ecu mods

[pjwales@magicnet.net (Peter Wales)]

>....   hmmmm  maybe a clarification on the definition of "chip" mods might be
>in order:  Is it your claim mr W, that your modifications are to the CHIP in
>the ECU via reprogramming the CHIP?  

You've got your blinkers on Scott. I said I had sold 11 chips to members of
the Audi list. I didn't say they were for Audis and I didn't say they were
for Turbos. As it happens, 3 were for Audi Turbos. A MAC02, a MAC11 and an S4.

The MAC02 is a chip (a 2732 with a rewired socket to convert it into a 2532)
the MAC11 is a new chip which combines a lot of ignition retiming to get
lots more power off boost and the S4 chip has the 2 chips in the box
modified, one to turn up the boost so there is no wastegate mod and the
other to take care of the limit and timing on and off boost.

We always change the chip now with the exception of the MAC14 computer which
is under development and will shortly go over to a chip mod to get the
maximum power from the car off boost.

Let me just bring a few facts of commercial life into this discussion. The
Audi chip market in the USA is not big. I wouldn't be surprised if the
English chip market for Audis was bigger. Then there are 3 players in the
chip field TAP, IA and of course scrubberchips (no advertising on this
list). This means that unless one guy does all the work and everyone else
copies them (no names mentioned here) the work is being done 3 times for a
very small market. I know Ned buys his chips in from Europe where they are
developed to his specification. I would expect the MAC14 to take 5 days to
completely analyse the parts we are interested in. Now my engineers cost me
about $100 an hour so it could cost $5000 to do this chip with all of the
test rigs we have to build. If we are only going to sell 20 or 30 of them it
means the development costs are very high as a proportion of the costs of
the chip.

You and RDH, on the other hand, are doing this for fun and can spend as much
time on it as you like and as it is a hobby, with the exception of your
equipment, yours costs are low or at zero, so you can spend more time and
effort on it which I cannot do without it becoming a commercial disaster.
Then there is the problem of CARB exemption. It costs me $2000 to get  car
tested. This gives me the option of going the Hypertech route and not
modifying anything in the normal drive cycle, only WOT, or doing what we do
and making our chips meet CARB requirements but not getting them certified.
This leaves the California guys either risking our work not being upto spec
and them failing the test, or pulling the chip and replacing it with the
original at test time. The diode mod always passed inspection, as you
rightly said.

Now Mustangs, for example, are a different story. We sell 10-20 a week and
they are CARB certified. We can put the effort into those chips because the
market is so big.

While chips and cars are a passion with me, I still have to run the business
and pay the wages, so profit becomes a serious consideration. When I did my
first chip (the Sierra Cosworth) it took me 3 months of 12 hours a day and 7
days a week, but it was worth it because I sold hundreds and was the only
player in the field. Now it's a different story and I welcome the
introduction of OBDII as it is starting to create world cars. This means
that I can get my English company to do the development work on the European
cars and it will work on the US versions of those cars.

Finally, I promise that nothing you or anyone else posts here concerning
chips will be used to my companies advantage. We do our own work and copy
nothing from anyone else. I found out about doing that when I copied a
German companies MAC10 chip about 8 years ago. They have 103 Octane fuel
there and the chip was tuned for it. Our miserable 98 octane :) wasn't
enough and the car melted a piston. That cost me a lot of money but it
taught me a lesson I have never forgotten. 

Oh well, enough of my rambling. I hope it lets you see a little better into
the commercial side of what you are doing. Meanwhile, good luck with your
probing and I hope you enjoy it.

Peter Wales