does anyone (other than the guys selling the systems) have any good or bad opinion about the performance engine chips sold by Banks and Ultrapower
The factory engineers spend years, and huge sums of money, making today’s engines as fuel efficient and reliable as possible. Why mess with a winning formula?
There is no free lunch, and you CANNOT increase horsepower and mileage simultaneously, regardless of the claims to the contrary. Any gain in performance (doubtful in real-world conditions) will be offset by a reduction in mileage. Then there’s the issue of the manufacturer’s warranty, and increased exhaust emissions. I suggest you leave well enough alone. If you want a faster car, buy a faster car.
thanks…
how about those high performance air filters.??
High-flow filters may slightly increase HP at wide-open throttle, but at any other throttle opening they make no difference. And as for chips, are you talking about those for turbo-diesel engines? My understanding is they do increase HP by letting the turbos go to higher boost, which is not good for the engine. Major increases in power require reworking the intakes, cams, valves, and exhaust, typically illegal these days for road vehicles.
WHat kind of application is this for. My Subaru has the ability to change the engine programming on the fly using something made by COBB. There is a definite difference in the driving experience, but Subaru seriously derated my turbo 2.0L engine to make it ULEV, the same block in Europe/Japan generates 286HP instead of the 227HP I get.
My MPG loss is about 1MPG, so instead of the previous 23MPG I get about 21-22MPG.
we full time travel in a small motor home . it has a gas with a 2006 ford V10 engine and is underpowered on hills. mpg is not impressive between 8-9. we tend to go slower than ave traffic and do not travel big distances. we also tow a 2004 honda crv. just trying to improve our vehicles and mpg.
Mcparadise-I must strongly disagree with you. Adjust the ignition curve does not mean an increase in fuel consumption-which is what most chips do in a naturally aspirated application. You are simply changing at which point in the stroke the spark plug fires. As for fuel-usually you increase power by slightly “leaning” the fuel mixture on many applications-although some chip makers play it safe and leave the fuel adjustments on the conservative side.
Massive gains in power can be had on vehicles that utilize turbochargers-especially diesel trucks, which may see gains as much as 80+ hp. Naturally apirated modern vehicles tend to be fairly well-tuned from the factory so gains are minimal and usually unproductive.
Well, now your question makes a lot more sense. Best advice would be to go through the RV mags (or their web sites) to see if they’ve done something to a V10 Ford that helped. Years ago there were cams, headers, etc. that would make some difference, but now, with all the computer controls, that’s harder to do.
Horsepower and mileage can be increased simultaneously.
If you change your air-fuel ratio from the current chemically-correct stoichoimetric ratio to have 10% more fuel, your horsepower and mileage will both increase. That is how all autos were designed up through 1971 when they were mandated to lean it out to the 14.7:1 stoichoimetric ratio. You can further increase the fuel to 16% richer fuel for maximum power, (but mpg does drop off at 10% richer.)