Overclocking a Car

spono

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 26, 2006
Messages
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Has anyone tried it? It seems that most (all) modern cars have computers to calculate how much fuel, air, etc gets sent to the engine. So, what's stopping someone from telling the car's computer to send more? I assume this IS possible, but probably doesn't give much noticable gains, as most people tend to move towards turbochargers, superchargers, or nitrous oxide for performance gains.
 
Can be done, hats why peopel change the ECU chip, or even program the current one, it can be tweeked up, the diffrence is much higher on a Turbo Charged or Kompressor car, without any other changes (Meachanic) can go to +70bhp
 
Well how about on a plain old 98BHP Kia Rio with no turbo, no nothing?
 
hah, you're not "overclocking" the car per se, as the car's speed doesn't rely on the frequency of the ECU. however, you are correct that you can adjust the timings and fuel and other such elements to tune the car. This is why you normally see prepackaged ECUs that you can drop into your car that essentially remap the way the car performs. Of course there are trade-offs with more performance, as it'll consume more fuel (just like a computer would consume more electricity when overclocked).

you won't get anything (significant) out of a kia rio.
 
I overclocked my engine with a T25 turbo... but I haven't done the ECU yet. I think I'm getting a programmable piggyback so I can tune the a/f ratio and stuff.. :p

IMG_0009_small.jpg
 
my STi has been overcloocked hardcore
New Turbo running at 20 lbs of boost, UTech Computer, 1000CC Injectors, New Fuel System, Front Mount I/C, Tuns more mods.. at 91 Pump Gas running at 20lbs hitting 505HP at the wheels, AWD Drive :D
I will Post Pics tonight after work
 
When dealing with an vehicle ECUs the problem is usually getting more air into the engine. You can only tune the ECU so good for a specific amount of air, and most cars from the factory can give you a small gain, on turbo and supercharged cars you can often see significant gaines in ECU tuning because they usually have a very safe tune to prevent detonation. It depends on the car and how well they are tuned from the factory, however the cost of a piggyback or standalone ECU can get expensive quick. I have about $2500 in the engine management and fuel system of my 99 Miata SM2 car.
 
Icemastr said:
When dealing with an vehicle ECUs the problem is usually getting more air into the engine. You can only tune the ECU so good for a specific amount of air, and most cars from the factory can give you a small gain, on turbo and supercharged cars you can often see significant gaines in ECU tuning because they usually have a very safe tune to prevent detonation. It depends on the car and how well they are tuned from the factory, however the cost of a piggyback or standalone ECU can get expensive quick. I have about $2500 in the engine management and fuel system of my 99 Miata SM2 car.

2500 is cheap man, mine was over 4000
 
Killa_2327 said:
$2500 is still a lot of money.

Yeah it is, when you look at the scope of things, i paid 30,000 for the STi (still making payments) And I have invetsted almost 20,000 into the car alredy Parts and Labor
 
Yeah, I didn't figure I could get anything out of the Rio, I just wanted to hear some conversation on the subject. Since the car was only $6200 brand new, I don't think I can justify doing much to it, as my costs would quickly surpass the cost of the car itself :p

Then again, I could try putting some nitrous in there... not sure if the suspension or the engine could handle the extra oomph without falling to pieces though. I wouldn't really trust it to, as it already shakes worse than Michael J Fox when i go any faster than 110.

P.S. - sorry, Mr. Fox, it was too easy.
 
spono said:
Yeah, I didn't figure I could get anything out of the Rio, I just wanted to hear some conversation on the subject. Since the car was only $6200 brand new, I don't think I can justify doing much to it, as my costs would quickly surpass the cost of the car itself :p

Then again, I could try putting some nitrous in there... not sure if the suspension or the engine could handle the extra oomph without falling to pieces though. I wouldn't really trust it to, as it already shakes worse than Michael J Fox when i go any faster than 110.

P.S. - sorry, Mr. Fox, it was too easy.
lol dont think that car was designed to go 110 :p
 
spono said:
Well how about on a plain old 98BHP Kia Rio with no turbo, no nothing?

I would suggest a new catback 2.0" - 2.5" exhaust ($150 for pipe, glasspack, and labor if you find a reasonable shop) and a cheap ass do it yourself intake with a cone filter. You should see 20HP out of that. if not, it would atleast sound cool...

if that wont do it for you, then get a leaf blower and rig it up to your intake. it should give you a good 0.5 - 2.5 PSI boost. It'll give you much better flow LoL (yes, I have tried it)
 
nhusby said:
I would suggest a new catback 2.0" - 2.5" exhaust ($150 for pipe, glasspack, and labor if you find a reasonable shop) and a cheap ass do it yourself intake with a cone filter. You should see 20HP out of that. if not, it would atleast sound cool...

if that wont do it for you, then get a leaf blower and rig it up to your intake. it should give you a good 0.5 - 2.5 PSI boost. It'll give you much better flow LoL (yes, I have tried it)
- Intake and exhaust on that car might see 5whp gain.
- Leaf blowers only blow like 0.2 to 0.5 lbs if you are lucky.
 
w1retap said:
- Intake and exhaust on that car might see 5whp gain.
- Leaf blowers only blow like 0.2 to 0.5 lbs if you are lucky.

trust me... the exhaust and intake would make a noticable difference.
Atleast it has on ever other vehicle me and my buddies have owned... Dont have any dyno figures to back it up tho...

higher boost at lower RPM's... just because of the sheer volume of air a leaf blower moves compared to the amount of air an engine that small would take in...
 
nhusby said:
trust me... the exhaust and intake would make a noticable difference.
Atleast it has on ever other vehicle me and my buddies have owned... Dont have any dyno figures to back it up tho...

higher boost at lower RPM's... just because of the sheer volume of air a leaf blower moves compared to the amount of air an engine that small would take in...

Having owned several NA 4 bangers (all hondas) getting 20hp out of a RIO is impossible wiht just a intake and header. Better tuned engines and FI engines will benifit much more. On my 03 RSX type-s with an intake, according to dyno's, made about 13 more hp, which, in all honesty wasnt terribly noticeable. Bigger engines also benifit more from better airflow. And some engines are tuned so well and breath so well from the factory that anything aftermarket is just for show and noise, Honda S2000 is a great example of this. Honda squeezed just about every last NA ponie out of that little 2litre motor, that nothing besides changing internal engine parts or FI would make significant gains. Plus with the RIO good luck finding intake systems other than something like the K&N air filter replacement. I mean hey, there is nothing wrong with modding what you got, but I wouldnt go into it thinking you will be making earth shattering numbers from basic bolt on's. If anything it will sound faster.
 
Re-programming the ECU isnt overclocking, the actual speed of the IC's themselves dont make any difference to the air/fuel ratio, etc. and would basically do nothing but overstress them for no reason. Plenty of people re-program their ecu/pcm/etc., if you were inclined to do so and had the proper software/hardware you could technically tweak your kia for about 5 more hp at most, but your fuel mileage would suffer and itd be pretty silly.
 
-(Xyphox)- said:
Well as promised, here is pictures of how to really OC a car
Click Me!
Dude, you need some wire management... I see huge loopy cables that could be tucked under stuff, or shortened and tied down.
 
i few of those pictures were taken while they were still working on the car, there is a few there of it all done, it should like fine
And a Car like that and all you can is wires need to be cleaned up :rolleyes:
should be like, man nice job awesome car :D ;)
 
nhusby said:
trust me... the exhaust and intake would make a noticable difference.
Atleast it has on ever other vehicle me and my buddies have owned... Dont have any dyno figures to back it up tho...

higher boost at lower RPM's... just because of the sheer volume of air a leaf blower moves compared to the amount of air an engine that small would take in...
Trust me, I've added a quality injen intake and magnaflow catback exhaust to an econobox car (actually, multiple cars), it adds a mere 5whp. Maybe 15 at the crank.

The leaf blower isn't strong enough to run boost. When it tries to put pressure in a closed system, it has reverse blowback out the little cheap motor that is in them. (even if you buy a good one) Hook a boost gauge up to one and try it yourself. Here, a video. About 10hp gain from a leaf blower. Less than 1psi.
http://hondaswap.com/auto-multi-media/leaf-blower-makes-10whp-si-59616/
 
w1retap said:
Trust me, I've added a quality injen intake and magnaflow catback exhaust to an econobox car (actually, multiple cars), it adds a mere 5whp. Maybe 15 at the crank.

The leaf blower isn't strong enough to run boost. When it tries to put pressure in a closed system, it has reverse blowback out the little cheap motor that is in them. (even if you buy a good one) Hook a boost gauge up to one and try it yourself. Here, a video. About 10hp gain from a leaf blower. Less than 1psi.
http://hondaswap.com/auto-multi-media/leaf-blower-makes-10whp-si-59616/

With all my upgrades i went from 300hp at 24lbs of boost with stock turbo to 505hp at the wheels at 20lbs of boost
 
-(Xyphox)- said:
With all my upgrades i went from 300hp at 24lbs of boost with stock turbo to 505hp at the wheels at 20lbs of boost
Excellent. When i added my turbo, it doubled my hp. =D About 110whp to 220whp. lol. I haven't dyno'd yet, but people with the exact same mods as me with the same car have and got about that when they dyno'd. I'm only running 5lb of boost non-ic on a T-25. (03 mitsu lancer oz rally 5 speed) My friend has about the same setup as you in his 05 STI.
 
-(Xyphox)- said:
i few of those pictures were taken while they were still working on the car, there is a few there of it all done, it should like fine
And a Car like that and all you can is wires need to be cleaned up :rolleyes:
should be like, man nice job awesome car :D ;)
I like North American cars.. sorry... except for McLaren F1 and Koenigsegg.
 
Nice STI, I'd have to see the dyno sheet of your 505HP run before I believe it though. I thought about getting an STI or Evo but can't fit comfortably in either. :( The Mallet Pontiac Solstice is looking ever so sweet though.
 
PCMusicGuy said:
Nice STI, I'd have to see the dyno sheet of your 505HP run before I believe it though. I thought about getting an STI or Evo but can't fit comfortably in either. :( The Mallet Pontiac Solstice is looking ever so sweet though.
a 500hp evo/sti is not hard to come by if you have doubts.

dam.. the evo/sti has a fairly big interior. My friend is 6'3'' with an evo.. and I know another person that is close to 300lb. that owns one. How big are you, lol?

But, I would not recommend the solstice, I'd take the Saturn Sky over it. If you've ever test driven both, the Saturn has a much better quality build.. or at least it feels like it. The Solstice has the cheapest shit roof that rattles and stuff. When you close the top on it, the handles/latches feel like they are going to snap off because of cheap plastic. You can get the Sky Redline and modify from there to achieve some pretty good numbers if you are heavy into that kinda thing with modding small cars.
 
I'm scared whats going to happen to SM2 when the Sky's and Solstices start flooding the used market. They handle really well from the factor from what I've heard and they are a far cry from underpowered too. They're also American built so you can expect them to depriciate very quickly. I could see one winning the SCCA nationals in the next few years in STS2 or something.
 
w1retap said:
a 500hp evo/sti is not hard to come by if you have doubts.

dam.. the evo/sti has a fairly big interior. My friend is 6'3'' with an evo.. and I know another person that is close to 300lb. that owns one. How big are you, lol?

But, I would not recommend the solstice, I'd take the Saturn Sky over it. If you've ever test driven both, the Saturn has a much better quality build.. or at least it feels like it. The Solstice has the cheapest shit roof that rattles and stuff. When you close the top on it, the handles/latches feel like they are going to snap off because of cheap plastic. You can get the Sky Redline and modify from there to achieve some pretty good numbers if you are heavy into that kinda thing with modding small cars.

Yeah the interior is very roomly i am 6'2 about 240 and i have tuns of room, its a 4-door sedan with just wide enough wheel base for cheap insurance :D I dont have any dyno curve pictures yet because i am still waiting on them from the tuner shop. I just finished these upgrades about a month ago. Last year i replaced the turbo and blow off vaule leaving the stock injector's and inner cooler. I was running about 400hp or so but it still was not enough.

This spring is when i did all the major changes, the car is not driven in the winter so i had lots of time to research, get parts and start the work. Thankfully i have one hell of a custom shop where i live that did 99.9% of the work. And few facts about the car, its a 2005 with 6200 miles, I was the first person in Michigan to own a 05 STi. The new turbo i went with is a APS SR56 Series, found at (http://www.airpowersystems.com). I could push the turbo more than 20lbs boost but i dont want to hurt the engine, I have also done break upgreades, suspensison as you can see in some of the pictures. Next on the list is new tires and a beefer clutch. The stock one is nice but i dont think it was designed for 500hp :p And Speed.. Lets just say on long country road i hit 160 and still had 2000 rpms left, these cards and go. And the guys that did all my work you can see them at www.trickerycustoms.com (The Page is still being worked on)
 
-(Xyphox)- said:
Thankfully i have one hell of a custom shop where i live that did 99.9% of the work. And few facts about the car, its a 2005 with 6200 miles, I was the first person in Michigan to own a 05 STi.
No shit? I'm in michigan too... you go to Godspeed/Tuning Factory to get the work done? Do you go to Woodward up near 15 mile on weekends at around midnight?
 
w1retap said:
No shit? I'm in michigan too... you go to Godspeed/Tuning Factory to get the work done? Do you go to Woodward up near 15 mile on weekends at around midnight?

Na i live in the Thumb, my tuner is in sandusky, Trickery Customs
 
w1retap said:
Trust me, I've added a quality injen intake and magnaflow catback exhaust to an econobox car (actually, multiple cars), it adds a mere 5whp. Maybe 15 at the crank.

67% drivetrain loss? Damn... :p

This is way out of place in this forum... unless you start talking about intercoolers as well.
 
Nice WRB '05 Xy...

I've got an WRB '05 as well (best year and best color) :)

I'm only Catless Protuned Stg 2 (stock turbo) but up here at 6,200 feet, it's enough to keep any Vette or other American V8 turd at bay, hehe. Excluding of course the C6 ZO6.

cw1s1qr1.jpg
 
zer0signal667 said:
67% drivetrain loss? Damn... :p

This is way out of place in this forum... unless you start talking about intercoolers as well.
no, I was speaking seperate power gain figures.. not both being the same and related to one another. ;)
 
Brahmzy said:
Nice WRB '05 Xy...

I've got an WRB '05 as well (best year and best color) :)

I'm only Catless Protuned Stg 2 (stock turbo) but up here at 6,200 feet, it's enough to keep any Vette or other American V8 turd at bay, hehe. Excluding of course the C6 ZO6.

Yeah the 06 they changed the front end, looks ulgy now, The subaru blue is the best color, and the gold rims just top it off, i love the color combo
 
spono said:
Has anyone tried it? It seems that most (all) modern cars have computers to calculate how much fuel, air, etc gets sent to the engine. So, what's stopping someone from telling the car's computer to send more? I assume this IS possible, but probably doesn't give much noticable gains, as most people tend to move towards turbochargers, superchargers, or nitrous oxide for performance gains.

lol...do some research before posting questions like this. this has been done since car ECU's were first introduced.
 
$2500? $4000? I just spent $700 and got full programmable control over the car's computer. http://www.sctflash.com/ There's got to be others like this for other types of cars. You'll never unlock full potential with an off-the-shelf chip or ecu, too many variables.
 
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