# Smart box Smart or not?



## frenchfancy (May 21, 2005)

Going to NEC 2 morrow, looking further into the smart box. A member made a post a few weeks ago titled I chipped my McLouis in 15 mins. Has anyone got any horror stories or words of warning or is this a good idea. Van out of warranty. Pleased to hear from anyone before i part , with the cash and i don't know the costs involved.


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## Don_Madge (May 1, 2005)

frenchfancy said:


> Going to NEC 2 morrow, looking further into the smart box. A member made a post a few weeks ago titled I chipped my McLouis in 15 mins. Has anyone got any horror stories or words of warning or is this a good idea. Van out of warranty. Pleased to hear from anyone before i part , with the cash and i don't know the costs involved.


HI F F

After having the Van AAken smart Box fitted to my Timberland in April 2005 I decided to do a fuel consumption check on a 4200 mile trip around the Iberian Peninsula. We normally cruise at about 90/100 KPH (usually the van is fully loaded 3300kgs) and with the cruise control set we found that we did not have to change down for the hills which we would have expected to have change down on before the box was fitted.

I tried to keep an accurate check when refueling, It's difficult at times
when you are trying to fill the tank right to the brim. The 4200 miles on
the continent returned the following:-

Overall 33.08 MPG

Best 36.25 MPG

Worse 27.73 MPG

On a previous trip to France (1400 mile) before the Smart box was fitted our overall MPG was 30.34. I must point out the smartbox was fitted for
convenience rather than fuel economy.

We have got to the stage in life now where we don't charge about anymore, well not often anyway, we also practice defensive driving. We have both found that our reactions are not what they used to be. I have been driving world wide since 1952 and Maureen since 1967.

We consider the smart box money well spent. We use the van a lot (30,000 miles in two years) mainly on the continent.

I spoke to my insurers before the work went ahead and they were quite happy.

Safe travelling

Don


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## 88781 (May 9, 2005)

From a 'smart box' web site (a plug in system done in 15 mins)



> The PSI Powerbox suited to your vehicle is the CR series Power Box that is for use with diesel vehicles using a high-pressure fuel rail and hydraulic/solenoid fuel injectors. The power increase is achieved by dynamically re-mapping (in real-time) the duration of the hydraulic injector opening times to the ECU input parameters to give optimum fuelling, in strict accordance to engine speed and load. The PSI Powerbox micro-management system works in parallel with the original management system to ensure the smoothest delivery of power and torque.


 I would personally prefer to have the vehicles own ECU re mapped rather than over fuel the engine as the above statement suggests, the pumps on these engines (Ducato, Boxer) run at very high pressures initially,.. extra strain can not be beneficial.
Re mapping costs around £200 more to have done...may be worth it in the long run ..just my thoughts..

Dave


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## frenchfancy (May 21, 2005)

Just an add on to my original post. How much are we talking roughly?


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## Don_Madge (May 1, 2005)

frenchfancy said:


> Just an add on to my original post. How much are we talking roughly?


In April 2005 we paid £423 for the Van Aaken smart box.

Don


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## 88781 (May 9, 2005)

TB Turbos £500 approx.


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

I can't add to my post here:
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopicp-170329.html#170329

Dave


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## camoyboy (May 9, 2005)

We bought an add on box from Tandem tuning off ebay for £219 delivered.
Noticable improvement on torque, especially when towing, better throttle response and no real difference in fuel economy.
Took about 20 minutes to fit to a 2.8 JTD. Make sure whatever you buy is digital, not analogue, as they just trick the system into thinking it is cold and overfuel to give extra performance. Digital systems modify the signals from the ECU to improve the fuelling delivery.
Colin


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