Dude where's my power....

[ak]

Well just got back from Dyno. With the addtion of Bored throttle body and Dali chip, my car yielded nothing. No gain anywhere. Lost a little power throughout actually.(-1hp or so)

Conditions were pretty much similar for both dyno session... Besides, the number is corrected. I didnt expect much but I didn't expect to gain nothing!

My other engine mods include Cantrell AIS, Comptech Header, Taitec GT exhaust.

Maybe I need more customized tuning to get more power out of the throttle body.

Anyone got any idea??

 

[donwon]

get a supercharger

 

[matteni]

Well it is really hard to say you lost power unless you dyno on the same day with the same tech / etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is 5% error and you could have had a good run last time and a bad run this time.

Why don't you put the stock chip in and run, then pull the clock fuse and put in the Dali chip? In dyno days and independently at other places people have picked up some extra ponies with the Dali chip - especially with the tuned aftermarket headers & exhaust.

Also - have you had a tune up lately, using the same gas, is your air filter as clean as it was the first time, etc.?

Just trying to help you figure out if you really did loose power...

Good luck.

 

[ak]

I shoudn't say I lost power. I just didn't gain any. The gas in my car was like 3-4 weeks old I think...

btw, does anyone know if it makes any difference if you run the car with the chip longer? I just installed it yesterday. Is there much learning curve on these things?

 

[ChopsJazz]

I had a similar experience when I dyno'd three different chips at one dyno session. All the same day, within one hour of each other. I found that none of them yielded any extra power. In fact, the stock chip worked best so I am currently running that.

As for a learning curve, I have heard from a couple sources that chips do "learn" from your driving habits . But these were informal chats, not with professional tuners. It sounds a little counter-intuitive, don't you think? A computer chip learning?

 

[sjs]

Many ECUs do "learn". I have never seen/heard proof that the one in the NSX does, but it is a reasonable assumption.

Stated simply, what they do is read the various sensors (O2, IAT, knock, etc.) and keep track of the corrections necessary to fuel and timing to achieve the desired results. Those correction factors are averaged out over time and used as "trim" values applied to the base maps. Although the O2 sensors are only monitored during closed loop operation (low load), it is generally assumed that the trim is applied throughout. The purpose of all this is to compensate for long-term changes in climate, altitude, fuel supply, oil consumption, etc. However, the trim values are save in volatile memory that can be erased by killing power to the ECU.

As for waiting to see if such learning will cause the new chip to perform better, that's a tough call because it may work just the opposite with the ECU attempting to "compensate" for the changes if, for example, it now runs a different fuel ratio in closed loop.

That you don't see significant improvement is not a big surprise. Honda has some pretty good tuners and probably didn't leave much on the table for an otherwise stock engine except where necessary for emission purposes. As we all know, there can be small variances from car to car in stock form so it is reasonable to think that some cars will also benefit more from the chip than others. It may also be reasonable to think that the chip will be more likely to help a car with thinks like I/H/E, or maybe not. If the chip extended the rev limiter then at least you have that, which can be worthwhile.

 

[ak]

Thanks for the comments, SJS. Are you sure that the ECU applies the correction throughout even for the MAP that's used for open-loop operation at full throttle?

I do have I/H/E btw. I dunno, my car is running great and not sure if I can squeeze out another 5-10hp out of the car. Maybe my car is super healthy and there's no space for improvement