ok...now i know its a diff vehicle..but perhaps someone could explain this to me.

my buddy has a 2004 dodge ram with the cummins diesel engine. and he has a 3 stage controlable chip...and there are several of them out there. but what it basically boils down to..is that it seems various power settings alter their timing and such.

my question..why cant we utilize things like this? given he has no ignition system but still. i mean..its highly noticible as he changes his settings. and im not saying you could probably just plug one in..but what makes it so that these trucks can have all these timing changes and see considerable power..and we dont have anything to control that? is there something in our engines that prevents something like this? im sure there is..but the question is..what?

the differences are phenominal..and id love to have something like that. to be honest i dont know much about timing and how all that plays in.

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2011 Nissan Xterra Pro-4x

2007 Kawasaki Ninja 650R

1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS-NX 75 shot, AEM CAI, P&P t/b and intake mani-SOLD

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Well, I don't know everything about those chips, but I have a buddy who has one and you're right, it's remarkable the power they add.

Here's what I've gathered. It's not so much the timing (although they might alter the timing of the injection of the fuel--as you said before there's not really an ignition system on it) , it's about the fuel. Those things dump a ton of fuel into the motor, and they probably raise the boost level too (although I'm not sure on this). Being that it's a diesel, it doesn't really matter if it knocks, so you get a bunch of power. You'll notice that when they've got it waaaay turned up, the truck just DUMPS fuel out the exhaust pipe, and viola! Power. We can't do it on a gas engine for many reasons since diesals run differently (no spark plugs, crazy high compression, knocking doesn't matter...blah blah). You'll notice almost all the trucks those are for are for diesels.


Brian

EDIT: The title of the thread is about adjusting timing and why we can't get any power from that. We can get power from adjusting timing, as our ECU's our pretty conservative when it comes to that. That's the point of the AFX computer from Howell.

Red 97 Eclipse GS (420a) MTX
Custom Garrett T3 Turbo system
Megasquirt w/52 lb/hr injectors & a Walbro 255
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90 Cav 2.2 TBI auto (winter) <- yeah, it's fast

afx ecu! nist tf the cars that have these available are turboed, such as the vw 1.8t.

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http://www.howellautomotive.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=137



Brian

Red 97 Eclipse GS (420a) MTX
Custom Garrett T3 Turbo system
Megasquirt w/52 lb/hr injectors & a Walbro 255
Kicker/Alpine Audio (3 amps, 2 subs)
90 Cav 2.2 TBI auto (winter) <- yeah, it's fast

The reason you don't see any "chips" in the market for the Neon ECU is because no one has actually hacked it yet. There are rumors of some guy in South America doing it, and there is always the AFX ECU, but that's just a reprogrammed stock ECU.

Engineering time is expensive, and a project like reverse-engineering the stock ECU from scratch would take a team of 2-3 experienced people working full time at least a month to have a finished product.

If you want to adjust your timing, get a Megasquirt. You can define your timing curve however you want with that thing. Otherwise, you're stuck with the AFX or a MSD/Crane module, which have limited or no adjustability.

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