Increase your diesel power

[Dave_Snelson]

A friend of mine bought a fag-packet sized device from Tuning-Box that plus into the injector timing for his Volkswagon Passat. It increases the power of his motor by 25%. I was impressed, so I bought one for my Frontera Diesel and now I'm even more impressed. Roughly 120BHP from a 100BHP motor for only £250!! No wiring, no fuss, fit in 10 mins, unplug again with no trace of it having been there and no discernable increase in fuel consumption, unless you use that extra horsepower frquently.

And then I got to thinking (dangerous for me). What about all those diesel powered boats out there?? Tuningbox don't currently make for the inboard engines on boats - but they could do if enough people wanted them and lets face it, enough people are turning to diesel these days just for the price.

Seriously, if you want to channel enquiries through me, I will liaise with Tuningbox and see if something can be done. Post on here, or mail me at dave.snelson@cw.com

 

[Guest]

OK, looks good, so which Volvo one would fit the AQAD31???

 

[stuartw]

Not wishing to pour cold water over your suggestion, but what you describe, is surely for electronic diesel injection engines, where I'm sure it may have some effect? However I think the vast majority of marine diesel engines, have mechanically metered injection pumps - so not much use.
The few rich ones who own modern marine engines may well benefit

 

[tripleace]

Tell us more, whasts it called, who sells it etc etc

 

[Guest]

Re: \'E\'s right, y\'know

My old Volvo's don't seem to have any of this new fangled electrickery stuff, just lots of old fashoined metal bits. Any hope for me?

 

[grant]

The way these boxes work is to re-programme the air/fuel mixtures, turbo boost etc. As someone rightly said, they will only work on programmed electronic diesel engines - not many boat engines are like this.

Also remember the volume on boat engines will be MUCH smaller - so you may not get a boat version anything like as cheap.

But I do understand they work very well, especially on the VW, Peugeot and Mercedes diesels

 

[Guest]

Tell me more I have Audi 19 tdi A6 Avant, could do with a bit more poke, get to Lym quicker!

 

[adarcy]

I agree w everything said above re only electronically controlled engines - rare on boats
Cars are a different thing suggest you start at
www.superchips.co.uk
or get a "DIESEL CAR" mag, they usually have an ad w a report on a chipped car

BTW beware warranty probs if it is permanently installed ie keep the old and be prepared to exchange or go for one of the type which plugs inline and can be pulled out if necessary

Anthony D'Arcy

 

[Guest]

Thanks adrian, know about superchips, friend has 150 hp tdi golf, I used to go rallying before boating, so this conversion must be on similar lines as the superchip jobs, I suppose only any good after warranty etc, probablly hardly worth it.

Paul js

 

[Dave_Snelson]

OK, thanks all for your postings. To clarify, this device is for electronically controlled motors and therefore useless for mechanical injectors with no engine management. In short, OK for modern motors.

The device can be wired in and unwired without evidence that it was ever installed and although I would not advocate breaching warranty terms, I would say that the device only varies the operating perameters of the motor to obtain more power along the rev range.

They currently make only for cars and the list is available on http://www.tuningbox.com so you can look them up there. I will still pursue them for answers on new motors for cruisers because there still may be a market and benefit to be had.

Cheers
DAVE

 

[Guest]

Agreed that most Marine diesels don't have the electronic engine management systems which can be 'chipped' - but there probably are some out there (Volkswagen began offering Marine engines based on the 1.9 TDI engine in the last couple of years) that can.

For those, before making the modifications there are some other things to be considered. Much of the testing of these magic boxes (if it has been done) will have been done on these engines installed in road vehicles - or on test bench versions of the engines as installed to road vehicles. But when these engines are marinised there are modifications made to the cooling system, to the exhaust, and to the drivetrain. The installation of the 'magic box', and the subsequent increase in output power will have a knock on effect - for instance the engine may run hotter - and the whole marinised system may not be able to cope with this ( maybe the engine will run too hot, maybe the exhaust gases will be too hot for you exhaust hoses, your gearbox may be stressed).

I'm not an expert here - but I think the point is that the installation may give an increase in power - but there may be other accompanying modifications required elsewhere to keep the reliability you expect from your boat (especially when you're an hour away from the nearest port). It's important to view this from a system point of view - ie don't just think of the modifications giving your engine an (eg.) 30% increase in power - rather think and plan about the overall effect of putting the 30% more powerful engine into your boat, and the accompanying modifications needed elsewhere to make the upgrade of overall benefit to your boating experience.

louis

louis