"Chocolate Box" Diesel Chipping

Does anyone in the UK have any experience of this device - as sold by East
Coast Racing? There is one for the 2.5 litre Audi engine (as fitted to 850's
and old shape V70's) for about 350 UKP. Apparently it connects into the
wiring to the diesel injection pump and doesn't involve messing with the
ECU.

Are they effective in increasing torque and responsiveness?
Do they adversely affect fuel consumption?
What is the effect on insurance premiums (if you tell you insurers!)?

 

I have one on my 1.9L TDI engine in my Golf (the Volvo doesn't need such
mods to be powerfull ;-) ). The unit was made by PSI and sold by a VW/Audi
tuner in town.... NICE difference in power with the box, makes driving an
automatic tranny, diesel engined car quite bareable. Horsepower goes from 90
to over 100hp apparantly (i've heard as high as 110) and torque from 155 to
possibly over 180 ft-lb - no dyno tests on my car, just going with the
marketing they told me, feels like up to 20% difference in certain
conditions.

Since your Volvo has an Audi motor, the tuning box is probably similar to
mine, as the company does carry multiple models of boxes. (Tho only TDI 1.9L
and Pumpe Duse TDI 1.9L models were availible in Canada at the time, as they
were our only diesel engines, at the time -We've got the V10 TDI now and a
2.0L 4 cylinder, but I don't know if you can get tuning boxes for them yet -
no Audi motors with diesel over here either).

 

PS you might want to check out www.tdiclub.com

your Audi engine might be a TDI type motor, these guys know their stuff on
VW/Audi group diesel engines... They'd probably help a Volvophile tho ;-), I
mean the two groups of loyal owners are equally as fanatical about their
cars.

 

Seems like it would be a much better idea to chip the ECU than to muck
around with inserting stuff inbetween it and the engine.

Anything you do is a compromise though, from the factory the cars are tuned
quite well already for the average driver, you can move the torque curve
around or increase power at the expense of torque at other RPM's, increased
fuel consumption and decreased engine life, there's no free lunch.

 

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,

Thanks for your comments. What do you see as the pros and cons of chipping
the ECU vs the injector pump? [The claimed advantages of the 'chocolate box'
are DIY installation and the ability to remove it without trace - useful if
the car is still under warranty].

It's pretty obvious that if it delivers more torque, it uses more fuel doing
so. However, the claim is that this is offset by being able to operate in a
higher gear in a lot of cases. I would be interested to hear from users of
the device as to how this works out in reality.

The engine in my 1999 (2000MY) V70 2.5D has a flat spot at around 1200-1400
RPM - particularly when pulling away from a junction in 3rd gear. Once its
staggers above 1500 RPM, the acceleration dramatically increases. It can be
improved slightly by tweaking the injector timing, but this doesn't seem to
last long. My principal motivation for chipping is in trying to get rid of
the flat spot. Again, I would welcome comments from people with first-hand
experience.

 

It really depends on the specific ECU and what chips are available for it.
Warranty is a good point as well, for that case the external box may well be
your best route. Perhaps you could borrow one from someone for a test drive
and see how it feels? Or you could buy one and try it out for a while, if
you don't like it sell it on ebay.