On Board Computer – The Brain of your Car

If the engine is the heart of a car, the Engine Control Unit (ECU) is the brain. It is the brain that controls the heart. The ECU is a computer, equipped with a 32-bit 40Mhz processor, that manipulates the engine’s ignition systems according to the data it gets from the engine’s sensors. It reacts to any and all changes in the engine in real time, compensating and adapting to factors affecting engine performance, leading to improved engine responsiveness, better mileage, and lesser emissions.

Programmable ECUs are recommended for highly modified cars. With all the additional gadgets and equipments attached to the engine, hooking it to a computer with the engine switched on will configure the programmable ECU to properly control fuel injection, ignition timing, and variable valve timing.  Some highly advanced programmable ECUs have additional functions such as waste gate control, gear control, banked injection, and variable cam timing. Race ECUs can keep data for future analysis, which is useful in analyzing performance after each race. They also have diagnostic memory wherein you can program error thresholds.

Aftermarket Engine Control Units come in different models for specific engines sizes and requirements.

Adding a  is just like upgrading your car’s Engine Control Unit. The performance chip improves your car’s performance without physically altering anything. With the performance chip, all manageable components of the ECU are manipulated from standard values to power oriented ones.

Performance Chips take out your car’s programmed top speed, increase over-rev limits, and improve timing among others. Some of the industry’s pioneer manufacturers of performance chips are Jet and Hypertech. You can be assured that you get the real deal from them.Hypertech performance chips are so smart that once you connect the programmer into the car, it recognizes your car right away. Since it already knows all the details pertaining to your car, it can specifically choose the program upgrade for your car and download it.

Another performance chip brand is the Unichip. It claims that unlike other performance chips, its advantage is that it doesn’t change the engine’s factory settings, but instead it works side by side with the factory ECU. In effect, Unichip only serves as a back-up computer that contains the engine’s maximum capacity data.

Famous brand cars have their own performance chips made by companies known to manufacture after-market parts and accessories for specific car manufacturers. An example is BMW performance chips made by Bavarian or AC Snitzer. Both companies are famous for quality BMW replacement parts.