I just read in Four Wheeler about the new Van Aaken Smart Box for the Jeep Liberty CRD. Has anyone had any experience with them. I called the US office of Van Aaken and they told me it gave about a 20% power gain and was perfectly safe. Anyone have know anyting about them?

Wes

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2006 Jeep Liberty Sport (KJ4DIW) Ham / Warn 9500ti

http://www.cardomain.com/id/wesbronco

I just read an interesting article about the effects of upping the fuel rail pressure past the current design specs. The gist of the article concerned Bosch injectors that had suffered surface etching and/or hairline cracking along two mating surfaces as a result of the increased pressure causing cavitation. Once you do that, things start to leak and go south even farther.

My understanding is that the Van Aaken product boosts pressure, whereas my preference would be for a module that increases the pulse width rather than tinkering with the pressure. I recently got a Digi CR module from http://www.upscaleauto.com/diesel_power_module.htm that only adjusts pulse width, and my initial impression is quite good. Jury is out, though...those first kisses can be deceptive. I'll keep you posted.

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George Reiswig
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD
Suncoast, SEGR, lift, InMotion tune, homebrew B100
At 138k, new head & gasket, timing belt, rockers and swearing vocabulary

I have had 3 Van Aaken Smart Boxes, 1st on my 97 Passat TDI then on my 2002 Jetta TDI and have it presently installed on my 96 Passat TDI!!
I love the Product!!

tomo,

Thanks for the response. Can you tell us how long and how many miles you ran the box on your TDI's? Like many of us here I'm trying to wade into the whole module thing but want to make sure I'm not shortening the life of my engine/injectors/fuel pump.

So I'm interested if you have tens of thousands of miles with this thing and if you had any problems?

Thanks,

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Chris
Current:
2007 Steel Blue Metallic Grand Cherokee CRD Limited
GDE Eco Tune and DPF delete
CB Engineering DPF delete pipe
EHM

Past (sold to Mountainman):
2005 Patriot Blue Liberty CRD Limited

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the Digi CR module do exaclty the same thing? (raise rail pressure)

All it plugs into is the rail pressure sensor, So one would assume it fools the ecu in driving the pressure higher...

I haven't seen any box yet that plugs into aything other than the rail pressure sensor, so one would assume they do all the same thing.

None of tomo's vehicles have the Liberty's "Common Rail" technology, which is the issue here. Raising the injection pressure on the rail can be a dangerous thing, especially because not enough is known about how durable these engines are past stock specs. It has been said that the system is designed for 29k psi and that stock does not come near that. This is just hearsay...

The Smart/Tuning boxes on the TDIs pretty must just increase fueling since injector pressure is mechanically controlled by a rotary pump.

cevans

(tomo: you AND ON have found yourselves over here, this is getting crazy...)

Sent an e-mail to Van Aaken asking for details on the CRD Smartbox, and got a reply back today. Check under the thread "New CRD Performance Module" for details.

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Mitchell Oates
'87 MB 300D Diamond Blue Metallic
'87 MB 300D - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Sport CRD Stone White
Provent CCV Filter/AT2525 Muffler
Stanadyne 30 u/Cat 2 u Fuel Filters
Fumoto Drain/Fleetguard LF3487 Oil filter
V6 Airbox/Amsoil EAA Air Filter
Suncoast TC/Shift Kit/Aux Cooler
Kennedy Lift Pump/Return Fuel Cooler