[Demove6ltr]

I was looking on the American ebay and found this VOLO chip thats claiming better fuel economy. Has anyone had a play around with this?

[atari4x4]

pretty sure it's going to be a packet of smoke & mirrors mixed in with some snake oil, got a link?

[Gwagensteve]

I'm sure it will do what they're saying, more or less, but probably less.

Atari - it looks like these are a form of crude piggyback with some generic code bending to bump the map around to lean out or richen up the fuelling, depending on the model of chip used.

I had a scroll down their list of applicable vehicles and saw some pretty interesting stuff. For example, they lost the FS1 chip as suitable for a "1998 Suzuki samurai" (which doesn't exist - Samurai were removed from sale by 1995) but also for a 1996 Jimny, which may or may not have had an OBD II compliant G13 engine, or a turbo 660, or a carby G13.

Also, there's listings for every Porsche ever made since 1996, except ANY 911 model, even though they share the same engine as the boxter/cayenne(?)

It's not suitable for hybrids, yet the Lexus GS450h is on their site?

Looks shonky to me - just a generic list of cars that the same box could plug into.

It is possible for code bending interceptors to add power/improve economy, but they are generally a pretty poor solution. One area manufacturers are pretty keen to maximise is fuel economy. They'll tend to run cars as lean as is safe on light throttle. On full throttle, they'll still run them as lean as is safe, but the lambda might still look a bit fat, which will generally be to keep the engine (and cats) cool assuming persistent, abusive driving.

How much economy were you expecting so save? Whilst driving style, vehicle weight, accessory use, tyre pressures etc can adjust economy a fair bit, modern EFI engines are all pretty close in BSFC. (until you step to direct injection. How much power you need to push your car down the road will have very little to do with the engine, and lots to do with rolling resistance, aerodynamics and parasitic loss.

Steve.