Powerchip for 89 Mondial t: Opinions?

The idea of a chip upgrade is fine, however, keep in mind that to optimize the settings of a naturally aspirated performance engine (one that is already optimized from the factory) you need remove most all of the built-in protection that the factory settings may offer.

Just keep that in mind. Its not a huge deal breaker, but should be factored into the mod.

I have used lots of chips (mostly on forced induction cars), and I find that a 9-14 HP gain on a naturally aspirated car may not be worth the lost protection.

 

The Dimex system (new ecu's, new fuel mapping, no cats, gas flowed heads/polished valves) has a dyno test supporting 365 hp on Fchatter Kenyon's 348 http://70.85.40.84/~ferrari/discus/messages/256120/206770.html .

The 348 Competizione models were shipped from the factory with 360 hp without much more than a fuel mapping change.

Fchatter JJstecher uses the powerchips on his 348 and reports 354 hp (no cats, tubi exhaust, 95 octane fuel, K&N air filter).

Fchatter Ingenere also runs the aftermarket chips in his 348.

The CCC chip ( http://www.ccctech.co.uk/chiptuning.php?make=Ferrari ) claims 326 to 346 hp, based on your model of 348/Mondial T.

 

Sorry man, your Mondial T does not have knock sensors.

Motronic is easy to understand. Read up on the Motronic 2.5 & the later 2.7 Motronic versions. Its interesting reading & helpful for when you will want to tune it or repair it in the future.

Actually, I said "most all of" that protection. Commonly chip makers will just lean out the fuel mixture to make power, then crank up the distributor advance to boot. Both will be set well past factory settings. Either of those can be serious to the engine health if applied incorrectly. I am not trying to talk you out of the mod, just letting you know some details. As noted before, nothing wrong with chip upgrades, they just have limitations, and may not be perfect for every vehicle.

Excellent. Torque wins races, HP just sells cars. Enjoy your Mondial T. Keep us in the loop with how the mods go.

 

Here's another 348/Mondial T chip for reference: http://www.tap1.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=165

 

Hey Buzz, I thought the chips are P&P & same for 348/T? I had them in my '90 348 but removed them when I did my 30Kmajor recently. I'll plug them back again to see the difference. I thought it had more torque in the lower rpm but I'll confirm again.

 

They want to disable your car until they sort it out, or they volunteered stock chips in advance to keep you running?

 

Buzz whats your chips number? I have my old 348 ones laying around here and will take a look and see if they match up with your chips.

I cant believe this is such a pain for ya...It shouldn't require sending in the chips as the motronic chips of the 2.7 unit are pretty damn simple.

 

Mine from the 1990 348 with Motronic 2.7 are 1267356410. I would believe these are from the same batch as your chips meaning that it would be swapable with with PowerChip sold me. But if they want to take the safe route thats ok. Only issue I see is that if they burn your chips with a new map you have no way of reverting to the old chips without having them reburned again.

 

John -

Until I saw your name associated with this PowerChip performance issue, I would have thought they were all snake-oil. But if you're saying you had noticeable (dyno'd?) performance gains, I'd love to hear more. How long have you had them in the car? Apart from sending the chips in, is the installation really plug-n-play? Do you notice throttle response differences? Where? Low end? High end?

If your hands aren't deep in that gearbox, I'm all ears...


Best,
Daniel

 

Has anyone used this chip/supplier ? Would be interesting to know how it improved throttle response and some mid-range.
Happy New Year !

 

Daniel - Well my gearbox has now turned into the suspension being taken apart and shipped off to DeltaVee for a race rebuild as well so needless to say I have been busy. The tranny is coming back together and just about done but I figured well the car was up and apart I might as well do the whole deal.

As far as the PowerChips go I have been a believer in different ECU mappings for a while due mainly to my experience with turbo cars and the fact that the ECU's can control waste gates, and some other nifty things there beyond A/F. In a NA car like the 348 all you can really play with is timing and A/F which is what the PowerChips do.

As far as what do I notice (well what I remember noticing since I have had them in my car for two years now I believe) is that throttle response was better in the midrange but actually appeared to suffer slightly at off idle. My A/F went up at idle to running richer than the stock ECU by about 0.5 but didn't contribute to any wash down in the piston walls so I was ok with it. The real place that I noticed the chips difference the most was on a tight track that we run here in the midwest. In back to back weekends with nothing changing on the car beyond the chips I was 1.1-1.3 seconds faster a lap and I could feel the difference coming out of a series of increasing/decreasing radius turns which were mainly part to max throttle pulling from 4500-5000RPMs to redline. Needless to say I was happy with the chips and havent thought about them much since putting them in.

Lastly my chips from them were just drop in replacements for the ones in the car which I still have sitting in my Ferrari parts storage area. I think for your car Daniel you might just be like me and be able to drop them right in.

Milage may vary but for me they have worked well on both the dyno and track.

 

The POWERCHIPS work very well, have sold many & EVERY ONE of my customers have been very happy. There is also a money back guarantee if not satisfied, less shipping & handling. I have yet to have one come back, I have been selling their products for over 4 years now.

 

Any big sales price breaks in the forseeable future?

 

Been up to my ears are work myself but I can confirm seat of the pants gains when using the Powerchip. I know I should have dyno'd before I put them in to share real numbers but I can confirm that my biggest complaint about the power in the T Cab was in the 27-3300 range. The engine always seemed to stumble a bit there...not in the bad fuel sense but just a bit of a delay to really get on cam and jump up the rev range. This is a very common range on the street so it was a real pain. (On the track...well, you just stay above it.) After the PC install, this has completely disappeared and the engine simply revs straight up to redline. My T Cab is my daily so I experience it in all types of conditions.

I did have to send the ECUs in but they were returned along with the other chips. So, painless to take out and reinstall but the ECUs were the easy part, I never actually looked into the chip swap.

I think I noticed something in the thread about 93 octane but the PC folks will map it to whatever you fill your engine with. Since I always run Shell V-Power, it was pretty easy to give them the specs and stick to it.

As for Nick, had I known he was a PC dealer I would have picked it up through him as he has always treated me and my local mechanic well in the past.

Thanks,
JMG aka TCab

 

The dyno that I used had no way of knowing what was showing up on your tach/speedometer (i.e. for a speed vs load calculation). It just reported how much force you put down on the dyno wheels.

Of course, there are lots of different types of dynos.

But if the dyno is simply measuring your force output, then you want whatever gear that will put out maximum force.

...which is not always your top gear. On the street/track, some cars are faster in 4th than in 5th, or faster in 5th than in 6th (e.g. when their top gear is really an overdrive rather than a race gear).

If your top gear is above 1:1, but reasonably close, then that's probably the gear that you want for a raw output type dyno.

In reality, your engine can hit max horsepower in 1st gear, or 2nd gear, or any gear (except an overdrive), but not all dyno's can measure engine torque times engine RPM (the correct calculation for horsepower). Some just measure raw output (which means that your final drive ratio matters, among other things).

But you don't have to overthink things. Just stand on the accelerator, run through the gears, and note which gear gives you your highest indicated speed on your speedometer. That's your max (horse) power output. Less horsepower means lower (indicated) top speed.