Thread: ECU upgrades

Careful ..... with any ECU upgrade or chip the engine runs at a much higher temperature, which can start other engine other issues and chalk up some big bucks $$$$

Have a chat with "discowhite" or Peter Davis from Roving Mechanical .... both will do an ECU upgrade and can give you an idea of the pros and cons.

Good Luck

Craig

Thanks Craig,

chatting to Phil now

Hi Danny
I have a Davis upgrade in the Disco a TD5 manual and you will certainly notice the difference in power as for it running hotter i have not noticed the gauge travel any higher but i have not towed the camper since having it done.
Regards
Doug

Gday Danny
Ive got the Davis chip in my TD5 also. Its an auto. Its definitely noticable. Not noticable for temp and I did tow the camper through NSW SA (Inaminica-Arkaroola) shortly afterwards. Not overly big loss in fuel efficiency either for power gain. Much less lag between giving it the berries and the beast moving
Set you back a couple of hundred bucks (4-500ish I seem to recall). Got the Davis version as they are 3 minutes from home, service the car anyway, and Ive never had any problems with Bruce and the team, in fact, they have been marvellous on numerous occasions.
cheers
mat

Gday Danny,
I got a TRS in my 2001 5sp and would say that the power in noticeable if and when you need it but in general day to day driving it just seems smoother thru the gears as you dont seem to rev as much, As for the hotter temp, havent noticed any difference..

Dad got his D2a done at TRS whilst towing his 20 ft caravan around Aust on his last trip,and towed it from SA up the east coast across and back to WA..Being an auto he noticed heaps of difference with no temp rise at all..He's comment was it was like having another gear..


Cheers Ean

I recently had my 2003 manual TD5 remapped at Graham Coopers at St Peters in Sydney. They were very careful to measure exhaust gas temperatures before and after. The remapped ECU means the car is now very very quick. I have just driven over 3000 km on a single trip but kept speeds down to around 90-100 kmph. I am now regularly getting 8.5 to 9 litres per 100 km on such trips. There is no noticeable increase in the temp guage but then the cooling system may still be coping even if the exhaust gases are a bit hotter.
I choose to drive the car conservatively and only use the extra power for passing. I have much greater flexibility around town, 4th is now used where 3rd was necessary and most hills are easy in 5th.

Originally Posted by Dubbo

I recently had my 2003 manual TD5 remapped at Graham Coopers at St Peters in Sydney. They were very careful to measure exhaust gas temperatures before and after.

There must be a genuine reason for that. I know I've read somewhere that the increased temperature can warp the exhaust manifold. When I've spoken to various mechanics about an ecu upgrade they've mentioned modifying it to counteract the increased temp as well as the EGR removal.

I know that it's something I'm keen to do in the future, but I'll have to firstly get a flashable ecu then do the re-map. So it's already costing a little extra .... the last thing I wanna do is f**k up something else in the process.

Certainly more research (and more money) is required from my perspective.

you need to watch it as you can easily cook the engine if you wind it up too hard for too long.

you could (in theory) rechip the engine to make a couple of thousand horspower but it would only make it for about point nothing of a second if you asked for all of it at once. while your not using it its not a problem as your not pumping the fuel in to make the heat.

very very roughy

repeated short hits of hard use that spike the EGT's are bad for your valves, exhaust manifold and the turbo.

long runs at high temps will cause heat soak in the head thats either going to warp the head do the head gasket or overload the cooling system. (overloading the cooling system then takes out the head after its overheated)

I have what amounts to what I consider to be a chipping level thats as far as you can go with a stock TD5, I got mine from tombie.

I believe that BD was having some issues with some of their early maps (which I assume is now all sorted) as most of the killed td5's that I've seen that have had a remap have had their update in them. That may also be a factor of a particular batch of engines, the fact that they are the most commonly done update which would load the stats for engine failure or a bunch of people who have no sympathy for their engines. I also havent seen a freshly killed td5 for 18+ months now.