[x300] performance chip

X300
1

Has anyone on this board ever used a chip from SLR Motorsports?–
matt sullivan
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2

In reply to a message from 3024vho sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:

what engine does this chip suit?–

3

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:

From what I’ve seen on their web site they have several. I’m specifically
interested in one for an 03 XJR which is what I have. The chip is listed for 95-
04 XJR models. They also have one for 89-2011 XJ series, among others.–
The original message included these comments:
In reply to a message from 3024vho sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:
what engine does this chip suit?

–
matt sullivan
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4

In reply to a message from 3024vho sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:

As a professional tuner myself I hate to break it to you but that
chip is most likely bunk…
a) considering that the price is rediculously low (~69$usd) is
almost unheard of in the tuning world; most of the time MINIMUM I
charge is 150$usd and it only goes up.
b) the 95-97 XJR cars were AJ16 engines not the AJV8 engines found
in the later --> current X*R cars, totally different management and
configurations.
c) the gains they quote and figures stated are WAY optimistic, 50+
hp on a stock engine? 20-30+ is believable but not 50+
Chances are they’ll send you a resistor inside of a box with
instructions to wire it into the air intake temp sensor or the
coolant temp sensor…basically to induce overfueling or shift to
different timing maps, a hack way of tuning and frowned upon in the
business.
The old adage holds true, if it sounds too good to be true it
probably is.–

5

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:

Is it not a bit of a giveaway when they sell one chip for the 89-
2011 XJ? What, for every engine built between those dates? Wow -
how do they get it to fit all those different ECUs?

Yep, I bet it is a resistor.–
1990 XJ-S V12 Convertible, 86 XJ6, 01 XJ8
Santa Clara, CA, United States
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6

In reply to a message from Mark H sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:

Thanks guys. That’s pretty much what I thought, but doesn’t hurt to ask.–
matt sullivan
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7

In reply to a message from 3024vho sent Mon 25 Jan 2010:

Nice recovery Matt:-)>–
The original message included these comments:

Thanks guys. That’s pretty much what I thought, but doesn’t hurt to ask.
matt sullivan

–
Gary 4.0V8 http://www.jag-lovers.org/v.htm?1253292792
London, United Kingdom
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8

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Sun 24 Jan 2010:

BadKitty,
As a professional tuner would you please give us a a high
level overview of exactly what is out there as far as
performance chips/'‘piggyback’'gadgets(?)/mystery tuning etc…
and their relative effectiveness, in your opinion.

Most everything that I have read seems to indicate that the
Jag ECU is close to un-tunable do to its complexity(?),
which I have a hard time believing if for no other reason
than other quasi exotics all seem to benefit from
aftermarket chips/tuning and it escapes me how the Jag ECU
can be ‘‘more complex’’ than them. I am especially interested
in the AJV8 R 4.0 motors with breathing(>15lbs boost, ported
M112 blower, modified intake, big intercooler and HF cooling
pump) and exhaust modifications(single set of high flow
cats, full length 2.75 ID pipes, X pipe, single free flow
mufflers).

I will say that I am impressed with the Jag R ECU and it’s
ability to handle these modifications at prolonged max boost
with stock injectors going up a 7% 8-10mile grade, but the
question lingers is there more to be gained through
aftermarket chips/tuning.

Thanks for your reply.–
The original message included these comments:

As a professional tuner myself I hate to break it to you but that
chip is most likely bunk…

–
Madera3896
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9

In reply to a message from Madera3896 sent Mon 25 Jan 2010:

I’ll try to post a short and understandable disertation on the
topic…so here goes.
There are many methods of tuning a car with variances from hack job
to full on race car bits, some work some dont…obviously this is
proportional to money spent.

The part in question on this thread is most likely little more than
a resistor which the seller will instruct to install in line with
the coolant temp sensor or the air intake temp sensor.
All this will serve to do is feed the ecu a different value from
the sensor and most likely force the ecu to think that the engine
is either a) sucking in very cold air or b) keep it in ‘cold start’
mode…neither are very good for performance and economy as it will
be simply dumping fuel for no good reason.
Stay far far away from items like these, only serve to take the
uninformed buyers money.

A second form of tuning device as you’ve mentioned are piggy back
devices…coming from the japanese tuning scene I’ll go with what
I’m more familar with here.
You basically have two ‘kinds’ of piggy back devices, maf/afm (mass
airflow/air flow meter) signal conditioners (sometimes called
signal benders), and direct interceptors.
The signal conditioner (such as the Apex’i SAFC2) is spliced in
line with the maf/afm signal wire and works in principal by
referencing tps and revs to correlate a ‘correction’ factor for the
maf signal.
The tuning in this sense is done by increaseing or decreasing the
signal from the maf sensor to the ecu, the trickery here is that
the maf sensor is a primary load sensor so any changes made to the
signal will directly change the load signal to the ecu.
This sounds find and dandy if you need to make mild tweaks but not
a good idea for agressive changes to the engine as it is fairly
inaccurate when it comes to really making proper changes to the
internal ecu mappings.
The other type of piggyback is the interceptor unit such as the AEM
FIC, Greddy Emanage and Emanage Ultimate, and I believe the Unichip
system.
These units actually intercept the signals generates by the ecu (in
addition to the maf signal) for injection and ignition.
These units are again signal conditioners but done AFTER the ecu
has calculated what it thinks should be sent to the
injectors/igniton.
Since the interception is not at the maf sensor (mainly used here
as a load device) but after this allows you to pull/add fuel or
advance/retard timing (depending on device support) to your hearts
delight…this is a bit closer to a proper standalone but not quite.

continued next post.–

10

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Tue 26 Jan 2010:

Interceptor units have come a long ways from where they once were
and have potential use on our cars, I am currently investigating
fitting a Greddy Emanage Ultimate to my 95 XJR to trim fuel and
perhaps tinker with timing some.

Standalone ecu units offer such a broad array of controls that they
are beyond the scope of this discussion, typically expensive to fit
and being non obd2 compliant means the car will not pass inspection
here stateside.
They do the job and do it well for the most part but again for a
good system I’d expect to spend 1500-3000$usd.

The STOCK ecu is always the best option for most tuning
applications as it was designed to work with all of the cars
sensors and based around the engine in question…car marques spend
millions of dollars developing engines as well as the management to
support them so why question it.
Problem is that car manufactueres dont want you to tinker with the
ecu and jag is no exception in this case, I’vee been proding at the
lucas/sagem GEMS unit in my car for a while now to no
avail…definately different compared to the nissans I normally
tune.

Most modern ecus are rather advanced and have (to a degree) an
adaptive capability, this is primarily due to the more and more
stringent emissions requirements placed upon cars.
When the engineers put the ecu together they design the maps for it
in the ‘worst case scenario’, this means that they build it for the
common idiot that will jump in the car crank it up, go full
throttle to the gas station while still cold, and top off the tank
with the cheapest gas they can find.
Even with this mapping mentality they still build in knock maps (or
some kind of knock control function) to modify fuel and timing in
case of knock to save the engine (and warranty claims!).
That being said typically fuel maps are built ‘rich’ and timing
conservative, there is always power to be had by pulling fuel to
the ideal mixture as well as dialing in more timing.
This is why actual tuning works so well and yeilds favorable
results when applied properly.
Tuning an engine can INCREASE gas mileage as well as performance
from the car as you are optimizing the operating paramaters.

I personally am for tuning the stock ecu to retain drivability and
operation of the car, most tuning I do is based on reflashing the
stock ecu with a tune I have developed for that car.
Interceptors can work well and unfortunately for most OBD2 cars are
the only option short of full standalone, much better than those of
years past but still somewhat of a bandaid fix.
Maf signal benders are the LAST resort as they can be terribly in
accurate and have a trickle down effect, bending the signal
typically will ‘add’ or ‘remove’ fuel but also can do the same for
timing, not something that you want to do all the time as it could
be catastrophic long term.

continued next post.–

11

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Tue 26 Jan 2010:

By adding such go fast bits as you’ve mentioned (big exhaust,
ported blower, uprated cooling system, intake, ect) you are
changing the airflow into the engine.
However because the ecu is mapped so conservatively that there is
more than enough fuel for the added air, while the actual air/fuel
mixture may change and ‘lean out’ it is most likely still very safe
as it has been set up to run quite rich.

The main problem is that the ecu, while it has some leway, is still
expecting a stock engine and will try to correct the over all
system to maintain its programmed paramaters.
This makes tuning via a piggy back excessively hard as it may
accept the changes for the short term but as the car is driven it
will actually TRIM fuel to accomodate the changes made by the piggy
back (using O2 sensor feedback to do so).
There is all sorts of black magic involved in getting an obd2
compliant car to play nicely with a piggy back hence why tweaking
the stock ecu maps directly is best as you’re modifying what the
ecu is using as a reference.

There are such physical limitations as injector size which will
limit fuel, and thus power potential but for all intents and
purposes you’re not pushing the system beyond its boundries as the
system was designed with overhead in mind should people fancy a
different exhaust or perhaps free flow intake.

This really is a quick and dirty overview of how it all works,
there are several factors that I have glossed over but perhaps can
be covered in an article for another time.
Hope that helps some…and if you have any questions in particular
please feel free to email me.–

12

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Tue 26 Jan 2010:

BadKitty,
Thank you for the excellent reply, I really appreciate it,
you have answered many questions for me (and for others too
I am sure). I guess the way to arrive at my proper ECU flash
is to put the actual machine on a dyno with multiple temp
and flow monitors, data log several runs and ‘‘flash to fit’’
(can this be done with the XJR ECU?) or is this
oversimplifying the process.
Thanks again for the excellent reply, you put much
appreciated effort into it.

Carl Wood
'98XJR modified–
The original message included these comments:

This really is a quick and dirty overview of how it all works,
Hope that helps some…and if you have any questions in particular
please feel free to email me.

–
Madera3896
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13

In reply to a message from Madera3896 sent Tue 26 Jan 2010:

a standard ‘rolling road’ dyno is more of a tool to measure a
change in the power output…it shouldnt be taken as the decisive
indicatior of an engines BHP as there are drivetrain losses and
frictional losses incured due to simple physics.
You’d mainly be monitoring power output via the torque curve (as hp
is a function of torque) and the air fuel ratios…this will allow
you to properly tune a car and make the most power you can.
Safety has to be implemented too as too much timing (or even too
little) can cause a car to knock so the tuner needs to take that
into account…there are formulas for figuring out boost retard for
forced induction engines.
I THINK the jag ecu for the era of your car is flashable, however
only dealers have that kind of access that I know of and VERY few
shops based in europe…I’d imagine big coin was involved for those
shops to get their hands on the jaguar software to interface with
the ecu.
I would love to have my hands on the equipment to poke and prod at
it, thats for sure.–

14

In reply to a message from OneBadKitty sent Wed 27 Jan 2010:

Boy, thanks for all that info OneBadKitty. I don’t think I’ve read that much at
one time in years. HAHA Also thanks to Madera3896 for prodding this out of
you.–
matt sullivan 03 XJR 67 Galaxie 500 conv 85 must
1294 earl ave des plaines il, United States
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