# Diesel engine tuning box



## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

With part of my stimulus payment, I've ordered this tuning box to try now that my car is out of warranty. I'll have to let all of you know how it works when it arrives next week.


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

No need to report back.

It doesn’t work.

Yes the people who make these belong in prison. Yes the boxes do exist but what they do isssss basically nothing. And they give the same box for every car.

So tell me how a magical box works on every single vehicle? I’ll wait.


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## oregon_rider (Jul 21, 2017)

I looked for a review and found one on tdi forums...






Review of TDI-Tuning.com's CRTD4 box for MK7 Golf 2.0 TDI


Update coming soon.




forums.tdiclub.com





Apparently just fools ecu to boost rail pressure and turbo boost...

From thread from tdi club...

*"Not afraid to eat crow.

DPF melted, EGR cooler shot, turbo has metal pieces, white smoke and limp mode. $3k+ damage. "*


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

Review of TDI-Tuning.com's CRTD4 box for MK7 Golf 2.0 TDI


Update coming soon.




forums.tdiclub.com





Apparently just fools ecu to boost rail pressure and turbo boost...

From thread from tdi club...

*"Not afraid to eat crow.

DPF melted, EGR cooler shot, turbo has metal pieces, white smoke and limp mode. $3k+ damage. "*
[/QUOTE]

You mean it does do something? That is far worse than it doing nothing. Trust me. Don't let these idiots play with your car.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Hah, wonderful. I wish I had done more Googling.

I will try it, and there is a return period.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

The same engine offered in the UK could be a twin-turbo version with 160 horsepower. I don't know the need for two turbochargers if you can use one properly sized (and having it a VNT compressor helps with boost at lower engine speeds), so I figured that 180 horsepower with some aftermarket was easily achievable without too much trouble.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

I have learned over the years that "power programmers", "tune boxes", and "one size fits all tunes" are basically worthless.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

JLL said:


> I have learned over the years that "power programmers", "tune boxes", and "one size fits all tunes" are basically worthless.


My prior experience was on gasoline engines. I had a Dodge Neon that responded well to a tuned ECU, but that was an entire replacement and not just an add-on. My Dodge Dakota pickup with the 318 V-8 also had a tuned ECU and it was a very, VERY quick pickup truck.

I'll give it a try or two to see if there is any "seat of the pants" feeling that is obvious, but I'm not that enthused about it.

I would rather have a complete ECU tuning option but it seems to be almost entirely abandoned with these cars since there are so few of them for the US market.


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> Hah, wonderful. I wish I had done more Googling.
> 
> *I will try it, and there is a return period.*


They want you to do that. Potentially charging a restocking fee (which will be more than the crappy plastic device) while also making you pay the international shipping (probably like $50 for UK).

Don't do that. Straight to paypal or your credit card. If they want it back they can give you a prepaid shipping label and invoice. Anything else is not acceptable.

Beyond that have fun. Unless you paid like cash or something dumb. In that case... I'm sorry.. Your money is gone.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Barry Allen said:


> My prior experience was on gasoline engines. I had a Dodge Neon that responded well to a tuned ECU, but that was an entire replacement and not just an add-on. My Dodge Dakota pickup with the 318 V-8 also had a tuned ECU and it was a very, VERY quick pickup truck.
> 
> I'll give it a try or two to see if there is any "seat of the pants" feeling that is obvious, but I'm not that enthused about it.
> 
> I would rather have a complete ECU tuning option but it seems to be almost entirely abandoned with these cars since there are so few of them for the US market.


Is this what you bought? If it is I really hope it works for you


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> My prior experience was on gasoline engines. I had a Dodge Neon that responded well to a tuned ECU, but that was an entire replacement and not just an add-on. My Dodge Dakota pickup with the 318 V-8 also had a tuned ECU and it was a very, VERY quick pickup truck.


Are you speaking of ECUs with PROM chips? My IROC had a Hypertech chip which I'm sure did something, but tuning a PROM chip was not nearly as popular a thing as tuning an ECU is these days, so it was a little bit more "universal". Hell, even my brother's '01 Mustang GT still uses an ECU with a chip that gets replaced.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Snipesy said:


> Potentially charging a restocking fee (which will be more than the crappy plastic device)


It's $13. I can live with that.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

MP81 said:


> Are you speaking of ECUs with PROM chips? My IROC had a Hypertech chip which I'm sure did something, but tuning a PROM chip was not nearly as popular a thing as tuning an ECU is these days, so it was a little bit more "universal". Hell, even my brother's '01 Mustang GT still uses an ECU with a chip that gets replaced.


In both cases, it was a replacement ECU that had been tuned. The original had to be returned as a core.

I actually got a second ECU for the Neon because I used to use the Dodge dealership for their $14.95 oil change deals. There must have been some emissions recall on the Neon because, without asking me, they plugged it into their computer to update the car and they bricked the ECU. The car had to sit in their shop for 3 days while a replacement ECU was shipped at their cost.

In the Dodge Dakota, using premium unleaded gave verifiable performance gains. That was the vehicle that I tested on a dyno and I wish I still had the paper charts from it. With the Neon it was a seat-of-the-pants feeling, but that car also had different cams in it so there were definite performance increases (but it wasn't run on a dyno).


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

Barry Allen said:


> It's $13. I can live with that.


Please don’t support companies like this. You are making it a problem for someone else.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Fuel Shark!


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## spaycace (Feb 9, 2012)

Barry Allen said:


> In both cases, it was a replacement ECU that had been tuned. The original had to be returned as a core.
> 
> I actually got a second ECU for the Neon because I used to use the Dodge dealership for their $14.95 oil change deals. There must have been some emissions recall on the Neon because, without asking me, they plugged it into their computer to update the car and they bricked the ECU. The car had to sit in their shop for 3 days while a replacement ECU was shipped at their cost.
> 
> In the Dodge Dakota, using premium unleaded gave verifiable performance gains. That was the vehicle that I tested on a dyno and I wish I still had the paper charts from it. With the Neon it was a seat-of-the-pants feeling, but that car also had different cams in it so there were definite performance increases (but it wasn't run on a dyno).


So ... any word on whether or not this worked for you? I just found this one on the net too ... Chevrolet Performance Chip - Thorton Chip Tuning
probably "snake oil" but would be interesting to see if it really does anything good, since I can't seem to get any response to posts from people here on the forum that were working on tuning for the Gen 2 diesel. 

I reached out to a tuning company in Europe because they have a product for their version of the whisper diesel, but apparently the connectors there are only 3-pin connectors, while here in the United States, they are 4-pin connectors. They told me without actually having the vehicle in person, they couldn't send me their product ... even though I sent them wiring diagram information about what each of the 4 pins was for, what voltage it was using, and what purpose it was used for. They still said they could not come up with any product for me without actually having the vehicle in their possession to ensure proper functionality, even though I offered to use my vehicle as an American test vehicle and would send them data files for tweaking. I wanted their product because they were seeing a 3-6 mpg improvement in fuel economy, and 20-45 horsepower jump!

Oh well ... I guess I'm stuck with what I have.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

The product from the UK is branded for the "Fiat 1.6 engine" because the WhisperDiesel was a powertrain sharing development with Fiat. It's a holdover from when GM owned part of Fiat (when they were in dire financial straits) and then GM paid a couple billion to NOT have to buy the rest of Fiat - it was that bad that GM didn't want to absorb them! Anyways, the 1.6 engine in our cars was developed for GM global products - meaning Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia, etc., literally anywhere other than North America. The development of this engine for use in the Cruze, Equinox, and Terrain was a fluke and was maybe GM testing the waters to take over from where VW wrecked Diesel in America, but GM then sold Opel in 2017 because they claimed the GM Europe operation lost money for 16 years straight. PSA Groupe (French company - Peugeot and Citroen) bought Opel and in the first year of ownership they turned a profit, so you have to really question what was going on there with GM ownership and management. Anyways, I think GM didn't sell many Diesel engines, saw that electrification was the future, and cut their losses by dropping the engine from the North America lineup. I don't know if Fiat and Opel still make the engine for their use or if they've moved on to a new updated design.

I didn't install the tuning box and sent it back.

On a prior vehicle (Hyundai) I had a tuning box to enable E85 ethanol fuel use. That tuning box had a wiring harness that plugged into the fuel injectors, so it just took the pulse width signals from the stock ECU and widened them to inject more fuel to keep the E85 use close to stoich. That would enable E85 to be used without the ECU throwing a CEL when the O2 sensor would think it was bad. By injecting more fuel to keep the mixture closer, the ECU was fooled into thinking everything was just fine.

i thought this would be more like that - with plugs that interfaced with the Diesel fuel injectors. Apparently not, so I'm not risking it to play with the fuel pressure and boost pressure by spoofing the ECU that way.


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