This norms like DIN and EWG are very important to allow us to compare
two measurements
independent of the air temperature of air pressure of the day. We can
see trough the
formula that higher air pressure and a higher air temperature will give
us a bigger k
factor and a lower air pressure and lower air temperature a smaller
one. Important for
you, is to know what this means in the practice.
The best way I can explain you this, is that an engine with more
horsepower will give you
better time from 0-100 km/h and an engine with more torque will give
you better time from
80-120km/h in the same gear. To go from 0-100 km/h you need to go high
in the revs to come
at least at the rpm of maximum hp's. For the 80-120km/h test
in the same gear, you
can't make a choice of rpm, so the power (torque) at the RPM range
between 80 and 120 km/h
will give you the ability to accelerate from one speed to another speed.
So it is possible that an engine with the same hp's or even less but
with more torque can
let you down, if the car has to accelerate in the same gear. For
example a VW TDI can
accelerate better from lower RPM than a VW GTI.
First you have to see the unit of the promised gain. Is the increased
power in kW , hp,
bph, SAE, DIN or EWG (see above), before you can compare. The Torque
maybe in Nm (also DIN
or EWG) ,in kgm or in Lbft.
*
Some tuners give directly the maximum achieved power and
torque at a certain Rpm
* Some tuners give only the gain of power and torque, this can be done
in different ways :
* Or the tuner gives the difference at the maximum power- and torque
points on a certain
RPM
* Or the tuner gives you the maximum difference independent of the RPM
So for
example, it is possible that a tuning give maybe an extra 10
hp at the point of maximum power, but gives you maybe 15 extra hp in
the midrange of rpm.
So for the same conversion, one tuner speaks about +10hp and another of
+15hp. This is a
very important point to know before we choose one or another tuner.
First off
all, the dyno must be calibrated, to give
correct measurements.
A real
engine dyno is a normally a correct tool, but You
can not take always the engine out to let measure Your power and torque.
A chassis
dyno can also do the job, but very important now
adays is that for the newer cars You let run it on a 4WD dyno where the
4 wheels
turn always at the same speed even if you have a 2WD FWD or RWD car,
like on our
Superflow SF880E.The reason is that speed is now also a very important
entry for
the ECU. If the ECU misses the speed signal it goes often in another
part of the
program than normal and power measurement is not correct.
Even when
traction control is disabled and all the fuses
are taken out from ABS etc.. , some cars still go in another part of
the program
and don't give full power. The only way to maybe measure correct on a
2WD dyno
or a not 4 wheel driven 4WD dyno, is to go first to the official dealer
and let
put the dyno mode on the car. If this is not done, the power
measurement on this
type of dyno's is not correct.
Another
point is also that chassis dyno's measure wheel
power. Only sophisitcated dyno's have a program to measure correctly
transmission losses. If this is done correctly, than wheel power +
transmission
losses = engine power.
Some tuners
add a fix percent to the wheel power to know
the engine power. This is not correct, because it differs from car to
car. The
only way to know the real transmission losses is to measure them in the
same
gear as the wheel power measurement.
Comparing
wheel power from one dyno to another is not possible for
the follwing reasons : the transmission losses are influenced by the
tyre
pressure and how the car is tighten on the dyno. Lower tyre pressure
give more
losses, a harder tighten car give also more losses. So the only way is
to measure
exactly the transmission losses each time You want to measure the wheel
power
again.
For petrol engines the air/fuel ratio is very important. It is the
quantity of air
aspirated by the engine against the quantity of fuel aspirated
(carburettor) or injected
(injection).
Lambda is a unit less number that gives you an indication of the
air/fuel ratio. A lambda
sensor measure the quantity of oxygen in the exhaust. A complete
combustion didn't left
oxygen at all. In that way the sensor can tell to us or to the engine
management system
that the engine runs rich or poor an let allow the ECU to make
corrections if necessary.
The normal lambda sensor has a hysteretic characteristic between 0,9
and 1,1. Now we have
also wideband lambda sensors which have a linear characteristic between
lambda 0,7 to 1,2.
This is the ideal sensor for tuning.
* The ideal air/fuel
ratio for minimum consumption is nearly 15,4 kg of air
against 1 kg of fuel (lambda 1,05)
* The ideal air/fuel ratio for maximum power is 13,2 kg of air against
1kg of fuel (lambda
0,9)
* The car manufactures admitted the norm of lambda 1 as 14,7 kg air
against 1 kg of fuel.
This is between minimum economy and maximum power
So if we
search maximum power we have to see that the lambda is 0,9
at that point for an atmospheric engine. A turbo- or a supercharged
engine has to run
richer (at lambda 0,82) only for safety reasons, because the higher
pressure and the
higher exhaust temperature can destroy the engine. By making the
mixture richer we cool
the temperature in the combustion room and the exhaust to protect the
engine.
you see that
theoretical if we give more fuel (petrol or diesel), we
consume more. In the practice you will see that if the tuning job is
done good, the
average consumption will go down because :
*
We have a better combustion if the ignition curves are
optimized
* Because we have more power and torque, we don't need to push the
accelerator as deep as
before
* Some cars are even too rich for maximum power at certain points
For the best
economy you can use the commercial fuel with the
highest octane. So it is better to use 98 octane than 95 octane, even
when the
car manufacture allows you to drive 95 octane. The economy you can make
with the price
difference, you will certainly loose in consumption and that with less
power output. In
most cases of tuning only 98 octane is allowed because
the engine is tuned for that
octane to obtain maximum power.
* A much higher fuel consumption than original,
means that you didn't use the right fuel for the modified program, or
that the tuned
program is not a good one, but one which has to much
pré-ignition or and to much fuel.
* you don't need to change the filter but only
clean
it with the right product and oil it in
* It filters minimum as much as the original but has a better airflow
* The better airflow gives you more power and torque
* It works wonderful in combination with other tuning parts where you
need more air
* How more revs the engine make, how more power gain we have, so for a
diesel that didn't
rev high the gain is not so important, but the other advantages are
primordial.
* you have replacement air filters and what we call direct filters.
Normally direct
filters can give you more power, but only when the aspirated air is
cool. So we have to
secure that the hot air coming from the fan, radiator or engine is
isolated from the
filter.
The most important thing is quality. Buy never a camshaft that is
re-profiled from an
original one. The manufacture of that type of camshaft has to reduce
the valve lift (less
power) and have to choose more degrees. The result is bad idling, bad
power in low revs
and maybe a little gain in high revs. The car is certainly not pleasant
to drive and most
of the time that type of camshafts shows very quick wearing.
The only good type of road tuning camshaft is the one with bigger valve
lift and only a
little bit more degrees. This results in a good idling and good
performance on the whole
rpm range. Never allow to loose important power at a certain rpm. The
only way to produce
such a cam is beginning from blank cams coming from the original car
manufacture
that has
to be completely profiled. This is the way we proceed.
Be certain that the camshafts you put, matches the right valve springs,
valve retainers,
tappets and allow enough freedom between the valves and
pistons.
Camshafts for hydraulic tappets has not the same profile as the one for
mechanical
tappets. Hydraulic tappets didn't need to be adjusted, but didn't allow
very high revs.
If you have mechanical tappets the valve clearance has to be right and
regularly
controlled.
Some new cars has variable timing or and lift systems for the
camshafts. This can be
variable at a certain rpm and load or even continuous variable. In the
next future some
car manufactures like BMW are busy to work with a 42 volt battery
system that allows the
directly computer controlled valve lift and valve timing. This is the
ideal solution,
because for the moment with the mechanical parts, we always have to
make a compromise.
Like told
before the basic rule is to give the engine better
breathing. Some original cylinder heads can be very restrictive.
We have to look at a flow bench, how to ameliorate the airflow in the
cylinder head.
We have to port the cylinder head , modify the valve seats and match
the inlet- and
exhaust manifold to the head.
A good modification of the valve seats, can sometimes give more gain
than bigger valves on
a normal valve seat.
It is important before you will allow somebody to do that, that the
chosen person has a
lot of experience in modifying cylinder heads. It is not the first one
that have worked a
lot for nothing, if he has not the knowledge it's not the first one who
destroy the head
by grinding to much and passing through.
With the sport exhaust we can have a power gain if the original one is
restrictive. It
asks a lot of experience and testing to find the right exhaust for a
specific car. A less
restrictive exhaust will automatically sound louder and maybe for this
reason not always
be legal.
A special exhaust manifold can give less temperature at the cylinder
head together with a
better flow and so power gain. If the exhaust is too free we loose
backpressure and so
also torque but we can gain some peak power, so here we have also to
choose the best
compromise.
Very important for all turbo engines (petrol and diesel) is that a very
free and less
restrictive exhaust will give you less backpressure and this results in
less amount of
turbo pressure and a loss of torque. So here we have also to choose the
best compromise
and examine very well the original exhaust where it is to restrictive.
First of all
this is not legal.
Older cars can give a good power gain if we take the cat away, but we
always have to let
the lambda sensor connected to allow the ECU to work well. It is
possible that the power
gain is 7 à 10 hp on such an old car
Newer cars are designed to work with a cat. The cat is designed as a
part of the exhaust
system. The gain by take this cat away is maybe only 2 hp with a lot of
torque loss
because the backpressure is too low. So don't !!.
If you wants to improve the gain the best is to replace the original
ceramic cat by a
metallic race cat. The only inconvenient is the price.
Some thirty or fourty years ago, if we wanted more power we
had to tune an engine
by choosing another calibration of our carburettor , and we had to
choose the best ignition
curve with our distributor to find the best power on the dyno.
With chip tuning we do the same. But because the engine is now
completely managed by an
electronic unit (ECU), we have to modify the program by alternating
fuel- and ignition
curves to find maximum power. The program is stored in an EPROM called
chip. Therefore we
call it chip tuning;
By modifying the ignition- and fuel curves in a good way, we can gain
power and torque.
We can only gain significant power with ignition modifications if we
use the best
available fuel. So driving with 95 octane can't give us a significant
gain.
We choose the minimum fuel amount to come to lambda 0,9 (atmospheric)
or 0,82 (turbo) to
find maximum power.
We can eliminate flat spots in the power curves.
Very important is that every mechanical modification on an engine (like
camshafts) give
only power gain if the program is matched to that modification. We have
to tell the ECU
what he has to do by reprogramming the unit.
For atmospheric engines the gain is between 5 and 10%. For turbo
engines this can go to
30%, because we can manage also the turbo strategy.* The best way to
tune turbo engines is
to try to go no higher in turbo pressure than the maximum original
pressure, but to go as
quick as possible to that point and hold this pressure as long as
possible by the way of
the program.
The car manufacture has to make a program choice with different points
in view :
First
he has the anti-pollution laws for the different
countries. The most easiest way for high production is to give the same
severe program for
all the cars independent which country they will be delivered.
Most of the time the programs are more severe than the law describes,
so the manufacture
has no problems in the near future.
Because he can't program every engine, he has to choose a save program
for all his engines
where the mechanical tolerances differs from one to another.
FOR THIS
REASON IF WE WANT TO MAKE POWER GAIN WITH CHIP
TUNING WE HAVE
TO DO EVERY CAR INDIVIDUAL TO FIND THE LIMITS OF THE TOLERANCES OF THAT
CAR. IT IS NORMAL
THAT ONE CAR HAS NOT THE SAME TOLERANCE AS ANOTHER ONE AND THEREFORE
NEEDS ANOTHER
PROGRAM.
ALL THE TUNERS OR COMPANIES WHO TRIES TO SELL THE SAME PROGRAM TO ALL
THE CARS OF THE SAME
TYPE ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN THE COMMERCIAL SIDE OF THE BUSINESS WITH
ALL THE POSSIBLE
TECHNICAL DANGERS THAT THIS CAN GIVE. A BAD PROGRAM CAN DESTROY your ENGINE.
Imported programs from other countries can be dangerous if for example
the fuel quality is
better in that country, than in the one we are driving the car. The
program has to be made
special for the used fuel quality.
For petrol engines :
To
much pré-ignition gives a higher fuel consumption and
can even destroy your engine by detonation.
Bad air/fuel ratio's :
To rich mixtures can give you a big fuel consumption and even cylinder
washing which take
away the oil film and destroy the engine.
To poor mixtures gives to high combustion temperatures, favourites
detonation and can also
destroy your engine.
For diesel
engines :
To
rich can give you a big fuel consumption and even
cylinder washing which take away the oil film and destroy the engine.
It will destroy your cat and your ré-combustion system.
For all
turbo- or supercharger engines :
To
high turbo pressures may also destroy your engine in all
possible ways, cylinderhead gasket, pistons etc...
For turbo diesels, the most gain is achieved by enriching in a good way
the injection,
which gives you automatically a turbo pressure amount of nearly 0,1
bar, which is save
with the fuel amount. It is not necessary to program higher boost
pressures. Maybe only
the turbo strategy to achieve quicker the maximum original boost. you
need very much
higher turbo pressures to obtain a power gain, which is not
reasonable.
Please take
in mind that a diesel engine has to do a lot of
kilometres.
THE KEMPOWER
PASSWORD IS RELIABILITY AND OUR CONVERSIONS ALLOWS you
TO MAKE MINIMUM THE SAME MILEAGE AS ORIGINAL. WE DIDN'T SELL OTHER ROAD
CONVERSIONS. ALL
OUR KITS ARE HOMEMADE AND LONG TESTED. THIS IS THE REASON WHY WE ARE
NOT ALWAYS THE FIRST
ONE TO SELL A KIT FOR A BRAND NEW CAR. TWO DYNO'S A ROLLING ROAD, A BIG
ENGINE
DYNO AND A
LOT OF INSTRUMENTS ALLOW US TO DEVELOP GOOD AND SAVE ENGINE KITS.
The two are good if they are well made.
Above you can read the difference between a good and a bad chip tuning.
This is the same for the so called black box, which is an additional
box, that modifies the
data in an external way. Everything depends on the way this additional
box works, and
which data it takes as input data and in which way it delivers output
signals.
Some black boxes receive not enough input data to work well, and
delivers therefore not the
right output signals. For example some diesel boxes are directly placed
between the wire
loom and the diesel pump. So these boxes only receives an 12V
alimentation and increase
the fuel injection in a constant way. If the engine is idling or on
full power the amount
of fuel is the same. you didn't have to be a technician to understand
that if the quantity
of extra injected fuel is chosen for maximum power, this same amount is
to high at part
throttle or low revs. So here the maximum power can be achieved like
with other systems,
but you have flat spots and hesitations on part throttle and low revs
and a lot of black
smoke.
If the same black box is made in the way, that it can modify the extra
injected fuel
(output) in function of the throttle position and the turbo pressure
(input signals), and
if it is well programmed, it can be as good as chip tuning.
This is the way our diesel black boxes works. you can understand that
the technical way to
achieve this possibilities is more sophisticated and therefore more
expensive than the
first systems. The advantage of this system is that the customer can
leave his ECU
original, which the dealer or also the main distributor prefers.
We make black boxes and chip tuning.
On some petrol engines, it is not possible to re-chip the original ECU.
In some ECU's the
program is stored directly in the microprocessor, and modifying the ECU
to allow to
reprogram the unit would be to expensive. For this cars we have also a
universal
additional box that can alternate the ignition- and the fuel
characteristics. The program
in that extra unit works like a normal ECU, with different fuel- and
ignition maps. A
positive number in the map will increase the original curve at that
point and a negative
number will decrease it. So we can always program that engine in the
best possible way. We
have full throttle ignition- and fuel maps, part load ignition- and
fuel maps, and also an
idling map. Even this works as good as classic chip tuning.
We must not forget that there will come a time that for one reason or
another, it will be
impossible to re-chip the original ECU. Therefore we use already this
system on some cars.
you can't put a turbo or compressor on an atmospheric engine without
the necessary a save
modifications :
For detonation reasons, the compression ratio can't
be left the same, but must be decreased
The pistons has to be cooled with an oil cooling spray
The piston clearance has to be bigger and the pistons has to be
preferably forged and have
a turbo design.
The cylinderhead gasket must resist on the pressure , if not it has to
be replaced by a
stronger one
Also
there may be a need for stronger cylinder
head bolts
Does
your conrods, crankshaft and bearings
support the higher pressure on the pistons ?
Because of the modification in the lubrification system (piston oil
spray, lubrification of
the charger) the delivery capacity an oil pressure has to be revised.
The electronics has to be modificated in a serious way to match in
security this
modifications. Most stock ECU's have no input like boost pressure, so
they will
not be able to correct the fuel and ignition in a save way against the
boost.
If not all
this modifications has be done, there is no possibility
to put a pressure higher than 0.2 à 0.3 bar, which gives you
certainly no much power gain
than a good atmospheric conversion, which is much saver.
We are able to do this conversions, but we have to convert the engine
completely
as we want to give reliability as stock
and will there fore be more expensive than some other tuners who didn't
open the
engine at all. This is a technical suicide.
An airbox will give you certainly a better breathing by accumulate
extra air if we reopen
the throttle. So we will certainly have a considerable power- and
torque gain.
Unfortionally not every ECU can manage this modification, because we
have to let the
airflow-/air-mass-sensor away to obtain a gain. Most of the ECU's use
this sensors for
their basic calculations. If we want absolutely to use such an original
ECU, we need to
use an extra electronic box which is called Alpha-n box. This box
converts the throttle
position signals in an a way the ECU admit as being an air mass signal
or we have to use
another and good ECU to make this conversion. In any case this engine
has to be mapped on
an engine dyno. For road applications we have to take the emission
rules in mind. Some
tuners do this conversion without using one of this two methods. In
this case the ECU will
run in security, and can't allow good power results.
Yes there are sparkplugs that gives more power than other ones. Racing
plugs will give you
some 5hp more, but this plugs have cold start problems.
Some special sparkplugs gives a better combustion, but you may never
put this plugs, if
there is already a chip tuning on your car, because this can create
detonation, if the
program has been made on maximum. If you want to put this sparkplugs,
you have to let
re-chip your car to this specific plugs.
My car was
first of all OK after the tuning but now it has
less power and more smoke. What can that be ? Has the software changed ?
No the
software didn't changed, but You can have different
problems that can be the cause :
Is Your
air filter really clean. Some dealers wait more
than 50.000 km to change it.
control
or let control Your combustion recirculation
system ! This electronic controlled valve connects the exhaust with the
intake in certain conditions for better emissions, but it can stay open
the
whole time. So take the electronic connector off from the electrical
valve
and take the vacuum hose off the mechanical valve and put a
stop in
the vacuum hose. Otherwise put a plate between the exhaust pipe that
connect
the exhaust gas with the intake manifold. If these valve stays open,
You
have a lot of black smoke and also power loss. This is a frequent cause.
Another
frequent cause is a faulty air mass meter. The
problem is that it didn't give a fault on normal diagnostic systems,
because
this systems can only control the wires and if the sensor signal
changes,
but it can change and give a wrong signal to the ECU. Most of the time
when
this is the fault, the power is OK until 2.500 to 2.700 RPM, but
thereafter
there is a dip in the power curve and the car didn't have his tuned
power
anymore. A dyno test can give You the answer.
Pay
attention this different causes are not especially for
tuned cars, but are also for complete original cars. The only problem
is that
some dealers say directly that the power loss is caused by the tuning
and didn't
want to help You further
Internet is a fantastic communication system. Like
all systems they have dangers. In the case of tuning it is also like
this.
Some
potential customers do web shopping and
everything seems very good. They assemble tuning parts from different
companies, where the pictures are beautyfull and the promisses high.
The
problem is that first of all, this items must match together on a car
and
somebody has to fit it and tune this all together. You can not go with
Your steak to the restaurant.
So think
very carefull before You buy. The best
is to buy and let fit it, by the same company or a official dealer of
the
same company. We do not install parts that we didn't sell and we can
not
give any warranty on it. If there are troubles the customer is always
the
looser, because the company who sold the parts will say that it is the
fault of the guy who fit it and the one who fit it, will tell You that
the
company has sold wrong or bad parts.
We tune only
engines that are delivered to us
in stock trim.
If there
are some foreign tuning parts on it, we didn't
tune it, we cann't give guarantee at all and because this are not, the
by
us choosen selected and tested parts, there is also no guarantee on
succes.
On this
way, we avoid possible discussions and disapointments.
Kempower is a complete tuner. This means for the mechanics and the
electronics.
Some want
or can only do the mechanical modifications and
hope that Kempower will solve their problems by doing the electronics
and
adjust the mechanics, or some have let tune their car by
another
tuner, without succes and hope that we will solve their problems.
This
is
NOT the way we work. We do everything from scratch or nothing !!!
It can
happen that Your official workshop dealer has to
reflash Your tuned ECU with an update, or even that they have done it
accidently. The car will be back to original.
No problem,
the customer comes back and if his tuning has
been done within the last 3 months we retune his car starting from the
latest
original program for free. If the tuning is older than 3 months we ask
75,00
Euro to do it.
So he can
enjoy again his tuned car with the latest
factory update.
