One of the most important parts of your engine is not a physical component but lines of code that can radically affect how your engine performs, either in terms of speed, emissions or fuel economy.
This means that one of the most effective ways to improve your car in terms of cost vs performance is to take it to a car tuning centreand have its engine control unit remapped.
Engine remapping is a way to improve performance that has been popular for a couple of decades, although the concept itself is older than many people expect.
To understand why code alone can help improve fuel efficiency or overall performance, here is what an engine map does and what it does not do.
Mapping Power
All modern cars with an internal combustion engine have an engine control unit, which is a central computer system that manages various interconnected parts of the engine, including valve timing, fuel injection, ignition and throttle response.
They rely on dozens of sensors managing lots of different parts of the car to ensure that the engine is working as efficiently as it can towards the goal the manufacturer had for a particular model.
Whilst the ECU is typically associated with cars made from the mid-1990s onward, the earliest engine computer systems and therefore the first engine maps emerged as early as the late 1960s.
By the start of the 1970s, mass-produced cars were already being developed with analogue electrical systems designed to help control engine performance, something that would only get more important as computers became more sophisticated and fuel economy became more critical.
In many cases, different car models that use the same engine will have different engine maps, in order to provide greater differentiation. Some focus on fuel economy, others on quick acceleration, others still on a comfortable ride.
These particular settings are collectively known as an engine map and are often carefully set by engineers who know the car inside and out to maximise the benefits and avoid potential side effects.
One consequence of this is that by using specialist onboard diagnostics tools that can read the particular engine map factory file, a specialist tuner can adjust the engine, unlock greater power or improve efficiency.
To do so requires a lot of understanding of the inner workings of specific engines, including how the timing of ignition, the ratio of air to fuel and overall engine load affect the performance of the car.
Contrary to popular belief, engine mapping is just as often used to reduce power to preserve components, improve comfort, fuel efficiency and/or emissions as it is to increase speed. In fact, early examples of prototype engine maps in consumer cars were to get around the infamously strict 1975 United States emissions standards.
As well as this, whilst any inappropriate tuning can damage the car, engine maps that have been created and added correctly do not inherently affect the reliability of the car, but this is why people should opt for specialist tuners if they do not know how their car’s engine works to at least an enthusiast level.