Over the last 40 years, CP Powerchips has firmly established itself as the UK’s leading supplier of upgraded vehicle software.
In order to meet the requirements of a global market most engines manufacturer’s ‘de-rate’ their engines.
We write/develop our own software in house which gives us endless flexibility to provide you (the customer) with the exact results you are looking for from your ECU Remap. A Collins Performance software can provide you with all stages of upgrade from basic ECU Remap right up to full engine conversions.
Prior to installing any software onto a customer’s vehicle, we always carry out a OBD2 diagnostic check to ensure that the vehicle is healthy and suitable for a CP Powerchips upgrade. Also based on our extensive experience of software tuning we can also advise customers, of any potential hardware upgrades, that they might require before they book their vehicle in for their CP Powerchips upgrade.
CP Powerchips was one the 1st companies in Europe to develop the process of replacing vehicles original ECU Eprom processor chip with an alternative Eprom processor chip which had been reprogrammed by CP Powerchips to allow improved performance. This process became known as ‘Chipping’
CP Powerchips continue to support & supply customers with the older models/vehicles that still require ECU processor ‘chips’.
Re-flashing the ECU became an option for many cars produced from about the year 2000 onwards allowing the ECU to be reprogrammed via the cars OBD2 diagnostic port
This process became known a ‘Remapping’ allowing the transfer of modified software from a lap top/computer direct to the vehicles ECU using a special OBD2 cable.
This process is also easily reversable if the customer ever needs to put the vehicle back to standard for any reason.
More recently, on the latest generation of ECU’s, vehicle manufacturers have started to protect the ECU’s with what is known as a locked processor. I this situation we have to remove the ECU from the vehicle and programme the ECU ‘on the bench’ to allow us to carry out the upgrade.
We work on all ages of ECU from the early EDC's requiring chip tuning right the way through to modern Bosch MG1 and MD1 locked processor ECU's with tuner protection.
Following the installation of our software each vehicle is road tested and data logged to ensure engine parameters are accurately monitored for the following: -
Air to Fuel Ratio (AFR) testing involves measuring the precise ratio of air to fuel entering an internal combustion engine, typically done by monitoring the data output from an oxygen sensor (also called an AFR sensor) in the exhaust stream, which indicates the oxygen content and therefore the overall air-fuel mixture. The latest ECU’s also use Long term (LTFT) & short term (STFT) fuel trim correction to allow the ECU to make small corrections for atmospheric conditions etc. These Trims monitored to ensure that the recorded data is within the acceptable range of parameters. This test is crucial for optimizing engine performance, fuel efficiency, and emissions control by ensuring the correct air-fuel ratio is maintained and that your engine is MOT compliant.
During the road test the Turbo boost pressure is monitored to ensure that it is achieving the target boost pressures set withing the software parameters.
Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) testing involves monitoring the data of the exhaust gas temperature sensor to ensure that the safe parameters are not exceeded
The ignition timing data is carefully checked during the road test to ensure that no unexpected ignition retardation is recorded whilst the engine is under full load.
Any increase in power puts additional demands on the fuel supply system when under full load. During the road test we collect data to check that the fuel system is operating within its safe limits.
Air inlet temperatures (AIT’s) are monitored to ensure that the recorded temperature data is within an acceptable range of parameters. On stage 2 or higher software upgrade’s a larger intercooler might be required to help manage the increase in inlets temperatures. We would of course advise each customer of any additional hardware requirements prior to booking in.
The intake Mass airflow readings a good way to benchmark the performance of a vehicle. On a healthy running vehicle, the higher the MAF readings the higher power the engine is producing. We keep records of vehicle MAF readings, both modified and standard, and can use this data to give customers approximate BHP gains on vehicle running MAF sensors.
