The Diesel engine has come a long way in the last 30 or so years. Once diesel tuning was not even a factor, because the engine was considered only useful for agricultural or industrial low performance work.
Fast forward to the early part of the 21st century, and diesel engine cars (especially the modern brand of CDTi and turbocharged vehicles) are giving their petrol brothers a real run for their money in all areas of performance and economy, while still retaining the traditional diesel values of long engine life and improved economy.
The engines are quiet, efficient and reliable, with in some cases spectacular performance. No surprise then that sports diesels and as a consequence
diesel tuning have become popular parts of today's sports auto market.
So with the diesel engine taking so many leaps forward why would you want to tune one at all?
Well of course they may be good, but you would never say the modern diesel was perfect, and for some of us any gain is a good one. The performance of your diesel engine is often a factor, and where additional power and acceleration are available, the sporting driver may not want to leave that potential un-tapped. On a more ethical note there is also the green factor. The diesel engine is considered by many to be inherently greener than the petrol, but further gains in fuel economy may also be made where the efficiency of the fuel burn can be increased for greater diesel performance.
So how to achieve these gains for your diesel car?
The options for tuning any engine are many of course – you can improve fuel flow by re-profiling the cylinder head, replacing the valves with larger ones, re-profiling cams, changing exhaust systems, and many other modifications that require expensive work on the engine. Apart from needing often costly and expert machining, these tuning alterations can often have the effect of reducing reliability or the life of the engine.
You can of course improve the car in other ways, improving suspension and brakes, saving weight, better aerodynamics, and though these will all help it is true, the one thing they won't give you is more power!
The real key to
diesel tuning - gaining power and economy, is with the fuel injection system in the diesel car. The reason for this is that the injection system controls the amount of fuel at all stages in the engine's cycle, at all engine speeds. Where the amount of fuel can be perfectly delivered as needed by the engine, the fuel will burn at optimum efficiency. The injectors will not be delivering too much fuel to be ejected unburned from the engine through the exhaust. Neither will they be adding too little, leaving an excess of air with insufficient fuel to burn at maximum power.
The manufacturers rarely optimise a diesel engine for perfect efficiency and performance. We can't really speculate as to the reasons why, however it is fair to say that by re-programming the fuel injection system of your car you can get significant gains to both performance and economy, without increasing the strain on the engine, or reducing its reliability or life span. Simple engine re-mapping can achieve both your diesel tuning objectives: increasing the performance of your engine, and saving fuel at the same time.
How better to appeal to both groups of motorists – the ones that want to save fuel and money, or the ones that just want their cars to be fast?
