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horsepower chips

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:49 am
by rseldner
i was bored and started looking at 00 neon parts on ebay. I came across a bunch of these "+70 horsepower chips". sounds like a load o crap. but what are they?

example: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PERFORMA ... otohosting

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:52 am
by Donkeypuncher
They are 50 cent resistors from radio shack, and no they don't work.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:04 am
by rseldner
how do they supposedly work

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:50 am
by Donkeypuncher
They just alter the voltage of particular sensors, so the ecu reads it different. Usually it's for the air intake temp sensor to make the ecu think the incoming air is colder, but I've seen them for other sensors as well.

These work on a very select number of older model cars, where the ecu takes readings from a couple of sensors.

The ecu on cars today take readings from many more sensors and are far more advanced. This means they will ignore the change from the sensor, and use the others to calculate the most efficient fuel trim and timing advance/retard.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:22 am
by gilly02le
rseldner wrote:how do they supposedly work

It's Simple, They Don't!

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:01 am
by Danteneon
Yeah...stay away from those. Chrysler PCM's are difficult to work with on the best of times. Jet chips don't work (not well anyway) and neither do these.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:53 am
by occasional demons
Donkeypuncher wrote:These work on a very select number of older model cars, where the ecu takes readings from a couple of sensors.

And even on those there is never a 70+ hp gain. Some diesel applications see it, but I doubt any gasoline applications would ever see that kind of gain from just some "reprogramming". Not an up to spec. engine anyways. Anyone can gain a few hp by replacing worn out misfiring sparkplugs for example.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:31 pm
by jake_tim
if you could gain 70 horsepower by simply buying a 5 dollar chip off ebay. almost everyone would be driving over 200 horsepower N/A neons. lol. That would be the day.

-Jacob

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:49 pm
by Donkeypuncher
I think the old sunbird was one of the cars that benefited from this, but it was more like 10hp, if that. I know it was pre-OBDII, but it may have also been pre-OBDI in the late 80's.

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:45 am
by SRT-Wannabe
Danteneon wrote:Yeah...stay away from those. Chrysler PCM's are difficult to work with on the best of times. Jet chips don't work (not well anyway) and neither do these.
I know a guy that has a jet chip installed in his neon. I'm mad at him cuz he got a srt-4 hood before I got one. :slap: :lol:

Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 11:31 am
by jetas
SRT-Wannabe wrote:
Danteneon wrote:Yeah...stay away from those. Chrysler PCM's are difficult to work with on the best of times. Jet chips don't work (not well anyway) and neither do these.
I know a guy that has a jet chip installed in his neon. I'm mad at him cuz he got a srt-4 hood before I got one. :slap: :lol:
did he get any power gains? Or from the hood for that matter... :rofl: lol. jk