Voltage Increase Does NOT Assist BAP Fuel Delivery
Recently I ran some tests to see if increasing the Marauder's voltage could have a positive effect on the BAP and fuel system (and at the same time, the output of the stereo amplifiers).
Car audio components are usually rated at battery voltage (~12 volts) and at operating voltage (~14 volts). Some enthusiasts will also increase the voltage further to get more power from their car audio systems.
Over-volting electronics is a technique commonly employed across many fields. The Boost-A-Pump actually does exactly this - it boosts the input voltage to the car's Fuel Pump Driver Module and then to the fuel pump.
One area that I have much experience in is the computer world - if your CPU cooler can handle the extra heat, throwing some extra voltage at the processor will usually increase your overclocking headroom (with little or no detriment to its lifespan if you keep it cooled properly).
Let me put my geek hat on here to demonstrate the overclock on the computer I am currently typing this on:
Stock speed on this CPU is 3.3GHz - look here I am running happily at 4.3GHz! The stock voltage for the chip is 1.2V and the overclock was done easily with an extra 0.1V.
Anyway, so I figured, let's try this technique on the Marauder; I know the car's electronics are already designed to handle voltage variations because of spikes and droops in the current from the alternator.
So here's what I did; in the car's tune you are able to specify the output voltage of the alternator based on the operating battery temperature.
Here are the stock values:
Let's bring them up a bit:
And verify that the setting changed after reprogramming the car and firing it up:
So I ran the car, drove it daily for an hour for about a week, testing to ensure everything worked properly. There was no noticeable difference in performance (or stereo output!). So after I was sure the ECU had a good fuel voltage table built, I generated a datalog:
BAP WITH KNOB AT 100% AT CAR STOCK VOLTAGES:
BAP WITH KNOB AT 100% AT 15V:
Notice here that some of my duty cycle values are actually higher than what I had with the stock voltage in place!
There's a lot of data there to look at, but long story short is that there seemed to be little gain to be made in increasing the voltage to the BAP.
This tweak likely just resulted in the BAP working less hard (the BAP increased the voltage less than it would have at the stock car voltage as it had a higher input voltage to start with).
Nice try, but no dice!
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- STAP was so much fun, loved meeting you all and racing.
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