Knowledge is power and arriving at that knowledge can be a complicated thing

I while back we noticed that the market place had quite a selection of tools which allowed us and customers to alter the dynamics of their vehicles ECUs. Be it a bike or car there was plenty to choose from.

Resident software alterations are covered by Response Performance Chips and cater for a whole host of vehicles with one off files available too.

MOTEC, LINK and GEMS stand alone replacement ECUs and Power commander piggy back units for bikes etc cover the alternatives and only give an advantage over resident software in a limited number of applications and if setup accurately.

Great we can now alter fuelling and ignition at any point we want, however what we did note was that not many people had the means to accurately measure what their vehicles sensor outputs were once they had finished adding their mods much less arriving at an ideal setup once all the goodies had been fitted.

To resolve this we now have our own data logging facility, which allows us to accurately measure just about every parameter on your vehicle in real time and in all driving conditions. It gives specific and very accurate information upon which changes can be made.

A wide band oxygen sensor is fitted in place of your existing one and samples 12 times a second ! In addition we log RPM, Throttle position, Boost pressure, Exhaust gas temp etc. Once all the sensors are hooked up we run the vehicle on a dyno or on the road and record sessions and play them back. We can see exactly where things are working correctly, where they are not and how much things need altering by to produce maximum power with reliability being the most important objective. Its going to cost you around £ 300 plus vat to have your vehicles basic data log and this equipment is just as helpful in setting up a bikes Power Commander.

How detailed you want this set up is once again limited by your pocket. Let me give you an example. After building the new engine etc for our Ducati, we spent £60.00 on petrol and 2.5 days re-mapping each cylinder. (yes each one is different) ! and that was just on the Rolling Road/Dyno. Even when after market ECU,s are fitted most are only set up to give an average setting which all the cylinders share rather than setting each cylinder up separately.

There is really no way around setting a modern vehicle up once you start to get serious. You can spend as much as you like on parts etc but to bring everything together you have to go through the detailed process of measuring and then altering. Your cars ECU cant compensate for parts fitted because it doesn't know they have been changed. Most modified vehicles have similar problems with their setup. Fuelling will lean off at the top end and may be too rich low down. The vehicle will feel sluggish on light throttle with poor performance under load with may even be pinking under load. Our equipment can detect individual misfires so even if you don't think its pinking it might still be, meaning a melted piston is just around the corner. Once measurements have been made we can then alter the fuelling and ignition maps and then re-test to see if we have hit the mark. In addition to our data logging facility we make use of our cylinder leakage tester.

We use this kit to see how "fit" an engine is. It can allow us to pin point lost compression and leaks. It also allows you to make a decision as to how far you would go with a tuning project. If the engine is breathing badly lets say and cylinder efficiency is less than ideal you might want to think twice about loads of bolt on goodies and maybe consider some engine work. Cost is a very reasonable £75-150 plus vat depending on your engine configuration and should be considered as your engines health check and starting point. Very much like having a survey completed on a house to see if there are any unobvious hidden faults which could cost a fortune to repair.

I hope that this section has been interesting, however it only skims over this subject...you'll need to have a good chat to get more info or click on the more info button and ask away.