Mud-club

Vehicle & Technical => Defender => Topic started by: vtrdaz on July 20, 2004, 10:13:42

Title: Anybody fitted a van aaken smartbox to a defender 90
Post by: vtrdaz on July 20, 2004, 10:13:42

I'm thinking baout fitting one of these smartboxes and wondered if anybody had fitted one.
Do/will they reduce the engines reliability/longevity?
Is the power increase worth the expense?
Any help/veiws on this matter would be appreciated chaps

Title: Anybody fitted a van aaken smartbox to a defender 90
Post by: muddyweb on July 20, 2004, 10:17:44

I believe Darren Burgess has one fitted to his 300 Tdi Discovery, and seems happy with it.

I have driven the Td5 Defender from Allisport with their equivalent fitted and it's very nice.

I have no experience with the long term effects of them, but the suppliers ought to be able to give you some pointers.

Title: Anybody fitted a van aaken smartbox to a defender 90
Post by: HiFonics on July 21, 2004, 13:42:44

What I have gathered from various sources is that ideally you want to fit an intercooler before you fit a powerchip due to it reducing the chances of a big bang.

I guess a lot of how you drive it will affect the reliability of he vehicle. I have heard of people talking about problems with head gaskets. The common problem with vehicles with the powerchip fitted tends to be the exhaust manifold leaking, I dont know what sort of cost is involved fixing this.

The chips and intercooler combination does make a huge difference. Someone I know has a 1999 TD5 110 thats done over 100k miles and it still flies along with its chip and intercooler.

Whoever you choose to do your vehicle I would make sure you drive a vehicle they have done to see if you like it or not.

Cheers,

Ben

Title: Anybody fitted a van aaken smartbox to a defender 90
Post by: vtrdaz on July 22, 2004, 17:06:16

thanks chaps - think i'm sort of thinking it might be a bad/costly idea to fit one of these if the engine goes bang a few months/years down the line