Just found a chip on a website that said it improved 40 hp on the dyno and 4 to 7 mpg. If it improved gas 2 mpg it would be worth it in the long run. A few extra HP wouldnt hurt either. Just woriied that if its to go to be true it usually is. Has any one chiped up their 98 Disco with a stock 4.0V-8? What were your results?
Anyone done a chip mod for a 98 Disco 1?
- Thread starter RickH2Os
- Start date
if they suck they will get bashed here on Dweb and any "advertising" for them will be bad publicity.
I'd bet money that this is just a resistor that goes in your maf. "Installation so easy that anyone can do it"
what this does, is to fool the ecu into thinking the engine is running cooler thus feeding it more fuel.
as the 02 sensors sniff too much fuel in the exhaust they demand a little more air to compensate, eventually the ecu finds a happy median it is then you get the "extra" hp they claim you will get.
the other part is that you expect it to happen so you feel it happening.. psychosematic maybe.
save your self shipping and handling and a nice little pastic box and go to radio shack, get a 1k ohm resistor
P/N 271-1371.. cripm a couple of spade connectors to each end.... then in the car disconect the temp sensor, at the electrical plug brigge the resistor... (it becomes your new sensor) and youre done.
you get the same results for about 5 bucks...
if you're a little more intellectual savy in electronics, you can build a potenciometer which sweeps from one end of the lean to the other end of the rich scale beyond the capacities of the coolant sensor... that way you have on demand power (on demand rich mixture) just dont run it too lean for too long or the engine may suffer.
it is the same principle behind tps and drive by wire systems.
all sensors on a car are potenciometers with vaiable out puts, some do voltage directly like the 02 sensors and the knock sensors others like tps and cts use the variable ohm sweep to modify the vehavior of the ecu to conform amperage or voltage for desired results.
if you can locate and modify these vehaviors you can obtain great results.
as the 02 sensors sniff too much fuel in the exhaust they demand a little more air to compensate, eventually the ecu finds a happy median it is then you get the "extra" hp they claim you will get.
the other part is that you expect it to happen so you feel it happening.. psychosematic maybe.
save your self shipping and handling and a nice little pastic box and go to radio shack, get a 1k ohm resistor
P/N 271-1371.. cripm a couple of spade connectors to each end.... then in the car disconect the temp sensor, at the electrical plug brigge the resistor... (it becomes your new sensor) and youre done.
you get the same results for about 5 bucks...
if you're a little more intellectual savy in electronics, you can build a potenciometer which sweeps from one end of the lean to the other end of the rich scale beyond the capacities of the coolant sensor... that way you have on demand power (on demand rich mixture) just dont run it too lean for too long or the engine may suffer.
it is the same principle behind tps and drive by wire systems.
all sensors on a car are potenciometers with vaiable out puts, some do voltage directly like the 02 sensors and the knock sensors others like tps and cts use the variable ohm sweep to modify the vehavior of the ecu to conform amperage or voltage for desired results.
if you can locate and modify these vehaviors you can obtain great results.
I believe the Powerchips and RPI solutions are legitimate but they don't make such fantastic claims and they aren't perfectly straightforward because the Discovery "chip" is soldered in. I understand it requires desoldering and installation of a socket and unlocking the ECU. I believe the price range is around $500 range give or take a hundred bucks. The claimed results are in the sub-10% range and you can believe that's not straight across the powerband but only in a limited area. The best gains are only for 93 octane or better fuel. They advertise something like 10-12hp gain and maybe 20-30 lb ft torque. If you search Dweb, there are posts from customers and shops that vended them like William Tillery who reported positive feedback from customers. Obviously they had reasonable expectations for the gains.
Better gains are going to involve more mechanical changes like a different cam, possibly larger valves, headers and exhaust, and then a ecu program tuned to take advantage of those things. Even more from high compression heads/pistons and so on. Rover V8's (mostly in sports cars) have been tuned to quite a bit of power but it comes at a cost and there is always the law of diminishing returns.
My '98 4.0 is stock and makes more than enough power for off road driving. As a street car, no engine could redeem it from being what it is: an ambling Rover.
Better gains are going to involve more mechanical changes like a different cam, possibly larger valves, headers and exhaust, and then a ecu program tuned to take advantage of those things. Even more from high compression heads/pistons and so on. Rover V8's (mostly in sports cars) have been tuned to quite a bit of power but it comes at a cost and there is always the law of diminishing returns.
My '98 4.0 is stock and makes more than enough power for off road driving. As a street car, no engine could redeem it from being what it is: an ambling Rover.
yeah that is the draw back, soldering of the ecu or sending it out for a couple of weeks just for a minimal electronic power gain.Ben said:
I too think money would be better spent with mechanical upgrades or a combo of both.
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I do not often give advice, but I will just this once.
If this is the same "Powerchip" it might be best served to avoid them at all cost.
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-discussion/196474-powerchip-buyer-beware.html
If this is the same "Powerchip" it might be best served to avoid them at all cost.
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e39-m5-e52-z8-discussion/196474-powerchip-buyer-beware.html
Buying a powerchip for a normally aspirated vehicle is nearly always a waste of money. Ask for independent before and after dyno results from the supplier, that should pretty well shut them up.