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Gentlemen, Hack Your Engines!
Les Gasser writes "Ahh, drag racing! If you've never experienced the scent of nitro or
the flashing flames of a top fueler running 320MPH+ in 4+ seconds in a
standing-start quarter mile run at dusk, you're missing world-class
performance art. (See 'High Performance' for the classic on drag racing history and
culture). Now the NYTimes (registration needed) has 'Gentlemen, Start Hacking Your Engines,' an article on
're-engineering' engine control computers for maximum performance,
combining the drag racing and tech-geek traditions." Having learned everything I know about racing from Gran Turismo, I'm amazed to learn there's more than just buying a "racing chip".
Here you go, tiger.
get your reg-free link right here.
Cobweb...if you had seen "The Fast and the Furious" you would of remembered the laptop that the police officer/(under cover racer) had a mad leet laptop controlling his engine.
There was opengl and everything....
You are so 2 years ago.
-- -- --
Help my mini cause: My journal
For real computing in Cars then look at Formula one. Launch Control, Engine Control, Automatic and Semi Automatic gearboxes, traction control etc etc etc.
These are cars that can be remotely re-tuned during a race. From a tech perspective its amazing.
However it ruins what should be a battle of man and machine and enables the big spenders to kill the little guys everytime. Computing is great for some things, but it too often reduces the skill required in sports like Motor Racing, making it a battle of programmers rather than drivers.
Fully automated remote racing with large cars might be quite cool, but what makes it really interesting is that people can make mistakes, and even better take risks that a computer wouldn't think are smart.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Having learned all I know about racing from Mario Kart, I'm surprised they don't just carry some mushrooms and turtle shells.
You may find this interesting, particularly if you're into rallying at all and have heard of both Subaru and Prodrive, who prepare rally subarus and also make a performance pack for road-going cars.
:-)
The new high performance Impreza (STI VII) Prodrive Performance Pack uses a piggy back chip to "fool" the ECU into allowing more boost on its turbo.
The reason? Prodrive don't know how to re-program the OEM ECU correctly.
A third party has hacked a tool to reprogram the ECU - something no-one else has managed. This largely is the work of one guy, who has done something that is apparently not possible
Rumour is that Prodrive will be using the ecutec tool to reprogram ASAP.
Another mate has reverse engineered the ECU for older models and is blowing chips to give increased performance...
ECU hacking has been around for a while. For popular cars, you can get aftermarket ECUs which are tuned for more performance. On a non-turbo, street legal car, the best you can expect is a 10% power increase. On turbocharged cars you could get more (just turn up the boost), but you quickly run into reliability problems because the engine can't handle the increased loads.
To get significant power increases, you still need to apply 'old style' tuning tricks like adding forced induction, changing camshafts and uprating engine internals.
Intensive electronic engine control is a very common thing in racing for 20 years now. What was seen in Fast and Furious is major BS. If you wanna see serious electronic action look into Formula 1. They have all kinds of goodies for decades now. Dynamic fuel mapping, traction control, launch control, braking assistance (this particular one is very cool, the system monitors the dynamic conditions of the car and slows any one of the four wheels without even asking the driver) etc...
Another interesting bit is Mitsubishi Carisma Evo 7.
As far as dragsters go, they are way behind. Nothing special nor innovative.
One last note in the last few years prices of engine management systems went down a lot. You can buy a very good one for couple thousand but as long as you dont have the right tools, you cant tune the car perfectly. and never forget the intake and exhaust systems in your street cars are build to the specs written by suits hence very performance limiting.
Any geek out there who wants to make there car go fast follow the common wisdom:
1. Buy a fast car.
2. Cant afford it and stuck with that peoples carier? First make it corner faster (get good springs and dampers) Fast and Furious style car dragging on the asphalt dont qualify.
3. If you want it to go fast make it lighter (look: Collin Bruce Chapman)
4. Make it stop fast (you might need them)
5. You exhaust system is design to be on the very safe side of noise regulations and fuel economy fix it.
6. You intake design sucks too (dont forget the cylinder head lots of power in there)
7. By now you spent as much as you spent on the original car.
8. Not satisfied get real engine management system. Remember eletromotive, haltec, motec.
Or the alternative and more appropriate road for the ones with tools, garage and time: Locost, some sort of open source sportscar project and it can go very fast.
Peace
But Mr. Rascon is sure he does not want a Lexus or a Nissan 350Z. "You get a Lexus or 350Z, and, sure, people will look at you, but that's now what this is about," he said. "This is about getting into something I built and whipping a 350Z. That's the best feeling in the world."
Why wouldn't you want a Nissan 350Z? Seems to me that if you can make a Civic fast, you could make a 350Z faster.. Or is there some sort of weird pride involved in having a Civic that is faster than a stock 350Z (but slower than a modified one)? If I had the money, I'd just buy the car with the most potential, which (I'm pretty sure) isn't a Civic.
Usually the interface is proprietary across manufacturers, though I wouldn't be surprised if some manufacturers shared interfaces (say, Chevrolet and Toyota, or Chrysler and Mitsubishi, or Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen, etc).
Nope. See the answer to the first question, and also several older Slashdot stories on the same.
Probably, but you'd still need special hardware for the interface. I know of at least one WinCE-based dynometer software package (I believe there's also a Palm version), but I can't remember the name or website at the moment. Google should help.
Yes, that's the connector for the garage's/dealer's computer, which runs a diagnostic package to read what your computer has stored (ie, if your "check engine" light came on, and possibly why), and do minor uploads (your dealer and/or car mechanic is not going to reprogram an ECU for you).
Talk to your dealer. There are a number of things most dealers will do if you ask them nicely. None of them are performance-related, however. (Why is that? Well, reprogramming your ECU for performance reasons can push your engine well past proper tolerances, screw up emissions, and just generally fuck over your car -- that means if you touch the ECU for performance reasons, you can kiss your warranty goodbye.) Failing that, disconnect the bell that makes the ding, either at the fusebox (if you can), or at the source.
Have to agree with this. On non-forced induction cars, all you're doing is removing any safety margin built into the current map by playing with timing. Advancing ignition may give some benefits but runs the risk of det, or pre-ignition, or pinking, or pinging, or knocking or whatever your locality calls it ;-)
;-) ) but runs the risk of det again which'll knacker your engine pretty damn quickly.
With a turbo on the car, things start getting more interesting as you can get more air into the engine, which means it'll need richer fuelling to achieve anywhere near stoich (or even safety
With the Impreza, which is my weapon of choice, the map is incredibly rich before doing anything... The general concensus is that this is done to keep engines from going bang, as out of the box they'll come with between 218 and 275BHP from a 2 litre engine, along with a 3 year warranty.
Tune them simply and carefully and for a little money you'll see high 200s from them. Beyond that, my opinion is that your internals will need some consideration - particularly con rods and those little gudgeon pins which hold your piston heads on.
The fact that people have done what manufacturers think is impossible is a cause for some small celebration in my eyes, and allows the little guys to stick a finger in the air to those who would have them only use franchised dealers with the necessary hardware to talk to the ECUs...
Mind you, it's far more effective to use an aftermarket ECU.
Check out http://farnorthracing.com to see the team website, and http://www.gems.co.uk to download the software I use.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
It could even have a special emmissions test mode
;-)
Some cars already have this built in. Sorry to harp on about the Subaru Impreza turbo, but it's what I know about
Hold 3000 rpm in second gear for 5 seconds, then floor the accelerator. You'll find boost is capped at around 11PSI as opposed to the normal 15PSI.
Reason? The car thinks that it might be being subjected to an emissions test, and opens the wastegate at lower boost. Lower boost = less air = less fuel = better emissions (verrrry simply put)
What you say can be taken in a different way though. Instead of having computer-controlled fuel injection delivering unbeatable performance only to the big boys, it might also work to level the playing field.
When I was into motorcycles as a kid and read everything about them, one of the buzz-words that popped up most often when writers talked about high-performance motorcycles was 'unobtanium.' One of the biggest advantages enjoyed by teams from the biggest companies was access to parts that were engineered to the n-th degree and racing was a game between big companies that was won by the one that could put the most thought into producing advantage by exploiting ever-narrowing margins of difference between machines; 'first make it out of magnesium to make it light, *then* drill some holes in it to make it lighter.'
In any field where hacking the hardware provides the main advantage, the big boys have more, but the value of these innovations evaporate as the technologies they employ become understood by more people. The ability to influence performance through software can be said to improve things for whoever has programming talent.
A small company might not be able to turn half-a-dozen world-class engineers loose on piston head design, but a talented coder can do things that have no material basis, exploiting interrelating factors to improve performance that don't start out life in a cad program like fuel-air mixtures/tire-pressure/tire-temperature and composition.
A ceramic engine block is one thing, but really understanding how *your* vehicle's engine works in a turn and getting the last inch of *extra* out of it might be something that not even a major manufacturer can replicate easily.
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
Tiptronic gear changing, most luxury cars have it like new Porsches etc.
Laptop Reviews
F1 gearboxes have been fully automatic for most teams for a couple of seasons now. They retain the ability to do manual gearchanges if the driver wants to, but that almost never happens.
They are not torque-converter slushboxes like passenger cars. These are sequential-gearchange boxes like motorcycles, with hydraulic-actuated, computer-controlled shift mechanisms. There are zero drivetrain losses compared to a full-manual version, and they outperform a driver shifting in every respect.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Yes! There's loads of information out there...
:-)
The interface in some cars is called OBDII (On board diagnostics) - see ODBII.com, which incidentally claims that all cars sold in the US after 1 Jan 96 have to be compliant...
Now the protocol that they use is something else. There's many flavours, but at least you can start hacking should you be feeling brave
There is, of course, open software to help and naturally it's on sourceforce here.
Plenty more information out there - just google.
Not only can the engine management engineer retune the engine on the fly during a race, most of the teams go even further.
Every team has what is called a "7-post shaker rig". This is an electro-hydro-mechanical device that places a hydraulic ram under each tire, plus 3 more attached to the aero centre for feeding in aero loads. By playing back the loads recorded by the car during operation by the position sensors, load cells, strain gauges, and accelerometers though these rams, the engineers can watch the car operate under real racing conditions in the lab.
Well, the bigger teams transmit the telemetry coming off the car during the race back to the shop in England, where the shaker righ data is played back on a duplicate car on the shaker rig in near real-time, so that they can keep an eye open for problems.
F1 has more money and technical ability than can be imagined.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Kenny Bernstein was one of the leaders in pushing for pit lane analysis via computer...many, many years ago. I believe he's turned that into a side business since then.
It is really impressive what parameters are monitored and what kind of telemetry they employ. F-1 is the same way...tons of analysis done real time. The Japanese (Honda), again, years ago, would transmit telemetry from the car, on the race track, from one of the many tracks worldwide...all the way to their labs in Japan.
For those with a bit more esoteric interest, note that originally, physics types deemed it impossible to obtain trap speeds in the 300mph range...that was before the spinning tire effect was carefully considered.
Jeff
stty erase ^H
No, they don't. They used to but modern F1 gearboxes are automatic. Programmable and with a driver override but they're autos.
Before anyone worries, no, they don't use torque converters... They're automated manuals.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
While 330.88 MPH, 4.477sec, 8,000+hp fire-breathing nitromethane-burning supercharged fire-breathing Top Fuel dragsters are indeed performance art, and I'd love to see how they manage the engines on those beasts...this article was about a bunch of Civic prettyboys and their 220-300hp engines...sort of like talking about ASCI White, and then pulling out an Ars Tech God Box - nice piece of machinery, but nothing at all like what was mentioned.
It doesn't even really talk about the engine management packages or technology that much (the shining example is a fscking Palm program that adjusts your nitro boost on the fly); mostly just about how these kids are making their cars run in the mid-10s, at a piddling 120mph, with the likes of Real sports cars - the closing line is "This is about getting into something I built and whipping a 350Z. That's the best feeling in the world." Admirable perhaps, but not really a hugely tech-involved story.
I've been looking at MoTec ECUs for my 240SX, now there's some high-tech car stuff - the features and what it can do would make a car-savvy geek twitch and drool..basically full control over every electronic feature in the engine, with optional realtime telemetry. Notice the record-setting Civic uses MoTec, but they don't even mention it in the article; I guess Viper's ultra-l33t nitro Palm app ("Instead of using your PC, now you can sit in your car and change your whole system. The Palm Pilot has all your engine configurations. You can set it to full race mode in seconds.") is more technologically interesting than Ferrari's F1 engine management systems (and the ECU for virtually every other racewinning car out there).
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
The manufacturer I work for wants to know what the aftermarket shops are doing to change the performance of the engine. -- And before you ask, no it isn't so the manufacturer can copy their techniques. Believe it or not, we know what we're doing when we design these things! We want to know how the modifications will affect the drivability and warranty rates on these vehicles.
Fair warning -- watch for manufacturers to increase pressure on dealerships to detect people using aftermarket computer chips, so that they can start denying warranty claims for people who do foolish things like burning up their turbochargers by requesting too much boost.
Some of the technologies we've already implemented will be able to supply information to dealerships about whether any of the data on the computer has been changed, and when the computer was last re-programmed. That will allow the dealerships to catch the people who re-program their PCM (Powertrain Control Module), and then return it to the original program before bringing it back to the dealership for any repairs.
Help find a cure for Gidget.
do those things last? :)
A lot of people here say "Oh, great, the dudes do it better than the automotive industry themselves" or "wow, I got a 5% increase in HP! Damn!" - Engine longevity is important, however and I think those people that set up the system envelope for the engine electronics take that into account very seriously. You'd normally want your car to work for 5 years faultlessly with perhaps a minor repair before the 10 years. Using modded engines means extra wear and tear, also on the supporting components. How long can it last for? Perhaps a year?
I miss my rubber keyboard.(Homepage)
before you rank on all cars from the land of the rising sun, keep in mind that not all of us who drive them want to put stickers all over them. I have a Nissan 240SX that i'm in the process of building up, and it hasn't got a single sticker on it. Not gonna, either, unless i can get sponsored.
Bottom line is, i bought the car because it was cheap, efficient, very reliable, looks mighty nice, and handles like a dream (they hit it really well with that chassis; it's a lot more compact and nimble than the 300ZX while feeling a lot less claustrophobic inside). i want to make it into a ripping fast sports car, although on the track instead of the strip, and since i lack the money for an M5 (damn straight - if i buy a BMW it will seat 5 comfortably), i settled for the best available solution.
ps - imprezas aren't slow, i thought they sold the WRX STi Type R 2-door over there for awhile?
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - Aldous Huxley
The article talks about Hondata which works on Hondas. An example of almost the exact same thing in the Mitsubishi world can be found here:
http://www.dsmlink.com
That software was derived entirely by brute force decryption of the '95 Mitsu Eclipse turbo ECU code. We actually wrote the thing before we knew anything about Hondata. Once it was released and I started looking around a bit more, I realized the Hondata guys had done something almost identical with the Hondas.
Thomas Dorris
I meant the data gathering/telemetry business is a sideline. I'm sure Kenny is still racing...can't wait to see his smile next season, and John Force's dirty driving suit.... :)
So, I was looking out of the window at the traffic down below, and I've come to the following conclusion: tune your car all you want. They all wait at the lights at the same speed!
OK, I know... racing tracks, Autobahn etc. I've noticed that most cars seem to be capped at 250-270 km/h (155-170 mph). Mine certainly is, but that's actually fast enough for me. I don't drag race - if anything, I end up sitting in a jam on the Autobahn, at the same speed as everyone else - zero (see first paragraph). So much for having no speed limits. :-(
Now for something completely different: Audi is taking the record industry to court.
It seems that customers have complained that certain CDs won't play in their cars, and Audi wants the record companies to pay to have the car CD players fixed/changed, as they are producing non-standard CDs.
I heard that two days ago from an employee of said company. It must have been an internal announcement; haven't found anything on the web about it yet...
-- Steve
.. Mostly if you have a turbo. Or, in my case, two.
My S4 has gone from about 250hp to 330hp. And I can feel it all. Before and after - the change was amazing.
Sure, I need to be a bit more careful warming up and cooling down the car. I can live with that. And actually, ever since I've gotten the increase in performance, I put the pedal down LESS. That's weird.
There's also some other very cool tuning.. I have a Vag-Tool which allows me to hook my laptop up to the car and monitor (and change) settings/data in realtime.
Since I've had that, I've made the following changes:
- Holding down lock on my keyfob for about 3 seconds will roll up all windows, close the moonroof, *and* lock the car
- The other way around - holding down unlock for a while opens up all the windows, etc.
- My tiptronic transmission now will not automatically shift out of first gear. (VERY NICE)
- My tiptronic transmission now lives in a non-stop "sports mode"
Now, only if this company that makes the interface/tool would provide hooks into the data collection portion of their app - I could write some realtime graphing utilities..
BMW released their new micro-processor (ooooh!) controlled ABS braking system when odd transient failures were reported by some customers - those that survived anyway.
It turns out that in certain excessively high RF environments the processor locked up. One such environment was while driving past one of those huge "Golf Ball" early warning radar stations so "popular" at the time.
I remember this because of the interesting discussion of what the fail-safe behaviour of a braking system ought to be:
void brakesPressed(BrakeEvent e)
}{
Based on the following, it will be quite some time before the electrics are doing 320+mph and 4s in the 1320.
Some interesting Top Fuel dragster facts:
* One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then the first 8
rows at Daytona
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of
nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded
747
but with 4 times the energy volume.
* The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
* Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger
on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form
before
ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
* Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output
of an arc welder in each cylinder.
* At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the
flame front of nitromethane measures 7050 degrees F.
* Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above
the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from
atmospheric
water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2
way, the engine is dieseling from compression-plus the glow of exhaust
valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting
of
it's fuel flow.
* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds
up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow
cylinder
heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
* Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the
big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from
front
to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to
synchronization
with the pistons.
* To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an
average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track,
launch
acceleration is closer to 8G's.
* If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for
once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this
sentence.
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
that immense boat you've wrapped yout 883hp in probably weighs around 4000 lbs, while my little ricer is more like 2500lbs.
Shelby Cobras ran Ford 427 side-oilers and they weighed under 2,400 lbs.
2500lbs. Means i only need 550hp to have the same power-to-weight ratio, and therefore the same acceleration,
And how are you going to get 550hp out of your "normally-aspirated" engine, Ricer X? If you want to see what big-blocks can do with blowers, nitrous, etc., just watch any drag race. Have you ever seen a car turn the 1/4 mile in 5 seconds at over 300mph using a hot-rodded Honda Civic engine? Didn't think so.
Now let's talk drivetrain. Have you ever tried to get 550hp to hook-up with front wheel drive? Your only hope of beating the aforementioned 427 is if you race on snow.
and i still probably handle better.
Than a Shelby Cobra? Are you on drugs?
Front wheel drive cars with high horsepower handle horribly. That's why you don't see Indy, Formula 1, or other race cars with front wheel drive. Ever wonder why Ferraris, Corvettes, Vipers, and even Honda S2000s all have rear wheel drive? When you use front wheel drive, you are prone to all kinds of handling problems when you try to apply power while in a corner.
Starting with a Honda Civic in order to make a performance car is like starting with a 68K-based Mac to make a high-performance computer.
On the BMW mailing lists a few years ago, there was a guy who posted often about such issues. His name is Jim Conforti, and he makes one of (if not the) top aftermarket engine chips for BMWs. We are talking uber-geek here. He is one of the most knowledgable on the subject, and had to "defend" himself several times on the list to know-nothings who were spouting off. He was a nice guy, but if you riled him he could absolutely bury you with his depth of technical knowledge. Just seeing the information that he posted to the list, and knowing that he had 1000x more in his head, I realized that engine management isn't something you should just play around with. Maybe this is just from the BMW perspective, but I'll bet it applies to any engine.
One last thing - all the high-tech tuning won't do you much good unless you have a well engineered engine to start with. I have a 1988 BMW M3. 2.3 litre 4cyl naturally aspirated, with 198 BHP. (chipped to 210) This was made in 1987 folks, and there are few cars out there today that are engineered this well. In competition the engine put out well over 300 HP, and that was without any type of forced induction. But engineering something like this isn't cheap. But I have never driven a more fun car. On the track it is simply amazing.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Oh really? That's a bit broad of a statement don't you think? Miata with turbos are making 1/3rd more power witha turbo on stock guts - no problem. Mustang Cobras are making about 50% more pwoer on stock guts. Toyota Supra make about 100% more power on stock guts if not more. you don't always have to jump into the engine and swap things liek cams , pistons, and rods! Tune it RIGHT and you're fine.
Also realize that auto manufacturers often do things in the tuning to compromise performance for political and warranty reasons. Look at the 93-95 ford Cobra fro instance. GT40 heads, intake, 65mm throttle body, 1.7 rockers, and revised cam got them what - 35HP more? Gimme' a break! The Cobra ECU had a crapy timing map in it because Ford knew that those parts would make mincemeat out of the glass T5. They even retarded timing WAY back on shifts and speeds over 85mph. The Miata has a funky tip-in timing issue too but for no known good reason. Manufacturers aren't perfect in their programming either - they actually make mistakes occasionally. Ask any FD3 RX7 owner if they've ever experienced a hiccup around 3K at part throttle. The inejctors actually will shut off under the right circumstances at that RPM - it's a BUG. These are the kinds of things that reprogramming will fix...
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
http://astro.temple.edu/~kmr/Chauffe2.mp3
"he only thing these chips will do is sacrifice fuel efficience for short term performance"
Not true. By all accounts, chipping a Passat for an extra 40HP *improves* fuel economy. This assumes you drive as you did before. Of course, I'm sure people get worse economy as they will be flooring it a lot more to feel the extra torque.
Why is this? Because VW detuned the engine so that it wouldn't compete with higher cost Audis that use the same engine. Reprogramming it improves the air/fuel, mix extra (as well other things like allowing the turbo to spin up further).
Why don't you read the F1 rules ?
Transmission
Transmission
Only two wheels may be driven and automatic gearboxes are banned
Each individual gearchange must be initiated by the driver
The minimum number of forward gear ratios is 4 and the maximum is 7
All cars must have a reverse gear operable any time during the race when the car's engine is running