Performance Chipping

Aftermarket computer chips are available to override a vehicle’s air:fuel ratio and other settings to squeeze more power from the engine. Jake Venter explains.

- Jake Venter

The power that an engine develops is proportional to its torque multiplied by its speed. If the cubic capacity is unchanged, additional power can be obtained only by increasing torque or engine speed, or both.

Tuners modify the manifolds, compression ratios, camshaft profiles, valve timing, mixture strength and ignition timing to obtain more torque at higher engine speed. Nowadays, mixture strength and ignition timing are controlled by a computer chip that is part of the engine control unit (ECU). Aftermarket performance chips override the standard chip to control air/fuel mixture and ignition timing for the many combinations of power demand and engine speed that occurs during an engine’s working life. This article focuses on the effect of a performance chip.