what the hell is this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ndexURL=0&rd=1

and how could this actually work? can someone please explain why this would even help to me it looks like a gimmick

 

I've seen this before.

What it does is tells your car that you're seeing colder air than you really are, so the computer compensates by spraying more fuel into the cylinders and keeps the timing advanced instead of allowing the normal conservative ECU controlled timing to stay in effect.

Bottom line: you'll burn more gas, but you won't really get the claimed power, the only way to safely and consistantly squeeze more power out of your setup would be to get an honest fuel computer instead of a little box that lies to your engine and claims power. The only real truth I saw in that was "watch your 1/4 times increase". Now tell me, who really wants their times to increase?

 

you can gain a little hp with the unit but poor fuel quality will cause pinging and that can kill your engine.
I dont recommend this type of upgrade.
put it this way you get what you pay for. spend the cash and get some real ponys.

 

An easier way to pick up "free hp" per se is to just bump your timing up a few degrees and run higher octane gas.

Dynos on the SR20DE show that with a bump from like 12 degrees to 19 degrees produces almost 5WHP.

Only needs 91 octane too.

Sam

 

Late model hondas are electronically restricted to 18 degrees of timing by the ECU. This "upgrade" tricks the ECU into allowing more timing, and makes up for the overkill by drowning the engine in gas to avoid ignition knocking.

Again, worthless.

 

ignition timing advance is a good way to wear your internals also if you go too far...

 

If you go too far you also lose performance. There is no magic number of degrees for performance on any engine, just as no two engines perform exactly the same. For example, my engine is running 34 degrees total advance, and 20 degrees static, try running that on a B16 and it would probably never start