Diesel performance Chip (Steinbauer) - How good are they?

Mapesy,

I have written up the results on my 79 series ute and they are outstanding. Having said that I did not opt for a straight plug and play fuel rail or fuel pulse type chip. Raher mine is integtrated into the fuel and tuning system of the vehicle and they spend a good lot of time on the dyno getting the settings right to ensure that you don't melt a hole through the piston of your valuable investement.

If you go for a chip, make sure you install an EGT gauge at the same time.

Write up is at the bottom of the blog page below;

Creating the dream off-roader

Cheers Mick

g'day mapesy
i have the 100s manual trans.after a lot of reseach i'm waiting for unichip to devlope the pug n play harness,i reckon unichip tick the right boxs for engine protection,check out their website.
cheers
blue

Any chip, module or whatever you want to call them that alters/increases the normal fuel rail pressure will have a negative effect on the life of the high pressure pump and injectors.

To get even better atomization fuel pressure is increased and the pump has to work under much greater pressure and the injectors have to open and hammer shut to control this pressure.

Pulse width control systems which work on switching the injectors differently don't stress things much more at all.

With fuel control you can get better economy, power but if it suddenly costs you $12000 to repair it I can't really see the advantages.
We hear the hype and immediate results of these mods but never hear of the long term situation or the sudden costly failures.

If your engine would normally last 300,000km then get a warranty which will stand with it.

Power is addictive, try to control your habit.

We actually have a Steinbauer in our 150 Prado and a Unichip in a 120 Prado. Both vehicles tow Ultimate campers. So far we have been impressed with both units for different reasons. Overall we think the Steinbauer is better as it does not interfere with common rail pressures despite other comments made here. It is one of the issues you need to check and compare as they are certainly not all the same. Fuel consumption has improved slightly and performance also. Chips do not make diesel 4WD into rocket ships despite the advertising. They certainly sharpen up turbo and engine performance but in our view whilst making our Prado's a lot better to drive the world has not changed markedly. Are they worth the large number of dollars? Not sure but in our book yes. Having owned and driven plenty of 100 series I have personally never found them lacking in performance. You do not say if you tow or not nor if you are heavy and do a lot of off-road work. We have not bothered to go to the expense of putting the vehicles on a dyno as seat of the pants is enough to tell us the addition of the chips is an improvement. We have deliberately not bothered with increasing exhaust size as the Toyota one works pretty well anyway in our view. Having towed in >45C days we have not had a heat problem evident

Have it installed by a reputable installer who actually knows diesel engines

Regards

Rob

I've run a Steinbauer chip for 2 years now on my JK Wrangler with a free flowing exhaust. It's thrown up a couple of engine codes with nil effect but other than that has run perfectly. I found a definate low down power increase which improved it's towing ability & initially the fuel consumption improved around 1 litre per 100 but realistically that's been negated by driving harder & faster ;-)
As has been mentioned there is no huge power increase rather a slight improvement accross the board.
Cheers Craig............