None of the comments at the time of writing this comment actually answer your question in regards to cobb tuning devices I’ll try.
It depends.
It’s not that these devices really significantly increase power, it’s that all the mods that do make power are near useless without a tune, and this device allows that tune.
Recent engines may suffer in performance due to the ever stricter emissions standards. Earlier engines from like 10 years ago probably benefited from emissions standards because things like direct injection, higher compression ratio and so on all both increase performance and reduce emissions(this is oversimplified)
So in a very recent car a device like this might actually be able to be used to give a “better” tune to the car that sacrifices emissions for performance. It’s like the government and the manufacturer of the car make choices on the trade off between engine performance and good emissions, this device allows you to make a difference choice.
However, that’s not really how I’ve seen these used because that would be a very expensive way to gain a small amount of power. The thing is that with any car from like the last 20 years or more, if you do modifications like high flow exhaust, bigger cams, adding a turbo where there was none or adding a bigger turbo, and so on, will all, almost certainly, decrease the performance of your car if those mods start to add so much air flow that the default tune can’t keep up. It should also be mentioned that running an engine like that will ruin it quickly. If then, you use a device like this to tune the car to suit the mods, you can double or more the performance of the engine.
I’m glossing over a lot of details here, like for instance ecus are sometimes closed loop systems that can to some extent adjust the fuel flow with increased air flow, but it’s likely that the engine will give you an error code and display the check engine symbol. It should also be noted that some ecus will go into open loop when you floor the car, which is when you want the most power. This can be really bad if you have mods that increase the airflow and volumetric efficiency of the engine. Point is, your mods are useless without a tune.
It depends.
It’s not that these devices really significantly increase power, it’s that all the mods that do make power are near useless without a tune, and this device allows that tune.
Recent engines may suffer in performance due to the ever stricter emissions standards. Earlier engines from like 10 years ago probably benefited from emissions standards because things like direct injection, higher compression ratio and so on all both increase performance and reduce emissions(this is oversimplified) So in a very recent car a device like this might actually be able to be used to give a “better” tune to the car that sacrifices emissions for performance. It’s like the government and the manufacturer of the car make choices on the trade off between engine performance and good emissions, this device allows you to make a difference choice.
However, that’s not really how I’ve seen these used because that would be a very expensive way to gain a small amount of power. The thing is that with any car from like the last 20 years or more, if you do modifications like high flow exhaust, bigger cams, adding a turbo where there was none or adding a bigger turbo, and so on, will all, almost certainly, decrease the performance of your car if those mods start to add so much air flow that the default tune can’t keep up. It should also be mentioned that running an engine like that will ruin it quickly. If then, you use a device like this to tune the car to suit the mods, you can double or more the performance of the engine.
I’m glossing over a lot of details here, like for instance ecus are sometimes closed loop systems that can to some extent adjust the fuel flow with increased air flow, but it’s likely that the engine will give you an error code and display the check engine symbol. It should also be noted that some ecus will go into open loop when you floor the car, which is when you want the most power. This can be really bad if you have mods that increase the airflow and volumetric efficiency of the engine. Point is, your mods are useless without a tune.