement is much more difficult to prove. We say ‘probably illegal’ with some surety, because we’ve asked several chip makers and ECU re-mappers to verify that they don’t alter ADR emissions compliance. None of them wants to go there, but then neither did some VW and Mercedes-Benz diesel engineers…Ĭhips and ECU re-maps are available from dozens of sources these days and all of them claim to increase power and torque, and reduce fuel consumption. The fact that these devices increase power and torque is undisputed: any dyno test will prove that. All these void engine warranty, of course, and are probably illegal, from an emissions ADR angle. In no time we had a wide choice of after-market performance chips. Nowdays, all new diesels have forced induction, so the engine hot-up scene has shifted to newer gadgets and heading them all is…the chip or the ‘remap’.ĤWD makers who thought the more-than-ample standard power and torque figures of 21st-century turbo-diesel utes would satisfy the new breed of ute owners didn’t understand the passion for fiddling. Our 2.8-litre HiLux expired with multiple combusion-zone cracks and we had driven it carefully. People who bought well-engineered kits and drove wisely had good experiences, but many a turbocharged pre-chamberĭiesel blew up. Some of these worked very well and some didn’t. The automotive market is always full of ‘snake oil salesmen’ offering ways to increase power and torque, and save fuel.īack when nearly all 4WD diesels were naturally aspirated the performance enhancers pushed turbo kits and, later, turbo-intercooler kits. That’s the only safe, non-restrictive form of pre-cleaner. This circular device creates ‘swirl’ in the incoming air and the centrifugal force of this swirling air flings large dust particles to the outside of the cyclone device, where they can be ejected manually, or automatically. If you need some form of pre-cleaner take note some snorkels are fitted with a ‘cyclonic cap’ pre-cleaner and the most common is the one fitted to LandCruiser 70-Series factory snorkels. It may seem like a really good idea, but it isn’t. Oily foam air cleaners still work well on bikes and small engines where they’re externally mounted and regular re-oiling is easy.Ī more recent ‘use’ for the sticky foam air cleaner is as a pre-cleaning ‘sock’ on a snorkel scoop. It failed ‘open’ where a paper filter failed ‘closed’.Īlso, sticky oil migrated up the inlet manifold and made a right old mess, especially in turbocharged engines. ![]() It didn’t take long for the foam air cleaner to get discredited as a paper filter replacement on 4WDs: it was a high-maintenance item and when it dried out it didn’t pull dust from the incoming air. Old timers shook their heads, because they could remember oil-bath air cleaners. The idea with this was that you worked sticky oil into an open-pore foam element and replaced your paper air cleaner with it. Before common rail injection and emissions gear was attached to 4WD diesels the common fiddle was a ‘screwdriver tune up’ to get more fuel injected, extractors, a drainpipe exhaust and maybe an LPG torque-topping tank, for a little extra poke on steep grades.Īnother favourite was the ‘sticky foam’ air cleaner that was claimed to reduce air intake restriction. You know the sort of thing we’re talking about. Boys love to play around, don’t they? They buy a perfectly good vehicle and can’t help wanting to ‘tweak’ it.
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