I've had my 1988 Crystal Blue Cossie here in NZ for 7 years but am unsure if it has been chipped or not. As far as I know the car is standard as it was owned by an accountant and then a guy in his 50's and was (and still is) in very nice condition when I purchased it. The Cosworths were $120,000 (£50,000) as import duty on cars was not lifted until 1989 and were seen as executive cars here.

Not wanting to fiddle around with anything I really have no idea if it has a stage 1 - is there a straight forward way to check? If it hasn't is it safe to put a stage 1 chip in at the cars age and mileage? The car has done 127,000 miles and had a engine rebuild at 96,000 (junior mechanic started the car when the cam belt was being changed at the garage ..oops) Also what is the preferred stage 1 chip?


Cheers

Keewee

 

Easiest thing would be to find out what boost pressure you are running, as standard they will hit a boost cut above 0.8 BAR but guess as yours is standard your won't have a boost gauge to find out, other way involves looking at chip to see if it has it written on the top. Theres a lot of good chips out there MSD, Ahmed Bayjoo, Harvey Gibbs to name a few, MSD can post to you easily as well. A stage 1 chip will be fine although I would worry a bit if still on standard Head Gasket. The Sapphires were an executive car but interesting to know about the tax, when new they were more than the 3DR!

Martin

 

The std ford hg will be up to it, I would use a GGR chip personally, more money but they are exceptionally good, used one myself for a year.
You will be perfectly ok at your very low mileage with this mod, I was running 18psi(stage 3ish) and that was with 200,000 miles!!
tabetha

 

Tabetha, you consider running at 18 psi save, when the standard map sensor only can measure up to 15.5 psi?

 

tabetha you seem to have done every think

 

Yes I consider it safe for me, maybe because I have a 4 bar map sensor, I didn't suggest the questioner to do this, merely used this as a example of how his engine would be very safe at stage 1 with the mileage he has.
tabetha

 

I've been driving 27 years, and messing about with engines, motorbikes since age 8, way back in 1973 when I had my first bike a Bultaco Sherpa T trials bike, pops was a bike nut, for trails riding.
tabetha

 

"I would use a GGR chip personally" sounds like a suggestion to me.
Stage 1 (as I understand it) is chip only, so running on a standard map sensor.
I don't go above 14 psi with stage 1.
And by the way, I have been chipping Cosworth's for more than 20 years.

 

It was a suggestion for make yes, having re-read my answer yes I can see that it could have been confusing, I recommended a stage 1 chip for use with the std map sensor from GGR, but didn't make this clear, sorry.
tabetha

 

Stage 1 is a chip only, no need to change any components at all, except I personally would be worried about HG but only one way to find out I guess, essentially the chip runs a higher boost pressure with remapped ignition and timing curves to suit. The standard MAP sensor can not see any higher boost than + 14.7 PSI (1 BAR) so would be dangerous to run more, thus it would not be mapped for it anyway.

Martin

 

If you take the ECU out and the stickers are over the 4 corner screws leave it in one piece... its not been chipped and originals are difficult to find unmolested.

If you want then get another ECU and chip and keep that one safe