Performance chips

[mrc25381]

Can anyone tell me a bit about performance chips? How they work, where they go, how much power is increased, are they fuel economical, etc etc..

[nathanVY]

I can tell you that most of the ones on ebay are dodgy, if you're gonna get one get it from some of the guys around here, steve at mace engineering can help you out also greenfoam, dr bob and some others.

Might have to wait for greenfoam to see this thread to explain the technicalities though

[savage1987]

Maximum performance VN VP VR VS V8 Commodore memcal c/o - eBay Mod Chips, Performance Parts, Car Parts, Accessories, Cars, Bikes, Boats. (end time 01-Apr-10 16:22:02 AEDST)

Read that. It will answer most of your questions. Everyone around here will tell you this is one of the EXTREMELY ****ING FEW ebay tunes that actually work and are good.

Read that, then buy one, then come back and tell us results

I will tell you from my VN, when it was a V6 auto, I was averaging low 7.x L/100km in the hills. Could sit at 6.2L/100km all day long at 100kph on the freeway. With my long range tank (80L, but only 68 useable litres) this equated to 900km tanks of fuel most of the time, and 1000km tanks possible with care on the highway. This would be significantly improved with a manual of course.

Hope that helps,
Sam

[jamiepasslow]

The performance chips go in the car's computer and change the ignition timing and fuel injector pulse duration to suit the relevant rpm, metered air going in to the engine and the throttle open percentage.

A lot of the performance chips simply richen the mixture to give more power but you will definitely notice the difference in fuel economy (for the worse) and the performance gain is usually so small that you can only see it on a dyno. Some of the good tuners can reflash the chip to give better power and better economy but I find the difference is again only visible on the dyno.

Most of the raving from people saying "I got a chip and you can feel the power increase" is just a psycological effect and if you swapped them back without telling them, they would still swear blind they have a performace chip fitted. (Done this a couple of times with the performance air filters and chips as well). Holden spend hundreds of thousands of dollars developing the ECU mapping for the best balanceof power and performance so I say leave it alone and enjoy the car.

[savage1987]

Mr passlow,
My VN is proof, as are hundreds of cars on this forum, that a nicefrog ebay tune by our very own greenfoam has a very significant result in terms of fuel saving. There's a reason you don't hear of VNs getting 1000km from a tank every day... THEY SIMPLY DON'T. Mine however, would do it time and time again, and that was only automatic. ALL thanks to a memcal

[levymetal]

greenfoams tunes will always get you better economy, on the v6s there is a bit of power to be had as well, but the massive gains can be seen on 5ltrs. foamy knows his shit and has probably spent more time tuning these cars than holden

i've also heard that delcowizzid can whip up a storm too

[Tim Smtih]

i've also heard that delcowizzid can whip up a storm too

Yep i can attest to that. Even though he's across the way in NZ i had a custom tuned chip back inside of two weeks. The car did drive a lot better and had noticeably improved acceleration. I haven't been paying close attention to fuel consumption but i haven't noticed an increase in fuel used. I would take a tuned chip today, over a tuned chip twenty odd years ago when it was put into the car. Because it's not like there hasn't been any technological advancements in that time or anything.

[savage1987]

Fuel quality has improved a fair bit too these days don't need so much forgiveness for shit fuel in the spark map to stay on the safe side of detonation.