Re: Some more Boost Controller Thoughts

[Richard Funnell <rfunnell@pobox.com>]

I need to respond to this in case my wife reads it before I've installed
the HKS in my daily driver ;^)

I certainly agree that any unit that can increase boost beyond the engine's
capability to deal with it is inherently dangerous (at least to the
engine).  After a lot of time spent studying the various units proposed on
this list over the past few years, however, it's my feeling that the HKS
(or GReddy) unit is probably a heck of a lot less dangerous than most.  

I've read and discussed the procedures for adjusting some of these
home-built units, not to mention the myriad ways to defeat all the safety
controls in the ECU.  Frankly I've chosen to avoid them, partly because of
the risks and partly because of the performance compromises many have
experienced.

The HKS and similar controllers (in theory) provide a way to add up to date
techniques to extract all the potential from a 16 year old car.  The only
control on my WG is a spring.  There is no ECU control at all, so I expect
a significant improvement from this animal.  Famous last words ;^}

Richard
'83 urQ

At 08:31 PM 10/6/98 EDT, CM1022@aol.com wrote:
>Some people on the list have given some valuable information concerning the
>electronic boost controllers: they are not for everyone, and can turn an
>engine into a solid state device if your not careful.
>
>There seem to be two schools of thought about these controllers that I have
>experienced.  One group uses the sophistication of the device to utilize it
>for higher performance, using all those fancy (and superior to factory)
>features.  This requires time and almost an engineers knowledge (both
>mechanical and electrical) to safely extract the engine's maximum power.  
>
>The other school of thought, of which I belong to, sings a different tune.  I
>personally think that, for the average person without the right technical
>skills, using one of these boost controllers is way to complicated.  And more
>importantly, it is DANGEROUS.  My recommendation is to use these controllers
>simply to switch between factory boost settings, and not to try and tune for
>performance.  Again, if you have the knowledge and the time, these units can
>give you increased performance.  But it is a tricky game.
>
>The fact of the matter is that factories don't use these units because of
>expense, but also because they want a greater margin of safety.  Factory
>wastegates on road cars are usually designed to leak, and the computers and
>settings are conservative.  
>
>Boost controllers and fuel computers do basically one thing: they allow for
>manual adjustment of operations usually relegated to the ECU.  They are like
>manually adjustable "performance chips".  But for the weekend warrior, these
>units can be too complicated or too dangerous. 
>
>If I was using one of these units on my daily driver, I would set the
>parameters very conservatively, not going beyond 1.0 bar positive.  Better
>yet, factory settings.  Overboost features should be left alone......
>
>For the enthusiast, stick with performance chips for the ECU, and let the
>electrical engineer figure out the details.  
>
>Chris Morlock
>
>86 951
>83 928S
>81 928
>81 931
>70 BMW 2800 CS
>and a HD
>