Chips

m i k e

m i k e

Member
Sorry to get your bellys rumbling but i'm talking about the chips for the A2s. I was wondering if anyone knew any where that do chips for an A2 1.4 SE (petrol version) as I can't find any anywhere and was just wondering how much extra it'd push my mighty 73 horses :)

Cheers,

Mike

2002 Audi A2 1.4 SE
 
chipping a petrol isnt a great idea...previously from a 106 peugeot modding world a petrol engine with no turbo @ a 1.4 size when chipped wouldn't give big power gains for its cost, sorry to crash your party :( there are lots of chipping comapanys for the A2 though :) have a look but be prepared for a 250 chipping start price....i think. Anyone else shed light?
 
yes - for the most part - 'chips' for aspirated engines are bordering on useless.

they increase the fuelling and advance the ignition in the vain hope of finding a little power - usually in areas best left as safety margin, and pass it off as 'increased driveability'

unless you have some form of forced induction, there really is very little a chip can do for you that will 'improve' on the manufacturers settings, except simply push the engine outside it's safe settings.

the problem boils down to the fact that there is no way of increasing airflow (which you *can* do with forced induction) - so all you can do is try and squeeze extra power out of what you already have - thus b****ring up emissions etc.

If you really want to get some extra horses without hassle (if set up corrrectly), consider a direct port wet nitrous kit with controller.
 
ye never thought of the wet nos, i was thinking for the little power m i k e is hoping for from a chip or a remap he's better off with ye-old induction kit. Think it might have a "noticable" (in a very minor sense) gain of power...after all it is a 1.4 pet...only cost him a fraction of all about suggestions too! mind you then you got exaughst system to upgrade then i suppose
 
I'm still distrustful of any rolling road proof that isn't independant - it's so easy to cook the figures, and hey presto, happy customer who's halfway to being convinced before they even drive the car again.

that said - IF you can do any mods beforehand to actually increase airflow through the engine, and *then* go for a remap, you're increasing your chances of actually getting a worthwhile increase.

notice how the quote is always 'up to' - that could mean nothing at all :)

AMD are a reputable firm though, so there is that in it's favour.
 
I've recently been mailing AMD about their remap recently and, like gjp33 says, they recommend making any other performance mods first and then getting their remap. Here's an extract from a mail they sent back to me...

"With this upgrade i would expect a few 1/10th's to be taken of the 0-60 time but the biggest difference is the throttle response and pick up. It is much smother and the engine revs much more willingly. The fuel consumption from this upgrade is not really effected, when you are driving hard it will only use just 1 or 2 more mpg at average. The warranty will not be effected as we do not change the chip. We change the programme on the current chip so it is undetectable to dealer test and diagnostic equipment and retains completely normal functioning. At the moment we can book you in next day for this upgrade which is priced at £350 INC VAT fitted including all rolling road testing"

I asked AMD a bit about forced induction but they weren't keen as they hadn't done this on an A2 before. I assume this must be possible though? Question is, at what cost in terms of £££ and reliability?




a2 1.4 sport . dolphin grey . audi body kit . debadged tail . rear bench seat
 
bolting on a turbo or charger is obviously a major undertaking that must be carefully worked out - that's not to say it can't be done though.

forced induction engines almost always have lower compression - production cars certainly - so a 'proper' conversion will involve a piston change, to do it properely. There are other ways, like a thicker head gasket - or two gaskets and a plate.. but these are rather crude.

you could run low boost only on the standard CR - but this does mean the margins are pretty tight when it comes to controlling the temperatures and fuelling etc.

a low boosting charger would be best - they are linear and far easier to control, unlike a turbo - finding room in the A2s bay might be a problem though!

A nitrous install is always the best bang for the buck (refill costs excepted) - it's throttle in a bottle, lol.
 
Turbocharging a normally-aspirated engine can be hard (and expensive!), the biggest limitation on the a2 would be the ECU, as it would probably have an upper limit to the state of tune...hoever, you can get alot more out of a turbo'd engine than a n/a engine.

I come from a bit of background in old mini's, and the standard 1275 engine makes abut 50-60bhp, this can be tuned to 120-140 n/a, and there is a car with aproxx 220bhp, runing a turbo'd 1293cc engine...if you have the money/methods, anything is possible...

The best way to tune the petrol a2 would be to enlarge/port the cylinder head combustion chambers, fit larger inlet and exhaust vavles, gas-flow the inlet/exhaust ports and inlet and exhaust manifolds and fit a free-flowing exhaust system, higher compression ratio if staying non-turbo'd, maybe a slight bore on the cylinders & larger pistons to a bigger capacity (1.8 maybe...?!) and possibly fit different cams. if you could get the electronics sorted, then you could be getting on for 200bhp (for the 1.6fsi), but then you have to consider what the gearbox can handle, and reliabilty becomes a problem.

I would love to find a scrap a2 engine, strip it apart, and see what can be done......

Don't forget, the basic rule of getting more power, it to get more air/fuel into the engine, modern cars are very emmissions orientated (especially the A2!) and they the engines tend to have rather restrive breathing for both fuel & air.

DSC_2115-04-1.jpg


2003 52 Ebony Black A2
1.6 FSI Sport, DIS, Open Sky, 6 CD Symphony II, Auto Climate, rear electric windows, 8 speakers, front fogs.
 
that little 200bhp+ A series turbo is rebuilt every winter though ;)

I wouldn't necessarily jump at enlarging ports and valves - older designs usually benefit from this, but the modern stuff is usually less responsive to increasing port/valve areas. Optimising the head, certainly, is a good idea - but cracking open the engine marks the divide between bolt on mods and serious tuning. Unfortunately though this is usually the only way to make worthwhile gains.

115bhp per litre on my old (aspirated 20XE) engine cost me about 6k :( - and that was doing all the work myself! - it would've been 5 figures had I given a tuner a blank cheque.

On the flip side - the same engine in turbo'd guise, with a set of chips, and a nitrous install, costing 2000 tops, powered a mk2 astra to a 12.6 @ 121 recently - so if you're into straightline speed, that's where it's at.
 
Just to say I had the remap (+ cruise) done at AMD on our 1.6 FSI and I'm very pleased. Gave max +10bhp/10lbft and higher across the whole range.

Its definitely more eager at lower revs, and less of a tendency to stall when pulling away from junctions. Mpg is very slightly improved.

Dave

1.6SE
 
Just bolting a turbo on isn't simple - you need to reduce the compression ration a little to compensate for the forced induction so there are significant engine mods.

What looks interesting to me is the engine for the forthcoming Golf GTI - 1.4 plus turbo plus supercharger - 160 ish bhp and may be fairly simple to fit! All I need is some money and permission from her indoors!

1.4 Petrol Special Edition, Ebony Black, grey leather, heated seats, climate, opensky, five spoke alloys for SWMBO (Replaced a 2002 1.4 Petrol SE) Honda Accord Tourer 2.2 iCDTi for me.
 
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