How does a chip work?

[Born2bwild1191]

I got my 951MAX chips in the mail today and i'm going to install them tomorrow. I'm just curious what a chip actually does. How does it increase the power? And does it affect the boost? It seems to me that the max boost can't be altered without changing something with the wastegate, is this true? I don't really care how it gives me more power, I'm still excited to put them on, just curious as to how they work

[Dantilla]

The factory sets the engine management using lots of competing criteria:

-Peak power
-Torque
-Fuel efficiency
-Emmision control
-Durability
-Gas quality
-Yada yada...

What aftermarket chips do is reset priorities- We may be willing to give up some mpg to acheive higher power, or we may think it's okay to rebuild the engine more often. Maybe we live in an area with no emmision inspections, so we can gain a couple more horsepower by running rich- somethiong that will not pass an emmissions test.

Very common to give up the margins for detonation- High quality gas is imperative with a chipped engine, or you may find yourself with burned pistons.

With turbo engines, it's easy to simply increase boost. Hopefully, the chip manufacturer has run enough dyno runs to insure proper mixture for engine longevity.

[wild man]

A chip works by remapping the open-loop operating characteristics of the engine, like when at WOT. But that can only increase power by about 10%. If you want any more than that, you need to increase the boost, but that can't be altered without changing something with the wastegate (reduction of the pressure signal that it is receiving).

[fast924S]

Doesnt the KLR manage boost, With stock chips boost is limited by the KLR righ???

[flash968]

specifically a chip alters the fuel mixture and injector duration to optimize the tuning for power - this is often at the expense of envelope safety, fuel economy, and emissions

a good chip alters all maps, not just the WOT map - i am working on one now for the supercharger, and the part throttle maps are the most important, because that is where most people drive - however, the ECU needs to be told to be ignore O2 sensor at a particular point or it will go back to stoichiometric, and ignore the new map, which is very dangerous on boost

[Cocacolakidd]

The KLR is there to measure any pre-ignition signals from the motor (Safety Device). When the KLR finds knock signals going on in the running motor it will retard the timing to rid the condition of pre-ignition. The knock sensors mounted on the motor send signals to the KLR to let it know what the running condition of the motor is.

[flash968]

the 968 has knock sensors too, which also tell the ECU to pull back the timing - there is a lag between knock and pull back, but it's pretty short - the issue i am dealing with is that the amount it pulls it back is more than needed, and the ECU wants to maintain 14.7 at all part throttle, which is way too lean on boost - there is a bit of a "no man's land" that needs to be bridged in the part throttle maps, which when done will yield a lot of mid range power

very expensive to do though, and it requires a dyno on which you can apply known and controllable loads, which is why most chip manufacturers don't deal with it, and they only open up the WOT maps - also, you can't advertise numbers on part throttle maps, so they figure "why bother in a limited market"?

i haven't messed with the KLR, but i would imagine one would have to do something similar

[Cocacolakidd]

There is also a Fuel Quality Switch in the DME that one could re-set to do fuel and timing changes...see fuel quality switch and it's settings to get a better feel for this operation...very handy at times.

[Born2bwild1191]

Awesome, thanks for the info.....I got them installed, it runs AMAZING. I'm so excited, definitely well worth the $300.