Engine power?

[Starman]

OK guys.

Box fitted today. I haven't set it up properly yet, living in flatsville. It has made quite a difference though. I have also fitted my K & N too. It certainly feels a little more "perky"!

I have tried a simple MPG test. Admittedly it was while driving but I set off keeping to all the relevant speed limits and Oh My God.... Normally, I could get it to read 62mpg if I drove like the preferbial vicar, but with this thing, wow! Over 70mpg's without too much problem! Tried another test by resetting the trip counter and doing a 60mph run for a couple of miles.. Wow again! It got up to 64mpg, still going up, and I ran out of road!

Now I can't wait to get the rolling road booked, just to see "real" numbers...

I don't know if it's psycological, but it also seems smoother Might just be in my head.. LOL..

Cheers all and keep watching...

P.S.
This was with the box on it's preset of 5 (0-9)...

P.P.S... Dave Lowe, I have ordered one!!! LOL...

[Starman]

This is tough work... ... Anyway.. Box now set up. Bottled out on setting 8! Certainly perked it up, for sure. As for MPG's... As I've already said, wow! I filled up last night, made a 90 or so mile trip cross country (road works and closures) to Peterborough and back and it's telling me that I averaged 75.5 mpg!!! So, I put the display onto Fuel Used and waited until it showed 1 gallon, put it back to trip and yes, 76mpg! That was just normal driving, 50's and 60's. A bit of overtaking, etc etc... if I'd carried on that kind of journey, it would have taken OVER 1050 miles to use the tank!! That is by a LONG way the best I've EVER seen...

I've got my Dyno session booked for next Friday morning at 9am. It's going back to completely standard on Thursday night, having a run, then the K & N and box is going back on, then another run. Then, we'll have some proper numbers.

Only one draw back, if you can call it that... SOMETIMES, and only sometimes, very random, it comes up with "injection fault" when you try and start up. Card out, card in, fine! No problems at all other than that!

Next post will have the numbers, with any luck and a following wind!!!!

[joeishmather]

i have a drake 2 box, its great, well worth the money, i ahve it set on 7 most of the time, and then 9 when im out for a drive on my own, it completely changed the car. i took it off the otherday and was like being in a different car, really sluggish. ive found it picks up earlier and you can keep the pedal don longer in each gear too!

my mpgs arround 42 with it on, and with it off arround 42 too!lol

[Starman]

42!! Jeez... What model do you have? You're right about the car being different. I'm going to find that out again on Friday when I take it for the Dyno. Do you get any error messages come up? Are you getting a better top speed? (I haven't tried mine for speed yet).

Cheers,

J.

[joeishmather]

its a 1.5 diesel extreme sport hatch, only 86hp do you think i should be getting more??

[Starman]

Hell yeah! Mines a 1.5 dci Dynamiqué 5 door hatch. It's only the 86bhp too. Even before I fitted the box I was getting mid 50's! So, unless you've got an extremely heavy right foot......

The "book" figures are something like between 49 & 51 Urban, 67 & 70 Extra Urban and 60 to 62 combined. I know they're "bench test" figures but at least it's something to go by! While we're at it, just for the record, 148lbs/ft of torque and a top speed of 108mph.

Sorry, got a bit anal there! LOL...

Cheers..

J.

[joeishmather]

is there anything that may need cleaning/ replacing to increse my mpg?

i thought i should be getting more tbh, also v carefull driver, not heavy foot atall

any suggestions really oppreciated!!

[Starman]

Well, first a few questions if that's ok. When was it last serviced? Does it seem like it's running OK? Does it smoke (when you accelerate hard)? I'd start by having a look at the air filter. Make sure it's clean. Then, I guess it could be a load of things. There's a post on here about cleaning the EGR valve. You might want to give that a go. Fuel filter? Certainly something isn't quite right if you're only getting 42 mpg! How far do you normally drive it? Do you take it on any long runs?

Sorry to go on...

Jason.

[joeishmather]

service is due in 5000 miles ish, its had all the previous ones and i think its done arround 33000 in total.. i havent had any smoke ever and take it to derby from sheffield and back most days so yes plently of long drives,

i'll have a look at the air filter tomorro.
whats that valve you talk about, is that an easy job?
and isnt the fuel filter in the fuel tank and therefor non servicable?

thank you for your help so far,

[joeishmather]

booked it in for a service, £180 there doing oil and filter, fuel and air filter. that sound alright??

got my fingers crossed that'll give me some improvements, i also have some redx fro the fuel.

[IainMW]

Millers fuel treatment is much better than Redex. Halfords sell it as well as the A1 motor stores group and lots of other independent motor factors.

Don't read to much into MPG figures, you might have the same engine etc... but there are so many factors that can affect it.

[Starman]

Now then guys and girls.

I've been giving this thing a good test for the whole of this week. I was dyno'd LAST Friday. Here are the results...

Book says 86bhp. Standard settings (No box and standard air filter) 94bhp!!! Box in, level 8 and K & N air filter 105.4bhp.

Book says 148ft/lbs torque. Standard settings 163ft/lbs. Box and Air filter 190 ft/lbs!

The torque curve seemed to peak out at about 2500 rpm. The bhp topped out around 3700 rpm. It's deffinately made a difference. I think for the better. As for the fuel economy, well, that's the biggest thing for me! Maybe the bhp isn't as high as the supplier had reported (wasn't expecting that anyway!) but the fuel savings alone will pay for the box quite soon! This is still the same tank as when I filled up the previous week. We've done way over 500 miles and it's still saying we've got something like 260 miles to go!!! We've had this car since June/July last year and I can say, hand on heart, that that's the highest we've seen it by a LONG way. That's just normal running around too. The only "run" we've done on this tank was to Peterborough and back. Seeing at thats only a 70 mile round trip, I wouldn't really call that a run! (although when we done that, it was registering 76mpg's!!!)

So, there you go guys. Finally some kind of "real world" numbers as to what these boxes can do for your car. I can scan and send the dyno sheet for anyone that wants to see it no problem. Just let me know your Email addresses and I'll do that for you.

Just finally, the guys at the tuning shop earlier refered to these as "smoke boxes". I can assure you that there was hardly ANY smoke out of my exhaust because that's one of the things I was watching for. They even raised their eye brows in surprise of what this has actually done. A custom remap would have been £350 and they said that the difference, although better, wouldn't actually be THAT much better!

I hope I've made some kind of difference to peoples minds and thoughts about these and also given them some numbers to consider if they were looking for "cheap" improvements to their cars...

Thank you, and good night!!!!

Jason.

[carlb]

Very interesting thread, I have the 1.5 dci 105 bhp sport tourer (or in english estate), now when i'm doing motorway miles i'm fairly happy with the M.P.G with it doing something around 50/55 , but with me just travelling to birmingham and back for work which is a bit of M6 and some stop start driving my average is now down to 40.1 mpg.
Everything I read up on when I was looking to buy was telling me i'd be getting a minimum of 50 even in town traffic.

Carl.

[Starman]

Hi mate.
Thanks for the interesting thread comment. I can recommend one of these. If you have a spare £80 to £90 (ha ha) then I'd invest. About the only thing I haven't done on this whole test period is the potential fuel saving costs. Then again, I could only do it at todays prices! Who knows what they'll be next week!!!! I might get my calculator out next and have a go. My average has gone up over 10mpg roughly. That must work out to be around another 130 miles or so per tank on a quick calculation. That's very roughly about 2 gallons, or a little more. At todays prices, that's about £10.71 (at £1.18 per litre). So, again, very roughly, 9 tanks and you're potentially into profit!!!
I guess it all depends on how heavy your right foot is and the driving conditions you drive in!
Hope this helps you make your choice...

Cheers,

J.

[davelowe]

Don't read to much into MPG figures, you might have the same engine etc... but there are so many factors that can affect it.

This is very true. Try it around the hilly areas in Derbyshire. I get 45mpg in my 1.9dci at best.