ESM Chips - Performance & discussion

[GeoffSmith]

Matt,

Hook up Elanscan and read the PROM ID.

If you need an ALDL cable, I've got one and I should be going to Castle Combe on Sunday .... and so should you!

Geoff

PS Don't forget to uprate your brakes first - oh you are!

[quiksilva]

"They will feel almost the same I'd bet, but wouldn't you rather know you have the top one ? ? ? "

it aint how big it is is but how you use it my dear fellow



seriously though id doubt anyone this side of a chavtastic saxo driver would notice the difference and your also less likely to put it in a ditch first time you open up on a greasy road

[Ultimatt]

I really have got to start proof-reading my messages before I post them. It sounds like I'm a non-native English speaker trying to muddle my way around the language

Anyway... you got the gist of what I was gibbering about, I'm sure.

Matt

[GeoffSmith]

Typing without a spill chucker really makes you think about your gramma.

[taffy]

matt
Regarding the I.D I have a 91 SE and when Alan went to fit the upgrade he could see that at some time the seal on the control box had been broken . Once opened he could see that the chip had been changed by Lotus so that the emissions were o.k. So if you dont have the Elanscan I would 'open the box' and check the number on the chip. Having seen Alan do it it will take about 20 min.
NigelE

[Doc Fizzix]

Doc, you've changed your name!

The chip is known to work in CA cars - yours is not the first I've sold, in fact Doug has a CA car and it works no problem in his. Your symptoms sound a lot like a clogged up catalyst is that conceivable?

This is a little late posting, but what the hell.

I have hollowed out the pre-cat and removed the main CAT. Did not change anything. Oh well, we will see how the new motor does. I found one problem but I do not know enough to understand if it was related. My secondary throttle valve was not holding a vacuum. Not sure how much that would effect things

[F1 LOTUS]

Did you still have the squashed pipe in place?

[ESM]

Here's some dyno data for the chips. It's obvious that the data is variable both from point to point and from car to car. However, in spite of the noise on the data the ranking follows the chip type because the effect is significantly larger than the noise. I think this a mixture of V3 and V4 chip behaviour.

I wouldn't read too much into the big exhaust performance here, there isn't enough data to draw the conclusion that they're detrimental as the differences aren't large enough to eliminate noise/variability as the cause. However, there is a case for saying that their effect (without boost creep to help) isn't enormous.

[ESM]

For the V5 development I gave a my tester (Stig?) a switcher and a chip with 16 maps, one standard V4.2 and 15 V5s identical except for their power enrichment a/f maps which varied smoothly between stock (10.2:1 at its richest) and the leanest map (12.3:1 at its richest). Stig then went off to the dyno to test them out. Not all were run because ES indicated knock was starting to occur.

I subtracted the control stock mixture power curve from the power curves of each of the candidates to give power gain curves. The map selected combined power gain and no knock. I feel there is more to be had by adjusting the shape of the fueling map but the leanest point has been found.

Map 8 was repeated to see if the large improvement the first run showed was repeatable, and not just one of the inexplicable good runs that pops up occasionally, and it didn't repeat. The second run fell much closer to the apparent trend in the second graph.

[GeoffSmith]

I gave a my tester (Stig?)

He's pretty lean himself, so what about the Stig Insect?

Sorry!

[nissias]

so has anyone recorded 0-62mph, top speed and 1/4 mile times with the new v5.4 chip on elysium and everest programs?

[ESM]

0 to 60 isn't an easy thing to do reproducibly because a launch and a shift are part of it. The uncertainty of when you reach 60mph is also a problem - the speedo is inaccurate and GPS speedometers have some lag...

Naturally the 0-60 time should be lower if there's more power but its not easy to quantify outside a test track with the right gear and a professional driver.

The best comparison we've found is a 30-70mph run in 3rd gear (full throttle initiated from below 30mph). ES speed time curves can then be compared.

[Enright]

I had my car MOT'd this week in Elysium mode using the O2 sensor.
The result was that CO emissions had dropped from 2.88% last year to 0.68% (the pass limit is 3.5%), and HC's had dropped from 134ppm to 103ppm (the pass limit is 3500), indicating a much more efficient state of tune.
This backs up my own observations in fuel economy.
In fact it almost passed the catalytic converter test, even though I don't have one fitted!

[Doug]

Nice Work, Alan!

[ESM]

[nissias]

Testing the car on hot conditions here in Cyprus I have found that the v5 Everest chip provides a better mid-range power on the road. Having a v3 everest chip previously I noticed a big difference in pure pulling power from the time the turbo kicks in up to the gear change and onwards. While using twice the Elysium program there is a small improvement in power, again in mid-range, which can well nail you back on your sit with a deep throttle.

[ESM]

I've been on the Isuzone site a bit lately and someone asked to see Impulse RS vs Elan volumetric efficiency and spark advance maps. I have a PROM dump I think is from an RS so I spent a bit of time pulling tables out of it and quite a lot is different. The RS has a leaner power enrichment map than the Elan, different timing, different VE....

I've attached a file showing the VE and spark tables...

[ESM]

Had a bit of a play with an idea (an unusually reckless one by my usual standards) at the weekend. I was looking at the timing table and I thought that the rpm vs advance line at the highest boost looked lower than the trend of the previous points suggested it might be. So I thought why don't I extrapolate new values based on the trend and replace the 'low' advance values. The before and after tables are below. I stuck in blue car and it runs pretty well - it needs some better data before it gets to the release candidate stage though.

While I'm typing can I clarify one thing about the V5 chip. Many people seem to have got the misconception it makes the engine run leaner under all conditions - it doesn't. The engine only runs leaner than before when the boost gauge is off the peg and your foot is approaching the floor. Even then its still a rich mixture, just not as rich as standard.

[tigerdog]

Had a bit of a play with an idea (an unusually reckless one by my usual standards) at the weekend. I was looking at the timing table and I thought that the rpm vs advance line at the highest boost looked lower than the trend of the previous points suggested it might be.

Do you suppose this is done to reduce risk of detonation during overboost conditions? The table shown doesn't seem to have entries above the stock boost level.

[ESM]

My suspicion is that the timing is retarded along that line as an overboost protection but since the chips do fuel cut in that condition I think it can be dispensed with.

The table, like all the others in the stock PROM, doesn't have entries above the capacity of the stock MAP sensor (2.06bar absolute) - what would be the point? You can see why changing to a 3 bar MAP sensor isn't easy to do - every since MAP based table would have to be completely redone by resampling the standard 0-2 bar parts of the tables to a smaller number of points and creating a large missing section at the top end (2-3bar) from scratch. It would ideally need a bench engine dyno rather than a rolling road to be done properly. Even then it would be a ton of work - there are a lot of look up tables based on the MAP reading.