Is it worth buying a Performance MEMCAL?

[levymetal]

I've found this memcal in ebay, the guy seems to be a reputable seller...
LPG PERFORMANCE CHIP / MEMCAL Holden V6 VN VP VR VS - eBay VN, VP, VR, VS, Holden, Car Parts, Cars, Bikes, Boats. (end time 28-Jan-08 11:04:13 AEDST)

But unfortunately his LPG one costs more than the normal one. Plus, $150 seems a bit stiff considering I have to surrender my chip as well. ALSO he says I should get the mixtures adjusted on the dyno. Performance wise what would I be looking at if I didn't do that?

I was wondering if anyone has purchased one before, and could tell of the repercussions from it. Is it really worth it? Even with the savings he says are possible, it would take a year to pay itself off, IF it actually did what it was supposed to do.

Unless someone in VIC near Melbourne was willing to build me one for cheaper (hey, it's worthy a try!), must have a good reputation for building them though!

[Wagon_Wheel]

Talk to doctor bob or greenfoam on this forum man

[stocky]

dont bother

[levymetal]

dont bother

How come? No noticeable gain?

[stocky]

pretty much. get a chip off greenfoam maybe. at that price you could buy the tools to tune your chip yourself, and still have about $80 left over

[levymetal]

I was thinking about doing it myself but I'm REALLY bad at soldering firstly to build the socket, and I don't know anything about engines/timing/anything so I wouldn't know where to start. Having LPG would just make it harder for me, maybe the only difference is the octane... But who knows, I may try... Could be fun

[hakhawk]

theres really no noticeable gain on a stock v6. some motor can see a gain, but not often. wait til you've done some mods, then talk to greenfoam or doctor bob. think you said you were saving for another car in a year or 2? if so, save the dollars, spend it on a decent service on the car, and keep the rest aside for the newy

[immortality]

yes...if you get one from either Dr bob or greenfoam. no.....if it's a generic ebay one of which 95% are just HSV memcal copies

[levymetal]

Yeah 2 years till WL grange (not just a dream car, already got $20k), just wanted a little extra for now... But you don't get anything for free, kw costs money!

[Cobez]

I waited till i had a 2.5" zorst, pacemaker headers, CAI, shift kit and a higher flow radiator then got doctor bob to tune a spare chip i had.

Best cash i ever spent. But with out extractors, zorst, maybe shift kit and a few other bits, there really isn't much point.

But after i put the chip in, my car idled and drove like a dream and the throttle was extremely tight and my fuel economy was alot better. Before that i bought the VN SV3800 tune chip off ebay, made my car run rich, idled like crap and fuel economy wasn't all that great.


Just go buy a stock VN chip from the wreckers and send it off so you aren't without a car while the chip gets tuned.

[levymetal]

Greenfoam's making me one specialised for LPG, worked it out so he makes one, sends it to me then when I get it I send mine off to him so I'm not without a car .
It's worth a good try even without the mods!

[Cobez]

That's gonna be interesting running an LPG tune. I'd be interested to see what gains might come out of it.

[AirStrike]

With greenfoam doing the tune, you will be quite happy

[Cobez]

On LPG though? I didn't think you could be happy on LPG hahaha jokes jokes.

[AirStrike]

On LPG though? I didn't think you could be happy on LPG hahaha jokes jokes.

Unless it's a 202 ey

[Cobez]

Bwahahahahahaha!! Auto 202 on LPG............BEAST!!


hahaha.

[senatorsignature1]

Don't waste your time and money. Talk to Doctor Bob absolute legend knows the in and out's to performance memcals.

[Cobez]

I'll vouch for that ^^^^^^ he definantly did a fantastic job on my chip. Couldn't have been more pleased, i'll be sending my spare one back to him when i get a few more things done.

[levymetal]

Got the chip today, unfortunately I didn't think to boot it with the old chip first... And I can't be bothered putting it back in to test

But I'm pretty sure the gains are there. Engine must be more responsive, when I put my foot down it downshifts very quickly if it needs to, before it used to take a good 1 or 2 seconds (by that time you don't want it to downshift anymore - useless). Idle seems better (could be because car was already warmed up, again I must test this on cold), not as much smoke on petrol (was running too rich before).
The best type of test for me is to do a burnout. I've never successfully got the wheels spinning nicely. I tried today, I get scared on residential streets so I couldn't do much, but from what I did the wheels started spinning easily with no work from me playing around with the brakes. So it seems that the gains were there to be made, and were made. Well worth $45.
Next up is to test the fuel efficiency, see if it's changed without adjusting mixtures. Then I'll get the mixtures adjusted and see what chip + mixtures gets me fuel wise.

[Doctor Bob]

... see if it's changed without adjusting mixtures. Then I'll get the mixtures adjusted and see what chip + mixtures gets me fuel wise.

mixtures??? huh?