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Hack Your Ignition (Before Someone Else Does)
guanxi writes: "IEEE Spectrum has an interesting article about hacking and specifically, the "hacker's nirvana on wheels", all the way from hot-rodding to reprogramming your digital ignition. Of course, I neither endorse nor recommend any of the procedures mentioned, any of which may be inherently dangerous to your life and your warranty. "
here is a sweet page about modding cars. It can turn you into a ricer real quick. Car mods are pretty popular these days in my town, from big fins to stickers, to large exhaust pipes, there's just no end to the mods.
Nothing to hack? Hah!
It starts with the baseball cards taped to the frame that make the BRRRRRRR sound in the spokes.
Next thing you know you've got an oxy-acetalyne torch in your hand and you're welding a sissy bar to the frame and extending the front forks for that low-rent low-rider look.
Ask the people at Fat City or Rivendell how they got started.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
One of the problems with tuners is that they add more power without accounting for aging of components. This isn't usually a problem in racing since you're rebuilding your components after every or a number of races. But for "hackers," they often tune it and forget it--or tune it and increase the mods. Sometime down the road, they'll blow a piston or apex seal without warning. Not to mention several thousand dollars' down the drain.
I personally prefer more conservative tuning, but then when some guy beats you during an ad-hoc "race," your first instinct is "gotta get mo' power."
Man invents automobile.
Man builds automobile.
Man adds digital data bus to automobile.
Man discovers that you can snoop on automobile's digital data busses.
Man succeeds.
Man discovers no useful information from snooping automobile's digital data bus.
Logical conclusion: Man has too much time on his hands.
I've got a nice hack for ya.
New Ford F-150's, Expeditions, ect.
Unplug the main harness going to the digital display, and locate a gray wire, with a black stripe. (your VSS wire) Place a small strip of tape over the metal pin, and
VOLIA
no mo miles
Yep, you got it. I'll buy a beer for the first true hack on a Segway.
Suppose you had one, what would a cool hacker (such as you, dear reader) make it do?
Oh, BTW, I guess I'd have to buy you a Ginger Beer.
Alan.
Two points: ONE: most cars do NOT benefit from performance computers. TWO: most performance computers are added on to cars that are normally naturally aspirated and converted to turbo form. (a lot of cars that dont have turbos from the factory judge the amount of air with a vaccuum sensor instead of a mass air sensor) Often the relevant sensors dont even exist for the stock computer to talk to.
To make an example, the average honda civic computer settings are pretty much already maxxed out in stock form. You add an intake and an exhaust and youre still in the range that the stock computer can adjust for. You can actually add about half an atmosphere of boost (from turbo or supercharger) and still not need a custom computer. This applies to a most other non-turbo cars as well. Factory turbo cars have even higher limits.
Remember, modern cars have to be able to operate at 10,000 feet above and below sea level in a wide range of temperatures. Most cars have injectors that can take about 150% to 200% of stock duty before they begin to max out. Up to this point the car will still not even pollute!
Basically the only 2 ways to outpace the stock computer is to
1)bring in too little air at idle or have massively oversized injectors (the computer can't control the injectors to produce less than a certain minimum period of being open) which will cause "lopey idle" or stalling and rich emmissions.
2)bring in so much air at high rpm that the stock injectors can't let in enough fuel. Basically you will start to run "lean" (not enough fuel) which will produce very high temperatures and detonation (and kill your engine).
You basically only need a special computer if you are running massive cams (alternatively you could just raise the idle, which most people do) or if youre running such massive amounts of boost that the only solution is to run massive injectors (here again, you can actually just raise the idle). Now consider this: when youre making over double the stock hp, there is no way a factory computer is going to be able to cope anyway- I dont see the point of making them more hackable. On top of which, the only reason to use an expensive computer is to make the car more emissions friendly. And guess what mods are pretty much illegal under CARB rules? You guessed it! Programmable ECUs!!! The high-boost 323 and miata guys routinely run hacked ECUs with 12-15psi of boost, then turn down the boost and swap injectors for smog every two years. Its pretty sad that you have to break the law to pollute less.
Now if I can just hack my car to start somewhere in the first 200 tries...
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
Respectfully, I disagree.
p adakis.html - Stephan Papadakis - who broke just about every record for front wheel drive cars.
I believe many slashdot readers would be interested in your "rice burners". Racing a honda is an exercise in science over brute force, something slashdot readers can appreciate. To equate it, it would be the difference between getting just any old pentium 4 1.5 Ghz system, and getting an athalon 1.2 Ghz and tweaking it by using better hardware, a cleaner OS install, faster standards, and some code tweaking to get the performance level up above that of the P-4.
In the same fashion, you could take your '71 Nova SS 350 and blow away a stock 1995 civic. But you could also take the civic, add Nitrous, replace the hood with a fiberglass one, change the gears on the transmission, get a forced air kit, some traction bars, and a new set of cams, and run 11's. You have to remember with that big steel car and the small block 350, you're pulling a lot of weight. You're getting much more horsepower per liter out of a honda.
Just for kicks, check out http://www.nhrasportcompact.com/2002/drivers/S_Pa
And just for the record, I still cringe when I see a honda roll down the street with just the exhaust done, cause it sounds bad and looks retarted. My brother has a '71 Nova SS w/ 350, traction bars, lunati cams, poroso throttle or something, you name it, it's got it. It puts about 410 Hp on the ground and has an ET of 12.2. But it also gets about 5 miles to the gallon. I'd rather have the fast-if-you-want-it-fast honda, which also gets 37 miles to the gallon.
~z
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