Ok so being an anally retentive engineer, after installing one of the new STEINBAUER Performance chips on my mates patrol, i wanted to know just how these things works, so i rang the guys at STEINBAUER Australia, who by the way are a great bunch of guys who really know their product inside and out.
I wanted to ask a few questions about just how things worked, power adjustment ect et.
1) Each chip, for individual markets, are firstly mapped and individually programmed to suit each car and fuel type dependent on their region.
2) The chips work buy extending the injection cycle, once again, dependent by each model, to a predetermined programmed maximum time, in case of the ZD30 CRD, its about a maximum of 240ms at 100% throttle point.
3) The potentiometer inside, allows for an additional plus/minus 30% off the maximum, so if the 240ms if maximum injector time, you can add and additional 30% thus making the maximum time 312ms.
I was told that this setting, maximum, should only really be used with a bigger exhaust and prominently for towing, as it only increases power marginally but improves the Tourqe.
In most cases, the standard setting is good for standard cars ie: 12 o'clock position, with an exhaust you can use about 1:30 position which will give a nice boost but still use more or less the same fuel. Lower settings are mainly used when there are issues with bucking and the like under throttle load.
4) The chip will not work when factory cruise control is utilised, when cruise is used on the highway. The chip needs to be connected to the throttle position sensor wire as it is activated through this. The chip works by activating, or should i say, starts augmenting the injector length at about 40% throttle position, noting that the chip assumes 100% TP is 3.3V, which happens to be about 80% TP voltage output for the ZD30. In short, at 25% TP position, the chip will start to work.
As the factory cruise control uses a computer generated TP infernal to the ECU, when in cruise, the chip does not work. The minute the TP is depressed , the chip will kick in.
NOW, the thing is, if you order the chip through STEINBAUER Performance AU, you can have it re-programmed to alternative pick up the boost line or other inputs, this will need to be done on an individual basis.
5) The chips are reprogrammable, not sure if local dealers can do this or it needs to go back to STEINBAUER for this to occur, but they are reprogrammable.
6) The chip has inbuilt safety, which differs from car to car, based on what market the chip has been set up for. For the ZD30 and AU, the chip will operate at a maximum 100% power for 30 seconds and then begins to drop by 1% to a minimum position of 10%, so never off but reduced much to ensure EGT are within acceptable limits.
6) On a 4 and 6 cylinder engines, the order of the injector loom is irrespective, as long as you do not cross the injectors over, it does not matter if the injectors run staring at the front of the engine to the back, or from the fire wall to the front. The chip, once plugged in and initiated, sought this out. The only time this matters is in a 5 cylinder engine such as the Volvo engines.
7) The chip can use more fuel, and certainly on my mates patrol it looks like we may have dropped about 2-3% in fuel economy, but this may be a bit due to the initial fun factor, hopefully once the novelty wears off it will settle down.
I have no affiliation with these guys and the above is my interpretation of our discussion, but as i found little details on these chip, i figured someone else would like to know this info.
If i am out of line and not exactly 100% spot on, please let me know and i will correct it for future reference
Hope you all get something out of it as i did
Reply With Quote