[lal]

  Just wondering if any CIU members have chipped their van engines, for better performance or economy reasons, just
  looking for feedback, was it worth doing, were you happy with the results, could you see marked improvements, any
  drawbacks etc,  any feedback appreciated.
 
  Regards
  Lal

[the king]

if its a new van then i wouldent as your warnty will be invalad  but if not new then ide say go for it,it will be beta fule and have more power and run beta as long as its done buy a pro it wont cause any issues with your engine

[dazmond]

i dont see the point for me as i only do 2500 miles a year in the van.save the remapping for the high performance cars.

[Stoots]

Not done it yet but will at somepoint

mines a bit underpowered under load

[NWH]

The drawback is it will destroy your driveshaft,mechanic I know that works for VW advised me not to do mine when I got it. The main thing you'll have trouble with is the driveshaft a lot of vans these days are powerful enough and they can still gives this problem without chipping them.

[duncan h]

The drawback is it will destroy your driveshaft,mechanic I know that works for VW advised me not to do mine when I got it. The main thing you'll have trouble with is the driveshaft a lot of vans these days are powerful enough and they can still gives this problem without chipping them.

What a load of bull.
The more weight you have puts more load on driveshafts. We don't have them no where near max load. Standard vans don't have problems with driveshafts, so 1 with 10% more power isn't going to effect it

[Spruce]

Needs to be reported to insurers as its an engine modification.

Years back motor home converters used to like Fiat Ducatos with the 2.8Hdi engine.  The factory fitted 2.8 hdi was very detuned so was a nice remap project for a user who didn't want the hassle of dropping down a gear every time they came to a hill.
A remapped 2.8 had lots of torque so changing down happened much less. But premature clutch failure was the result.

If I go back in time to our South African days a popular tow vehicle was the VW Caravelle (we called it the Volksie Bus.) They popular conversion was to remove the 5 cylinder Audi engine and replace it with a Ford 3.0 V6 Essex engine that was also built in SA until 2000.

The gearbox had to be replaced with one from an older model as the new gearboxes Layshaft wouldn't stand the high torque. The other solution was to strip the box and replace the Layshaft with an upgraded part.

So there is some truth in the mechanics advise that beefing up an engine could put stress on other drivetrain components, especially if its gone up a few tuning notches or stages ie 90hp to 150hp.

[EandM]

Needs to be reported to insurers as its an engine modification.

Years back motor home converters used to like Fiat Ducatos with the 2.8Hdi engine.  The factory fitted 2.8 hdi was very detuned so was a nice remap project for a user who didn't want the hassle of dropping down a gear every time they came to a hill.
A remapped 2.8 had lots of torque so changing down happened much less. But premature clutch failure was the result.

If I go back in time to our South African days a popular tow vehicle was the VW Caravelle (we called it the Volksie Bus.) They popular conversion was to remove the 5 cylinder Audi engine and replace it with a Ford 3.0 V6 Essex engine that was also built in SA until 2000.

The gearbox had to be replaced with one from an older model as the new gearboxes Layshaft wouldn't stand the high torque. The other solution was to strip the box and replace the Layshaft with an upgraded part.

So there is some truth in the mechanics advise that beefing up an engine could put stress on other drivetrain components, especially if its gone up a few tuning notches or stages ie 90hp to 150hp.

I love the Essex V6 - still my Capri engine of choice.

[EandM]

Commercial Engines were almost always de-rated in comparison to the same application in a car. The idea being that if power is reduced by 15% or 20% over an existing, car based application then a 17 year old Plumber who attempts a 1/4 mile drag race from every set of traffic lights isn't going to break anything.

Re-mapping a car is fairly safe because you can't use ALL the extra power ALL of the time.
In a van or truck - if you load it up with people, rubbish & tools then hook a trailer on the back, then load the trailer, then drive it at 80 mph up a steep hill on the motorway in July there's a good chance that the heat from all the extra power can't be dissipated by the standard cooling system resulting in the melting of something expensive - like a piston or the block.

[Spruce]

Needs to be reported to insurers as its an engine modification.

Years back motor home converters used to like Fiat Ducatos with the 2.8Hdi engine.  The factory fitted 2.8 hdi was very detuned so was a nice remap project for a user who didn't want the hassle of dropping down a gear every time they came to a hill.
A remapped 2.8 had lots of torque so changing down happened much less. But premature clutch failure was the result.

If I go back in time to our South African days a popular tow vehicle was the VW Caravelle (we called it the Volksie Bus.) They popular conversion was to remove the 5 cylinder Audi engine and replace it with a Ford 3.0 V6 Essex engine that was also built in SA until 2000.

The gearbox had to be replaced with one from an older model as the new gearboxes Layshaft wouldn't stand the high torque. The other solution was to strip the box and replace the Layshaft with an upgraded part.

So there is some truth in the mechanics advise that beefing up an engine could put stress on other drivetrain components, especially if its gone up a few tuning notches or stages ie 90hp to 150hp.

I love the Essex V6 - still my Capri engine of choice.

i have to agree. It was the best engine in its day by far. That why the guys used them in VW's. They could tow their tandem axle 22' caravans at 140KPH all day. Some of them used to hook a Venter trailer on the back of the caravan and Durban, here we come.
 

[Spruce]

Commercial Engines were almost always de-rated in comparison to the same application in a car. The idea being that if power is reduced by 15% or 20% over an existing, car based application then a 17 year old Plumber who attempts a 1/4 mile drag race from every set of traffic lights isn't going to break anything.

Re-mapping a car is fairly safe because you can't use ALL the extra power ALL of the time.
In a van or truck - if you load it up with people, rubbish & tools then hook a trailer on the back, then load the trailer, then drive it at 80 mph up a steep hill on the motorway in July there's a good chance that the heat from all the extra power can't be dissipated by the standard cooling system resulting in the melting of something expensive - like a piston or the block.

We were told at Citroen that they also had to account for low grades of diesel fuel in certain countries. It wasn't feasible to manufacture an Hdi engine for specific countries.

.

[KS Cleaning]

i dont see the point for me as i only do 2500 miles a year in the van.save the remapping for the high performance cars.

Or get a higher powered performance car so there is no need to re-map

[EandM]

i dont see the point for me as i only do 2500 miles a year in the van.save the remapping for the high performance cars.

Or get a higher powered performance car so there is no need to re-map

If only covering 2500 miles per year in the van buy a Range Rover.